Manuel Tuñón de Lara


Manuel Tuñón de Lara was a Spanish historian.

Life

Born in Madrid on 8 September 1915. He earned law degree from the University of Madrid in 1936. In 1932 he had joined the Communist Youth Union, in 1937 becoming director of the cadre school of the Unified Socialist Youth, and earning a place on the central committee. At the end of the Spanish Civil War he was interned in a concentration camp.
In 1946 he fled to Paris to escape persecution for his membership in the Union of Free Intellectuals. In Paris he completed his studies in history and authored numerous articles, which appeared in various Communist-affiliated publications throughout the world.
In 1964 he became a professor and chair of Spanish history and Spanish literature at the University of Pau, where from 1970 to 1980 he organized the Colloquiums on the Contemporary History of Spain, which encouraged the study of social history and served as a focal point of discussion and debate, attracting many visiting scholars from Spanish universities.
After the death of Francisco Franco and the end of the dictatorship, Tuñón de Lara returned to Spain and continued teaching as a professor of the University of the Balearic Islands and the University of the Basque Country.
He died in Leioa on 25 January 1997.

Works