Spanish Civil War

[dessiato]

Can any of you recommend a good, balanced book about the war? I want something readable which explores the war itself, and the socio-economic background to the conflict. I'd like something that also looks into the International Brigades too, if possible.

My students here say little more than it was a difficult and terrible time, so I'd rather not push them on it, but would like to understand it.

 

[Belushi]

Antony Beevor 'The Battle for Spain' is excellent.

 

[dessiato]

Antony Beevor 'The Battle for Spain' is excellent.

Thanks, I have just been looking at that. I'll get it.

 

[danny la rouge]

Antony Beevor 'The Battle for Spain' is excellent.

That's the update, isn't it? I've only read his "The Spanish Civil War" (1982), which is excellent.

 

[William of Walworth]

Sounds like a good recommendation, I really like Anthony Beevor's books.

 

[malatesta32]

beevor is one of the best historians since trevelayn. his books deal with people on the ground as well as politicians. his spanish wasnt that great tho 9unlike berlin and stalingrad books). hugh thomas' is good and altho he was an arse and a special branch grass, orwell's homage is a very good read.

 

[The39thStep]

Paul Preston- The Coming of the Spanish Civil War is a good read. As is Broue and Temime's The Revolution and Civil War in Spain. Some might knock it but I found Frazer's Blood of Spain which is based on loads of interviews with participants fascinating.

 

[brogdale]

beevor is one of the best historians since trevelayn. his books deal with people on the ground as well as politicians. his spanish wasnt that great tho 9unlike berlin and stalingrad books). hugh thomas' is good and altho he was an arse and a special branch grass, orwell's homage is a very good read.

Paul Preston's books are worth a look, and I did enjoy Giles Tremlett's 'Ghosts of spain'

 

[The39thStep]

Paul Preston's books are worth a look, and I did enjoy Giles Tremlett's 'Ghosts of spain'

Tremletts book which covers an awful lot of non civil war stuff, I think it opens with the search for justice about the missings, is one of the most eclectic books on Spain I have ever read. fascinating chapter on Benidorm as i recall.

 

[brogdale]

Tremletts book which covers an awful lot of non civil war stuff, I think it opens with the search for justice about the missings, is one of the most eclectic books on Spain I have ever read. fascinating chapter on Benidorm as i recall.

Yes, but I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely, and his exploration of the (then) emerging realisation that, as a people, they had to engage with the civil war and it's consequences was revealing. A good read.

 

[The39thStep]

Yes, but I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely, and his exploration of the (then) emerging realisation that, as a people, they had to engage with the civil war and it's consequences was revealing. A good read.

I am actually agreeing with you on it being a good read

 

[brogdale]

I am actually agreeing with you on it being a good read

I know.

The (unintended) defensive tone in my post derived from the slightly OT nature of my response to the OP.

 

[The39thStep]

You need to calm down mate, its sunday morning.

 

[brogdale]

You need to calm down mate, its sunday morning.

Maybe too much of this ?

 

[butchersapron]

beevor is one of the best historians since trevelayn. his books deal with people on the ground as well as politicians. his spanish wasnt that great tho 9unlike berlin and stalingrad books). hugh thomas' is good and altho he was an arse and a special branch grass, orwell's homage is a very good read.

Hugh Thomas is shit, fucking appalling. Beevor remains the best book for the OP.

 

[redsquirrel]

I don't want to go all pogofish but this thread has come up shedloads of times.

 

[The39thStep]

I don't want to go all pogofish but this thread has come up shedloads of times.

You saying that the o/p's question is a waste of space?

 

[dessiato]

You saying that the o/p's question is a waste of space?

I don't want to go all pogofish but this thread has come up shedloads of times.

I s this going to be the start of the Urban Civil war?

 

[redsquirrel]

You saying that the o/p's question is a waste of space?

Nah, it was quite interesting to reread those threads.

 

[weepiper]

Can any of you recommend a good, balanced book about the war? I want something readable which explores the war itself, and the socio-economic background to the conflict. I'd like something that also looks into the International Brigades too, if possible.

My students here say little more than it was a difficult and terrible time, so I'd rather not push them on it, but would like to understand it.

What sort of history is 'balanced'? It doesn't really exist outside the minds of obfuscating academics.

As for the OP, try Franz Borkenau 'The Spanish Cockpit'.

As an aside a good mate of mine (ex Militant full timer) did his PhD on the Spanish civil war in film. He's just written a (fucking expensive book so try yer library) but apparently he's seen as a bit of a go to chap re such films. Here

Edit Fedayn on weepipers log in.

 

[mk12]

Felix Morrow gives a good, balanced account.

 

[JHE]

If you are interested in the background to the war, I highly recommend Gerald Brennan's The Spanish Labyrinth, which deals with the half century or so leading up to July 1936. It's a fantastic read!

 

[Idris2002]

Felix Morrow gives a good, balanced account.

Is that the guy who went on to dabble in the occult?

There was a book out about 10 years about Ireland and the Spanish war, but it may be too "niche".

http://www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume7/issue4/reviews/?id=113462

I second the Franz Borkenau recommendation. The detail from that one that has always stuck in my head is the village where, when the anarchists came to purge the clergy, the peasants handed over one priest to be shot, but hid the priest they actually liked.

 

[mk12]

I'm not sure. But he argued that "only the small forces of the Bolshevik-Leninists...clearly pointed the road for the workers" in Spain. By "small", he means 20 people.

 

[Lo Siento.]

anyone read Chris Ealham's book that came out in 2010 "Anarchism and the city: revolution and counter-revolution in Barcelona 1898-1937"?

 

[Geri]

You should read Homage to Catalonia, it's not too big and is fairly easy to read.

 

[Idris2002]

You should read Homage to Catalonia, it's not too big and is fairly easy to read.

There's a penguin "Orwell in Spain" which has both HtoC and most of the other stuff Orwell wrote about Spain - the "looking back on the Spanish War" essay, book reviews, private letters, etc.

Not sure if it's still in print, mind.

 

[The39thStep]

What sort of history is 'balanced'? It doesn't really exist outside the minds of obfuscating academics.

As for the OP, try Franz Borkenau 'The Spanish Cockpit'.

As an aside a good mate of mine (ex Militant full timer) did his PhD on the Spanish civil war in film. He's just written a (fucking expensive book so try yer library) but apparently he's seen as a bit of a go to chap re such films. Here

Edit Fedayn on weepipers log in.

Glad you explained that as before I read the edit I thought what a below par contribution from the normally highs standard Weepiper ones

 

[The39thStep]

You should read Homage to Catalonia, it's not too big and is fairly easy to read.

any pictures?

 

[mk12]

You should read Homage to Catalonia, it's not too big and is fairly easy to read.

I love this description of Barcelona in HtC:

It was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle. Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists; every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of the revolutionary parties; almost every church had been gutted and its images burnt. Churches here and there were being systematically demolished by gangs of workman. Every shop and cafe had an inscription saying that it had been collectivised; even the bootblacks had been collectivised and their boxes painted red and black. Waiters and shop-walkers looked you in the face and treated you as an equal. Servile and even ceremonial forms of speech had temporarily disappeared. Nobody said 'Señor' or 'Don' or even 'Usted'; everyone called everyone else 'Comrade' or 'Thou', and said 'Salud!' instead of 'Buenos dias'. . . Above all, there was a belief in the revolution and the future, a feeling of having suddenly emerged into an era of equality and freedom. Human beings were trying to behave as human beings and not as cogs in the capitalist machine.