Readings for immersion in the SCW

[Piteas]

Here we can post books and other works about the SCW.

For english readers, I recommend the two monumental works on the SCW, which have the same title:

The Spanish Civil War, by Hugh Thomas
The Spanish Civil War, by Stanley G. Payne

Hugh Thomas and Stanley G. Payne are two key historians of the Spanish Civil War, but they differ in nuance.

Thomas is known for his monumental and exhaustive work, detailing events, figures, and contexts, and portraying the Nationalists as the "aggressors."
Payne, on the other hand, focuses more on political and ideological analysis and the underlying causes, viewing the war as a complex conflict between "bad guys versus bad guys."
Payne seeks to dismantle traditional "red" or "blue" interpretations, striving for a more balanced explanation, while Thomas, although critical, sometimes aligned himself more with the republican narrative. Payne's view, being more critical of the republican left, was often labeled "revisionist" or even controversial in Spain, while Thomas's work is more of a general reference.



The Battle for Spain, by A. Beevor.

Beevor is an excellent writer. Despite his writing skills, her cannot change the fact that this war is complicated with many factions and characters. He divides the subject matter into 38 short chapters, each focusing on a single aspect, in an effort to accurately represent the complexity of the conflict without overwhelming the reader. It's an effective strategy, but it comes with the drawback of an unpleasant fragmentation. However, this book does what I expected it to do: provide an overview of the conflict, its immediate causes, its main actors, and the course of the war.



The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, by Michael Alpert

If there is an army in history that has been interesting, crazy, international and a curious mix of tactics and ideals, then it has been the Republican Army of the SCW. Alpert explores the conflicts between communists and spanish anarchists about how the war should be fought as well as the experience of individual conscripts, problems of food, clothing, arms and the role of women in the new army. The book contains extensive discussion of international aspects, particularly the role of the International Brigades and of the Soviet Russian advisers

[Don60420]

Excellent choices! Here are a few more:


The go to man on the Spanish Civil War is Stanley Payne.  He has been writing on the conflict since the Fifties.  He interviewed many of the leaders of the various factions in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. 

I would recommend his The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union and Communism, and for background his Spain a Unique History, which is not only an overview of controversies in Spanish History, but also a memoir of his life spent studying Spanish History. All of his books on the Spanish Civil War are well worth reading.

The best memoir of a participant that I have read is Combat Over Spain by the late Duke of Lerma.  He served as a nationalist pilot during the war.  Growing up in a bi-lingual family, he wrote his memoir in both English and Spanish.  His descriptions of life in Spain prior to the Civil War and during it gives the reader a feel for the conflict lacking in many other works.

Spain in Arms:  A Military History of the Spanish Civil War by E. R. Hooton is one of the better military histories of the struggle that I have read, but it is cursed by bad maps.

Burnett Bolloten’s The Spanish Civil War:  Revolution and Counter-Revolution. The late Mr. Bolloten made an in depth study of magazines, newspapers, pamphlets and other publications published in Spain during the war. You find material in his history you find nowhere else. He is especially good on the byzantine Republican factional infighting.

Jose Alvarez has written two volumes on the Spanish Foreign Legion in the Rif War and in the first year of the Spanish Civil War.  Lots of painstaking original research.  Three drawbacks:  the writing is dry, the minute account of skirmishes and battles can blur together and the maps are close to useless.

I have learned more about Spain and the Spanish Civil War from Gironella’s trilogy of novels, however, than I have from all the hundreds of histories I have read on that conflict.  In the first volume in his trilogy,  the lead up to the war is depicted in Cypresses;   the war  is set forth unforgettably in One Million Dead;  and the aftermath of the war is depicted in Peace After War.   Gironella, a veteran of the Nationalist Army, achieves the remarkable feat of creating sympathetic characters in all the warring factions.  Many of these characters do terrible things, but Gironella skillfully leads the reader to understand why they did them without condoning their actions.  Spain is very much a figure in these novels as the characters act out the various aspects of the Spanish character and fight over what Spain was, is and should be.