5 comments about A Valley of Betrayal (Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War, Book 1).

1. The Spanish Civil War, though a mere regional conflict, drew world attention and served as a dress rehearsal for World War II. But since one side was Fascist (and actively backed by the Nazis) and the other was Marxist (backed by the Soviet Union), the average American has difficulty sympathizing with either. Nevertheless, in "A Valley of Betrayal" Tricia Goyer blazes past her readers' uneasiness with the conflict through vivid characters who merit our understanding, though not necessarily our approval.
   
   Ritter Adler joined the German forces in Spain to win a woman's love. But he finds severe competition for her hand in a man named Xavier--and in the brutal war itself.
   
   Sophie Grace, a young artist from Boston, came to Spain in hopes of finally wedding her fiance, Michael. But is Michael as trustworthy as he claims?
   
   Boycotting the German-sponsored Olympic games, Philip Stanford's longtime best friend, Communist sprinter Attis Brody, means to run in the socialist International Workers' Games in Barcelona, Spain--with Philip along as his trainer. When the war breaks out, can protective Philip see that Attis makes it home alive?
   
   Deion Clay, an African-American from Mississippi, has experienced racial discrimination--and even racial violence--firsthand; so for him the Communist rallying cry of "Equality!" holds a special appeal. But after he travels to Spain to fight for his Marxist beliefs, will he regret his choice?
   
   Father Manuel Garcia, a native of the independent-minded Basque region in northern Spain, only wants to minister to his people, though some of them see him as a coward. When the war converges on his hometown of Guernica, will he, like the other characters, be forced to prove his courage in a way he never wanted?
   
   This book is amazingly superior to Goyer's (good) World War II series, despite--or perhaps because of--the Spanish Civil War's complicated nature. Goyer includes a felt historical and cultural tapestry that is very impressive. Perhaps Deion's background is a bit exaggerated--I haven't done enough studying on the day-to-day realities of segregation to be certain whether one person could have seen as much as he apparently did--but his background does allow us to see the person beneath the Communist armband. That seems to have been Goyer's goal: to prove the humanity of those involved in the Spanish Civil War to an American audience. And, in my opinion, she has succeeded.



2. I wanted to learn more about the Spanish Civil War, but through an interesting plot rather than a more academic book. The author of A Valley of Betrayal does do a good job of presenting many different sides of the Civil War. She even tries to get the reader to sympathize with a young Nazi soldier, no easy feat. The War, I've since learned, does present a fascinating set of loyalties and allies. For example, many Americans were fighting alongside Communists and Anarchists and the Church was allied with the Fascists. The problem I found with this book, however, was that the love stories were uninteresting and unconvincing, to me anyway. The writing became so annoying, I had to abort reading the book about 2/3 of the way into it.
   
   The main female character is traveling to Spain to marry her beloved and gets caught up in the Civil War. Why she would want to marry this guy, however, I could not figure out. Despite the author's attempt to paint him as a handsome, passionate man, he seemed much more like a jerk. For part of the novel, he frequently locks eyes with a young Spanish woman, portrayed as much more sensuous than our rather plain American. He takes days to finally explain to our heroine that these glances are not because he loves the beautiful woman. He repeatedly repels his fiance, leaving her deeply insecure. But then says he really loves her. There is much patting each other on the hands. The writing is just not that well done. It reminded more of the bodice-ripping genre than anything else.
   
   At my father's suggestion, I turned to Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. Now that is a fantastic piece of writing with a really persuasive love and war story. I tore through the 400 pages in a few days. It is surely unfair to compare this author with the prize-winning Hemingway. Yet, if you want a great love story, to learn a bit about the Spanish Civil War, and to read breathtaking writing, I would encourage you to spend your precious time on Hemingway, not Valley of Betrayal.



3. This book is a rich trip back in time to the days of the Spanish Civil War. I love history, in particular World War Two, and all I could tell you about the Spanish Civil War before was that it occurred immediately prior to World War Two and that the Russians and Germans prepared for that war on the battlefields in Spain. After reading this book, I know so much more, but all without losing the great entertainment and story I've come to expect in Tricia Goyer's books.
   From the first page to the last I was drawn in to this complex story about people living in impossible times. The book contains a rich mixture of characters to tell the story from a wide array of perspectives.
   
   Sophie is the dreamer. An artist, she travels to Spain to be reunited with the love of her life. Once in Spain, she finds much isn't as she anticipated. The war is real, her fiancé is distracted and often absent, and she finds herself absorbed in the plights of the Spanish people as they try to survive.
   
   Michael is a photographer who disappears after connecting Sophie with friends. He seems less than thrilled to have her in Spain. Add in the story of Spaniards Jose and Father Manuel, German Ritter, and Americans Philip and Deion, and the cast is rich enough to highlight the many sides of the struggles.
   
   As I read this book, I often felt like I'd been transported back in time to Spain. I could see the buildings, smell the acrid air after another talk, and almost touch the colorful clothes. The challenges of the war and politics behind it were disturbing, but provided a backdrop for the faith of the people involved in the story.
   
   I highly recommend this book.



4. Tricia Goyer, a writer with a slew of novels about World War II to her credit, stumbled upon the Spanish Civil War in researching an earlier book. She'd read about an American pilot who had crashed in Nazi-occupied Belgium and applied survival skills picked up as a volunteer in the Iberian conflict.
   
   Like many of us, she became smitten with both the conflict and with the country itself and dedicated her efforts to crafting A Valley of Betrayal (Chronicles of the Spanish Civil War, Book 1)which would appear to be the first in a series.
   
   the highway scribe came across Goyer during one of his frequent forays onto the Web site of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA) where students, Hispanophiles, sectarian communists, tried and true veterans of the International Brigades, and eminent scholars like Paul Preston and Fraser Otanelli trade-off information, requests, and arguments on a "list" overseen by New York University.
   
   Or something like that; it's a little hard to figure out.
   
   Goyer joined the list chatter last year, asking for a little help and got some rough handling due to the fact her publisher, Moody, is a "Christian" editorial house.
   
   A confirmed, confessed and convinced non-believer, the scribe was inclined to smirk as well, but opted for a more gracious approach since he's found in his long career that writers are mostly self-involved and incapable of kindness toward others of their craft.
   
   Goyer responded to the scribe's suggestions, whatever they were, by purchasing his book "Vedette," which, you know, represented the total for sales in 2006.
   
   Soon thereafter, too soon it seemed, she announced on the ALBA list that she'd finished the work. the scribe contacted her and she sent a free copy.
   
   The Christians are winning in highwayscribery's book.
   
   Despite the short turnover time, Goyer has done an admirable job in tackling a muddled, now distant, and controversial subject. Her capacity for research and historical reconstruction is rather remarkable as she renders lively and detailed portrayals of revolutionary Barcelona, Madrid under siege, the horrors of the front, and the tragedy of Guernica.
   
   That's a full plate and it is achieved with a simple, straightforward style that doesn't try too hard, but successfully pulled the scribe into her dramatization.
   
   "Valley's" primary character is Sophie Grace, a young woman hurrying to Spain on the trail of a photographic journalist named Michael with whom she is in love and hopes to marry. Michael's betrayal of her affections is mirrored in the larger conflict around Sophie and deepens her confusion as she looks for a rock to lean on in a country where the very earth moves beneath her feet and few people are who or what they claim to be.
   
   The supporting characters include Deion, an African-American volunteer to the International Brigades; Father Manuel, a Basque priest from Guernica trying to reconcile his support for the "godless" Republic with the savagery of Franco's Catholic crusade; Philip, an American track runner pulled into the conflict by the anti-Fascist impulses of his teammate Atticus; and Ritter, a Nazi pilot with the Condor Legion.
   
   Leading Sophie on her path to self-realization as a painter of propaganda posters for the Republican cause and amateur nurse on the front, Goyer pulls each thread taught to the culmination at Guernica where distinct literary fates await.
   
   Goyer is especially good at spreading layers of increasing narrative desperation in the Republican ranks which seemingly choke the reader as much as those on the ill-fated Loyalist side.
   
   There is an inherent problem with writing literature about the Spanish Civil War in that the conflict was exceedingly complex and hardly anybody knows anything about it anymore. So there is an unavoidable didactic touch, very light, spread throughout early parts of the book that will serve neophytes, but grate on more seasoned buffs.
   
   As to the "Christianity" contained within the tale, it is hard to see where it amounts to anything more than what you find in most literature, faith playing the role it does in so many lives. And Goyer comes alive when she treats the ethical and moral questions confronting both she and her characters. She does it with intelligence and a knowing hand without coming off preachy/creepy.
   
   The unbeliever may cringe somewhat at Sophie's final realization that her blown-off-course fate in Spain was part of "God's plan," but the scribe confesses to hearing that from some of the dearest people in his life, all of whom accept him in spite of the iconoclasm and brazen atheism.
   
   Which is to say this story fits into the story of the world, and certainly into that of Spain circa the 1930s.



5. A Valley of Betrayal is a novel which takes place during the Spanish Civil War. I had seen a documentary on American Spanish Civil War Volunteers and I wanted to gain more knowledge on the subject. Had read "For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Hemingway which is a great book but does not go into much detail about the war itself. This book helps explain it and gives us a good story.

No comments about Fiat CR.32 Aces of the Spanish Civil War (Aircraft of the Aces).

2 comments about We Saw Spain Die: Foreign Correspondents in the Spanish Civil War.

1. It is a testament to Hemingway's enduring reputation as a reporter of the Spanish Civil War, as well as his enduring saleability, that his photograph, a striking comrade-in-arms pose, should appear on the front cover of Paul Preston's new book "We Saw Spain Die." The book itself is an homage to the cadre of foreign correspondents, most of them ideologically allied with the Popular Front and the republican cause, who reported on the civil war in Spain from 1936-39.
   
   In the opening chapters Preston vividly reconstructs the milieu of war-torn Madrid and introduces the reader to the glittering array of writers who populated the city. There are anecdotes aplenty about love, jealousy, infidelity, ambition, friendship, and disillusionment. Preston devotes an argumentative chapter to the well-known breakup of Hemingway and Dos Passos, a subject on which, Preston acknowledges, a river of ink has flowed over the ensuing decades. The rift between the two literary titans was created when secret policemen, likely under control of the NKVD, arrested and executed Jose Robles, Dos Passos's friend, without a trial. For Preston the unpalatable truth is that Robles was a "bad egg," a fifth columnist who betrayed the Republic. The truth of this matter may never be known, but the reader is cautioned that Preston's unqualified support throughout the book for the Spanish left and the communists colors his interpretation of events.
   
   The centerpiece of the book, literally and figuratively, is a biography of the "Pravda" correspondent Mikhail Koltsov. The literary output of Koltsov is largely unknown to the English speaking world. Copies of his war memoir, "Spanish Diary" (1938), are rarely encountered, and only a few of his multitude short stories, satires, and essays have been translated into English. Preston's sketch of Koltsov's life and death is a welcome addition to our knowledge of this nearly forgotten man and his role in Stalin's foreign policy.
   
   Relying on material from former Soviet archives and new research, Preston is able to reconstruct Koltsov's actions in Spain and to provide fresh insights into his later arrest and execution by Stalin's secret police. Of particular interest is Preston's critical reading of the "Spanish Diary" and his attempt to unravel the identity of Miguel Martinez, a mysterious character who plays a central role in the book. His conclusion is that the character is a composite portrait, one part Russian General Gorev, one part NKVD agent Iosef Grigulevich, and one part Koltsov himself. Preston's treatment of Koltsov is nuanced but does gloss over the unsavory side of his character, for example the black propaganda he wrote for "Pravda." In the end the reader is left to decide for himself whether Koltsov was a cynical, sycophantic "gasbag," like his onetime mentor Karl Radek, whom he followed into Lubyanka's cellar, or whether he was an heroic anti-fascist. Despite his evident courage and formidable literary gifts, the record of Koltsov's life suggests he was equal parts the former and the latter.
   
   Readers willing to dig through the chatty gossip that informs the opening chapters will be rewarded with nuggets at the end. Preston's chapters on some of the lesser known and less glamorous correspondents--Jay Allen, George Steer and Herbert Southworth-- are enlightening and worth reading. For these men, the Spanish cause was not, as it was for so many others, an intellectual night's lodging. Their life stories are inspirational and compelling.



2. For anyone who has read Preston's biography of Franco, the contents of this book, "We Saw Spain Die", should come as no surprise. Like William Shirer before him, Preston purports to write history but is actually engaged in editorial and polemic. The title alone indicates he intends to show nothing positive about the "Nationalist" side of the Spanish Civil War, nor write about the correspondents who found virtue, heroism, or validity in it. Republican attrocities are dismissed as due to historical forces, such as the pent up rage of the masses against the evil Catholic Church. Tellingly, Preston early on quotes Martha Gellhorn as not caring about "all that objectivity s**t" and arguing that being horribly biased certainly wouldn't effect her reporting.
   I gave this book two stars because if nothing else it shows how media bias is blatant, obvious, and unrelenting.

5 comments about The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions).

1. As an alum of public schools in Chicago and Detroit, I had zero knowledge of the Spanish Civil War aside from the fact that it occurred. In a "very short introduction", Graham has given me enough to know what questions to begin to ask about this important period in the history of Western Civilization.



2. I read this book after having read several literary accounts of the Spanish Civil War and studied it in the context of European history. I wanted to flesh out my historical understanding of the war.
   
   It was perfect for that. It showed a real sensitivity to the nuances of Spain. It was written with engaging, academic prose (as opposed to dry, high-brow academic prose). To paint a complete picture of the war Graham used examples from sweeping impersonal policy decisions to anecdotal evidence of how various types of Spaniards experienced the war and its aftermath. To me, it seemed masterful the way she seamlessly integrated the general and the particular.
   
   The topic is highly complicated so this short introduction is dense for a good reason. Graham did a very good job of compressing the major issues into compact, but complete chapters. The organization of the book is rational and stimulating. Graham includes the essential elements to understanding the war on political, historical, cultural and personal levels and leaves out everything else.
   
   I was surprised to see such negative reviews for this book. Perhaps it is worth pointing out that this is definitively a work of history. And, although it's an introduction, it is not elementary. It's a serious study that makes a significant argument.
   
   The book undoubtedly reflects Graham's pro-Republican (Republican refers to the Spanish government that fought Franco's forces in the war) leaning. Even though I generally share her sentiments, at times it seemed like she could have reined in her bias. But, I don't think is a legitimate reason to condemn the book. Early in the book, you'll key into her sympathies and that will inform your reading of the rest of the book.
   
   In short, this is a great introduction to a fascinating subject. After reading the book you will have a robust, if not profound, understanding of the war. It's a great book in itself. But it could also serve as a firm jumping off point for doing further reading about the war. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Spain, 20th century European history, civil wars or fascism.



3. Seventy years after the Spanish civil war ended, and twenty years after the Communist bloc collapsed, Dr. Graham is still curiously unable to overcome cliché and her all too obvious political leanings to give readers a balanced perspective.
   
   Superficial and highly selective on historical fact, the book abounds, however, in manichean portrayal, "what if" speculation, and anachronistic PC rant. The analysis of the social and political causes leading to the war skips key facts to the point of becoming laughable for anybody with previous information on the topic. As to the unfolding and outcome of the subsequent military conflict, the book naively overemphasizes the impact of foreign involvement (be it Nazi, Soviet, Fascist of International Brigadist) in a civil war that was esssentially fought by Spaniards against Spaniards.
   
   In the end, an intelligent reader will be left wondering how came it to be that a very large majority of Spaniards were dimwit enough so as to fight along Franco's side in the war (and to support him unwaveringly for 35 years afterwards) against their best interest and that of their country.
   
   Frankly, one would expect more insight from an Oxford specialist...



4. Maybe I've been spoiled by the graceful prose of historians like Barbara Tuchman, Antony Beevor and John Keegan, but the prose in this book is of the quality of how-to manuals written by non-English-speaking engineers. I expected better from Oxford. Oddly, it improves after the first 30-odd pages, but why? Didn't anyone edit the MS, for tortured, clumsy prose and neologisms, that is, words that simply don't exist in English? Didn't the author reread her own work, or rewrite any of it?
   The conflict described is a unique and complicated one; it's difficult to find a history of it that doesn't take sides. Was Franco a psychopath? Possibly. Did the Repulican(liberal) government deliberately target catholic priests and nuns for execution? I can't be sure. It's hard to say, when so many of the writers seem to be biased, one way or the other. To this day(2010), a percentage of the films made in Spain are about the Spanish Civil War. That tells me that the wounds to Spanish society, like the wounds to Argentina and Chile, have not yet been healed. We need something better than this book to lay out the forces acting on the country before, during and after the war, briefly and clearly.



5. Helen Graham provides a useful introduction to the Spanish Civil War. In the spirit of the OUP 'Very Short Introduction' series she packs in a wealth of academic detail, while still summarising the main processes of the war in brisk chapters. The bias, as other reviewers have commented, is strongly pro-Republican, and she is a touch blind to the disgusting game played by the Communists in the Spanish Civil War (events which turned George Orwell firmly off Communism at a time when many of his fellow travellers on the left were eulogising the Stalinist regime).

No comments about Air War Over Spain (Classic Colours).

No comments about For Whom the Bell Tolls.

5 comments about The Spanish Civil War: Revised Edition (Modern Library Paperbacks).

1. Hugh Thomas's book is a great source, but I found it a difficult read. If you need more information on various characters, this book is for you. If you want to get a greater understanding of the events and timeline, do NOT make this your first choice.
   He does an excellent job tracking the changing faces on the republican side, and the international diplomacy around the war. But political backstabbing and diplomatic skulduggery get tedious after a while. He discusses the more significant campaigns in passing, but almost as though this was just a backdrop for the politics and diplomacy. He covers the high points and low points of both sides' conduct, but can't keep out his pro-republican sentiments - and won't admit them, either. The republicans might round up political prisoners, and eventually execute a lot of them on trumped-up charges, but the nationalists engaged in ruthless repression, murdering their political enemies. I would say that he does try to explain to the secularist how much of a threat many Spaniards felt from the attack on the Church. He downplays many of the statements from the republican government on this issue, and he treats the Church in most of the discussions as merely another political party, so it doesn't go as far as it might. And a favorite of mine, he does go into some economic figures which are, at least in my opinion, critical in understanding many wars. He clearly demonstrates the tough times the nationalists were having with their command economy and the republicans with their hodgepodge of independent states and collectivist ventures.
   And there are then the quirks which I found made the book hard to read. He spells "jail" in the older English way -"gaol" - which, for an Englishman in the 1950's is understandable, but that takes a toll. He spells Hungarian names with umlauts, but not German ones, preferring the added -e. But then in footnots, the umlauts are there. Huh? He also uses some nearly-German grammar at times, with sentences like "on this day died Durrutti". He only roughly proceeds in chronological order, so one understands politics 8 months at a time, and then reads about two months of fighting, and then 14 months of diplomacy, and then the ninth month of politics. This makes for very difficult reading and understanding of the relationships between the events.
   And finally, the lack of insight. A reporter is someone who goes and find facts and relays them. Historians show the relationship of those events in the sequence of time to other events. He keeps saying that there is always the threat of war and various actions were made to avoid greater war, but never explains how/why wider war might have resulted -- just trust him. He clearly shows how the collectivist venture failed in Spain, but then dismisses it with a wave of the hand, because the war detracted from work. Well, did it or does collectivism fail everywhere? And how did the nationalists become 'fascists', and how did their economic policies differ from the republic's? It seemed like a golden opportunity to point out that fascism is a form of socialism, but he missed it. And that the nationalists are 'fascists' is a given, with no proof nor with any examples of decisions that ideology made them take.
   
   Overall, I'd have to say good reference, but poor reader. It really is more like a collection of newspaper clippings than like a history.



2. I am not an historian, and only read history as a defensive maneuver against remaining forever ignorant of history. For me, filling in the gaps I have about history is a continuing and a lifetime struggle. Thus, I prefer history that is succinct and in summary form, not as literary art, as this tome seems to be.
   
   What I had known about the Spanish Civil war was what I had gleaned from all of the pre-WW-II spies and noted journalists who all ran off to Spain to fight against Franco. This of course included the most famous of them Ernest Hemingway and the notorious trio of British spies: Philby, Burgess and McLean -- all of whom spoke eloquently about the importance of the Spanish Civil War and went there as volunteers to fight.
   
   This is a 1100 page book and one either has to have a love for good historical literature, or be committed to seeing the book through to the bitter end. Neither of these were my goals. I simply wanted to ferret out enough about the war to fill-in my own ignorance, since everyone "in the know" seemed to think the war was a pivotal event in pre-WW-II history. Thus, I only read books one and two, and skimmed the rest of the book.
   
   For my purposes, I found this book well written, but was like pulling teeth to get the "straight skinny" on the causes of the war and its larger implications.
   
   What I learned about the Spanish Civil War is this:
   
   It was the European battleground and rally point for the emerging and competing ideologies of the times: namely, between Fascism and Communism. But also it was the contact point for a collection of related sub-struggles that although, they were prevalent in most other Western societies, were particularly magnified and exaggerated in Spain. And here we mean the struggle between elite and rural society; between capitalism and barter-based agrarianism; between Catholics and Protestants (and non- believers); between the national unity parties and separatists and anarchists; and finally between left and right.
   
   And thus the war was a defining experience, not just for Spain but by palpable example, for most of the rest of Europe. Like a magnet, it drew Fascists and Communists into an arena where these palpable ideological tensions clashed and got played out first through the shed of Spanish blood, and then ultimately spilled over into the Second World War.
   
   At some point, I intend to go back and read the last two books, but for now, except for fully understanding what actually triggered the war, I think I have a good feel for what the war was about.
   
   Three Stars.



3. Very well written and comprehensive. Full of details not given in other books of this theme
   I find it a somewhat bias against General Franco and in favor of the more extreme parties on the republican side like the Anarquists
   Probably the best book on the Spanish Civil War
   Luis R Florez MD



4. Salvador Dali's painting, oddly titled, and appropriately sub-titled, graphically depicted the agony that would be the Spanish Civil War. It not a painting that would find a home over a mantelpiece; it is painful to study, and conveys the horrors of war even more than the works of his fellow Spaniard, Goya. Hugh Thomas has written the definitive history of this gut-wrenching war, perhaps without the required "distance," since Franco was still very much in power in 1961. But it is difficult to imagine that it will be superseded. As for capturing what Dali foresaw, his prose is more dispassionate, but he has done an admirable job: "Within a month nearly a hundred thousand people perished arbitrarily and without trial. Bishops would be torn to pieces and churches profaned. Educated Christians would spend their evenings murdering illiterate peasants and professional men of sensitivity. The majority of these crimes were the work, on both sides, of men convinced that what they were doing was not only right, but noble. Nevertheless these events inevitably caused such hatreds that, when some order was eventually established, it was an order geared solely for the rationalizations of hatred known as war. And it would be quite wrong to think that there was much repugnance at this development. Spaniards of all parties leapt into the war like the cheering, bellicose crowds in the capitals of the rest of Europe in 1914 at the start of that war of which, perhaps subconsciously even in 1936, the people of Spain felt they should have been a party."
   
   Thomas has written a rich, dense, detailed account. He has clearly mastered his material, and his account is not for the casual reader. The first fifth of the book addresses the social and political causes of the war; Spain was a deeply divided society, with the power of the Church and the rich upper classes threatened by the rise of the labor and the anti-clerical forces. Throughout the book he balances the accounts of military action with the shifting political forces of the numerous factions involved. The maps included in the book are excellent references which detail the advance, and ultimate triumph of the nationalist forces.
   
   As we know now, Spain was a "dress-rehearsal," for World War II. The Western Powers, mainly France, Britain and the United States adopted a policy of non-intervention. This was not matched by the Axis Powers, Italy and Germany, who used Spain as a training ground for its men, and a testing ground for their tactics and weapons. The Soviet Union was the chief supporter, in terms of aid, of the Republican forces. Leftists in the Western democracies volunteered, forming the International Brigades, with Americans in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Membership in the later would be grounds for suspicion, or worse, during the McCarthy era. As Thomas notes, some observers say that the sole reason for a Nationalist victory was the support from Germany and Italy, but he gives a more judicious and balanced answer, identifying five critical periods, and concluding that it was mainly the timing of outside assistance. He also indicates that much of the reason for the outcome was the relative unity of those on the Nationalist side, and the disunity and conflict of those on the Republican side.
   
   A few reviewers criticize Thomas for not being "balanced"; specifically they feel he was too "pro-Republican." It is a difficult charge to weigh, like saying various World War II histories were not balanced because they portrayed Hitler as evil. Franco very much had fascist tendencies, but did manage to keep Spain out of WW II. Thomas's "tribute" to him was to call him "the Octavius of Spain," a reference to the Roman emperor who managed to survive the civil wars of Rome, when virtually all others did not.
   
   Today Spain is at peace. In terms of numbers, the impact of the civil war was more catastrophic than the American Civil War. Thomas estimates that 600,000 died, out of a population of 25,000,000, whereas the numbers in America were also roughly 600,000, out of a larger 32,000,000. The higher percentage dead and the greater proximity of time may be one of the reasons that 90% of the Spanish population opposed their country's participation in the Iraq war.
   
   The civil war reverberates in numerous other ways as well. Just in terms of language, the nationalist General, Mola, gave us the term, "a fifth column," meaning a subversive group, when he talked about how he would seize Madrid - it was from those within. Only last week the NYT ran yet another article which seemed to confirm that Capa's famous picture, of a Republican soldier at the instant of death, was faked.
   
   I started the review with a painting, and will end with another, Pablo Picasso's "Guernica." He painted it in honor of the civilians who died there, in the first deliberate aerial attack on a civilian population, with no military motive. It was a careful, controlled "experiment" by the Luftwaffe. The painting is at the United Nations, and when Colin Powell gave his speech advocating the invasion of Iraq, with the inevitable aerial bombardments, the painting was covered up, a not very subtle tactic to erase the lessons of Guernica from our memory.
   
   Hugh Thomas carefully describes the attack at Guernica, as well as the rest of the war, so the lessons cannot be covered up. His book is a wonderful historical account, and deserves 5 plus stars.



5. This book also details the most history on the topic, concentrated in one place. Although sometimes billed as a "heroic" tale of many various people rising to their occasions, a better description might be a very long TV drama about what the many important personages said to each other, how they treated each other, and when. Such a story with this level of detail clearly took massive research to complete. In fact, the amount of detail could be said to come close to that of Will Durant's typical history works.
   
   The Spanish Civil War, among other things was a terribly tangled affair, especially to a Spaniard living in a disputed area at that time. Most of the time Thomas clarifies who was for/against whom. His short glossary of organizations and acronyms at the beginning of the book is particularly helpful. Sometimes, though, he tangles the relationships more. One could attribute this to the book's historical approach. Thomas tells the history as it unfolds contemporaneously, often day by day. To those who have suffered through high school texts which take a historical thread at the expense of events happening at the same time in other places (this reviewer included!), the author was scrupulous about not skipping around in time. This is a fair approach, even if it can be confusing in itself. The reader will have to keep the "larger historical picture" in mind as the pages pass.
   
   Some maps, and some pictures would have been helpful to the book.

5 comments about Sobrevivir Para Contarlo: Como descubri a Dios en medio del holocausto en Rwanda.

1. The best book I have read in years. Nice story, good message of hope, forgiveness and faith.



2. Recomiendo altamente este libro. A veces pensamos que nuestra fe es poca en momentos dificiles, y la historia de Immaculee es un gran ejemplo de fortaleza, especialmente para que valoremos lo que tenemos. Es un libro impactante, del cual no pude quitar los ojos hasta que lo termine de leer, en solo dos dias. Me da mucho pesar que hace apenas 14 años estas personas estaban pasando por esta terrible experiencia y el resto del mundo no estaba muy enterado de lo que sucedia. Si tu fe y oracion es debil, apoyate en el ejemplo de esta mujer que solo con la ayuda de Dios logro sobrevivir para contarlo.



3. It is an excellent book, I like because it teach a real lesson in faith and perseverance.
   Good book to read.



4. This book is a must for everybody as far as I am concerned. This is one of those books that you cannot put down. I finished it in a couple of days and I learned so much about the power of really believing in God. It is incredible to find somebody that had to endure so much and was still able to forgive and carry on with her life. You will find real inspiration and determination and you will see that you can find God in a place full of horror if you believe with all your body and soul...literally.



5. I personally didn't read this book. My parents are very devout, and it was one of my gifts to my mom for Christmas. My dad ended up reading it first, and then she did. They ate it up! They loved it, and won't stop telling me about how wonderful it is. I didn't even know about this book. I just did a search through Amazon, under Christian, under Catholic, and was looking for something in Spanish for her, and this is what I found. Thanks!

5 comments about The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution, and Revenge (Revised and Expanded Edition).

1. Paul Preston is one of the world's foremost historians of Spanish history, so his focus THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR: REACTION, REVOLUTION, AND REVENGE is an essential acquisition for any military history library, appearing in a revised, expanded paperback to recount the major milestones and struggles of the era. It's a classic work and deserves a place not only in specialty military history collections, but in any general lending library strong in Spanish history and culture.



2. I have read several books on the Spanish Civil War. What I enjoy most about this book is that it is engaging and it is more than just a dry recounting of the facts. It gives the background and the causes and shows how the war evolved in a very open objective way, citing some of the problems on both sides that made the confrontation inevitable. I highly recommend this book if you want to understand what this conflict and how it evolved.



3. No one interested in the true story of the Spanish Civil War should read or believe anything written by Preston. He is a far left historian who believes that the Nationalists were pure evil and the Republicans were lily whites. The truth is that there was plenty of evil to go around on both sides. Much better to read Raymond Carr and Antony Beevor. Although both clearly favor the Republicans, their writing is much more balanced and without the leftist fervor of Preston.



4. Exactly what I was looking for as an American with limited knowledge into the Spanish Civil War. I feel I have gained a perspective that allows me to realize why this conflict still continues to divide Spaniards to this day.



5. This very well written book is a fine overview and analysis of the Spanish Civil War. Still a controversial subject, despite the passage of decades, this is an evenhanded account. This is not, however, a conventional narrative history. While Preston provides the basic narrative, this is more a chronologically arranged series of essays on crucial aspects of the Civil War. To get the most out of Preston's analysis, it is very useful to know the basic features of the Civil War. I recommend reading Antony Beevor's narrative history first and then follow it with this book. The advantage of Preston's approach is that he explores a series of key issues in considerable depth. The relevant background of Spanish history and the structural features of Spanish society that created the potential for the war are described well. Preston has a very nice chapter on the history of the Second Republic which preceded the war and the specific events that led to the coup attempt that triggered the war. Chapters follow that deal with the international aspects of the war, the complex internal politics of both the Republican and Nationalist sides, the nature of combat, and the aftermath of the war. Particularly important themes are Franco's use of the war as an instrument to consolidate power, his pursuit of a state purged of liberal-leftist elements, the importance of Italian and German interventions, and the disorder of the Republican side.
   
   In addition to the excellent text, the book has a couple of other nice features to ease readibility. It includes a decent list of important figures and a useful glossary of acronyms. Preston includes a very nice annotated bibliography as a guide into the literature.

5 comments about The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939.

1. All aspects of this books' historical account of the event that can be called, "the First 'True' Battle of the 'isms' in the 20th Century" are wonderfully written and documented visually. A must have for any historical lover or novelist's library.



2. I am not an expert in the Spanish Civil War. This was the first book I ever read on it. I want to learn more about it. I understand that abuses in war occur on both sides but I feel the author showed that he disliked the Nationalists and favored the Republic. I was looking for a book that is fair and balanced.Only two chapters appeared to be fair and balanced in the entire book. It appears the war was the result of a conflict between two ideologies ie liberalism verus traditionalism. Traditionalism won the war. I wish more would have been written about the good side of the traditionalist ideology instead of portraying it as evil through most of the book. I guess I will have to keep researching to find out.



3. My initial foray into the Spanish civil War was Hugh Thomas' excellent book from the 1960s. Beevor, in my view takes a fresh view on the conflict, moving beyond recent revisionism by Stanley Payne and Robert Radosh, especially, as other reviewers have noted, in his treatment of the Anarchists. This is not to say that Beevor is a partisan of the anarchist narrative, he does not flinch from describing the atrocities committed by the militias. One interesting point, echoing Thomas, was how the Stalinist communist party steadily gained influence over the Republic by being a conservative counterweight to the Anarchists and the POUM, even to the point of reversing collectivisation efforts in Catalonia, cementing the support of the middle class in Republican areas. This is probably the only time in history where the communist party represented conservative business owners.
   
   I was especially interested in how Beevor incorporated the opening of the Soviet Archives on the SCW, and how that compared to Hugh Thomas' book which was written at the height of the cold war. One surprise was Beevor's evidence of how uninterested Stalin appeared to be in Spain, and how he was almost forced into intervention by political concerns -- he was afraid that not intervening would hurt the Soviet's image among the foreign communist parties. He demonstrates that Stalin was committed to the popular front strategy in Spain, and at no time instructed his cadres to start revolutionary activity. This flies in the face of conventional wisdom which, in the last twenty years, chiefly due to revisionist historians like Stanley Payne, has the Soviets as the puppet masters from the beginning.
   
   Beevor's description of the military campaign was clear without becoming ponderous. He describes how the the Republic almost defeated itself by engaging in set piece offensives for propaganda purposes, that decimated the Republican army while achieving little of military value. He also contradicts conventional wisdom as to the ineffectiveness of the Anarchist columns, showing that they were just as effective in urban warfare as the more disciplined Republican units like the International Brigades.
   
   Another interesting theme was his detailed description of the actions of other democracies, especially the members of the so-called non-intervention committee, led by Britain and including France, the Soviets, Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy. He describes the ludicrous hypocrisy of Britain, who turned a blind eye to massive Italian and German aid to Franco, while using the Royal navy to prevent arms going to the Republic. He demonstrates that British concern about Soviet influence on the Republic was vastly conflated, pointing out that by denying the Republic arms, Britain, and later France created a self fulfilling prophecy -- by forcing the Republic to go to the Soviets to buy arms they greatly enhanced communist influence in the Republican government. But more importantly, Beevor frames British/French policy in the context of appeasement -- placing Spain in the same category as Czechoslovakia, a sacrifice to the fascist maw, hoping to sate it. History obviously shows the result.
   
   Beevor also puts to rest the suggestion that Franco was apolitical and not a "real" fascist. He provides evidence that Franco was eager to enter WW2 on the side of the Axis, holding out only to convince Hitler to cede French North Africa to him. Also, Franco provided 50,000 "volunteers" to the SS to fight on the Russian front -- an enormous contribution considering that the pre civil war Spanish army was only 100,000 soldiers. He also points out that Franco allowing Hitler to use Spanish ports to launch U-Boat raids on American and British shipping in the North Atlantic.
   
   All in all, Beevor's book is an excellent read, scholarly, but aimed at the general reader. I recommend it highly.



4. Antony Beevor's excellent 1982 "The Spanish Civil War" has been updated and revised for a 2006 edition to mark the 70th anniversary of the conflict. Beevor has taken advantage of improved access to former Soviet archives and recent scholarship to add depth and detail to his original book.
   
   The Spanish Civil War, widely seen as a precursor to the Second World War, was a highly complex struggle with deep roots in Spanish history and politics. Author Beevor rejects a simplistic Republican versus Nationalist characterization of the conflict. In a brisk and generally readable account, Beevor finds and explores three different axes of conflict: Left-Right, centralist-regionalist, and authoritarian-libertarian. The Republican and Nationalist sides were actually coalitions that experienced significant internal turbulence during the 1936-1939 fighting.
   
   Beevor also examines the impact of foreign assistance on the coalitions and on the battlefield. German and Italian manpower, equipment and expertise were highly valuable to the cause of General Franco, who early established his dominance over the Nationalist cause. In contrast, Soviet support was a decidedly mixed blessing for the Republican side. After Britain and France chose non-intervention, the Republicans had few alternatives to aid from Moscow, but that aid came with a price tag. Beevor finds the increasing Communization of the Republican war effort was a significant factor in its ultimate defeat.
   
   "The Spanish Civil War" does a highly creditable job of casting light on a complex, bitter civil war, although in places the density of detail on political discourse can be exhausting. The overall effort is however worthwhile and highly recommended to the general reader and to the student looking for a concise account.



5. The Battle for Spain is a thorough review of the Spanish Civil War, a conflict about which I knew the basics but wanted to know more. Beevor's work is thorough, and will improve most readers' knowledge of the conflict, but its workmanlike prose style rapidly dissolves into a "this happened then that happened" history. I thought that the period probably could have produced a more interesting account than that presented by Beevor.
   
   I also found that the maps were insufficient. Clearly, Beevor knows Spain better than I; regions of Spain are referred to constantly, but no map of the regions of Spain is included. So, if you're not sure where Estremadura is, don't expect any help from Beevor or his maps. Also, battles which constituted entire chapters of the book lacked maps, so the reader is left to guess where the action happened unless they know Spain's geography relatively well.
   
   The description of the political scene at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War was also difficult to follow. While Spanish politics in 1936 were clearly chaotic, Beevor doesn't do a good job of making sense of the players. Large numbers of names we don't see again and Spanish acronymns abound.
   
   Finally, personalities come in second place in a big way in The Battle for Spain. People who might be fascinating, such as Franco, Azana, Negrin, Companys, and La Pasionaria, are treated as one-dimensional. The reader is left with little insight into their points of view and Beevor rarely lets us know much about what happens to the key players after the war. Beevor sometimes relates the circumstances of their deaths, but generally only if they were executed by Franco.
   
   All in all, The Battle for Spain is an adequate, if boring history of the 20th century's first proxy war.