The Assassination of General Prim, Its Bicentenary and the Business of History

Abstract

One of the most relevant controversies in the contemporary history of Spain has been the one surrounding who were the authors and instigators involved in the attack that cost General Prim his life on 27 December 1870, when he was the prime minister and minister of war. Although the discussion was already relevant, in the last decade this interest has been stirred up by the commemoration of the bicentenary of his birth in 2014 and the proximity of the 150th anniversary of his death. But not everything concerning this debate has been motivated by the always laudable intention of bringing more light to this still dark event. Some have also seen the opportunity to "cash in" by rewriting or embellishing old stories already knew or simply making up new and scandalous hypotheses with no or minimal documentary basis. This work aims to analyze what has been published in the first two decades of this century in the form of books or magazine articles, especially in the heat of the aforementioned bicentenary, and what the current state of the subject has been.