Publication of the book “Roosevelt, Franco and the End of the Second World War”

This book has just been released in English in the United States and is the translation of the work "La batalla del Wolframio. Estados Unidos y España, de Pearl Harbor a la Guerra Fría 1941-1947", by the professor of Contemporary History Josep Maria Thomàs. The work has received very good reviews from American historians.

The book is published by Palgrave-Macmillan in New York and studies the relations between the United States and the Franco regime, during the years in which the USAparticipated in the Second World War (1941-1945).

It also examines relations during thepost-war period until the beginning of the Cold War. The Spanish version is published by Cátedra.

The "Battle of Tungsten" was the most important economic war carried out by the Nazis and the Allies in the Iberian Peninsular during the Second World War. Tungsten was an essential, strategic mineral for the German war effort and the Allies did everything theycould prevent the Nazis from buying the metal from Spain.

To force Franco to stop selling tungsten to Germany, the Allies placed an embargo on the sale of petroleum products to Spain from January to April 1944. This led to strong diplomatic tensions and significant divisions within the government of the dictatorship. In the end, the regime bowed to Allied pressure.

The book has been well received by the scientific community. Professor Stanley Payne (University of Wisconsin) says that the book is unique in that it is the first ever to study US-Spanish relations during the Second World War. Professor Michael Seidman (University of North Carolina-Willmington) states that Joan M. Thomàs is an expert in the field and has written a masterpiece on US-Spanish relations during the aforementioned period.

James W. Cortada (IBM Institute for Business Value) has declared that it is one of the most important books to appear on the role of Spain during the War and is an important contribution to historical research into the early years of Franco’s dictatorship, particularly regarding how the regime formulated and implemented its foreign policy;and Wayne Bowen (Southeast Missouri State University) writes that it is an excellent book that makes an important contribution to understanding the history of Spain, the policies of the USA under Roosevelt and the economic struggles between the Allies and the Axis powers during the Second World War.

This new book is the second part of "Roosevelt and Franco: From the Spanish Civil War to Pearl Harbor" (2008, Palgrave-Macmillan), which is the English translation of "Roosevelt y Franco. De la Guerra Civil a Pearl Harbor", published in 2007 by Edhasa.