Herbert Rutledge Southworth (February 6, 1908 – October 30, 1999) was a writer, journalist and historian specializing in the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
and the subsequent
Francoist State
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
in Spain and whose work led the Francoist ministry of information to set up an entire department
[Gibson, Ian. "Southworth y 'El mito de la cruzada'"](_blank)
(in Spanish) to counter his demolition of the State's propaganda.
[ guardian.co.uk, Obituary Tuesday 9 November 1999](_blank)
/ref> He also founded a radio station in Tangier
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...
following the end of World War II.
Early life
Southworth was born in Canton, Oklahoma
Canton is a town in Blaine County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 625 at the 2010 census.
Geography
Canton is located at (36.055563, -98.588991).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all lan ...
. He worked as a construction worker and in a copper mine
Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...
in Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
. There, he learned Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
from the Mexican workers. At Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sys ...
) in Lubbock, Texas
Lubbock ( )
is the 10th-most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of government of Lubbock County. With a population of 260,993 in 2021, the city is also the 85th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the northw ...
, he majored
An academic major is the academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits. A student who successfully completes all courses required for the major qualifies for an undergraduate degree. The word ''major'' (also called ''conce ...
in history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
, with a minor
Minor may refer to:
* Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities.
** A person who has not reached the age of majority
* Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education
Music theory
*Minor chord
** Barb ...
in Spanish. In 1934, he started work in the document department at the US Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
in Washington.
Spanish Civil War
When the Spanish civil war broke out, Southworth reviewed books on the conflict for the ''Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. His articles brought him to the notice of the Spanish republic's ambassador, who asked him to work for the Spanish information bureau.
He also took a master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. at Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and formed an enduring friendship with the war correspondent Jay Allen
Jay Cooke Allen Jr. (Seattle, 7 July 1900 Carmel, 20 December 1972) was an American journalist. He worked mostly for the ''Chicago Tribune'', though his contributions appeared also in many other US newspapers, especially between the mid-1920s and ...
.
Southworth was devastated by the defeat of the Spanish republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...
and he and Allen continued to work for the exiled premier Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín López (; 3 February 1892 – 12 November 1956) was a Spanish politician and physician. He was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) and served as finance minister and ...
.
World War II
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...
, Southworth was recruited by the US office of war information. In 1943, he was sent to Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
to work for the office of psychological warfare, and later was posted to Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
to broadcast to Franco's Spain.
Post-war radio broadcasting
In the aftermath of World War II, Southworth continued his radio broadcasting activities, starting his own shortwave station, ''Radio Tangier Internationale'', in the Tangier International Zone
The Tangier International Zone ( ''Minṭaqat Ṭanja ad-Dawliyya'', , es, Zona Internacional de Tánger) was a international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1924 until its reintegration into independent Moroc ...
. In addition to commentaries on the political situation in the surrounding region, such as Morocco and Algeria, as well as Franco Spain, the station also carried religious broadcasts such as ''The World Tomorrow'' and the ''Baltimore Gospel Tabernacle''. Following the dissolution of the Tangier International Zone and its subsequent Moroccan administration, the station was nationalized in 1960.
Historiography of Francoist propaganda
Southworth wrote a series of books which obliged the Francoist State to change its falsified version of its own past. The most celebrated was an exposé
Expose, exposé, or exposed may refer to:
News sources
* Exposé (journalism), a form of investigative journalism
* '' The Exposé'', a British conspiracist website
Film and TV Film
* ''Exposé'' (film), a 1976 thriller film
* ''Exposed'' (1932 ...
of rightwing propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
, ''The Myth of Franco's Crusade'', which was published in Spanish and French by José Martínez, of Ruedo Ibérico, the leading anti-Franco exiled publishing house based in Paris. Sold clandestinely in Spain, its impact obliged the then information minister, Manuel Fraga
Manuel Fraga Iribarne (; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician in Francoist Spain, who was also the founder of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Ambas ...
, to set up a department dedicated to modernising the State's historiography. Its director, Ricardo de la Cierva
Ricardo de la Cierva y Hoces (9 November 1926 – 19 November 2015) was a Spanish historian and politician.
A native of Madrid, de la Cierva served the constituency of Murcia in the Congress of Deputies and Senate from 1977 to 1982. He was th ...
, later Spain's minister of culture (1980-1981), went on to write 80 books in defence of Francoist Spain.
In 1965, Southworth wrote a second book, ''Antifalange'', on how Franco converted the Falange into the single party of his State.
''Guernica! Guernica! A Study of Journalism, Diplomacy, Propaganda and History'' (1977) deals with the effort by Franco's propagandists and admirers to wipe out the atrocity at Guernica
Guernica (, ), official name (reflecting the Basque language) Gernika (), is a town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain. The town of Guernica is one part (along with neighbouring Lumo) of the mu ...
. Two years before its publication, and on the advice of the French historian, Pierre Vilar
Pierre Vilar (3 May 1906, Frontignan – 7 August 2003, Saint-Palais) was a French historian specialized in the history of Catalonia and Hispanism. He is considered one of the most authoritative 20th-century historians for the history of Spain, ...
, the manuscript had been successfully presented by Southworth as his doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
.[Preston, Paul. (2009) ''We saw Spain die. Foreign correspondents in the Spanish Civil War.'' Constable. London. p.425]
In the mid-1970s, Southworth became Regents Professor
Distinguished Professor is an academic title given to some top tenured professors in a university, school, or department. Some distinguished professors may have endowed chairs.
In the United States
Often specific to one institution, titles such ...
at the University of California.
A pugnacious polemic
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
ist, he regularly took part in literary arguments, most notably with Burnett Bolloten
Burnett Bolloten (Wales, United Kingdom, 1909 – Sunnyvale, California, 1987) was a writer and scholar of the Spanish Civil War.
Early life
The son of a Liverpool jeweler, he was born in the United Kingdom. Not wishing to follow his father's ca ...
and Hugh Thomas.
In 1970, he sold his collection of documents to the University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
.
He had once told Paul Preston
Sir Paul Preston CBE (born 21 July 1946) is an English historian and Hispanist, biographer of Francisco Franco, and specialist in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more than 30 years. He is the winn ...
that he would like the epitaph on his gravestone to read, "His writings were not Holy Writ, but neither were they wholly shit." Only three days before his death, he delivered what Preston describes as a more fitting epitaph: the manuscript of ''Conspiracy and the Spanish Civil War: The Brainwashing of Francisco Franco'', published by Routledge
Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law, and ...
. He died on 30 October 1999 in a medical centre of Le Blanc
Le Blanc (; oc, Lo Blanc; la, Oblincum Cuborum) is a commune and a subprefecture of the department of Indre, and the region of Centre-Val de Loire, central France.
Geography
Le Blanc is the main city of the Parc naturel régional de la Bre ...
, close to Saint-Benoît-du-Sault (Indre
Indre (; oc, Endre) is a landlocked department in central France named after the river Indre. The inhabitants of the department are known as the ''Indriens'' (masculine; ) and ''Indriennes'' (feminine; ). Indre is part of the current administ ...
), the French village where Southworth had lived his last two decades.
References
Bibliography
*Preston, Paul
Sir Paul Preston Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 21 July 1946) is an English historian and Hispanist, biographer of Francisco Franco, and specialist in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more t ...
. (2009) ''We saw Spain die. Foreign correspondents in the Spanish Civil War.'' Constable. London.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southworth, Herbert
1999 deaths
1908 births
People from Blaine County, Oklahoma
Historians of Spain
American Hispanists
American expatriates in Algeria
American expatriates in Morocco