An excellent introduction to Franco's rise to power and his four decades as autocratic head of state in Spain.

The Spanish Civil War was one of the bloodiest internecine conflicts of the modern era. Beginning with an account of the historical antecedents to the war, this book traces the history of the Second Republic, which culminated in the electoral victory of the popular front in 1936. It goes on to chart and analyze the dramatic chain of events of the civil war from the army uprising in Morocco in July 1936 and the nationalist advances against the forces of the Left to the eventual defeat of the latter by Franco's forces in the spring of 1939.