Readers interested in the history of Catalonia can be congratulated for one thing, it is that the collection of titles on the subject is very varied every year. This has two virtues. One, to note that knowledge about the various historical stages advances, to a certain extent, at a good pace. The other, that the public that is weak for a certain period is guaranteed some title, which they can take advantage of to refish with the excuse of Sant Jordi. We present a selection.
From the medieval and modern era, we highlight three titles. The Catalan translation of Els Borja. The purple and the blood (Edicions Sidilà), by Jean-Yves Boriaud, which contributes to undoing the black legend of this lineage that never goes out of style. The biography Alfons el Magnànim (1396-1458), by Josep Brugada (Base), also gives us a full dimension of the character, which portrays the king of Aragon as one of the great rulers of the Renaissance. Set many years later, Defeated but not subdued. La Catalunya del segle XVIII (Editions 62), by Joaquim Albareda, traces the continued political will of the Catalans once their freedoms were lost.
Most works, however, focus on the contemporary era. Xavier Fleck won the Ateneu Barcelonès Essay prize with The Second Reich and Catalonia. Germany seen from Catalan culture and politics between 1890 and 1914 (Affairs). A work on transnational influences that is a real gem. A volume from the years immediately following is that of Xavier Casals and Enric Ucelay-Da Cal El fascio de las Ramblas. The Catalan origins of Spanish fascism (Past and Present). The title that since autumn has caused the most impact on the historiography of 20th century Catalonia arrives with force this Sant Jordi.
The republican stage is a constant in the novelties every season. Fermí Rubiralta, Fèlix Villagrasa and Francesc Josep Porta have recently published Josep Dencàs i Puigdollers, the cursed councillor, 1900-1966 (Base). A biography that, above all, aims to remove the fascist label from the separatist leader, but it is still too early to assess whether the contribution will generate debate. Who has done it, and a lot, is the Lleida estate of a president of the Generalitat. Ferran Dalmau, Marc Macià and other authors published in December Vallmanya, the lost paradise of Francesc Macià (Pagès Editors) just when the administrations agreed to acquire and rehabilitate the house to turn it into a museum.
There are reference books that are essential. The researcher and journalist Ester Boquera has edited one, The publications of the Generalitat of Catalonia, 1931-1939, (Generalitat de Catalunya). A necessary volume to deepen the knowledge of the communication of our main institution. The defeat in the Civil War put an end to the republican projects. Several works deal with the consequences from different perspectives.
The tireless Xavier Febrés delves into the vicissitudes that surrounded the works of art and valuables hidden in a mine in the Alt Empordà during the removal to El tresor de la Vajol (Gavarres). Joan Santacana and Imma Socias, on the other hand, talk about those who took advantage of the Second World War to profit from it and their victims, including Francesc Cambó, in L’art ensangonat. Looters and looters during the Third Reich (The Advance). Related to this, the journalist Xavier Juncosa has published a biography of the Gestapo art dealer in Barcelona who has made a lot of noise since the beginning of the year, The double life of Pierre Lottier (Nèmesi).
Laia Arañó, on the other hand, presents a ground-breaking study of the defeated republicans and the miseries they suffered in the neighboring country. The field of the Catalans. Agde in the French concentration system (Affairs) will remain as a reference study in its field. Josep Lluís Martín-Berbois, for his part, presents the biography of those who got away, and very well, during the Franco regime. Joan Llonch Sales. Entrepreneur, patron and Catalanist politician (Ars Foundation) is the portrait of one of Sabadell’s most emblematic manufacturers.
Two more works have the background regime, but they talk about anti-Francoist figures. Agustí Pons has published the essay Catòlics, communistes i cia. Catalan intellectuals and cold war (Editions of 1984), essential to understand the moral superiority of the Marxist Catalan intellectuals and their difficulty in maintaining equidistance between the United States and the USSR. Conversely, the Montserrat monk Aureli Argemí has ??presented La llavor sembrada (Pòrtic), a memoir in which he highlights his role as secretary to Abbot Aureli Escarré and as founder of the Ciemen. Also in the late Franco regime, Agustí Colomines deals with the political mobilization to confront the regime based on copious unpublished documentation from the American archives in Amnesty and freedom, October 28, 1973 (Rosa dels Vents).
We finish the selection with two titles that deal with different geographies and to which not enough attention is paid. Montserrat Duch talks about the role of women during the Catalan 20th century in a collection of researches, which opens up new study perspectives on the issue, in Pa i roses. Pills for another 20th century story (Base). And Carles Viñas situates a booming phenomenon in a concise but diaphanous way in Between Nostalgia and Populism. Brief history of the extreme right in Catalonia (Fonoll-La Mira). All in all, then, an obvious display of the muscle of our historiography.
