Interview with Professor Paul Preston

Paul Preston (Liverpool, 1946) has been professor in international history at the London School of Economics since 1991 and is the honorary president of the Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies. Renowned for his work on the Spanish Civil War and Francoist dictatorship, Preston’s internationally acclaimed books include A People Betrayed (2020), The Last Days of the Spanish Republic (2016), The Spanish Holocaust (2012), The Spanish Civil War (2006), Doves of War: Four Women of Spain (2002), Comrades! Portraits from the Spanish Civil War (1999) and Franco: A Biography (1993). An English-language edition of his latest work Arquitectos del terror: Franco y los artífices del odio, published in Spanish in 2021, is due for publication in Autumn 2022. Preston was interviewed in January 2021 by Deborah Madden, a Leverhulme Trust research fellow at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Preston offers intriguing insight into his research, discussing the politics of sexual violence, memory politics, research as a form of activism and his main regret as a historian. The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Paul Preston (Liverpool, 1946) es catedrático en Historia internacional en la London School of Economics desde 1991 y presidente honorario de la Association for Contemporary Iberian Studies. Preston es una figura reconocida por su investigación sobre la Guerra Civil Española y la dictadura franquista, con aclamadas obras como A People Betrayed (2020; edición española, 2019), The Last Days of the Spanish Republic (2016), The Spanish Holocaust (2012), The Spanish Civil War (2006), Doves of War: Four Women of Spain (2002), Comrades! Portraits from the Spanish Civil War (1999) y Franco: A Biography (1993). La edición inglesa de su último libro, Arquitectos del terror: Franco y los artífices del odio, que se publicó en español en 2021, verá la luz en otoño 2022. Preston ha sido entrevistado por Deborah Madden, investigadora postdoctoral en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y beneficiaria de una beca del Leverhulme Trust. Preston explica interesantes detalles sobre su experiencia de investigación en temas como la política de la violencia sexual o las políticas de la memoria, sobre la investigación como forma del activismo y de qué se lamenta como historiador. Para mayor claridad la entrevista ha sido editada y acortada.