Javier Tusell Gómez (26 August 1945,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

- 8 February 2005, Barcelona) was a Spanish historian, writer and politician who served as a professor of

modern history The modern era or the modern period is considered the current historical period of human history. It was originally applied to the history of Europe and Western history for events that came after the Middle Ages, often from around the year 1500, ...

at the

National University of Distance Education The National Distance Education University (, UNED) is a distance learning and research university founded in 1972 and is the only university run by the government of Spain. The headquarters is located in Madrid, with campuses in all Spanish aut ...

(UNED).Obituary
@ ''El Mundo''

Biography

His family moved to Madrid while he was still very young, and he obtained his degree in history and

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

at Complutense University, where he studied with

José María Jover José María Jover Zamora ( Cartagena, 5 June 1920 - Madrid, 14 November, 2006) was a Spanish historian. Career He was the most influential figure in developing contemporary Spanish historiography. In 1949, he became professor of "Universal Histor ...

. While there, he was a member of the "Union of Democratic Students" and the "Union of Young Christian Democrats"; groups which opposed the Francoist "". He has been a teacher since receiving his doctorate in 1966; beginning as an assistant professor at his alma mater. In 1975, over some opposition, he was named an aggregate professor of modern history at the

Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...

. Two years later, he obtained a professorship at the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ), shortened to UV, is a public research university in Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Valencian Community. It is regarded as one of Spain's leading academic i ...

. In 1981, he became a professor at UNED; a position he held, with a brief interregnum, for the rest of his life. Attracted to politics, he joined the new Democratic People's Federation, led by José María Gil-Robles, in 1975. After the party's dissolution in 1977, he switched to the Christian Democratic Party (UCD).Brief biography
@ MCN Biografías. In the first Post-Franco municipal elections (1979), he was elected a councilor (

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

) in Madrid on the UCD ticket. From then until 1982, he was also director general of the "Patrimonio Artístico, Archivos y Museos" at the Ministry of Culture. At this time, he oversaw negotiations between the family of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

to return Picasso's iconic painting, '' Guernica'', to Spain. Its installation at the

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía The ''Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía'' ("Queen Sofía National Museum Art Centre"; MNCARS) is Spain's national museum of 20th-century art. The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992, and is named for Queen Sofía. I ...

would become a major symbol of the restoration of democracy. Despite this success, Tusell was dismissed by the Minister of Culture, Soledad Becerril, ostensibly over disagreements involving libraries and restoration procedures, but possibly because she felt that he had overstepped his authority. The dismissal, delivered by telephone, was protested by

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , ; ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan Spanish painter, sculptor and Ceramic art, ceramist. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona ...

, Pablo Serrano,

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies, Marquess of Tàpies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalans, Catalan painter, sculptor, and art theorist. Life The son of Josep Tàpies i Mestre and Maria Puig i Guerra, Antoni T ...

and

Eduardo Chillida Eduardo Chillida Juantegui (Basque: ''Eduardo Txillida Juantegi''; 10 January 1924 – 19 August 2002) was a Spanish Basque sculptor notable for his abstract works. Early life and career Born in San Sebastián (Donostia) to Pedro Chillida an ...

. After briefly being a member of the People's Democratic Party, he left politics and returned to his professorship duties at UNED. In 1999, the

Council of Ministers Council of Ministers is a traditional name given to the supreme Executive (government), executive organ in some governments. It is usually equivalent to the term Cabinet (government), cabinet. The term Council of State is a similar name that also m ...

appointed him as their representative to the " Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza". Apart from his activities as a teacher and writer, he was also a major contributor to periodicals such as '' El Mundo'', ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'', ''

La Vanguardia ' (; , ) is a Spanish daily newspaper founded in 1881. It is printed in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, also in Catalan. It has its headquarters in Barcelona and is Catalonia's leading newspaper. Despite being mostly distributed in Catalonia, ...

'' and the now defunct '' Diario 16'', as well as to the radio network SER. At the beginning of 2002, he was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

, which led to his death three years later. He was married to the historian, Genoveva García Queipo de Llano (born 1945) and had two children.

Selected writings

English

* ''Spain: From Dictatorship to Democracy'' (translated by Rosemary Clark), John Wiley & Sons, 2011

Spanish

* ''Franco y los católicos: la política interior española entre 1945 y 1957'', Alianza, 1984 * ''Franco y Mussolini. La política española durante la segunda guerra mundial'' (co-authored with his wife), Peninsula, 2006 * ''La dictadura de Franco'', Alianza, 1989 * '' Carrero. La eminencia gris del régimen de Franco'', Temas de Hoy, 1993 * ''

Juan Carlos I Juan Carlos I (; Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 November 1975 until Abdication of Juan Carlos I, his abdic ...

. La restauración de la monarquía'', Temas de Hoy, 1995 * ''

Alfonso XIII Alfonso XIII (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena''; French language, French: ''Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon''; 17 May ...

. El rey polémico'', (co-authored with his wife), Penguin-Random House Español, 2012 * ''Tiempo de incertidumbre:

Carlos Arias Navarro Carlos Arias Navarro, 1st Marquess of Arias Navarro (11 December 1908 – 27 November 1989) was the Prime Minister of Spain during the final years of the Francoist dictatorship and the beginning of the Spanish transition to democracy. Arias ...

entre el franquismo y la transición (1973-1976)'', Critica, 2003 * ''El aznarato: el gobierno del Partido Popular 1996–2003'', Penguin-Random House Español, 2012

References

External links

Writings by Tusell
@ Dialnet ( University of La Rioja)
Articles by Tusell
from ''El País''

@ Swotti {{DEFAULTSORT:Tusell, Javier 1945 births 2005 deaths Academic staff of the National University of Distance Education 20th-century Spanish historians Complutense University of Madrid alumni Spanish non-fiction writers Writers from Barcelona Deaths from leukemia in Spain Madrid city councillors (1979–1983) Academics and writers on the international relations of Spain Historians of the Spanish transition to democracy Historians of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera 20th-century Spanish journalists Spanish historians