Synopses & Reviews
This new analysis of the forces of the Spanish Leftist movement during the Civil War of 1936-9 makes two crucial propositions. It claims that the wartime responses and limitations of the movement can be understood only in relationship to its pre-war experiences, world views, organizational structures and the wider cultural context. It also asserts that the most significant influence on the evolution of the Republic between 1936 and 1939 was the war itself.
Review
"This is by some distance the best book I have read in any language on the Spanish Republic during the Civil War. The detailed and thoroughly analytical - narrative of the politics of the Republic outshines anything that has been written before...A very major work by a mature historian writing at the height of her powers". Professor Paul Preston, London School of Economics and Political Scienece
Review
"...[Graham] has reflected on the many complicated issues of the period with more care and incisiveness than anyone before her. This is the mature work of a very sound historian." Canadian Journal of History
Review
"This work undoubtedly will form the basis for many discussions in the years to come" Society for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies Bulletin
Synopsis
A new, comprehensive analysis of the Spanish left during the civil war of 1936-9.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 434-463) and index.
Synopsis
This is a new and comprehensive analysis of the forces of the Spanish left during the civil war of 1936-9, and is the first analysis of its kind for more than thirty years.The book argues two crucial propositions. First, the the wartime responses (and limitations) of the Spanish left can be understood only in relation to their pre-war experiences, world views, organisational structures and the wider Spanish context. Second, that the overarching influence that shaped the evolution of the Republic between 1936 and 1939 was the war itself.
About the Author
Dr Helen Graham is Reader in Spanish History, Royal Holloway, University of London. She has published widely in the Spanish Civil War, and co-produced (with Jo Labanyi) the first volume ever published dedicated to Spanish cultural studies in 1995. Her book Socialism and War: The Spanish Socialist Party in Power and Crisis, 1936-1939 was published by Cambridge University Press in 1991.
Table of Contents
Preface; Introduction: A fractured left: the impact of uneven development 1898-1930; 1. The challenge of mass political mobilisation 1931-1936; 2. Against the state: military rebellion, political fragmentation, popular resistance and repression, 18 July - 4 September 1936; 3. Building the war effort, building the state for total war, September 1936 - February 1937; 4. Challenges to the centralising republic: revolutionary and liberal particularisms in Catalonia, Aragon and the Basque country; 5. The Barcelona May Days and their consequences, February - August 1937; 6. Negrín's war on three fronts; 7. The collapse of the Republican home front; Glossary; Bibliography.