European historical revisionism. Content and reception in Spain

Abstract

Historical revisionism has to be understood as a reasoned and conscious critique of the Marxist paradigm on the character and meaning of the contemporary European age, centred on two closely related themes: the French Revolution of 1789 and fascism. The Marxist interpretation of these fundamental passages, highly influential in European and American academic circles, came into crisis in the 60s and 70s, thanks to the work of a number of historians, among whom four names stand out: Renzo De Felice, George L. Mosse, François Furet and Ernst Nolte. In Spain, their interpretative work has so far had a minority reception, due to the influence of Marxism and the hegemony of the intellectual and political left.