The Second Spanish Republic through its fundamental texts

 
 
Culture
(29/10/2021)

Editions and Publications of the UB has published La Segunda República Española: textos fundamentales, a book that gathers a selection of laws, speeches and proclamations of one of the most intense periods in the history of Spain. Curated by Norbert Bilbeny, professor of Ethics, the book brings an introductory study by Paola Lo Cascio, lecturer of Contemporary History, and results from Noli Cabezas Ramírezʼs documentary research study.

 

 
 
Culture
29/10/2021

Editions and Publications of the UB has published La Segunda República Española: textos fundamentales, a book that gathers a selection of laws, speeches and proclamations of one of the most intense periods in the history of Spain. Curated by Norbert Bilbeny, professor of Ethics, the book brings an introductory study by Paola Lo Cascio, lecturer of Contemporary History, and results from Noli Cabezas Ramírezʼs documentary research study.

 

The volume brings together seventy fundamental texts from the Second Spanish Republic, both made by the Republic itself and by other institutions and personalities, always in its favour as a regime and supporting its conception of politics. Words of affirmation and commitment that resonate today for their defence of the legitimate democracy in a Spain that was deep in a long crisis of the monarchical Restoration, and in a Europe that was marked by economic problems and the rise of dictatorial systems. Every chapter includes, apart from the collected texts, an introduction to contextualize the documents and a selection of complementary sources that are available online.

This anthology intends to be the documentary witness of an exceptional experience of the Spanish history. Its interest is still valid, and therefore the book provides evidence on different aspects of that time. Also, it aims to be a tool for useful information for study and academic centres, students and the general audience interested in contemporary history and in particular the political chronicle of Spain. The volume provides with material which is difficult to Access: the main laws, the most decisive governing decrees, and a series of proclamations, speeches and written texts. Each of the nine chapters that build up this piece open with the image of one of the posters of the republican propaganda kept in the Pavelló de la República CRAI Library of the University of Barcelona, which lent its use for this occasion.

The first chapter includes texts on the advent of the Republic, such as the Pact of San Sebastian (1930) or the Legal Statute of the Provisional Government (1931). The second, focused on the general Republican policy, includes the speech to the Spaniards by Alejandro Lerroux after the events of October 1934, as well as the program of the Popular Front, made public on January 15, 1936, among other texts. The autonomic debate is the subject of the third chapter, where one can find, for example, the statutes of autonomy of Catalonia (1932) and the Basque Country (1936), the draft statute of Galicia (1932) and the proclamations of the Catalan Republic by Francesc Macià, in 1931, and of the Catalan State by Lluís Companys, in 1934.

The fourth chapter provides texts related to the new republican military order, such as the decree that, in 1931, annulled the Law of Jurisdictions, the one that since 1906 had placed offenses under military jurisdiction against the unity of the homeland, the flag and the honor of the army. Next, the religious question is addressed, with speeches by Manuel Azaña and José María Gil Robles, and decrees such as the dissolution of the Compañía de Jesús in Spanish territory (1932). The sixth chapter focuses on educational reforms, such as the decree on school bilingualism in Catalonia and the law for the creation of public schools, both in 1931.

The agrarian and economic reform, an inescapable theme, is in the seventh chapter, which brings together laws such as that of crop contracts (1934) and decrees such as that of collectivizations and workers' control (1936), both of the Catalan Government. The eighth chapter selects laws and decrees that implied giant steps in the social transformation of Spain, such as the divorce law and the civil marriage law. It also includes speeches, such as the one made by Clara Campoamor in Les Corts in 1931 defending the universal women's suffrage. The last chapter brings together the anti-fascist speeches by Indalecio Prieto, Juan Negrín, Francisco Largo Caballero, Manuel Azaña and Julián Besteiro, delivered during the Civil War.

 

Norbert Bilbeny is Professor of Ethics at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Barcelona. His research has focused on intercultural issues, ethics of citizenship and cosmopolitanism. He is the author of a large bibliography in both Catalan and Spanish, among which the following stand out Eugeni dʼOrs i la ideologia del noucentisme (1988), Humana dignidad (1990), El laberint de la llibertat (1990), El idiota moral: la banalidad del mal en el siglo XX (1993), Por una causa común. Ética para la diversidad (2002), La identidad cosmopolita. Los límites del patriotismo en la era global (2007), Ética del periodismo (Editions and Publications of the UB, 2012), Humanidades e investigación científica. Una propuesta necesaria, with Joan Guàrdia (eds.) (Editions and Publications of the UB, 2015), Reglas para el diálogo en situaciones de conflicto (Editions and Publications of the UB, 2016), and Legitimidad y acción política (Editions and Publications of the UB, 2018). He was awarded the Josep Pla Prize in 1984 for Papers contra la cinta magnètica, and the Essay Anagram in 1997 for La revolución en la ética. Hábitos y creencias en la sociedad digital.

Paola Lo Cascio is tenure-track 2 lecturer of Contemporary History at the University of Barcelona. Specialized in the study of Catalan nationalism, the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime, and the contemporary economic history of Spain, she is the author of Imatges 1936-1939: bombes sobre Barcelona (with Susanna Oliveira, 2008), Nacionalisme i autogovern. Catalunya, 1890-2003 (2008), Economía franquista y corrupción (with Andreu Mayayo and José Manuel Rúa, 2010) and La guerra civile spagnola. Una storia del Novecento (2013).