In the 20thcentury, science and technology became central to territorial transformation and in turn to state building. This was no less true for the Francoist regime. Engineers were not just working “under” the dictatorship, but became active participants within it. This book traces concrete material objects in their way from laboratories onto the Spanish landscape. These include a dodecahedral silo for coal storage, a church within a laboratory, rural cities, rice seeds, scale models for dams, and performance standards for concrete. The material history of these projects offers new perspectiv ... More

In the 20thcentury, science and technology became central to territorial transformation and in turn to state building. This was no less true for the Francoist regime. Engineers were not just working “under” the dictatorship, but became active participants within it. This book traces concrete material objects in their way from laboratories onto the Spanish landscape. These include a dodecahedral silo for coal storage, a church within a laboratory, rural cities, rice seeds, scale models for dams, and performance standards for concrete. The material history of these projects offers new perspectives on the political, economic, and environmental history of early Francoism.Previous histories of science and technology in the early Francoist regime have stressed repression and censorship. Many scientists and engineers were indeed exiled, imprisoned, or even executed. This book argues, however, that those who remained seized the opportunity of becoming relevant political actors. Paying attention to this process opens up new approaches to topics as far ranging as the Francoist political economy and its industrialization, autarky and corporate unions, National Catholicism, the meanings of totalitarianism, and the technological integration of Europe.Separately, each chapter offers a microhistory that illustrates the coevolution of Francoist science, technology, and politics. Taken together, they reveal networks of people, institutions, knowledge, artifacts, and technological systems woven together to form a new state.