I'm looking for a good history of the Spanish Civil War.

[catbert836]

I'm in the process of obtaining Orwell's "Homage to Catalonia", and I'd like something to read along with that to get the whole picture, i.e., what the situation was on the Fascist side, as well as Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin's influence on the fighting. Any reccomendations?

Thank you in advance.

[rockymountaindem]

1. If you want a good companion book to "Homage"

read "The Spanish Cockpit" by Franz Borkenau. It is also a diary of his wartime experiences, but it is also prefaced by a long history of Spanish revolutionism. I'm reading it now and it's quite interesting. "Homage to Catalonia" is just great though.

Aside from that, all I can say is visit your local library. I did a research paper for my 20th century Europe class at University of Toronto and there are many good historical resources on the Spanish Civil War. It's a fascinating topic and is quickly becoming a favorite of mine behind WWII and the Russian Revolution.

Looking at my old bibliography, allow me to recommend:

"A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War" by Gabriel Jackson, 1974
"The Spanish Tragedy" by Raymond Carr, 1977
"The Spanish Civil War" by Thomas Hugh, 1961
"Falange" by Stanley G. Payne, 1979

[The Magistrate]

3. "The Spanish Cockpit" Is Indeed Excellent, Sir

[catbert836]

4. Thanks very much.

I'll see if they have "Cockpit" at my library, and I'll write down the other titles to see if they have any of those as well.

[The Magistrate]

2. An Excellent Work, Sir

Is "The Spanish Civil War", by Mr. Hugh Thomas. It is a single, thick volumn, that gives excellent and reasonably even-handed coverage, including political elements leading up to the outbreak of the civil war. Here and there its detail is not up to what more specialist authorites report, but it is accurate enough in the main.

Another excellent and useful work is "Blood of Spain" by Mr. Robert Frazier. It is an oral history, with interviews from a wide variety of mostly quite ordinary people on all sides of the conflict and most locales where it took place. It conveys very well the human feel of the period and events.

[catbert836]

5. Muchisimas gracias.

I'll see if they have either of those at the library.

[nealmhughes]

6. If it is not a large public library, you may need to ILL it from an

academic library. The local/state library association usually maintains a relationship with the local smaller public libraries. For an old ILL (inter llibrary loan) lending officer for an academic library, I'll tell you the priorities: the closer the academic library gets first dibs, then a person who is doing serious academic research and finds that a large amount of his/her research is in one single library and has developed a personal relationship with the institution's ILL people,jthen academic libraries outside the area, next would be a public library in the area, followed by one outside the area and academic libraries overseas.

In other words, if someone from a public library wants a book that is not held in that state, such as Montana or Alaska, but there were lots of copies in the East or California, then the ILL person would probably look at WorldCat and see that they are going to "have" to ILL it to Alaska. The same goes for English language books that are going to an academic institution not near Canada.

I would never ever send a novel, for example to Durban, ZA, but have had no qualms in sending relatively obscure academic works to the several universities in Zambia and South Africa.

If the book is "rare" or "obscure", the library requesting is only an email away in saying why they want the book...

Now this is only academic libraries. Public libraries have different policies, but they are about the same in that distance and reciprocal agreements play a role in what they determine to lend. Really smart libraries are "tricky" in that they ILL the book thru the state library from the holder, then ship it to the borrower's local library, as most state libraries have a reciprocal lending agreement with no fees involved!

Tell me your local library and I'll get on WorldCat and find out who has it near you and which libraries your local one has lending agreements with -- this will help the ILL librarian when he/she does the query for the lending!

[nealmhughes]

7. I just looked it up for the Erie County, PA Public Library.

There are public library copies at Beaver City PL of "The Spanish Cockpit" and at the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Bethlehem PL of "Falange." There are many, many copies of all four books referenced before at academic libraries. You should have no problem getting the two from the two public libaries. The Erie PL site has contact info and you can send the request at any branch.

Hope this helps and you are reading one of them before Monday!

[catbert836]

8. Wow. Thank you.

That really means a lot to me. :yourock:

[Tanuki]

9. "The Good Fight"

You might also be interested in this award-winning documentary film:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/6301696840/ref=cm_lm_fullview_prod_15/102-3678277-4880909?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=404272