Neither Resistance nor Consent: Alltagsgeschichte, Everyday Economy and Eigen-Sinn in Franco’s Post-War Spain (1939–1951)

Abstract

Alltagsgeschichte has contributed much to our understanding of the emergence, construction and development of dictatorships in the twentieth century. However, Franco’s regime has hardly featured in the main accounts of everyday life and social attitudes in European dictatorships. This article seeks to remedy this deficit by placing Franco’s forty-year-long rule into international debates on everyday life under non-democratic regimes. This is achieved by exploring the heterogeneous and dynamic attitudes and strategies employed by Spaniards to cope with hunger and scarcity during the post-war period. The article draws on a range of sources from international, national and local archives, as well as several life-history interviews. These provide a deeper insight into individual experience and behaviour, which is at the heart of Alltagsgeschichte. By focusing on everyday life experiences and the potential of concepts like Eigen-Sinn, this article seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the way in which ordinary people negotiated power in their daily lives.