Salazar: A Political Biography (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)

Salazar: A Political Biography is the definitive biography of the longstanding Portuguese dictator. António de Oliveira Salazar entered the government of Portugal when Herbert Hoover was president and ended his political career at the end of the Johnson administration.He remained in power for forty years (1928-1968), one of the longest tenures in modern history.Unlike the other ‘great dictators’ of the twentieth century, Salazar, an academic, immersed himself in the minutiae of government and administration, maintaining a prodigious work rate until illness forced his retirement.He successfully managed his country’s finances despite the impact of the Great Depression, imposing a harsh policy of austerity.He then preserved Portugal’s neutrality during the Second World War, ultimately favouring Great Britain and the United States.But Salazar was at heart an extremely conservative, even reactionary statesman.He relied on secrecy and a police state to maintain the order which, he believed,