Franco's Internationalists: Social Experts and Spain's Search for Legitimacy (Oxford Studies in Modern European History)

"Despite the repression, violence, and social hardship which characterised Spanish life in the 1940s and 1950s, the Franco regime sought to win popular support by promoting its apparent commitment to social justice. David Brydan reveals the vital role which the idea of the Francoist 'social state' also played in the regime's ongoing search for international legitimacy. Using research from eighteen archives across six countries, Brydan shows how social experts, particularly those working in the fields of public health, medicine, and social insurance, were at the forefront of efforts to promote the regime abroad. By working with international organisations in Geneva, Paris, and New York and with transnational networks of colleagues across Europe, Africa, and Latin America, they sought to sell the idea of Franco's Spain as a respectable, modern, and socially-just state. They were internationalists, but they were Franco's internationalists. In telling this story, the study disrupts our understanding of the modern history of internationalism. Exploring what it meant for Francoist experts to think and act internationally, it challenges dominant accounts of internationalism as a liberal, progressive movement by foregrounding the history of fascist, nationalist, imperialist, and religious forms of international cooperation. It also brings into focus the overlooked continuities between international structures and projects before and after 1945. The case of Spain reveals the contested and heterogeneous nature of mid-twentieth century internationalism, characterised by the competition between overlapping global, regional, and imperial projects." -- Provided by publisher ## Abstract This book tells the story of the experts who sold the idea of Franco’s ‘social state’. Despite the repression, violence, and social hardship which characterized Spanish life in the 1940s and 1950s, the Franco regime sought to win popular support by promoting its apparent commitment to social justice. This book reveals the vital role which the idea of the social state also played in the regime’s ongoing search for international legitimacy. It shows how social experts, particularly those working in the fields of public health, medicine, and social insurance, were at the forefront of efforts to promote the regime to the outside world. By working with international organizations and transnational networks across Europe, Africa, and Latin America, they sought to sell the idea of Franco’s Spain as a respectable, modern, and socially just state. In doing so the book also seeks to disrupt our understanding of the modern history of internationalism. Exploring what it meant for Francoist experts to think and act internationally, it challenges dominant accounts of internationalism as a liberal, progressive movement by foregrounding the history of fascist, nationalist, imperialist, and religious forms of international cooperation. The case of Spain reveals the contested and heterogenous nature of mid-twentieth-century internationalism, characterized by the tumultuous interplay of overlapping global, regional, and imperial projects. It also brings into focus the overlooked continuities between international structures and projects before and after 1945. Cover Franco’s Internationalists: Social Experts and Spain’s Search for Legitimacy Copyright Acknowledgements Contents List of Abbreviations Introduction Franco’s Spain Internationalism Structure, Sources, and Chronology 1: Axis Internationalism: Spanish Experts and the Nazi New Order Social Experts and Cultural Diplomacy Spanish Experts and the Nazi New Order Social Experts in the ‘Totalitarian’ Age Mutual Self-Interest and German Hegemony 2: Franco’s Spain and the Politics of International Health International Health during the Second World War The ‘Spanish Question’ and the WHO, 1946 ‘Everyone applauded’: Spain in the WHO 3: ‘Generous, Selfless, Civilizing’: Health and Development in Francoist Africa Africanismo and Colonial Health Tropical Medicine: ‘Weapon of Penetration’ Inter-Imperial Health during the Second World War Post-War Imperial Isolation 4: Exporting Francoist Modernity: Health, Social Security, and Hispanidad Social Expertise, Hispanidad, and Cultural Diplomacy ‘We don’t want Francoists here!’ Social Security and the ‘Social Voice of Spain’ 5: Spain’s Catholic Internationalists Catholic Internationalism and the ACNP Salus Infirmorum and International Nursing Catholic Humanitarianism Epilogue and Conclusion Epilogue: 1959–75 Nationalists in the Age of Internationalism Bibliography Archives Press Published Official Records Published Primary and Secondary Sources Index Despite the repression, violence, and social hardship which characterised Spanish life in the 1940s and 1950s, the Franco regime sought to win popular support by promoting its apparent commitment to social justice. This study tells the story of the experts in public health, medicine, and social insurance sent to sell Franco's regime overseas