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Spanish Civil War

Go with Beevor and Ronald Frazer Blood of Spain for a more general view, then for a political analysis of the divisions within the left get Felix Morrow's Revolution and Counter revolution in Spain.

Morrow was in Barcelona and although he was from some miniscule Trotskiest group his eyewitness account of how the anarchists let the revolution slip thru their fingers is a real eye opener. He regularly visited the anarchist HQ in Via liaetana and documented how the stalinists (who you will want to shoot after reading this book) gradually built themselves up to be able to launch a murderous assault against the revolution in May 37.

tumblr_m4i1g2fksh1qcurcyo1_500.jpg
 
As people have previously said - anything by Paul Preston is brilliant. Reading around the subject Juan Carlos: A People's King is very good, albeit it obviously deals with the transition more than it does the Civil War, Spain in an International Context, 1936-1959 is good.

Tom Buchanan is worth reading for looking at the Spanish Civil War from a British Labour perspective, The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on Britain and The Spanish Civil War and the British labour movement may both be of interest.
 
Gingerman said:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Spanish...6954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359902540&sr=8-1
Got this downloaded on my kindle,have'nt got round to reading it yet,nothing but praise from the critics,his book on Franco was superb.
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Preston's biography of Franco is excellent and was very well received in Spain by everyone except the most die-hard Francoists.

One of the points that most interested me was Franco's policy during the 2nd World War. Before reading the book, I had more or less accepted the claim that Franco had kept his country out of the war because the country had been so devastated and exhausted by the civil war. In fact, as Preston shows, Franco was keen to join the Axis powers, whom he confidently expected to win.

The reason Spain never joined was that the deal Franco wanted to make with Hitler was that Spain should have a free hand after the expected Fascist victory to carve out a new Spanish empire in north Africa, taking much territory from France and Hitler thought that Spain and its irritating little general had little to offer the war effort. Following the only meeting between the little general and his German counterpart (in Hendaye), Hitler is said to have remarked that he would rather go to the dentist and have a tooth pulled without anaesthetic than meet Franco again. The deal was never done and so Spain never joined the war.

Preston is not an especially good writer, IMO, but he has the true historian's virtue: he spends years and years burrowing away in the archives. He is fantastically well informed and that is the strength of his books.

I do not doubt that his latest book on the Spanish Holocaust is another brilliantly researched work. I haven't read it and probably won't read it, because I'm not sure I can stand to read so many details of so many horrors.

My guess, however, is that the book will become increasingly important as some people try - either naively or dishonestly - to down play the crimes of Franco and his people.
 
Wow, I didn't expect to start another war! I thought I'd get a couple of suggestions then the thread would die!
 
There are no unbiased book, and the ones on the Spanish civil war are usually.very politically charged. Preston is a Social Democrat, but I've not worked Beevor out.
 
JHE said:
Preston is not an especially good writer, IMO, but he has the true historian's virtue: he spends years and years burrowing away in the archives. He is fantastically well informed and that is the strength of his books.

I do not doubt that his latest book on the Spanish Holocaust is another brilliantly researched work. I haven't read it and probably won't read it, because I'm not sure I can stand to read so many details of so many horrors.

My guess, however, is that the book will become increasingly important as some people try - either naively or dishonestly - to down play the crimes of Franco and his people.
Click to expand...

I think the thing I would give massive credit to Preston for, despite not sharing his take on the war itself at all, is that during the long years of the dictatorship he was responsible for a lot of the historiography on the topic, full-stop, and a lot of historians in the country, of all different positions, respect him for that alone.
 
Spent a few hours in warm, comfy chair in Waterstones reading this yesterday.

Left feeling pretty shattered.:(
 
The Real band of Brothers by Max Arthur, first hand accounts by a variety of participants on the republics side, from IRA/ Republican Congress members to Union Activists to Nurses to Egyptologists...
 
I've just been having a look at Fighting for Franco by Judith Keene; it looks at the stories of some of the estimated 1000 - 1500 foreign volunteers who fought on the nationalist side. The motivations of these volunteers and their 'plausibility' at the time, are worth reading if just to highlight how far removed we are from those times (dictator worship seems well past its sell by date) and yet how some things endure (the defence of 'tradition' in general and religion in particular).

Cheers - Louis MacNeice
 
Random said:
There are no unbiased book, and the ones on the Spanish civil war are usually.very politically charged. Preston is a Social Democrat, but I've not worked Beevor out.
Click to expand...

ive been reading all of beevor's stuff and the spanish one just now. he seems 'morally' on the side of the anarchists like orwell was, rather than 'politically' and endorsing their revolutionary/syndicalist appetites. he is deffo down on PCUS, and no mad about the socialists.
 
Got to say I'm amazed by the way people keep pushing Anthony Beevor as worth the effort. I think he thinks he's an objective liberal academic but he's obviously packed full of knee-jerk right-wing tory assumptions which I think come through as plain as day. Given that he went to Winchester and then Sandhurst his prejudices may not be that surprising really.

Is it because he's so anti-soviet that all the anarchists like him? Otherwise it's a mystery to me.
 
Random said:
There are no unbiased book, and the ones on the Spanish civil war are usually.very politically charged. Preston is a Social Democrat, but I've not worked Beevor out.
Click to expand...
He's a sort of traditional anti-extremist right-winger basically. Bit like say, dead ex-tory MP and pretty decent historian (considering), Ian Gilmour.
 
co-op said:
Got to say I'm amazed by the way people keep pushing Anthony Beevor as worth the effort. I think he thinks he's an objective liberal academic but he's obviously packed full of knee-jerk right-wing tory assumptions which I think come through as plain as day. Given that he went to Winchester and then Sandhurst his prejudices may not be that surprising really.

Is it because he's so anti-soviet that all the anarchists like him? Otherwise it's a mystery to me.
Click to expand...
No, it's because he gave a nuanced and well-informed overview of Spanish anarchism historically, ideologically and of its activity at all levels during the revolution and war. Do you disagree that he did this?
 
butchersapron said:
No, it's because he gave a nuanced and well-informed overview of Spanish anarchism historically, ideologically and of its activity at all levels during the revolution and war. Do you disagree that he did this?
Click to expand...

:D

I wasn't expecting you to say yes.

But what can I say? You haven't exactly put my suspicions to bed.
 
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