Entangled Reactionaries

Between 1898 and 1939, Spain saw the emergence of political and social identities shaped by the concepts of Hispanidad, Catholicism, race, tradition and the Spanish language. Rooted in 19th-century conservative thought, these ideas evolved through intellectual debate and ideological conflict with liberal and left-wing currents. This book explores how such identities were reshaped during Spain’s major political shifts and how they intersected with Latin American discourses. By examining both state-led initiatives and grassroots movements, it offers a dual perspective on the nationalization of the masses and the construction of Spanish and Iberian social and political identities.

Xosé M. Núñez Seixas obtained his PhD from the EUI Florence and is a professor of modern and contemporary history at the University of Santiago de Compostela. His research interests span the comparative and transnational history of nationalism and territorial identity, the memory of twenty-century dictatorships, and the social and cultural history of war and violence. His latest books are The Spanish Blue Division on the Eastern Front (1941–1945): War, Occupation, Memory (Toronto, 2022); Beyond Folklore? The Franco Regime and Ethnoterritorial Diversity in Spain (London, 2024), and The Eastern Front and European Memory: On Victims and Heroes, 1945–2024 (London, 2025).

Vicent Sanz Rozalén is senior lecturer of Modern and Contemporary History at Jaume I University of Castrelló (Spain), where he holds the chair of history and democratic memory. He has managed the radio program Hablemos de historia since 2012. He is the author of D’artesans a proletaris. la manufactura del cànem a Castelló (1995); Propiedad y desposesión campesina. La bailia de Morella en la crisis del régimen señorial (2000), and has also coedited the collections En el nombre del oficio: el trabajador especializado: corporativismo, adaptación y protesta (2005); A Social History of Spanish Labour. New Perspectives on Class, Politics and Gender (2008), and Resistencia, delito y dominación en el mundo esclavo: microhistorias de la esclavitud atlántica (siglos XVIII-XIX) (2019).