[.ca] Spanish Civil War (ISBN 0304358401)

Not on par with his Stalingrad book:
I bought this book for historical interest but also on the basis of what a good book Beevor's 'Stalingrad' was. While his study of the Spanish war is detailed yet broad and provides a great history in a modest-sized one volume, it just fails to be as gripping or even interesting as 'Stalingrad.' That could be due to the subject matter, but I don't think so because the Spanish conflict directly preceded WWII and many of the day's powers were substantially involved and had vested interests in the outcome. Rather, the canvas of this entire conflict is broader than what Beevor tackled in 'Stalingrad,' and perhaps he is better suited to a more narrow focus. There are so many competing political factions before and during the war, and competing interests from outside countries, that Beevor seems overwhelmed. Frequent confustion results where he makes too many presumptions on each and every name being remembered by the reader, etc. Still a fascinating purely for the amount of information contained in a rather short book. At least initially, the leftists in this conflict truly endear sympathy for their cause and are one of the few examples in the past century of a communist movement even somewhat capable of evoking sympathy. By the end, both sides mean nothing but heartache for the future of Spain, and certainly helped stir up the already rumbling war clouds elsewhere.

Good solid history a bit tough to read or follow:
This is a standard history of the Spanish Civil War by military historian Anthony Beevor. It's deceptively small in size (the type in the book is about the smallest I've ever seen, short of a footnote or something) but full of detail. The author doesn't, however, pull any punches, and he doesn't think much of the communist leadership in the war, so those of a liberal bent who want to read the good vs. bad story of this war should look elsewhere. In the author's mind, the combatants were different flavors of bad, though he seems to sympathize somewhat with the non-communist Republicans, especially the anarchists and the Trotskyists. The author spends a good deal of time going over the background to the war, and a similar amount of time dealing with its aftermath. He also works hard to argue that some of the stories of the war are myths: in his view, the airlift the Luftwaffe provided to Franco's forces to get the Moroccans to Spain has been overestimated. All in all, this was an interesting book, though the author was new to being a writer when it was written (1983) and the prose is a bit wooden, to be truthful. A good effort nonetheless, and a useful alternative to Hugh Thomas' masterful but massive tome on the same subject, which runs to well over a thousand pages in its current edition.

A complex book on a complex conflict...:
More political history than battlefield history, Anthony Beevor's recount of the Spanish Civil War is a complex look at the proxy war that took place in Spain just before the outbreak of the Second World War. A large portion of this book is devoted to the politics inside Spain both before and during the conflict, and the struggles within both "sides," as the political realities of the mid- to late thirties in Spain forced some incompatible ideologies together, eventually leading to the demise of the Republican government. The best thing about this book is that Beevor finds a way to break down the political struggle along three axes of conflict. While he often bounces back and forth from the battlefield to the political arenas while presenting mountains of complex information, he always finds a common thread and manages to pull all the facts presented back into the theme presented in a given chapter. Beevor's sympathies seem to lie with the Anarchists, though it seems that this is more a result of the fact that the Communists and the Fascists had foreign support from governments which history shows were less than benevolent. The Anarchist cause is typically portrayed in a more sypathetic light than the Communists and Fascists, whose aspirations were more totalitarian than the anarchists, who (at least as they are presented in this book) simply wanted the right to govern themselves. To his credit, however, he does not spare any party in the description of the murderous brutality between all participants. He takes extra time to explain the propaganda battle (a very important aspect of the conflict), from the atrocities committed against the Church to the efforts of both sides to win victories based on propaganda, rather than military, goals. Some of the political conundrums of Spain in the '30s are also presented. One of the most interesting is the plight of the Anarchists. They had a massive party capable of wielding immense power, but since they rejected the idea of elections, they were reduced to being bystanders in the political world. The compromises they made once the war started, as a result of the aggressive nature of the Communists (backed by the Stalinist USSR), and the backlash against the Communists near the end of the conflict, are a couple of the major underlying themes of this book. Beevor expalins it best when he says that "The Nationalists defended a common view of the past; the Republican coalition in contrast, had widely differing visions of the future." This is a very infomative book, and the reader will take a lot of understanding away from it. I would, however recommend two things, the first of which is to read and bookark the list of political parties and organizations on pages 285 through 287, before reading the rest of the book. The second is to take the time to write down the names of important individuals. This will significantly ease the reader's efforts to remember the mass of information presented. While this book is roughly 285 pages long, it is a very long 285 pages, as previous reviewers have noted, and is not an easy read.

Extremely effective history of a forgotten war...:
The Spanish Civil War, by Anthony Beevor, is a fairly detailed survey of the history of this occasionally confusing period. Beevor spends a few chapters giving much needed historical background. The detail is necessary but a little dry and perhaps exhaustive to read as an introduction. The social and economic history of Spain is dealt with in enough detail to put the civil war in context. After covering the events leading up to the war, the bulk of the book is devoted to a very detailed, more or less chronological history of the war itself. The events leading the to defeat of the Spanish Republic are sometimes referred to as a civil war within a civil war. Much attention is paid to distinguishing the various factions and personalities on both sides of the war. The Carlists, the Falange, PUOM, the Communists, the anarchists, et al, are all dealt with in detail so the reader is never really confused about how their aims, and why they did what they did. Beevor also spends time discussing regional differences among various factions. Lots of attention is paid to how the Republican forces were consumed largely from within, and how the various Nationalist factions also suffered some degree of discord.. In the end, fractionalization of Republican forces, Soviet style purges, a Communist take-over and just plain bad military and political leadership led to their inevitable defeat. Beevor is dispassionate in his treatment of both sides. There's no real moralizing: I saw no obvious agenda. Instead, he gives detailed descriptions of the agendas, excesses and strengths and weaknesses of all sides and factions. Against all of this was the background of foreign intervention. Again, Beevor goes into detail about the German, Italian and Russian interventions, and the lessons learned (or not learned) by each. The book also covers the incredible failure of the European and American democracies to do anything stop the war, and the hypocrisy involved in all their policies vis-a-vis Spain and the treatment of the various factions. Overall, this book is an excellent history of the war. The detail is thorough enough to make some parts a little slow to read. All sides are covered in detail, with no evident political agenda. Events are covered in extreme detail and all the factions are thoroughly explained. I would not call this the 'definitive' history of the war, but this is an excellent, detailed overview and a must read for anybody interested in this period.

Detailed description of a horrific conflict:
Between 1936 and 1939 Spain was torn apart by a civil war. On one side were the Republicans: the legally elected government, consisting of leftish political, civil and trade union groups as diverse as the anarchists, communists, socialists and liberals backed by Russia and an international group of people willing to fight for their cause. On the other side stood the Nationalists: the army led by Generalissimo Franco and firmly backed by the Catholic church, right wing groups and the ... governments of Italy and Germany who used the war for experimenting with war tactics to be used during WW2. And here lies the weakness of the democratic countries in Europe, in particular France and Great Britain who remained not only neutral, but actively hampered the actions of the Republicans and turned a blind eye on the involvement of Germany and Italy. Everyone but the staunchest right winger cannot have anything but sympathy for the initial movement of the Republicans: with only the barest means plus a lot of enthusiasm the majority of the population supports their cause and start to build a new society. But then things go desperately wrong: the communists start to build a state within the state, build a secret police force and control the republican army and do everything to block the activities of the other movements. This, plus their predilection to senseless military action pave the road to disaster. This book gives a very thorough description of the actions and mechanisms, even a bit too much detail to my taste, making the book sometimes rather long-winded. But after reading the book one knows about everything that took place during the Spanish civil war.