The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge

Description

UPDATED EDITION A rousing and full-blooded account of the Spanish Civil War and the rise to prominence of General Franco. The Spanish Civil War is burned into European consciousness, not simply because it prefigured the much larger world war that followed it, but because the intense manner of its prosecution was a harbinger of a new and horrific form of warfare that was universally dreaded. At the same time, the hopes awakened by the attempted social revolution in republican Spain chimed with the aspirations of many in Europe and the United States during the grim years of the great Depression. On the 80th Anniversary of the conflict, this is a full-blooded account of this pivotal period in twentieth-century European history. Paul Preston vividly recounts the struggles of the war, analyzes the wider implications of the revolution in the Republican zone, tracks the emergence of Francisco Franco's brutal (and, ultimately, extraordinarily durable) fascist dictatorship and assesses the ways in which the Spanish Civil War was a portent of the Second World War that ensued so rapidly after it.

Paul Preston is Principe de Asturias Professor of Iberian History at the LSE, and was head of the International History Department there for several years. He is regarded as the leading historian of twentieth-century Spain alive.

'[Preston's] economical style, together with a telling choice of quotes and mordant use of irony, serve his purpose admirably...it is founded upon a vast knowledge and will not easily be refuted.' History Today 'Not just a detailed description of events but a real interpretation of the causes and course of the war. By allowing the actors of the great Spanish drama to speak, he captures the dynamics of the civil war.' La Stampa 'Paul Preston's book throws new, definitive light on the conflict.' L'Unita