The French and Spanish Popular Fronts: Comparative Perspectives

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Revised ed., 6/6/2002
EAN 9780521524223, ISBN10: 0521524229

Paperback, 292 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

The menace of triumphant Nazism and fascism across Europe in the 1930s drove the left into unity with liberals, in order to make common cause against the extremist right. Popular Front initiatives were a significant attempt to bar the way to further fascist victories. This collection of essays focuses specifically on France and Spain as the only two countries where Popular Front coalitions won political power through the ballot box. From a comparative perspective the volume gathers leading experts on the 1930s who travel beyond the territory of orthodox political history. Taken together, their contributions provide the first multi-dimensional approach to the Front phenomenon. The Popular Fronts in France and Spain emerge here as more than elite political partnerships - they were movements of the masses in search of social, cultural and educational change.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
1. Introduction Martin S. Alexander and Helen Graham
2. The formation of the French Popular Front, 1934–6 Joel Colton
3. The origins and nature of the Spanish Popular Front Santos Juliá
4. The French Radicals, Spain and the emergence of appeasement H. Haywood Hunt
5. The Spanish army and the Popular Front Michael Alpert
6. Soldiers and socialists
the French officers corps and leftist government, 1935–7 Martin S. Alexander
7. The Spanish Church and the Popular Front
the experience of Salamanca province Mary Vincent
8. 'La main tendue'
the French Communist Party and the Catholic Church, 1935–7 James Steel
9. Trotsky and left-wing critics of the Popular Front Tom Kemp
10. The development of marxist theory in Spain and the Frente Popular Paul Haywood
11. The other Popular Front
French anarchism and the Front Révolutionnaire David Berry
12. The French Popular Front and the politics of Jacques Doriot Alan Forrest
13. The Blum government, the Conseil National Economique and economic policy Adrian Rossiter
14. Social and economic policies of the Spanish left in theory and in practice José Manuel Macarro Vera
15. Women, men and the 1936 strikes in France Siân Reynolds
16. From clientelism to communism
the Marseille working class and the Popular Front David A. L. Levy
17. A reinterpretation of the Spanish Popular Front
the case of Asturias Adrian Shubert
18. Le temps des loisirs
popular tourism and mass leisure in the vision of the Front Populaire Julian Jackson
19. The educational and cultural policy of the Popular Front government in Spain, 1936–9 Christopher Cobb
20. French intellectual groups and the Popular Front
traditional and innovative uses of the media Martin Stanton
Index.