Fighting for Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 [Paperback]

Judith Keene (Author), Gabriel Jackson (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2003

One of the enduring myths of the Franco state was that the Nationalist forces that won the Civil War consisted of patriotic Spaniards, while the Republic was defended by a rag tag army of foreign "Reds". During the Spanish civil war, however, many groups on the European right were galvanised by the Nationalist cause. European fascists, conservative Catholics and those uneasy with liberal democracy in general rallied to the figure of Franco, who appeared to be holding the line against secularism, modernism and Bolshevism. This book recounts the experiences of a number of foreign volunteers, including the brigades of White Russians, Romanians, Irish and the French volunteers in the Jeanne d'Arc battalion, all of whom saw their engagement in Spain as a means of promoting their own political causes at home.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Thus, a study of the subject of those who chose to 'Fight for Franco' is greatly needed...Alas, Fighting for Franco does not quite fill that need. Judith Keene...betrays a strong Republican bias which tarnishes her treatment of the subject...Moreover, Keene fails to compare these people with those who served the Republic...The problems with this work begin early...The book also betrays a lack of knowledge of Spanish military terminology...Although Fighting For Franco has some interesting anecdotes about the experiences of some of the volunteers for the Nationalists, and should be read by specialists in the Spanish Civil War, it is not the definitive treatment of the subject." —A.A. Nofi, NYMAS Review, 2008 (Negative )

“Thus, a study of the subject of those who chose to 'Fight for Franco’ is greatly needed…Alas, Fighting for Franco does not quite fill that need. Judith Keene…betrays a strong Republican bias which tarnishes her treatment of the subject…Moreover, Keene fails to compare these people with those who served the Republic…The problems with this work begin early…The book also betrays a lack of knowledge of Spanish military terminology…Although Fighting For Franco has some interesting anecdotes about the experiences of some of the volunteers for the Nationalists, and should be read by specialists in the Spanish Civil War, it is not the definitive treatment of the subject.” –A.A. Nofi, NYMAS Review, 2008 (, ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Judith Keene is Senior Lecturer of History at Sydney University. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Leicester University Press (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826465382
• ISBN-13: 978-0826465382
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,809,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid history, but highly readable., February 23, 2004

By 

Sailoil - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting for Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 (Paperback)

I ordered this book because I was researching the fortunes of the Irish Brigade in Spain. I was expecting to get the factual information presented in the usual dry historical format.

I was so pleasantly surprised with the relaxed narrative, that I read further into the book, and became captivated by the stories of other groups who fought for Franco.

In the first twenty or so pages Keene gives an introduction and historical context to the war that serves as a neat summary for anyone wanting to know a little about the subject.

Then she goes into the detail of various volunteer groups who fought on the Nationalist side during the war. Because she is looking at volunteer outfits, Keene does not include the major foreign contributors to Franco's Campaign. For instance, she is not writing about the German, Italian and Moroccan contingents.

The key groups of volunteers are dealt with in separate chapters. One for the English speaking volunteers which includes information on Americans, British and the Irish Brigade. Then she examines the French contribution. Another chapter examines the contribution of the White Russians, and finally the Romanian Iron Guard.

She also includes a chapter on foreign female reporters, publicists and medical personnel who supported the Nationalist cause.

Franco was careful to downplay the role of foreigners in the Civil War, and Keene highlights his caution in this regard. He made much of the volunteer forces because they were generally small and symbolic of the wider Catholic support for his cause. He was most careful not to publicise the huge levels of support he received from Axis countries and the Moroccans, as he was trying to portray the struggle as a new Spanish Crusade, rather than as a battle between fascism and communism.

In all, this is an intelligently researched and well written look at a very interesting subject.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Misleading Title, May 31, 2009

By 

J. R. Cruz "blue collar" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fighting For Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War (Paperback)

A bore. Having read Hugh Thomas' "The Spanish Civil War" (in two languages), a book that shook my Republican sympathies (in spite of that author's own Republican sympathies), I began to look for works that presented the Spanish Conflict from the Nationalist point of view, or at least impartially. "Fighting for Franco" is not one of them, in spite of its title. Of course, without any reviews available at the time of my purchase, I had no way of knowing the leanings of the author until I purchased the book and by that time it was too late. Reading the sentences in the cover and the introduction is all one needs to know that what's coming is the usual concatenation of tired epithets, such as "right-wing," "pious Catholic," the ubiquitous "fascist," "hero-worship," "Conservative Catholic," "anti liberal democracy," "anti progressive", and the like, preceding any reference to Nationalist support or supporters. Even the few developments in which the Nationalists have scored some points in most narratives, such as the siege of the Alcázar, are stripped of some if not all of their glory (e.g., that the son of the commander was executed by the Republicans is reluctantly accepted, although without comment or any mention of his age or to the fact that a second son was executed in Barcelona. But that Luis ever spoke to his father on the phone? Well, that has to be the stuff of legend). At least she calls the assassination of Calvo Sotelo a murder, but to attribute the killing of this elected Member of Parliament (and outspoken minority leader there) by uniformed Government guards solely to the enragement of these guards at the killing of a policeman some days before deserves the contempt of all readers. I read 249 of 294 pages, until I just could go no further. In any case the book is the story of a few foreign losers, who having been driven off their own countries by the forces of "freedom," came to Spain to fight those forces there and who are ridiculed by Dr. Keene, mercilessly, throughout this book. Although the author is a university director (Sidney, Australia), there are some details that lead me to believe that her knowledge of the whole Spanish affair and of the Spanish culture itself is at best mediocre, e.g., the name Queipo de Llano is constantly spelled Quiepo, even in the Index. Basically, to this author, the Nationalists were the bad guys and the Republican the good ones, always, and that is just too simplistic to swallow. Franco is referred to as "puritanical, ruthless, secretive, ambitious," who "developed an intense identification with his mother" (because his father had been a "womanizing drunkard") and who, "with a shyness that bordered on effeminacy... preferred over anything else the company of his wife and child." Some effeminate and, definitely, some secretive fellow, I say! I wish that there be at least a one-sentence review about books on the subject of the Spanish Civil War, i.e., the author likes or favors the Nationalists, the author likes or favors the Republicans, or the author is impartial. Of all the authors that I have read: De La Cierva, Thomas, Carroll, Payne, Lannon, Moa, and not quite through with Guttmann yet, I consider impartial those authors who apply equally to both sides the same adjectives both negative and positive; words like heroic, honest, brilliant, criminal, murdered, and the like. In general, I try to shy away from English authors on matters of European history, preferring instead American researchers, but we (here in the USA) do not seem to care much about 1936 Spain. I gave this work a one-star rating, because I was misled by the title, because of the predictable bias of English (and Australian) authors in treating the motives, ideals and characters of the fighting forces in Spain and because of the author's incomplete information on the Spanish culture and language.

11 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A readable look at a fascinating topic., January 16, 2002

By 

Margaret Bengry (Portland,OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fighting for Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain During the Spanish Civil War (Hardcover)

The author is a highly respected historian writing about a field that is getting increasingly more interest. Using a winning combination of excellently-researched historical summary and anecdotes about individuals, Dr. Keene narrates an engrossing chapter in the development of fascism in the twentieth century.