Catholicism, War and the Foundation of Francoism

Sid Lowe is a Madrid-based journalist who writes regularly for The Guardian and contributes to other broadcast and print media in Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. He completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield and has studied at the University of Oviedo. He has lived in Madrid for almost a decade.

• Glossary & AbbreviationsIntroduction: 'Immense shame, physical repugnance': Responding to the Republic (The Spanish Right & the JAP After 1931)'The youth of the new Spain': The Crusade to Save the Fatherland (The JAP until October 1934)'An iron fist against the anti-Spain': Bringing in the New State (The JAP from October 1934 to December 1935)'To win or to die': The General Elections (The JAP from December 1935 to February 1936)'We'll become Nazis if we have to': The Ominous Spring (The JAP from February to July 1936)'Selfless auxiliaries, enthusiastic servants': Joining the Rising (The JAP from July to December 1936)'Militias of sacrifice': The Crusade for God, Spain & the New State (The JAP at war until April 1937)Conclusion: 'A magnificent harvest': The Destruction of Democracy in Spain (The JAP, the Right & Fascism from 1931 to 1937)NotesBibliographyIndex

"Dr Lowe fuses social and political analysis to demonstrate how, at the grass roots of Spanish society, the political culture of the long-lived Franco dictatorship was crucially instigated by the radical, mass Catholic youth movement, JAP. Lowe's originality lies in the fact that his analysis pinpoints the moment and demonstrates the mechanism by which radical Catholics in Spain became fascists. In doing this he has cut the gordian knot that inhibits much of the conventional historiography on the Spanish Catholic right during the 1930s." -- Helen Graham, Dept. of History, Royal Holloway University of London