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This book is the first major biography of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, dictator of Spain between 1923 and 1930, who played a key role in the shaping of a counterrevolutionary Europe in the interwar era.Following new historiographical trends, this book combines biographical experiences of the dictator with a sociopolitical reading of the dictatorship to reflect on the configuration of national, political, and gender identities at individual and group levels. It challenges traditional readings of Primo de Rivera as a benign, non-ideological leader who established a paternalistic dictatorship, instead showing an astute and ambitious politician who created a nationalist, highly repressive, authoritarian regime profoundly influenced by Italian fascism. The monograph also explores Primo de Rivera's role as the creator of right-wing populism in Spain, who portrayed politicians and judges as enemies of the Spanish people, used'fake news'in his propaganda machine, and presented himself as a charismatic leader ready to destroy the liberal elites.This book is intended for scholars and students specialising in Spanish history and politics, along with those interested in nationalism, populism, far-right movements, Fascism, dictators and authoritarian regimes in twentieth-century European history.

Right-Wing Spain in the Civil War Era explores the lives of the leading Spanish conservatives in the turbulent period 1914-1945. The volume is a collection of biographies of the most important figures of the Spanish Right during the last years of the Restoration, the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic, the Civil War and the early years of the Franco regime.This book brings together a number of leading historians of twentieth-century Spain. By adopting a biographical approach, the volume aims at providing a new insight of the origins, development and aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Contrary to the traditional view, Right-Wing Spain in the Civil War Era shows a diverse and fragmented Spanish right which, far from being isolated, was profoundly influenced by German Nazism, Italian Fascism and French Traditionalism. This remarkable and innovative collection of essays will be welcomed by students and lecturers of Spanish history alike.