This module concerns the extraordinary history of Spain in the twentieth century. Over the past hundred years, the country has fought a brutal civil war, and experienced among the most stable and enduring of European dictatorships; toyed with republicanism, before re-establishing itself as a monarchy; and undergone a democratic transition regarded as a model around the world, to then experience several decades of the “Spanish miracle”, of rapid economic growth and growing soft power. Most recently, the country has seen the political and economic model established during the transition come under strain, through unresolved tensions over fundamental questions of governance and national identity. All of this, while undergoing social change of unprecedented rapidity, that has given the country much of its distinctive feel in recent times.

We begin by providing the necessary context, with a session devoted to Spain´s turbulent nineteenth century. Successive classes then look at the period to the 1930s, marked by colonial wars in Africa and the strange dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera; the Second Republic from 1931 to 1936, as a period of growing social and political tension and violence; and the catastrophe of the Civil War itself, which became an archetype of the horrors of internal strife and a mirror of broader European trends during W. H. Auden´s “low, dishonest decade”. The final class before reading week focuses upon the dictatorship of Francisco Franco that followed, and its political, social, and economic consequences across several decades until Franco´s death in 1975.

Later sessions begin with a discussion of Spain's remarkable transition to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, long considered perhaps the most successful process of its kind. We then discuss the period from the 1980s to the 2000s, of integration with Europe, economic boom, and cultural florescence, that seemed to crown a remarkable period of national reinvention and success. A further class discusses the specific case of Catalonia, as a window on to regional nationalisms in contemporary Spain and a key test for the current democratic settlement. Finally, the last two classes look, first, at social change in Spain since the 1970s, from the movida madrileña to mass immigration, and secondly, at Spanish international relations across the period since the Second World War.

Reading List/ Suggested Reading:

Course textbooks

General history of Spain: William D Phillips, Jr., and Carla Rahn Philips, A Concise History of Spain, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2016).
	20th century history of Spain: Francisco J. Romero Salvadó, Twentieth-Century Spain: Politics and Society in Spain, 1898-1998 (London, 1999).
General histories

Fusi, Juan Pablo, Historia Mínima de España (Madrid, 2012).
	Ross, Chris, Spain since 1812: Modern History for Modern Languages 3rd ed. (London, 2009).
	Primary source collections in English
	Ayrton, Peter (ed.), ¡No Pasarán! Writings from the Spanish Civil War (London, 2016).
	Cowans, Jon (ed.), Modern Spain: A Documentary History (Philadelphia, 2003).
Selected key studies

Alvarez Tardío, Manuel, and Fernando del Rey Reguillo (eds.), The Spanish Second Republic Revisited: From Democratic Hopes to Civil War (1931-1936) (Brighton, 2013).
	Balfour, Sebastion, and Paul Preston (eds.), Spain and the Great Powers in the Twentieth Century (London, 1999).
	Crameri, Kathryn, Goodbye, Spain? The Question of Independence for Catalonia (Brighton, 2014).
	Gillespie, Richard, and Caroline Gray (eds.), Contesting Spain? The Dynamics of Nationalist Movements in Catalonia and the Basque Country (Abingdon, 2015).
	González Rodríguez, Juan Jesús, and Miguel Requena (eds.), Tres décadas de cambio social en España (Madrid, 2012).
	Hooper, John, The New Spaniards 2nd ed. (Harmondsworth, 2006).
	Ortega Ruiz, Manuel, Felipe González: La ambición que cambió España (Madrid, 2015).
	Preston, Paul, Franco: A Biography (London, 1993).
	Preston, Paul, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge (London, 2006).
	Romero Salvado, Francisco, Twentieth Century Spain: Politics and Society in Spain, 1898-1998 (New York, 1999).
	Townson, Nigel, Spain Transformed: The Late Franco Dictatorship, 1959-75 (New York, 2010).
	Tremlett, Giles, Ghosts of Spain: Travels through a Country´s Hidden Past (London, 2012).
	Tussell, Javier, Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy (Oxford, 2012).
Please note: This module description is accurate at the time of publication. Amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.