This paper intends to give a first impression of how XX-century European totalitarian regimes have been seen and presented by analysing a selection of Spanish History textbooks used in secondary education (ESO). Nowadays, both in our country and in the rest of Europe, a study of this type of manuals demands a reference to the debates which, in the last few decades, have focused on the didactic rethinking of the teaching of History. And, in the case of Spain, this issue has been the object of the attention of experts, who, in different ways and from different perspectives, have analysed the three main ingredients of education: the official curricula, the books used in schools and the teaching itself