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Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy: Amazon.co.uk: Preston, Paul: 9780006386933: Books

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Juan Carlos: Steering Spain from Dictatorship to Democracy Paperback – 12 Mar. 2010

by Paul Preston (Author)

4.4 57 ratings

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A powerful biography of Spain’s great king, Juan Carlos, by the pre-eminent writer on 20th-century Spanish history.

There are two central mysteries in the life of Juan Carlos, one personal, the other political.The first is the apparent serenity with which he accepted that his father had surrendered him, to all intents and purposes, into the safekeeping of the Franco regime. In any normal family, this would have been considered a kind of cruelty or, at the very least, baleful negligence. But a royal family can never be normal, and the decision to send the young Juan Carlos away from Spain was governed by a certain ‘superior’ dynastic logic.

The second mystery lies in how a prince raised in a family with the strictest authoritarian traditions, who was obliged to conform to the Francoist norms during his youth and educated to be a cornerstone of the plans for the reinforcement of the dictatorship, eventually sided so emphatically and courageously with democratic principles.

Paul Preston – perhaps the greatest living commentator on modern Spain – has set out to address these mysteries, and in so doing has written the definitive biography of King Juan Carlos. He tackles the king’s turbulent relationship with his father, his cloistered education, his bravery in defending Spain’s infant democracy after Franco’s death and his immense hard work in consolidating parliamentary democracy in Spain. The resulting biography is both rigorous and riveting, its vibrant prose doing justice to its vibrant subject. It is a book fit for a king.

Print length

624 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

12 Mar. 2010
Dimensions

12.9 x 3.9 x 19.8 cm
ISBN-10

0006386938
ISBN-13

978-0006386933
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Paul Preston
187
Paperback
£20.00
£15.22 delivery

Product description

Review

‘An excellent biography…It reads like a spy thriller…There is no doubt that Preston is an ardent fan of Juan Carlos, and his compelling style carries the reader with him…Preston’s great skill is to recreate real suspense over the thirty-five years that elapsed between Juan Carlo’s arrival in Spain as a boy and the irreversible entrenchment of democracy in the 1980s.’ Sunday Times

‘This is that rare thing – a work of academic history that is also an absorbing narrative. And its great merit is to remind us that at the centre of all the dynastic wrangling, political conspiracy and media speculation stands a man who has often felt very alone.’ Economist

‘As with most of Preston’s work, his eye for the winning detail makes his subjects quite human and enlivens the world of political maneuvering into something other than dry history.’ Washington Post

About the Author

Paul Preston is Principe de Asturias Professor of Iberian History at the LSE, and was head of the International History Department there for several years. He is regarded as the leading historian of twentieth-century Spain alive.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial (12 Mar. 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 624 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0006386938
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0006386933
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 12.9 x 3.9 x 19.8 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 629,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 185 in History of Spain
- 291 in Spanish Historical Biographies
- 2,774 in Royal Historical Biographies

Customer reviews:
4.4 57 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

57 global ratings

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Lucid historical narrative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 8 November 2009

Verified Purchase

This is history written with great flair. Preston considers the fortunes and development of Juan Carlos from the moment when, as a ten-year-old, he was handed over to Franco by his father, Don Juan, the Borbón claimant to the Spanish throne. He takes us through his nomination as official successor to Franco to his eventual coronation as King and his progress thereafter. Preston's research is impressive and his ability to communicate in a highly readable style equally so. He is not entirely uncritical but has an obvious regard for his subject. Franco's aim was to produce a monarchical successor in his own image who would carry on the policies of his dictatorship, the movimiento. Juan Carlos' secular, religious and military education was guided to that effect. One has sympathy for the rather lonely life led by Juan Carlos as a young boy and teenager surrounded by dry and traditionalist courtiers and teachers. His contact with his family was minimal and his relationship with his father could hardly be described as warm although he himself was full of filial respect. Juan Carlos was an attentive student at more than his formal studies and had a clear understanding of how he needed to behave to ensure he was nominated as successor to Franco and later as King. He relished his military training and formed close bonds with fellow cadets and officers that would stand him in good stead later when he had to deal with a military class accustomed to dominating political life.

I was left with an admiration for Juan Carlos' intelligent use of power; his eventual outwitting of the right wing military and political elite, culminating in his superb and courageous handling of the attempted military coup in 1981; his unfaltering guidance of Spain towards a democracy that finally satisfied criteria enabling it to join the European Union and NATO. Truly Juan Carlos is a monarch who has done more than any other to form and safeguard his kingdom as a modern constitutional monarchy. Preston has served him well in a biographical narrative that is accurate and has pace and style. This is a key work to understanding modern Spain and encouraging further reading about the Spanish Civil War and its political origins.

6 people found this helpful

Essential reading for the Iberiophile

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 15 June 2009

Verified Purchase

This is an excellent book about the personalities involved in the development of Juan Carlos as King of Spain. It is essential reading for any student of Spanish history or, indeed, modern Spain.
It is not, as I expected, a biography of Juan Carlos, but instead an analysis of his relationship with his father and Franco during the formative years of the king's life, and the impact of these relationships upon the development of a man strong enough to take Spain into democracy.
It is a history of a fascinating period in Spain's history centered upon the three chief players in the game.
Preston is sympathetic, but not uncritical, and his easy style makes the book easy to read.

8 people found this helpful

Peter Austerfield

He writes beautifully and engages the reader with a complex story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 22 October 2017

Verified Purchase

As always, Paul Preston's knowledge of modern Spanish history is second to none. He writes beautifully and engages the reader with a complex story.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 23 December 2018

Verified Purchase

Great price, great condition, great read, prompt delivery.

MR BARRY BOWLER

Real political thriller

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 11 February 2016

Verified Purchase

Fascinating commentary on post Franco era that was only glimpsed through the contemporary British media.

part history, part novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 27 May 2011

First of all, this is a huge book! In every way...
If you ever thought being a member of a royal family would be a fun way to spend your life, think again! And if you ever thought you wouldn't want to read such a massive tome, well...think again!
Juan Carlos...a man who never had a childhood, torn between his exiled family and the dictates of being raised by Franco...groomed, shaped, yet retaining the overriding goal of restoring the monarchy in post-war Spain.
Humbling...
If you have read Ghosts of Spain, another huge book, you must read this, to see what has really happened to bring the Spanish royal family into the 20th and 21st century after decades of francoism...and if you haven't read Ghosts of Spain, may I suggest you do. and whether you do or don't, read this book if you want a concise, in-depth tale of in-fighting and political intrigue, of manipulation, of betrayal, family division, tragedy and, finally, triumph...
The clever assessments, the massaging of opinion, the nurturing and back-stabbing...all is revealed as never before.
If nothing else, you cannot help but be moved by the eventual success of a young child growing to be king in a country torn by suspicion and debate, manipulation and deceit...he defied his father, and rose to the challenge of restoration in a regime which would defeat even the most sage of our spin-doctors of today...and all wth nothing more than a heartfelt mission and a few friends.

It's a history book, it's a novel, it's a triumph for writer and subject...take a week (or two) off, and read this book!

3 people found this helpful

Brilliant, once it got going

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 27 April 2011

Having read and admired a couple of Preston's other works (including the excellent 'Franco'), I bought this book in the hope that it would match them in terms of quality. The subject of the book wasn't something that I expected to be overly interested in, but Preston's writing style really made it readable and exciting.

Juan Carlos' relationship with the unpredictable Franco (as well as his own father) is described wonderfully, and all the key moments in the king's life are included in detail. Reading about Juan Carlos in the 'changeover' period really kept me glued during the second half of the book, and Preston clearly illustrates how this king was not simply handed power, but had to work to firstly win Franco's favour, then manage his country in what was a volatile situation.

Once you get to grips with the various personnel and groups involved, the book does read something like a novel. At around 500 pages, I initially thought that there would be a lot of waffling and useless information included, but Preston fills out the pages well, with his own opinions providing thoughtful and reasonable insights.

Worth buying to get an understanding not just of Juan Carlos, but of twentieth century Spain.

4 people found this helpful

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