This has been my go-to book to learn about Francoist Spain. There are many others out there—and I have a lot of them and I’ll link to them when I get a chance—but Professor Stanley G. Payne is thorough in his study of the regime.

He’s not particularly partisan. I am.

Payne is one of our greatest living historians and certainly top-notch when it comes to Spanish history and the history of the Iberian peninsula. He writes in both English and Spanish and even though he is an American, he is widely considered the dean of Spanish historians, worldwide.

~BO’L