The Spanish Civil War left a legacy of destruction, resentment and deep ideological divisions in a country that was attempting to recover from economic stagnation and social inequality. After Franco s victory, the repression and purge that ensued immersed Spain in a spiral of fear and silence which continued long after the dictator s death, through the pact of oblivion that was observed during the transition to democracy. Memories of the Spanish Civil War: Conflict and Community in Rural Spainattempts to break this silence by recovering the local memories of survivors of the Civil War and the early years of Franco s dictatorship. Combining oral testimony gatheredin one Andalusian village, with archival research, this ethnographic study approaches the expression of memory as an important site of socio-political struggle."