This thesis explores the scantly studied Spanish anarchist exile that followed the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and lasted until Francisco Franco’s death and, arguably, beyond. So far, Spanish anarchist exile has occupied a marginal research space under the wider label of “Republican exile”. Within this marginalized exile, I have chosen to address a specific issue: the voluntary return of former anarchist exiles to a dictatorship. The research is built around the controversial case study of a former anarchist Minister, Juan López Sánchez. The thesis tries to discover how, after a period of exile consisting of a short stay in Toulouse, followed by almost 15 years in England and 14 in Mexico, this former Minister constructed a discourse that justified his return to Spain at the age of 66, and the reasons why he collaborated with the Francoist Sindicato Vertical [Vertical Union]. The research attempts to extrapolate from the problems affecting a specific person (Juan López Sánchez) in a particular historical moment (1939-1975) to gain a broader understanding of the experience of returning Spanish exiles and refugees. The theorizing thus goes to a certain extent from the general to the particular. Methodologically, the study is developed based on an interdisciplinary vision. It draws on qualitative methodology to analyse the intellectual output of Juan López Sánchez and his contribution to newspaper publications in exile, which will help us understand the experience of exile and broader human dimension of the former Minister. At the heart of this data lies a corpus of 630 letters that the Minister sent and received between 1939 and 1971. Through the study of this correspondence, which has hitherto remained unexamined, Juan López Sánchez held a rich and insightful dialogue with 73 leading republican figures inside and outside of Spain, providing invaluable insights into the exile and return from both a personal and political perspective. The findings of the thesis hope to contribute to the historiographical, theoretical, cultural and humanistic gaps surrounding the work and memory not only of Juan López Sánchez, but also of many other intellectuals who attempted to reintegrate into Spanish society during the Franco regime, a subject which has so far been generally rejected as a field of study by the academic establishment.

While much has been written about British support for Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War, this thesis offers a novel framework through which to consider this topic. It explores the popular humanitarian response to ‘Spain’ within the context of Britain’s bourgeoning civil society and popular political culture, following the advent of mass democracy in 1928. There has perhaps been a recent tendency amongst historians to underplay the breadth of British support for the Spanish Republic, and to suggest that the humanitarian character of this support was, very often, indicative of a detached and apolitical response. This thesis asks why the Spanish Republic had the unique appeal that it did, examining how people in Britain framed the conflict in Spain, and exploring what they did in practice in terms of raising humanitarian aid for, and awareness about, the Republican cause. In particular it does this by considering the response to ‘Spain’ within the peace movement, Co-operative movement and amongst British Christians. The thesis challenges the idea that many of those involved with the humanitarian campaigns saw Spain as a distant country and that they were detached from events there. It argues that, while political interpretations of the Spanish conflict were far from uniform, the plight and cause of the Republic resonated with notions of British identity in the 1930s, and with the crises that different groups and individuals perceived to be threatening their world order. It explores how the topic of non-intervention was debated within civil society and argues that support for this policy was not necessarily indicative of isolationism. It suggests that support for Republican Spain, even where it was largely ‘humanitarian’ in character, went alongside interest in the issues surrounding the conflict and is illustrative of a degree of both democratic engagement and popular internationalism within 1930s Britain.

At the moment of the founding of the Second Republic in April 1931, the labour movement in Spain was dominated by two organizations, namely the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and the socialist Unión General de Trabajadores (UGT). The Second Republic marked the first period in which the two organizations had concurrently operated openly since the Primo de Rivera dictatorship had made the CNT illegal at the same time as the UGT had agreed to cooperate with the General’s corporatist project. With the founding of the Republic, a long-standing organizational and ideological hostility between the two organizations was exacerbated by the fact of the UGT actively participating in the reform project of the Republican-socialist government and the CNT increasingly opposing that project. However, the Republic progressively became polarized between left and right; as fascist regimes came to the fore across Europe, increasingly large sectors of the Spanish left called for a unity of their forces to prevent a similar occurrence in Spain. The outbreak of the Civil War in July 1936 made this unity even more imperative. This thesis focuses on interactions between the CNT and the UGT between 1931 and 1936 within this socio-political context, primarily from the perspective of the CNT. The thesis traces and analyses the evolution of CNT as a national actor’s overall position on the UGT from one of outright hostility to a stance of proposing a revolutionary alliance with it in 1936. The thesis also examines interactions between the two organizations in Catalonia, which was both the CNT's birthplace and stronghold and a region in which the UGT had historically garnered little support. In addition to highlighting the pivotal role that the Catalan CNT had in determining the CNT's national-level stance on the UGT throughout this period, the thesis explores how the anarcho-syndicalist movement in the region presented its socialist counterpart as the embodiment of a socialist- and state-sponsored project to destroy the CNT, and also examines the largely hostile encounters between CNT and UGT unions in workplaces and localities across the region.

In this thesis I present a case study of the Spanish civil war in cinema. I examine how this period has been represented in cinema through time, in different countries and in various cinematic forms. I reject the postmodern prognosis that the past is a chaotic mass, made sense of through the subjective narrativisation choices of historians working in the present. On the contrary, I argue that there are referential limits on what histories can be legitimately written about the past. I argue that there are different, often contradictory, representations of the Spanish civil war in cinema which indicates a diversity of uses for the past. But there are also referential limits on what can be legitimately represented cinematically. I argue that the civil war setting will continue to be one which filmmakers turn to as the battle for the future of Spain is partially played out in the cinematically recreated battles of the pas

This thesis examines the development ofnatural history in the Spanish Empire (1750-1850). I explore why the Spanish Crown promoted scientific institutions and expeditions in the second halfofthe eighteenth century, and I situate Spanish engagement with natural history within an imperial context. One Spanish commentator, scrutinising the contents ofthe Real Gabinete de Historia Natural in 1788, gloried that 'we have seen form this immense collection of singularities ofnature, brought at considerable expense, not only from all regions ofEurope, but also from Asia, Africa and America; so that all parts ofthe world may contribute to forming the most complete treasure ofNatural History that exists in the Universe'. I suggest that Spain's capacity to procure and exhibit exotic natural treasures reflected the potency ofher imperial structures. I also address the social, religious and economic benefits associated with the classification, collection and cultivation of natural objects. I am especially interested in the part that Spanish Americans played in this process, and the ways in which the development ofthe natural sciences on the imperial periphery intersected with the evolution of creole patriotism in the late colonial period. I consider how the creation, legitimisation and dissemination of scientific knowledge reflected broader questions of imperial power and national identity. I examine the ambiguous position ofcreole naturalists, who were simultaneously anxious to secure European recognition for their work, to celebrate the natural wealth oftheir homelands and, in some cases, to vindicate local forms of knowledge against purportedly universal European systems such as Linnaean botany, and I extend this analysis beyond independence, asking whether political freedom fomented or compromised the pursuit of natural history in the former colonies.

The power struggle between the death of Isabel I of Castile and the Comunero uprising of 1520-1521 involved both dynastic rupture and a crisis of legitimacy. While Juana's titular rights as proprietary sovereign were always recognised, her husband, father and son opposed her right to govern. The thesis challenges deeply-embedded views about Juana's political indifference, while also questioning the recent, influential contention that Juana sacrificed her rights to protect dynastic interests. Juana might have suffered intermittently from mental health problems, but was a key player, and the history of the period cannot be understood without taking her queenship, and question of her right to influence government policy, fully into account. Juana saw herself, above all, as Isabel's daughter, and a Trastámara, and her successes, failures, and changing political strategies are seen in this light. Despite her notion of filial obedience, at a time when her father, Fernando II of Aragon, who had co-reigned with Isabel, remained active and ambitious to govern Castile, Juana engaged with, and greatly influenced, major events between 1505-1507. Again, in 1520, her role during the Comunero revolution, when she came to the defence not only of her son, Charles V, but, more especially, of the principle of royal authority, proved crucially significant. The thesis explores political and cultural concepts of the time to show how they were applied to the manner in which Juana was seen, such as the development of a Queen's 'party' based on the knightly ideology of honour and loyalty; the application of the notion of 'shadow' monarch to attempts to marginalise her from power in 1506-1507, and the essentially gender-based topoi of jealousy and hysteria that informed views about the last Trastámara monarch's unfitness to govern.

The Women's Section (Seccion Femenina) of the Franco regime's bureaucratic framework was founded in 1934 as an offshoot of the small fascist party, the Falange. Its leader, Pilar Primo de Rivera, was the sister of the Falange's founder, Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera and remained in post throughout the regime. The present study is of Seccion Femenina (SF) as it developed following the death of Jose Antonio during the Spanish Civil War, becoming part of the regime's bureaucracy while retaining its original ideological base. The thesis examines the emerging role of SF in the Spanish Civil War as a supporter of the Nationalist cause and its mandate in 1939 to train and prepare the women and girls in Spain for life under the new regime. SF's influence on government legislation and its contribution to the nation's economic and social stability up to 1959 are examined in relation to the political events of the period as well as the compromises made as SF faced opposition from other sectors of the regime. The second focus of the thesis is SF's ideological base and inner identity, and particularly the degree to which it exhibited features of fascism. This is examined in relation to its elite members, whose belief system was so enduring that it survived the decline of Falangism in the regime. In the face of political realities, SF always saw its 1939 mandate as its own 'Falangist Revolution' and its elite members as capable of transforming society. The origins of these beliefs, the contribution of foreign influences and the transmission of SF ideology in SF's elite academy are analysed in relation to the work and self-image of the elites. The paradox of SF as a loyal supporter of Francoism while challenging the class and social base of the regime is also examined, and religion is shown as the most significant area where SF differed from mainstream opinion and practice. SF's programmes have been studied via primary sources, journals and archive materials. The major primary source, however, is the set of forty-five interviews, conducted principally in Madrid but also in Salamanca, Santiago de Compostela, Palencia, Medina del Campo, Zaragoza, Toledo, the province of Leon and Britain between 1994 and 1999. Interviewees are mainly former elite members of SF together with unaffiliated women, male Falangists and others with experience of SF's programmes.

This thesis represents an original contribution to art historical scholarship in its investigation of the overlaps between the art of the Catalan artist Joan Miró and the writings of French philosopher Georges Bataille in the period 1930–1939. I examine three series of intimate, private works undertaken by Miró in 1930, 1935-1936, and 1938-1939 through the lens of contemporary Bataillean texts in order to identify corresponding themes, imagery, and operations. I argue that not only does Bataillean thought represent a direct source of influence on Miró’s work of this time, but also that the artist deliberately turns to this more violent, un-idealised aesthetic in order to visually confront his own professional crisis, the rise of fascism in his homeland, and the Spanish Civil War and start of the Second World War. My research has uncovered that Miró and Bataille share an interest in the anti-retinal. Miró demonstrates this interest through his ‘assassination of painting’ and attacks on bodily representation, and Bataille in his obsession with blindness—which Miró references in 1930 in his use of imagery from Bataille’s Story of the Eye and through his employment of the informe. Bataille and Miró both use parody in advancing their aesthetic and political missions. Bataille parodies the transpositional nature of Surrealist image-making, while Miró mocks his own earlier artistic output. To this end, both employ ‘parodic landscapes’ that use the image of the volcano as a metaphor for political upheaval and to celebrate ‘real,’ non-transpositional base matter. I argue that the work of both figures exhibit qualities of the carnivalesque, in their interest in parody, ‘sacred’ (liberating) laughter, and excremental imagery. A further, significant, consideration in this thesis is the transgressing of taboos in Bataillean eroticism (and the overlaps between eroticism and war), of which I have identified parallels in Miró’s work. By considering Miró’s use of Bataillean themes in tandem with the artist’s passionate Catalan nationalism, I argue that the influence of Bataille’s parody, eroticism, and violence provided Miró with the tools to personally respond to the Civil War. This thesis opens a new line of inquiry into Miró in the 1930s, and invites future considerations on Bataille’s influence on Miró’s oeuvre.

In the 1930s and 1940s, different social welfare models were at the disposal of policy-makers of non-democratic countries. However, although social security models were being debated and advocated by experts and policy-makers, the non-democratic regimes of Latin America and Southern Europe only set up limited social insurance schemes aimed at protecting particular groups of people, resulting in very fragmented management systems. Neither the welfare state literature, nor the research on non-democratic regimes, have attempted to explain why non-democratic regimes failed to set up comprehensive social security systems. Drawing on so-far unknown primary sources, this thesis examines the development of Social Insurance Schemes in Franco's Spain between 1936 and 1950. It studies the policy processes that led to the passing of each social insurance scheme and the evolution of the institution in charge of the social insurance system, the Instituto Nacional de Prevision (INP). By using a framework for the analysis of the policy-making process in non-democratic regimes, this thesis will show how political institutions of the Francoist regime shaped the resources of those actors (mainly Falangists and Social Catholics) involved in the power struggle for the control of the social insurance system. These institutions were: 1) the ministerial decrees and orders as the methods of passing legislation, 2) the bypassing of the Council of Ministers, 3) the absence of regulations within the Ministry of Labour, 4) the marginalisation of the Council of State and 5) the lack of formal procedures to resolve jurisdictional conflicts, and 6) the possibility ministers had to pass regulations. These permitted Falangist Labour Minister Girón de Velasco to manoeuvre to achieve Falange's goals at the time the party was being put at the service of the state. The National Office of Syndicates competed with the INP for control of the social insurance system. The result was a highly complex and fragmented system of overlapping schemes provided by several organisations rather than a comprehensive social insurance scheme.

The major objective of my thesis was to understand why sectors of the reconstructed anarcho-syndicalist trade union, the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo, were addressing concerns which were identical to sectors of the Marxist Left in other countries of Europe, For my views on anarchism had been informed by a Marxist interpretation of anarchism, which rested on the assumption that anarchism was an agrarian, and/or a petit bourgeois philopsopy which could have little relevance in advanced industrial societies. This anomaly - my experience of anarchist militants within the CUT, and the vision of anarchism expounded by "classical" Marxism - led me to undertake an historical study of the Spanish anarchist movement and a theoretical study of Marxist and anarchist thought. Moreover, in order to understand the demands of the anarchists and the CNT during the 1960's and 1970's, I had to thoroughly study the developments which had taken place within the workers' and student movements during the Francoist period, and the nature of the CUT organisation in exile, factors which would bear heavily on the CNT's attempt at reconstruction. Through extensive interviewing and the use of documents, I tried to piece together the process of anarchist re-emergence in Spain from the mid-1960s, and the nature of the reconstruction of the CUT during the political transition to democracy in Spain in 1976-1979. The overall theme of my thesis centres on the relationship between Marxism and anarchism, and their relationship to historical development and tradition. By emphasising the importance of historical tradition - the political aspect most sorely underestimated in both Marxist and anarchist thought - I hope my thesis will contribute towards the possibility of a more realisable socialist utopia.