This is a study of the Spanish Labour Movement in Barcelona from 1939 to 1988, with particular emphasis on the period between 1962 and 1976. It explains how the movement, so long the scourge of the Franco regime, became the poor relation of the new democracy it had helped to create.

From this emerges a wide-ranging investigation of working-class life and culture, labour relations, and politics in an authoritarian regime. Balfour subtly interweaves all aspects of working-class experience, from architecture to accident benefits.

The book thus successfully unravels one of the chief paradoxes of the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Spain, and also casts light on the broader issues of labour history in general, and the nature of modern authoritarian regimes. Dr Balfour uses the archives of Franco's secret police, untouched since the dictator's death, and provides a unique insight into the inner workings of the dictatorship.