Numerous historians, including Helen Graham, Paul Preston, Antony Beevor, Gabriel Jackson, Hugh Thomas, and Ian Gibson believe that the summary executions of political opponents by the Francoist side, which became known as the "White Terror", was a deliberate policy. In contrast, the executions their opponents perpetrated lacked the approval of the Spanish government which Franco was seeking to overthrow. The death penalty, which had been abolished in 1932 for civil cases, was revived by Franco in 1938.