Revisionism is a term which emerged in the late 1990s and is applied to a group of
historiographic
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term "historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific to ...
theories related to the recent history of
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
. 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
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
. 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
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
, their opponents are branded progressists and left-wingers.
History
Until the late 1990s in Spain the term ''revisionismo histórico'' was applied to various historiographic debates abroad, often though not always related to
Nazism
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...
. It was seldom used against the local background and its denotation could have varied, e.g. in 1988 the expression was employed to stand for scientific historiography. According to scholars who later confronted revisionism, this general setting changed in the mid-1990s; the new government of
José María Aznar
José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spai ...
launched a bid to revise the dominant historiographic view of the recent past. In administrative terms the scheme was embodied e.g. in ''Plan de Mejora de la Enseñanza'', a scheme aimed at re-design of the school curriculum, in 1997 proposed to the
Cortes
Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to:
People
* Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name
** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador
Places
* Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...
and eventually rejected. In parallel the Right-wing administration mounted a public-discourse counter-offensive, which climaxed in "Operación Moa". Its supposed result was commercial success of 3 books which appeared on the market between 1999 and 2003; written by an amateur historian and
far-right
Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
propagandist
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
Pio Moa, they focused on the Second Republic and the Civil War.
Moa's books triggered adverse response. It was first embodied in a 1999 manifesto titled ''Combate por la historia''; signed by historians, writers and public figures, it was the first to apply the term "revisionistas" to a group of unnamed Spanish historians, charged with distortions and falsifications. In the early 21st century the name filtered into newspapers and the phenomenon became a widely discussed topic, especially that also other books charged with revisionism were selling very well. According to some scholars, the second term of the Aznar government reinforced the revisionist efforts, expressed e.g. as another education plan advanced by
Real Academia de Historia. The anti-revisionist backlash climaxed in 2005–2006 as 3 books produced by professional historians and edited by
Alberto Reig Tapia and
Francisco Espinosa Maestre; the volumes supposedly definitely dismantled the revisionist Moa narrative and at the time they were thought to have terminated the debate.

Instead of dying out, after 2005 the debate on revisionism flamed on and was brought to another level. To some extent sustained by adoption of
Ley de la Memoria Historica in 2007, the discussion transformed when a group of professional historians challenged the anti-revisionists; from that moment onwards the conflict was no longer between amateurs and scholars, but between the scholars themselves. It reached another milestone in 2010–2011, the years when
Manuel Álvarez Tardío and Roberto Villa García published a general work on the Second Republic and when
RAH-edited ''
Diccionario Biográfico Español'' published a biography of
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...
. The latter caused heated controversy mostly in popular discourse; according to many, the biography was revisionist and scandalous. The former had a low-profile but more lasting effect, and became a negative point of reference for many works confronting revisionist historiography. The discussion on revisionism kept escalating and assumed increasingly militant tone. The next milestone was reached when in 2014
Stanley G. Payne
Stanley George Payne (born September 9, 1934) is an American historian of modern Spain and Europe, European fascism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and is currently Professor Emeritus at its Dep ...
published his biography of Franco (co-authored by
Jesús Palacios Tapias); at that point some concluded that revisionism was embraced by the world's most distinguished
Hispanist
Hispanism (sometimes referred to as Hispanic studies or Spanish studies) is the study of the literature and culture of the Spanish-speaking world, principally that of Spain and Hispanic America. It may also entail studying Spanish language an ...
s. Since then the debate has reached an unprecedented level and spilled over to global historiography. It is also reflected in 2018 debates related to proposal of a new Ley de Memoria Histórica.
Name and beyond

Some scholars who confront the revisionist tide claim that the term "revisionism" as such is not by default deprecatory and some authors considered champions of anti-revisionism declare themselves revisionists, naming skepticism a recommended historiographic approach. They note that authors who strive to re-write history of Spain of the 20th century do not actually deserve the name of "revisionist" and should rather be called manipulators and liars; they are dubbed "self-proclaimed revisionists". Others reserve the term for intellectuals like
de Felice,
Nolte,
Lachmann or
Furet and underline that the likes of Moa or Vidal are nowhere near their stature. There are authors who agree that the name has been abused and label their opponents rather as "pseudo-revisionists". Finally, some scholars distinguish between "revisionism", the term reserved for amateurish writings of Moa or others, and "neo-revisionism", the term applied to scientifically grounded works pursuing similar yet not identical views. Finally, few authors note that historiographic revision is generally welcome and needed, but "revisionism" by default stands for revision based on manipulation and has no place in the academic realm.
Most authors who rebuke attempts to distort and falsify history do not go into such detail and refer to "revisionismo histórico" and "revisionistas". The name denotes an attempt to revise a generally accepted, proven scientific version of recent Spanish history and is applied to both "historiadores coyunturales" and "historiadores profesionales"; recently the term is applied not only to professionals in historiographic science but also to scholars who until their "enigmatic evolution" had been global icons of scientific Hispanism. Sometimes in such cases the term is qualified as perfectly respectable scientific "revisionismo amable", yet usually no such distinction is made. At times revisionism is divided into purist and comparative branches. Sometimes two labels associated are "denialism" and "negationism", as the authors in question deny or negate generally accepted and supposedly proven historiographic concepts.
Though authors classified as revisionists are typically charged with nurturing post-Francoist, pro-Francoist, neo-Francoist, quasi-Francoist or plainly Francoist sentiments, some effort is made to distinguish between "Francoist historiography" and "revisionist historiography". The former is deemed actually orthodox in its Francoist set of old-style schemes and traits,
[Bernat Montesinos 2007, p. 53] immune to discourse, straight continuation of pre-1975 narrative and represented by authors of older generation like
Ricardo de la Cierva,
Vicente Palacio Atard and
Fernando Vizcaíno Casas. The latter is deemed to be a confrontational response to historiographic vision generally agreed after 1975. It is at times pictured as a school represented by a new generation of authors
[Robledo 2015, p. 4] often armed with modern scientific tools, some of these authors skilled if not excelling – this is, until they embraced revisionism - in historiographic craft. It is only recently that in course of increasingly heated debate less and less attention is paid to tell Francoist historians from revisionist historians. Both groups might be bundled together, many threads and motives are supposed to prove continuity of their historiographic vision, and revisionism is painted as "almost 'Blue'". Some critics of revisionism go even further and claim that it is actually an orthodox Francoist reading of history.
[Moradiellos 2009, p. 4]
Works questioned
There are some 10-15 books which come up repeatedly as negative points of reference of the anti-revisionist discourse, though further volumes might be referred less frequently or even occasionally. They roughly fall into two different categories.One is composed of loose essays, formatted for non-specialized reader and deprived of back matter, which usually forms part of scientific apparatus; this is the case of volumes published by Moa, Vidal, Martín Rubio or others. Another one is composed of fully fledged historiographic studies aimed for more experienced if not professional audience; this is the case of books published by Álvarez Tardío, Villa García, del Rey Reguillo or others. Works from both categories most frequently charged with revisionism are listed below, precedence given to volumes which stand most prominently as key vehicles of revisionist narrative.
Charge: ''re-fried Francoist fables''

The debate is centred on the Second Republic and to some extent on the Civil War, though occasionally also
Restoration period
[Ealham 2007, p. 368, Ealham 2012, p. 195] 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.
Revisionists are considered to be motivated by a desire to defame the Republic;
[Robledo 2014, p. 76] their key thesis 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
The Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (, CEDA) was a Spanish right-wing political party in the Second Spanish Republic. A Catholic conservative force, it was the political heir to Ángel Herrera Oria's Acción Popular and defined ...
’s role of a
Fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
Trojan horse
In Greek mythology, the Trojan Horse () was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer, Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending ...
; 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".
[Ealham 2007, p. 372] 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"
[Ealham 2013, p. 193] 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
[Ealham ngoing p. 2] and cultivate their own "pedagogics of hate". An index of manipulative techniques used 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 revisionist authors 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",
[Robledo 2015, p. 5] sustaining "canon neofranquista",
"peddling discredited historical narrative",
[Ealham 2007, p. 367] "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. At times their presence in public discourse is cast against the background of Holocaust denial and revisionism being punishable by law in countries like Germany.
Key conflicting theories
Counter-charge: ''República no fue Caperucita Roja''
Authors referred to as revisionists do not adopt a uniform stand. Some implicitly accept the label since they openly format their works as challenge to alleged "myths", reportedly prevailing in historiography. Some joined the anti-revisionist campaign and turned from iconic revisionists to iconic anti-revisionists. Some ignore the term and do not take part in direct polemics. Some assumed a combative position and in numerous articles, press statements and books they confront their opponents. There are authors dubbed revisionists who deny having anything in common with other "revisionists" and treat them in a derogatory manner, there are authors who admit sharing similar views. In general, they question existence of an orthodox, generally accepted historiographic vision of the Republic and claim that historiography is about debate and plurality of opinions. On this basis they maintain that no such thing as revisionism exists, that the term is artificial construction which bundles together various scholars and opinions, and that by means of similar arbitrary judgments even icons of anti-revisionism like
Preston might be counted in. A somewhat sympathetic term alternative to "revisionism" is "Moaist revolution".
There is no name commonly applied to scholars who criticize supposed revisionism, though some coined the term "contrarrevisionismo". They are at times referred to as "pequeño grupo de historiadores" who intend to monopolize the discourse by means of social, political and infrastructural network they had built. To this end, they allegedly attempt to stigmatize all these who do not comply as pseudo-scientists, busy with dirty political agenda and not deserving a place in academic discourse. The anti-revisionist authors are presented as driven by their own prejudice, ideologically motivated, "politically committed" and named "small group of historians determined to defend at all costs the vision of a sacred and ‘heroic’ republican democracy". Their supposed political sympathies are clearly described as Left-wing, with references to "historiografía ‘progresista’", "nueva
rogressistreligión civil",
[González Cuevas 2008] "anti-Fascist historiography", "political correctness", "post-Marxist ideology",
"militant history" and "anti-Francoist, progressive historians". Their principal objective is described as further mythologization of the Republic; this stand is ironically referred by remarks that "Republic was not a
Little Red Riding Hood
"Little Red Riding Hood" () is a fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. Its origins can be traced back to several pre-17th-century European Fable, folk tales. It was later retold in the 19th-century by the Broth ...
".

Some revisionist authors take charges of their supposed Francoist sympathies very seriously. They demand from periodicals which published such opinions the right to reply and require individuals advancing such claims to retract them; these demands usually produce no result except claims that by "threatening quasi-legal language" they intend to administratively limit free speech.
They also claim to have never endorsed the regime and diagnose that though there might have been a modest post-Francoist revival in some sectors of the Spanish media, all professional historians remained immune. They reverse the charges and maintain that it is rather the "contrarrevisionistas" who demonstrate a Francoist heritage: unable of detaching science from politics, they reportedly view history in Manichean terms, refuse to acknowledge their analysis, and got locked in a schematic bi-polar logic. These revisionists attempt to reverse also other charges directed at them and similarly denounce their opponents in terms who they dine with and where they publish, e.g. by noting that one of the most militant anti-revisionists is related to a
Trotskyite
Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
periodical. They use
anti-intellectualism
Anti-intellectualism is hostility to and mistrust of intellect, intellectuals, and intellectualism, commonly expressed as deprecation of education and philosophy and the dismissal of art, literature, history, and science as impractical, politica ...
to attempt to ridicule the pose of moral superiority, reportedly assumed by those lambasting revisionism, and agonize about their alleged "personal smears".
[Gerald Blaney, ''Violence, Continuity, and the Spanish State: Some Considerations'', n:''Journal of Contemporary History'' 51/2 (2016), p. 416]
Notable proponents
See also
*
Historiography on Spanish Civil War repressions (numbers)
*
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of Alfonso XIII, King Alfonso XIII. ...
*
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
*
Francoism
Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...
*
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...
*
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) scholarly views or narratives regarding a historical event, timespa ...
*
Historiography
Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
Footnotes
Further reading
* Francisco Espinosa Maestre, ''El fenómeno revisionista o los fantasmas de la derecha española'', Badajoz 2005,
*
Carlos Forcadell, Ignacio Peiró, Mercedes Yusta (eds.), ''El pasado en construcción. Revisionismos históricos en la historiografía contemporánea'', Zaragoza, 2015,
* ''Forum'',
n:''Journal of Contemporary History'' 51/2 (2016), pp. 412–438
* ''Debate'',
n:''Journal of Contemporary History'' 52/1 (2017), pp. 118–163
* Enrique Moradiellos, ''Revisión histórica crítica y pseudo-revisionismo político presentista: el caso de la Guerra Civil Española'', Badajoz 2011
* Alberto Reig Tapia, ''Anti-Moa'', Madrid 2008,
* Alberto Reig Tapia, ''La crítica de la crítica: Inconsecuentes, insustanciales, impotentes, prepotentes y equidistantes'', Madrid 2017,
* Alberto Reig Tapia, ''Revisionismo y política. Pío Moa revisitado'', Madrid 2008,
* Michael Richards, ''After the Civil War. Making Memory and Re-making Spain since 1936'', Cambridge 2013, ,
*
Ángel Viñas
Ángel Viñas Martín (born 1941) is a Spanish economist and historian. He has published many works dealing with the Spanish Civil War focusing on the war finance as well as the international relations aspects of the conflict.
PhD. in Economics, ...
(ed.), ''Sin respeto por la historia''
xtraordinary issue of ''Hispania Nova''2015
*
Ángel Viñas
Ángel Viñas Martín (born 1941) is a Spanish economist and historian. He has published many works dealing with the Spanish Civil War focusing on the war finance as well as the international relations aspects of the conflict.
PhD. in Economics, ...
(ed.), ''En el combate por la historia'', Madrid 2012, {{ISBN, 9788493914394
Falangism
Historical revisionism
Historiography of Spain
Neo-fascism
Francoism