Title: The Spanish Civil War (1965)
Genre: History
Pages: 1,000
Origin: Bought in a second-hand bookshop in St Ives, Cornwall
Nod Rating: 4 out of 5
The Spanish Civil War is one that has long held fascination, as well as mystery, for decades of history and political readers. The befuddlement has come in the positioning of the war: a Second World War in miniature (as the author speculates), or one of unique internal friction special only to the Iberian peninsula. In truth, it is both.
Fought between 1936-1939, this confusion can be explained in the diverse political, religious, and nationalist groups taking part. These include the politicians and supporters of the republic, socialists, communists, anarchists loosely uniting to defeat reactionary, conservative forces including the bulk of the army, monarchists, Carlists, and fascists (Falangists). Each of these sides was not solidified in its support and union, with each grouping fearing the other, eager to make more gains, eager to destroy anyone against their own brand of ideology. Each side had a brutal atmosphere of infighting, whilst each smaller grouping had its own bickering and discord.
This inferno was further enraged with the introduction of the other superpowers (including fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and an ill and failing republican France). This complex situation reaches the realms of bafflement for non-Spanish readers with the understanding of the regional differences, including Basque and Catalan nationalism. The mistrust and intrigue of two hundred years of Spanish decline ignite in these years, leading to one particular winner (Franco) and the promotion of an arch-conservative and Catholic Spain that endured until the fourth-quarter of the twentieth century.
Could such a history – one that gives due attention to each of these groups and situations - be satisfactorily written? The Worm himself has attempted a read of a previous book on this war, but admitted defeat once confusion set in and the words on the page appeared as strange as random numbers and exclamation points. No small book could hope to avoid such defeat; and the author of this volume – Hugh Thomas – spreads the action and analysis across one thousand pages. Much attention is devoted to the run-up to the war, including the years of the doomed second republic of the 1930s, as well as concentrating on running threads – religion, politics, society – from the past two centuries. The book is split into three sections: the rising and revolution, the fighting of the war, followed by the defeat of the republic and victory for Franco. The typical exchange of one side against the other is narrated; as well as the internal intricacies of this war: including the hopes of the revolutionaries within Spain (anarchists, communists, socialists, and falangists), and the charting of their decline and extinction.
As can be expected from such a mammoth task, there are a few bugbears throughout these pages. One is the imbalance of attention devoted to the first year of the war; in comparison, the second half of the war is visited in fly-by motion. Is this a reflection of the war itself, or rather the author’s own power to attention failing as the light of the end is sighted? More annoyingly is the attention given to the nations of the world, principally the main European powers as well as the USA. Of course, this war had numerous connections to foreign aid (that of Italy and Germany on the side of Francoist Spain, and the USSR on the side of republican Spain); however, this does not account for the willingness of Thomas to return to the apparent safety confines of Westminster and the endless commentary on the communications of ministers of Parliament. The agreements and non-agreements of the Non-Intervention Committee takes on a larger role than is needed within this history, and is evidence of a typical Anglo-bias from a British historian.
Yet for an attempt of making sense of a particularly wild piece of history, Thomas’ The Spanish Civil War succeeds in many ways where other lesser historians have failed. Since its first publication in the 1960s – at a time when the wounds of the war remained sore – it has survived in print and reprint throughout the past fifty years. The Worm thoroughly enjoyed the plots, the battles, the characters, and the fight that each participant – no matter how divergent their beliefs and ideals – believed was right. Such a significant war deserves a writer fitting to analyse and narrate; luckily, Thomas was, and continues to be, the man for this job.
Buy it here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Spanish-Civil-Hugh-Thomas/dp/0141011610
