The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) [Paperback]

Helen Graham (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0192803778 | ISBN-13: 978-0192803771 | Publication Date: June 23, 2005

Amid the many catastrophes of the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War continues to exert a particular fascination among history buffs and the lay-reader alike. This Very Short Introduction integrates the political, social and cultural history of the Spanish Civil War. It sets out the domestic and international context of the war for a general readership. In addition to tracing the course of war, the book locates the war's origins in the cumulative social and cultural anxieties provoked by a process of rapid, uneven and accelerating modernism taking place all over Europe. This shared context is key to the continued sense of the war's importance. The book also examines the myriad of political polemics to which the war has given rise, as well as all of the latest historical debates. It assesses the impact of the war on Spain's transition to democracy and on the country's contemporary political culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

`This is far and away the best short introduction to the Spanish Civil War that I have read in any language.' Professor Paul Preston, European Institute, London School of Economics

About the Author

Helen Graham is Reader in History at Royal Holloway, University of London and the author of The Spanish Republic at War 1936-1939.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 23, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192803778
• ISBN-13: 978-0192803771
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #7 in Books > History > Europe > Portugal
  • #20 in Books > History > Historical Study > Revolutionary
  • #28 in Books > History > Europe > Spain

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reads like a bad translation, February 6, 2010

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Birck (Philadelphia, PA, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

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.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Substantial Introduction, March 16, 2006

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calmly - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

There's so much material in this little book that I had to read it twice: the first time I was overwhelmed.

There's an 8 page chronology at the back of the book which I suggest reading first, to get an overview of the flow of events.

I had arrived at this book after reading Rudolf Rocker's "The Tragedy of Spain" and Colin Ward's "Anarchism: A Very Short Introduction", both of which discuss the role of the anarcho-syndicalist trade-union CNT in this civil war. The Wikipdea entry "Anarchism in Spain" also presents a significant role for the CNT in the Spanish Civil War. Graham references the CNT in a number of places but in minor ways, so I'm left uncertain as to whether they played as large a role as Rocker and Ward indicate. Graham notes some conflicts between the CNT and socialist groups which interfered with their working together effectively. Without help from England, France, and the United States and with limited help from the Soviet Union, the Left in Spain was at a huge disadvantage, given Italy and Germany's support of Franco. It seemed remarkable that the Left was able to fight for as long as it did.

I don't recall studying anything about this civil war in school, let alone knowing how much was involved. The relevance seems high: a country in which conservatives and liberals were in serious conflict. The conservatives started a war. A sobering lesson: bombing of, imprisonment of and execution of liberals. The conservatives won.

Graham has done her job in this introduction: I'm encouraged to read more about the Spanish Civil War. Graham provides 5 pages of further reading which includes some websites (3 in Spanish 2 in English).

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Why can't historians write?, May 22, 2008

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Scholar "18th century student" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback)

I don't think the author got the concept of a an introduction. She should have not only summarized the events (which she did) but put them in readable prose, simplified so the unenlightened reader could grasp the subject easily. Isn't that the point of an intro? Instead, we get a book poorly written with deadening prose.