‘Magisterial … As engagingly readable as a good novel’ ObserverThe definitive biography of Generalissimo Francisco Franco, from the acclaimed historian Paul Preston. Francisco Franco was the Caudillo of Spain, leading the Nationalists' brutal, Fascist-sponsored victory over the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War and ruling Spain as dictator from 1939 to 1975.The biography presents a mass of new and unknown material about its subject, the fruits of research in the archives of six countries and a plethora of interviews with key figures.