Synopses & Reviews
What do you do when a beloved foreign country plunges into civil war? And how do you square your political views on that war with the demands of scholarly objectivity? In this book, Sebastiaan Faber assesses the long-term impact of the Spanish Civil War on Hispanic Studies as an academic field in the United States and Great Britain. Combining institutional history with biography, the book gives a compelling account of the dilemmas that the war posed for four Hispanists who turned their love of Spain into their lifes work.
Review
"From what may seem like unpromising material, Sebastiaan Faber has produced an utterly fascinating study. Elegantly and perceptively written, this thoroughly researched book illuminates brilliantly the political labyrinth which many American scholars had to navigate in the 1930s and 1950s and, indeed, still do today. At the same time, it goes a long way to explaining why Spain and particularly its civil war engaged and continues to engage the passions of Anglo-Saxon writers."--Paul Preston author of We Saw Spain Die: Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War "Affect, ideology, and the canons of academic rigor: in this insightful and wide-ranging study, Faber explores how these three sets of forces--often at odds with each other--shape the work of British and American scholars of Spain. Focusing on the participant/observer tension that frequently haunts the work of scholars who are called upon to interpret and judge contemporary events (such as the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship), Faber sheds a fascinating new light on the history and current state of Hispanic Studies in the United States and Great Britain, and, more broadly, the constitutive tensions at the core of any scholarly enterprise."--James D. Fernández, Associate Professor and Founding Director, King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center of NYU
Synopsis
In this book, Faber assesses the long-term impact of the Spanish Civil War on Hispanic Studies as an academic field in the United States and Great Britain. Combining institutional history with biography, the book gives a compelling account of the dilemmas that the war posed for four Hispanists who turned their love of Spain into their life's work.
About the Author
Sebastiaan Faber is an Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies at Oberlin College.
Table of Contents
PART I: HISPANOPHILIA, COMMITMENT, DISCIPLINE * Labor of Love: Hispanism as Hispanophilia * PART II: WATCHING OUR TONGUES, PENS, AND AFFILIATIONS: AMERICAN HISPANISM AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR * Politics and Professionalism: Dont Mention the War * U.S. Hispanism and the Quest for Prestige: Genealogy of a Discipline * Herbert R. Southworth: The Rebirth of the "Amateur" Hispanist * Paul P. Rogers: Frustrations of a Radical Hispanist * PART III: "A BALANCED AND IMPARTIAL VIEW": BRITISH HISPANISM AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR * "An Honest Seeker After Truth": E. Allison Peers and the Illusion of Impartiality * "Spain Is My Country, Revolution or No Revolution": Love and Politics in Gerald Brenan * British Hispanists and the Curse of Conservatism * Conclusion: Legitimacy and Spanish Civil War Discourse