Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
New York Times bestseller
"Excellent and involving . . .What makes Hochschild's] book so intimate and moving is its human scale." Dwight Garner, New York Times
"Full of telling details and vignettes that capture great human drama." Wall Street Journal
In the late 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world, as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a right-wing coup led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today, it is mostly remembered through just a few classic accounts. With Spain in Our Hearts, Adam Hochschild has unearthed new and overlooked voices, and he weaves their stories together to reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war. Alongside soldiers, journalists, and medics, we meet a fiery nineteen-year-old Kentucky woman who rerouted her honeymoon to end up settling in revolutionary Barcelona; a Swarthmore College senior who was the first American casualty in the battle for Madrid; a swashbuckling Texas oilman whose support for Franco may have helped decide the fate of the war; and many more unforgettable characters. Immediately hailed as captivating (New York Times Book Review) and the best introduction to the conflict (New Republic), Spain in Our Hearts is Adam Hochschild at his very best."
Synopsis
A New York Times bestseller
With all due respect to Orwell, Spain in Our Hearts should supplant Homage to Catalonia as the best introduction to the conflict written in English. A humane and moving book. New Republic
Excellent and involving . . . What makes Hochschild s] book so intimate and moving is its human scale. Dwight Garner, New York Times
For three years in the 1930s, the world watched, riveted, as the Spanish Civil War became the battleground in a fight between freedom and fascism that would soon take on global proportions. Confronting a right-wing coup led by Francisco Franco and heavily aided by Hitler and Mussolini, volunteers flooded in to support Spain s democratic government. Among them were nearly three thousand Americans, called by their convictions to lend a hand in a brutal conflict their government wanted no part of. In Spain in Our Hearts, Adam Hochschild weaves together the stories of some dozen foreigners to reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war. Among them are a fiery nineteen-year-old Kentucky woman on her honeymoon whose experience in revolutionary Barcelona became the high point of her life, a pair of rivalrous New York Times reporters who covered the fighting from opposite sides, and a widely admired American couple on the war s front lines whose inspiring, heartbreaking love story threads through this account. We still have many lessons to learn from this chapter in history, and Spain in Our Hearts is Adam Hochschild at his very best.
An unusually well-written narrative, full of telling detail and vignettes that capture great human drama. Wall Street Journal
After reading Hochschild s book, it s impossible to feel anything but admiration and awe. San Francisco Chronicle"
Synopsis
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. A sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War, told through a dozen characters, including Hemingway and George Orwell: A tale of idealism, heartbreaking suffering, and a noble cause that failed.
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world, as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini.
Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa's photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war: a fiery nineteen-year-old Kentucky woman who went to wartime Spain on her honeymoon, a Swarthmore College senior who was the first American casualty in the battle for Madrid, a pair of fiercely partisan, rivalrous New York Times reporters who covered the war from opposite sides, and a swashbuckling Texas oilman with Nazi sympathies who sold Franco almost all his oil -- at reduced prices, and on credit.
It was in many ways the opening battle of World War II, and we still have much to learn from it. Spain in Our Hearts is Adam Hochschild at his very best.
"With all due respect to Orwell, Spain in Our Hearts should supplant Homage to Catalonia as the best introduction to the conflict written in English. A humane and moving book." -- New Republic
"Excellent and involving . . . What makes Hochschild's] book so intimate and moving is its human scale." -- Dwight Garner, New York Times