Symbol and ritual in the new Spain

the long version

This is a book about the role of culture in social change and the Spanish transition to democracy after Franco. After Franco's death in 1975, Spain witnessed an extraordinary "period of consensus," unique in its own history. Laura Desfor Edles takes a distinctively culturalist approach to the "strategy of consensus" deployed by the Spanish elite at this time, and uses systematic text interpretation (with a particular focus on Spanish newspapers) to show how a new symbolic framework emerged in post-Franco Spain which enabled the resolution of specific events critical to the success of the transition.