A People Betrayed

A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain 1874-2018

By: Paul Preston

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 29 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

From the foremost historian of 20th-century Spain, A People Betrayed is the story of the devastating betrayal of Spain by its political class, its military and its Church. 

This comprehensive history of modern Spain chronicles the fomenting of violent social division throughout the country by institutionalised corruption and startling political incompetence. Most spectacularly during the Primo de Rivera and Franco dictatorships, grotesque and shameless corruption went hand-in-hand with inept policies that prolonged Spain’s economic backwardness well into the 1950s.

A People Betrayed looks back to the years prior to 1923 when electoral corruption excluded the masses from organised politics and gave them a choice between apathetic acceptance and violent revolution. Bitter social conflict, economic tensions and conflict between centralist nationalism and regional independence movements then exploded into the civil war of 1936-1939.

It took the horrors of that war and the dictatorship that followed to break the pattern. The moderation shared by the progressive right and a chastened left underlay a bloodless transition to democracy after 1975. Yet, as before, corruption and political incompetence continued to have a corrosive effect on political coexistence and social cohesion.

Sparkling with vivid portraits of politicians and army officers, some corrupt and others clean, recounting the triumphs and disasters of Kings Alfonso XIII and Juan Carlos, A People Betrayed unravels the mystery of why both right and left have been unable or unwilling to deal with corruption and the pernicious clash between Spanish centralist nationalism and regional desires for independence.

©2020 Paul Preston (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

A mistake literally

i really struggled to listen to it as I downloaded it by mistake! seems hard work.

A history of corruption in modern Spain

Dr. Preston (as he was then) was one of my History tutors at Queen Mary College, London University in the late 1970s. His left-wing sympathies were self-evident and never hidden! That being said, everything he writes here is perfectly true - you just have to remember that his sympathies are clearly with the Left in Spain. This book is not really for the general reader but for those who have a deep interest in Spanish history. Be warned: there are scores and scores of acronyms - PSUC, ICE, POUM, PSOE, PCE - the list is almost endless! The most interesting sections of the book for me were those which dealt with the corruption of Franco and his family. After listening to this, I do recommend his biographies of Franco and King Juan Carlos.

Essential Spanish history

For most people, myself included, Spanish history of the 20th Century begins and ends with the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship. By following the themes of corruption and political incompetence, Paul Preston puts the War and dictatorship into a wider context of coup, brutality, repression and corruption across the whole of the 20th Century. Franco may have been the master, but by no means the only perpetrator. This is a brilliant book, superbly narrated by Peter Noble and will be essential listening for all students of Spanish history.

I've read other reviews on here criticising the Spanish pronunciation of Paul Noble. I think they're confusing the differences in Spanish pronunciation and Catalan where "j" is not an "h", but a "dz" sound. Paul Noble's narration is excellent throughout.

Fascinating and complex

I was glued to this all the way through. From stitching up elections to dodgy royals via a fascist dictatorship, when it comes to dirt the Spanish have plenty to go round. Be warned though, this isn’t a beginner’s book so if, like me, your knowledge of Spanish history is limited to stuff about the period 1936-39, you may end up googling a lot.

An eye-opener

In many respects deeply depressing. Corruption and incompetence now as in 1870 plus Franco legacy

Almost ruined by the narration

It's an excellent book that fills in the gaps between semana tràgica and the civil war and then on to the present day. The preface mentions Brexit as a similar instance of social disparity, incompetence and corruption which would resonate with a British audience. I've been struggling with this book for months as after work I'm often too tired to read, so the audio book is an ideal solution, I listen as I work.
However, the narration is ruining it. Why couldn't they get a narrator who speaks Spanish? Juan and Joachim are pronounced as a hard "h", not a "J", I really could go on and on but don't wish to be any more unkind than I have.

Depressing yet fascinating

A great listen, this was very well read. Quite a depressing book but interesting nonetheless, I don't understand how people who steal from the public purse can live with themselves, let's hope Spain, and other countries, can get to drips with this huge issue.

Shocking History

Detailed history, well read. Milliibs of lives were a misery while the rich got richer and didn't care.

Jaw dropping

Paul Preston is the historian that Spain deserves having failed to produce one of their own . The book explains why no such person has emerged

An important critique of one of the world's most s

in common with so many others, I have a deep love of Spain. It has long been a source of fascination to me that a country whose talents and instincts are so profoundly intellectual and artistic should be so incapable of political standards to match its European colleagues.

This book is a lucid and detailed account of how Spanish political life has developed over the last 150 years and offers an insight into the dark side of Spain. Deeply shocking, at times bleak, but underscored with benevolence, the narrative takes the listener through events with a sense of pity and frustration.

I came away better informed about sensitive and painful matters often buried in the Spanish psyche.

For those who want to get closer to Spain, but retain a position of neutrality, I'd say that this is a rare English-language chance to do just that.

Very interesting

Very interesting, sometimes overly focused on corruption, but that's also the point of the book