Ciencia en transición. El lastre franquista ante el reto de la modernización [Science in transition. The Francoist burden and modernization's challenge] ed. by Lorenzo Delgado and Santiago M. López (review)

The title of this edited volume plays with the general meaning of "transition" and the more specific meaning in a Spanish context: the mid-1970s political shift from the Francoist dictatorial regime to the current democratic system. This is thus a welcome incursion in the relatively understudied development of Spain's scientific research system within that political and economic transformation.

The book's subtitle contains a strong thesis: the Francoist period (1939–75) constituted a "burden" that prevented Spain from properly facing "modernization's challenge." Modernization occurred. By most indicators, in the 1960s, the Spanish economy experienced one of history's most rapid developments. Yet, as the editors' introduction explains, the Francoist administration failed to meet the economic and political challenges this growth implied. Specifically, the missed opportunity to implement an adequate research and development policy prevented successful economic development.

The book's introduction borrows from Thomas P. Hughes's Networks of Power to identify the "reverse salients" that stopped the system moving in the direction system builders expected. In particular, letting growth rest on technology imports eventually made Spanish companies too dependent on foreign machinery and decisions. In addition, the failure to create a critical mass of highly trained scientists and technical workers hampered Spain's productivity and political stability. The editors offer an intriguing comparison—South-Asian dictatorial economies emerging in the same period—which needs further justification and elaboration.

There is much to debate here. For historians interested in the intersections of technology and political economy, the Spanish case is particularly productive for exploring the prevailing assumptions that economic growth rests on technological innovation, which in turn depends on investment in scientific research. But even assuming innovation is a universal model (but see Lee and Russell, The Innovation Delusion), describing an entire forty-year period as a "burden" misses some of the book's nuances.

Other chapters state that some public enterprises created in the first two decades of Francoism contributed to private growth in the 1960s. Secondary and tertiary education opened up from the elites to large parts of the population, facilitating the creation of a middle class that did ensure certain levels of productivity and political stability.

But the value of this volume lies precisely in its exploratory character. It enables historians of technology to reformulate big questions: Can technology imports occur without innovating adaptations? What are the scientific, technical, and labor conditions for external know-how to have an internal impact? How do we account for science's role in the wider political economy in a context of low public expenditures in science?

Individual chapters provide some answers. Chapters 2–5 each look at one major research institution that concentrated most public spending on scientific and technological development during the Francoist period. Most of these four chapters summarize earlier findings. Together, however, they offer a clear picture of areas where research and development did have a significant impact on science and society at large, even though this did not always translate directly into productivity and growth.

Four chapters are of particular interest to an international readership (chs. 6–9). They explore how international and diplomatic relations (including trade), particularly with Germany, France, and the United States, impacted Spanish science policy. Hence the book's eye-catching frontispiece: the three Apollo 11 astronauts dressed up as toreros during a visit to Madrid, organized by NASA to celebrate and secure Spanish observation sites for the moon landings.

The book then turns to the testimonies of reflective actors involved in the political transition to democratic institutions for science. Caution is of course needed when using primary sources, but these chapters offer valuable reflections on policy, labor, and the growing role of regional governments (chs. 10–13...