The English historian Paul Preston remembered on Monday the great academic and personal relevance of Valencia and the University in their career. Preston’s words have been heard at the La Nau historical auditorium, during the investiture as new doctor “honoris causa”. The “laudatio” was in charge of Ismael Saz, Full University Professor of Contemporary History of the Universitat de València.
Paul Preston placed at the beginning of his relation with Valencia his friendship with the Valencian José María Coll in London, during the sixties, and with the foundation promoted by the exporter from Burriana, Vicente Cañada Blanch. Very soon, Preston studied the Valencian aspect of the Spanish Civil War analysing the Valencian Regional Right and figures such as Luis Lucía.
His relation with the Universitat de València has been large and intense. Preston remembered his collaboration with historians such as Ismael Saz and Pedro Ruiz Torres (sponsors of the act), and also with Isabel Burdiel, Aurora Bosch, Teresa Carnero or Ferran Archilés. Likewise, he had contact with other Valencian historians specialised in the Spanish Civil War and the Francoism, such as Vicente Gabarda, Ricard Camil Torres or Eladi Mainar.
The full Paul Preston’s discourse is available in: http://links.uv.es/hfA0Ptl
During the “laudatio”, Ismael Saz classified Paul Preston as the greatest successor of the British historiographic Hispanism and probably the most successful Hispanist among the existing ones. And he highlighted specially two facets: “In the first place, his capacity to provide the right work environment and, in his case, the education of new excellent Hispanist generations. And also, due to his work in converting the academic positions, his professorships, into authentic meeting and discussion forums between British and Spanish historians.
The “laudatio” is available in: http://links.uv.es/bDyFG1Q
The principal Esteban Morcillo referred to Paul Preston as one of the greatest exponents of the contemporary Spanish historiography and highlighted his extraordinary scientific production, important due to his social historian position.
He also said that we must not forget that the last function of the University, which justifies it and gives it a meaning, is its social function, its contribution - through the knowledge- to the progress and welfare of the society. A transfer, a multiplied return of the investment the society made in the university. A society thanks to whom it was created, he also added. This paradigm, said the principal, is founded together in Paul Preston and in his wide and solid scientific and academic career.
Esteban Morcillo also emphasised the “wide projection” of Preston among the public, who enjoyed the reading of our recent history, spread without losing the intellectual rigour and that allowed us to know a part of our silenced and also manipulated past.
In this sense, the principal remembered the efforts of the Second Republic to make the Spanish society literate. But this efforts were broken by a Spanish Civil War that ended with the civil rights and freedoms. In his discourse, Esteban Morcillo defended the recuperation of the historical memory. We have to avoid the forget, he said. The doctor Preston contributed to that justice and memory, and he did it while the dictator was alive, when some books were forbidden because their content, he concluded.
The principals’ discourse is available in: http://links.uv.es/Ew9NCI0
Paul Preston (Liverpool, United Kingdom, 1946) is a Príncipe de Asturias full university professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a member of relevant institutions and cultural centres such as the European Academic Foundation of Yuste. Previously he was a professor at the University of Reading and the Queen Mary University of London.
He studied at the Universities of Oxford and Reading, has a known scientific career that proves him to be one of the greatest contemporary historians.
He continued the large tradition of the British Hispanism. His first works, such as “La destrucción de la democracia en España” or “España en crisis” constituted a powerful stimulus to the development of the Spanish historiography.
He authored dozens of works and he recently published the extensive study named “El holocausto español. Odio y exterminio en la guerra civil y después”.
The professor Preston has been awarded with the Order of Civil Merit and the International Award Ramón Llull, among other distinctions. He is a member of the British Academy and Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire, but he is also a Knight of the Great Cross of Isabel the Catholic.
The investiture ceremony of Paul Preston was followed by a numerous academic and politic representation, as well as by active, social and cultural agents of the Valencian society.
Last update: 27 de october de 2015 07:00.
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