Spain during World War II (review)

Wayne H. Bowen's study of Spain during World War II fills a gap in English-language historiography. General studies on aspects of twentieth-century Spain (other than the Civil War itself), by historians such as Stanley Payne and Paul Preston, certainly address the 1939-45 period, but Bowen is amongst the first to provide dedicated coverage. However, it is worth noting that, coincidentally, Bowen's engrossing historical study makes its appearance at the same time as two popular works of fiction—Winter in Madrid by C. J. Sansom and Death of a Nationalist by Rebecca Pawel—have introduced an even wider readership to the social maelstrom which was the Spain of the early 1940's.

Bowen provides a wide-ranging survey, with chapters on foreign policy, domestic politics, the economy, culture, and leisure, women and the Sección Femenina, the Catholic Church, and the Authoritarian State and the Opposition. The first two chapters, on foreign policy, are particularly important in that they challenge the commonly held perception that Franco boldly held his ground against Hitler's overtures during World War II in refusing to declare war on the Allies. A legend evolved of a caudillo who had saved his war-weary people from further ravages. What emerges from Bowen's careful study of the sources, however, is a real sense of checkerboard gamesmanship on Franco's part, as he held out for the deal which would be right for Spain. But by February 1941, such maneuvering had not resulted in Spanish belligerency. Hitler, writes Bowen, regarded Franco as a "hopeless Catholic" and a man of "inferior character." Nevertheless, some 4,500 Spaniards would die as members of the División Azul, fighting for Nazi allies at Stalingrad and elsewhere on the Eastern Front. Such common cause with the Nazi war machine was, increasingly, to become an embarrassment to the Francoist regime as the war progressed and the victory of the Allies became more certain.

Throughout the text, Bowen maintains a commendable balance of judgment. This is nowhere better manifested, perhaps, than in the chapter on the Catholic Church. Again, he is alert to the danger of presenting a simplistic portrait of the emergence of a National Catholic regime. Bowen does not in any way dismiss the notion that the Church was relieved at Franco's victory, noting Pius XII's telegram of congratulations to Franco at the Civil War's conclusion (p. 205). But, while many Spanish clergy looked to Franco as a man who had responded with necessary action to the unrighteous wrongs and crimes of the Republic, such as the conflagration of churches and the execution of priests and religious, there was something reminiscently medieval about the manner in which certain prelates defended their ecclesiastical privileges. Indeed, this is a particular perspective which Bowen might wish to consider in a future work: Spanish bishops as defenders of their see rather than the Church per se. Cardinal Segura, Archbishop of Seville (1937-57), had an extraordinary career as a principal player in a continuing Church-State demarcation dispute. From the pulpit of his cathedral, Segura went so far as to remind his congregation that the title caudillo, adopted and cherished by Franco, had the historic meaning of a "captain of thieves" (p. 216). What Bowen makes abundantly clear—and it is a necessary corrective to less sophisticated portrayals—is that the picture of the Church of the early Francoist period is not a monochrome one.

In sum, Bowen has produced a lucid, balanced, and scholarly monograph which certainly deserves a readership beyond specialist hispanists. Indeed, there is much for the general reader to enjoy and benefit from.