Engineers and the Making of the Francoist Regime (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology) by Lino Camprubí

Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology

by Lino Camprubí

How engineers and agricultural scientists became key actors inFranco's regime and Spain's forced modernization.In this book, Lino Camprubí argues that science and technology were at the very center of the building of Franco's Spain. Previous histories of early Francoist science and technology have described scientists and engineers as working "under" Francoism, subject to censorship and bound by politically mandated research agendas. Camprubí offers a different perspective, considering instead scientists' and engineers' active roles in producing those political mandates. Many scientists and engineers had been exiled, imprisoned, or executed by the regime. Camprubí argues that those who remained made concrete the mission of "redemption" that Franco had invented for himself. This gave them the opportunity to become key actors--and mid-level decision makers--within the regime.Camprubí describes a series of projects across Spain undertaken by the civil engineers and agricultural scientists who placed themselves at the center of their country's forced modernization. These include a coal silo, built in 1953, viewed as an embodiment of Spain's industrialized landscape; links between laboratories, architects, and the national Catholic church (and between technology and authoritarian control); vertically organized rice production and research on genetics; river management and the contested meanings of self-sufficiency; and the circulation of construction standards by mobile laboratories as an engine for European integration. Separately, each chapter offers a fascinating microhistory that illustrates the coevolution of Francoist science, technology, and politics. Taken together, they reveal networks of people, institutions, knowledge, artifacts, and technological systems woven together to form a new state.

Hardcover

First published May 2, 2014

About the author

Nieto del filósofo Gustavo Bueno, cursó estudios de doctorado en las universidades de Sevilla y de Cornell y en 2011 se doctoró en la Universidad de California, Los Angeles. Es autor de Engineers and the Making of the Francoist Regime (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2014) y de un buen número de artículos en revistas especializadas de historia de las ciencias y las técnicas. Fue investigador post-doctoral en la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona y profesor invitado en la Universidad de Chicago. Desde el 2014 es Investigador Doctor en el Instituto Max Planck de Historia de la Ciencia, Berlín.

Reviews

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[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly interesting book on a somewhat esoteric and little known topic - how scientists and engineers may have contributed to the Franco regime after the Civil War and the need to rebuild and modernize the country. The book uses the domains of cement and concrete manufacture, rice breeding and distribution, and the development of dams for power and agriculture on a major river system as examples of the issues. The author seems to suggest that the independence of that group may have led to Spain's eventual reintegration into global commerce.