Spanish Civil War: Book Reviews

EDIT 2024.06.10: Orwell and Kemp's memoirs

from Dreamtime.com

Be wary of inflammatione librorum! 

It is easy to find books on the Spanish Civil War, but hard to find books where the author doesn't have a "perspective" they value more than history, facts, or quite possibly "reality". Ergo, I'll be putting the books that have been helpful to me in this post which I will update as I read them. Regrettably, I'm limited to English at this time, altho I'm working on Spanish...we'll see!

If anyone cares, I have a degree in history and a passion for it as long as I can remember. Modern Europe and military history are my areas of specialty. I am a former investigator and presently in the military, which means my interests and credibility criteria will likely not match yours. Feel free to just use these brief summaries as an opportunity to look these books up in greater depth elsewhere to determine if they would suit YOU and your interests!

What am I looking for in my SCW books? Strong historical narrative [storytelling...but using historical practices, e.g. Barbara Tuchman] and authentic voice are my priorities.

Memoirs are a great way to get that "authentic voice" and perspective, e.g. "I was there and this is my experience of it"; this may occasionally be at the expense of facts and involve intentional manipulation of that which is included or left out. Such is the limitations one pays for the exciting immediacy of an eye witness account.

I prefer a history book to be more balanced. If an author discusses war crimes [or civil crimes] I expect them to present the Red and Republican excesses coherently alongside Nationalist ones.  If memoirs are used I expect them to be representative and back up the historical narrative, not just create drama or sympathy for the author's preferred side. As I don't have a dog in this fight, I'm uninterested in being manipulated into sympathy for either side at the expense of the other. Neither Red Revolution or authoritarianism in any form are appealing to me, personally.

As for the Spanish Civil War, or ANY civil war...let's turn to some great philosophers:

Look - in the doubt we've wallowed

Look - at the leaders we've followed
Look - at the lies we've swallowed
And I don't want to hear no more

I don't need your civil war... What's so civil 'bout war anyway?

Yep...this is GnR... 

OK, not exactly Alexis de Tocqueville, but whatever.

ON TO THE BOOKS!

CONCERNING THE WHOLE WAR

Some are not for the casual reader...but some are!

Nice, relatively short and manageable overview of the war.  Appears to be politically neutral [hard to find on this subject] or at least "balanced". Leaves you with the distinct impression that you have actually learned something that is useful to know in a way that you can remember. Written in plain English - doesn't have you looking up erudite words constantly, and explains foreign terms well. A great place to start!

This is an old [and inexpensive] reader. The perspectives and excerpts should catch the interest of nearly anyone interested in the war. There's a wide variety of points of view, and it's a cheap way to discover other authors and books that may be of interest. I found all the accounts to be engaging and well selected.

MEMOIRS

A great way to get a biased perspective!

Two wonderful memoirs in English. 

The first, "Homage to Catalonia" is by the well-known author of "1984" and "Animal Farm", George Orwell. It is impossible not to find Orwell a completely creditable witness, especially since he specifically refers to the limits of his personal witness; what are his best guesses, and what he gathered from those whom he deemed reliable sources, his speculative conclusions, etc, are explained. 

He has lovely observations like, "I suspect it is the same in all wars - always the contrast between the sleek police in the rear and the ragged soldiers in the line." [which Bill Mauldin wrote and draw about in some detail]. 

Also, "The Fat Russian agent...was the first time I had seen a person whose profession was telling lies - unless one counts journalists." 

This and many more wry and insightful observations are yours to enjoy!

Finally, his chapter of analysis concerning the betrayal of The Revolution by the Government and its Communist String-Pullers is prefaced by, "It will never be possible to get a complete, accurate and unbiased account of the Barcelona fighting because the necessary records do not exist. Future historians will have nothing more to go upon except a mass of accusations and party propaganda. I myself have little data beyond what I saw with my own eyes and what I have learned from other eye-witnesses whom I believe to be reliable. I can, however, contradict some of the more flagrant lies and help to get the affair into some kind of perspective."  This is the essence of honest  witnessing, IMHO.  

Highly recommended!

The second, "Mine Were of Trouble" is even more interesting in several ways. Author Peter Kemp, MC DSO [CLICK] who fought in several wars and theaters and then became a very competent journalist and writer. Basically, he was a literate adventuring Brit Soldier, in the best sense. Kemp volunteered on the Nationalist side, which had only a fraction as many foreign volunteers compared to the Republicans.

[this was due to the communists having a far superior international organization and propaganda / press system; this greatly facilitated recruitment until word started to get around that the communists were getting rid of the volunteers in a variety of ways...but this is covered in detail in another excellent book to be reviewed soon!]

Got my copy through Mystery Grove Publishing Co, and it is a solid paperback with a soft waxed outer cover to protect it. There are only rare opportunities to buy any other edition of this book. 

Kemp finds a nice balance of his eye witness, repeating what he hears from others as it seems pertinent, examining the same with a critical eye, and occasionally give a "big picture" with some of the key names.  Overall, you do not have to be more than wiki-level familiar with the war to get thru this book, largely due to Kemp being an excellent writer who uses clean simple prose.  Orwell is a bit more long-winded and inclined to self-analysis and some lengthy explanations [which is fine if you want to hear about process].  Kemp's style is more journalistic and less reflective.

Kemp saw heavy combat on a number of occasions, and is excellent at explaining complex military situations in a way that anyone can understand. In other words, you don't need to be in the military to understand his account of his fighting at Jarama. Very occasionally, some of the technical details are incorrect [e.g. 37mm guns on the Russian tanks...an easy mistake to make as the German gun was copied by the Russians - stolen, most likely - and enlarged to 45mm]. But, considering how eventful his service was, it is amazing he was able to write a coherent account of it at all.  

This is an excellent memoir to balance out the plethora of Leftist apologetics, as well as their irritating style and thoughtless repetition of propaganda [more on this anon].  

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

This was a quick read, and an unvarnished perspective. Lee didn't see much fighting, so the title is well chosen. It still has a bunch of punch and a minimal amount of sentimental ruminations. His experiences show what a sad, dreary affair the whole thing was for so many people. A useful tonic for those who are inclined to romanticize an ugly conflict. 

MEMOIR or NOVEL?

This is a great novel!  It is also a thinly disguised memoir by William Herrick, a former Communist. It is well written and without a distracting style that encroaches on the plight of the people in the book [a great contrast to Hemingway]. While it is mostly about U.S. volunteers in an international battalion [the author fought for the Republic] you do get a broader picture of the internal issues that undermined the Republic as a democracy and ruined its morale claim to being a legitimate government of Spain. This made defeat inevitable as the Republic lost not just confidence in its military potential but confidence in its political practices. 

The combat scenes are hair-raising. The hilarious and vulgar lives of the volunteers are presented in an authentic way that is emotionally riveting but without sentimentalism. Some characters are clearly created as foils to demonstrate the situation and times, while others are clearly based on real people; I guess it is obvious who they are "if you know them".

This book is available as a free download in a few locations. I liked his writing enough that I'd consider reading almost anything by him.

  

MILITARY

For those with a wargaming problem! 

Zaloga... Osprey... predictable but solid. Lots of good pics and some nice illustrations. Too much emphasis on the T-26, Pz Mk I, CV 33 & 35, and other well-known vehicles.  As there is good coverage of armored cars, the title seems insufficient. I would have preferred more on the less common but unusual Spanish vehicles and their use, also, including the improvised armored cars.

The sub-title is with very little supporting evidence in the book. It would be more accurate to state that the SCW demonstrated a need for training in combined-arms operations in support of infantry attacks, which sounds more like French doctrine to me. There were no armored breakthroughs and no rapid advances... or at least no advances much faster than infantry can march!  Still, I didn't find that it fabricated or attempted to make fantasy a reality. My opinion is that Osprey simply felt they had to put the words "tank" and "blitzkrieg" on the cover for sales purposes.

Hooton's intent is to focus on a succinct coverage of the military conflict. This book  does succeed in that goal altho the style is dry and in the vein of a military journalist...which Hooton is. While the political aspect of the war is complex and important to the course and outcome of the war, there are so many books about it that Hooton intentionally includes only the minimum needed to create the military narrative. This keeps the book at a manageable 240 pages of text. 

It will likely be necessary to keep Wikipedia or the like nearby, unless you are familiar with Spanish geography and the military campaigns. As a resource of the Spanish battles it is not that useful, the organization and index being insufficient. I think that the 2nd edition should be done with that approach, which would make this a much more valuable book, and suit the author's style. Still, with very few alternatives, one has to make do with this and Esdaile's book.

Check in for more books later!