Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

From the acclaimed, best-selling author Adam Hochschild, a sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War, told through a dozen characters, including Ernest 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 opposites 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.

Acclaimed popular historian Hochschild (To End All Wars) shares tales of some of the roughly 2800 Americans who participated in the Spanish Civil War and relates the experiences of the two most notable journalists to cover it Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. He shows how the war was a brutal cruel mismatch from the beginning with Franco’s fascist forces strengthened by 80000 Italian troops supplied by Mussolini as well as weapons and airplanes provided by Hitler in exchange for war related minerals (copper iron ore and pyrites). Additionally Hochschild uncovers the story of how Texaco headed by an admirer of Hitler Torkild Rieber provided Franco with unlimited oil on credit shipped it for free and supplied invaluable intelligence on tankers carrying oil to the Republican forces. The Republicans meanwhile embargoed by France Britain and the U.S. used antiquated weapons including American Winchester rifles manufactured in the 1860s. Hochschild is an exceptional writer; his narrative is well paced delivered in clear prose and focused on important and colorful details of the historical moment. Volunteers from around the world including the Americans (a quarter of whom died) correctly saw the Republican cause as a last ditch effort to stop fascism before it spread across Europe and Hochschild tells their story beautifully. Maps amp; illus. Agent: Georges Borchardt Georges Borchardt Inc. (Mar.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved."

“Spain in Our Hearts is narrative non-fiction at its very best. Hochschild’s achievement is to make this trial-by-combat story come alive, as if it were happening now. It is impossible for a reader not to identify and feel compassion for those sons and daughters of America who risked and often gave their lives for a cause that could not ultimately prevail against the darker forces of Franco, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin – and Texaco. A seamlessly-woven, unputdownable tapestry of war in Europe; intensely, unforgettably moving.” Nigel Hamilton, author of The Mantle of Command

“In this beautifully written portrait of Americans caught up in the Spanish Civil War, Adam Hochschild brings to brilliant life the heroism and horror of that fratricidal conflict. His account of the David-and-Goliath fight between the ragtag army of idealistic, pro-democracy volunteers and the mechanized, murderous forces of Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini is one of the most powerful narratives I have ever read.” Lynne Olson, author of Citizens of London

“George Orwell once explained that going to Spain, in 1936, ‘seemed the only conceivable thing to do.’ As soon as he got there, the right thing to do got a lot less clear. And how to write about it was immediately difficult, too. The twenty-eight hundred Americans who fought in the Spanish Civil War felt the same way, as Adam Hochschild recounts in this rich and fascinating book. Few writers grapple so powerfully with the painful moral and ethical choices of past actors as does Hochschild, who brings to Spain in Our Hearts his exceptional talents — and his moral seriousness — as a reporter, as a historian, and as a writer.” Jill Lepore, author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman

"A nuanced look at the messy international allegiances forged during the Spanish Civil War...Hochschild ably explores subtle shades of the conflict that contemporary authors and participants did not want to consider." Kirkus Reviews

ADAM HOCHSCHILD has written for The New Yorker, Harper's, The New York Review of Books, Granta, The New York Times Magazine, and many other newspapers and magazines. In King Leopold’s Ghost, To End All Wars, and other books, Hochschild has earned a reputation as a master of suspense and vivid character portrayal. His skill at evoking such struggles for justice has made him a finalist for the National Book Award and won him a host of other prizes.