page_title: Revisionism (Spain)
section_title: Charge: re-fried Francoist fables
hierarchical_section_title: Revisionism (Spain) / Charge: re-fried Francoist fables
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Allégorie de la République dans une lithographie de S. Dura d'après un dessin J. Barrera (Archive National Historique, Section Guerre Civil, Salamanque (Espagne)
context_page_description: Revisionism is a term which emerged in the late 1990s and is applied to a group of historiographic theories related to the recent history of Spain. They are supposedly held together by posing a challenge to what is presented as a generally accepted, orthodox view on the history of the Second Republic and the Civil War. The term is used as stigmatization or abuse, and in usage it is paired with charges of incompetence at best or ill will at worst. Historians named revisionists reject the label and claim that no orthodox, canonical view of the recent past exists. Both groups blame each other for pursuing a hidden political agenda; those dubbed revisionists are branded conservatives or post-Francoists, their opponents are branded "progressists" and far-left and left-wingers.
context_section_description: The debate is centred on the Second Republic and to some extent on the Civil War, though occasionally also Restoration period or Francoism might come under scrutiny. A thesis initially advanced by anti-revisionist scholars was that after 1975 "mayoritario sector" of Spanish historiography agreed a propaganda-free opinion on the Republic and that in post-Francoist Spain there was no ideologically-motivated "war of historians"; revisionists were marked as these who tried to open such a war. Recently this position has changed and some anti-revisionists admit that indeed there might be some "areas of contention" and controversies, embodied in a debate between these who denounce "false orthodox canon" and these who denounce "revisionism". However, many authors keep flagging revisionism as a social rather than historiographic phenomenon. 
  Alleged revisionists are supposedly consumed by desire to defame the Republic; their key thesis allegedly advanced is that the Civil War was caused by the Left. This underlying bottom message is reportedly sustained by a number of more detailed concepts. One critic listed them in an ironic "decalogue of the revisionist": 1) pretend scientific neutrality; 2) disregard "structural history"; 3) try to demythologize the Republic; 4) present the Republic as exclusion; 5) blame the Left for radical revolutionism; 6) deny CEDA’s role of a Fascist Trojan horse; 7) claim that Bienio negro was not so black; 8) underline that violence was equal on both sides; 9) criticize memoria historica as having nothing to do with history; 10) glorify the transition, made possible by Francoism. 
  Historians called revisionists are typically refused scientific credentials, denied both to relatively young scholars and to academic Hispanists who established their position during decades. Some are presented as interested in selling books rather than in historical rigor. The charge raised most frequently is that instead of establishing the truth their aim is to dismantle "liberal-left myths". Since they are not honest they do not qualify as scientists, even though they very much pretend so and constantly raise claims to a myth of scientific "objectivity" and "impartiality", qualities which they are also denied. The revisionists reportedly lack "modus operandi propiamente historiográfico", fail "to provide a balanced assessment", demonstrate bias, distort history, resort to "pseudo-scientific" methods, manipulation and deliberate falsification, create new myths, tend to be hysterical and cultivate their own "pedagogics of hate". An index of manipulative techniques, allegedly employed by the revisionists, contains 5 key methods: 1) use of logical fallacies; 2) relativisation, reductionism and negationism; 3) mystification; 4) psychologization and 5) mythologization.
  The scholars dubbed revisionists are "in the service of the political aims of the present", their goal identified as to "whitewash the history of the Spanish right" and to cover up Nationalist crimes. They are linked to a range of political options and might be dubbed "historiographic Right", "conservatives", "neo-Conservatives", "theo-conservatives", "ultraconservatives", "conservative/neo-Francoist", "pro-Francoists", "filofranquistas", "regime's panegyrists and ideologized 'historians'", "Francoist apologists" and "authoritarians". They are charged with exalting "pure Francoism", sustaining "canon neofranquista", "peddling discredited historical narrative", "repackaging the legends of Francoist ‘historiography’", serving "re-fried Francoist fables", "almost 'Blue'" myths and even nurturing "filonazismo". The charges are supposed proven by political membership of some historians, their publications in right-wing periodicals or publishing houses, links to right-wing institutions, their set of "ideological bedmates" or who they dined with. Authoritarian sentiments might be suggested also by other associations, e.g. in case of Payne it was noted he is based in Wisconsin, the home state of senator McCarthy. At times their presence in public discourse is cast again
caption: allegory of the Republic
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