'Richards' main strength is his superb capacity to read from different authors and very diverse sources, from newspapers to cultural histories, and to assemble them into a coherent narrative. The result is a book that delves into a broad array of topics and perspectives, from high culture to oral stories, that illuminate how the regime imposed its vicious and self-serving memory project onto an impoverished and traumatized society.' Antonio Cazorla-Sanchez, Journal of Modern History
Introduction: cultural trauma in Spain; Part I. Setting the Scene: 1. War memories since 1936: political, moral, social; 2. Democracy, civil war, and intimate violence in the 1930s; Part II. Memories of War during the Franco Years: 3. Repression and remembrance: the victors' liturgy of memory; 4. Repression and reproduction: social memory in the 1940s; 5. Memory and politics: from Civil War to Cold War; 6. Memory and migration: flight from the countryside during the 1950s; 7. Commemorating Franco's peace: the 25th anniversary of the victory; 8. Contesting Franco's peace: transformation from below in the 1960s; 9. Transition and reconciliation: politics and the Church in the 1970s; Part III. Memories of War after Franco: 10. Transition and consent: the presence of the past, 1975–80; 11. 'The level of our times': memory and modernisation, 1981–96; 12. Collective identity and the ethics of memory, 1996–2007; Conclusion: the history of war memories in Spain; Sources and bibliography.