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The Spanish Civil War

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Since its first publication, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War has become established as the definitive one-volume history of a conflict that continues to provoke intense controversy today.

What was it that roused left-wing sympathizers from all over the world to fight against Franco between 1936 and 1939? Why did the British and US governments refuse to intervene? And why did the Republican cause collapse so violently? Now revised and updated, Hugh Thomas's classic account presents the most objective and unbiased analysis of a passionate struggle where fascism and democracy, communism and Catholicism were at stake - and which was as much an international war as a Spanish one.

1120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

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About the author

Hugh Thomas

149 books141 followers
Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Hugh Swynnerton Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton, was a British historian and Hispanist.

Thomas was educated at Sherborne School in Dorset before taking a BA in 1953 at Queens' College, Cambridge. He also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris. His 1961 book The Spanish Civil War won the Somerset Maugham Award for 1962. A significantly revised and enlarged third edition was published in 1977. Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom (1971) is a book of over 1,500 pages tracing the history of Cuba from Spanish colonial rule until the Cuban Revolution. Thomas spent 10 years researching the contents of this book.

Thomas was married to the former Vanessa Jebb, daughter of the first Acting United Nations Secretary-General Gladwyn Jebb.

From 1966 to 1975 Thomas was Professor of History at the University of Reading. He was Director of the Centre for Policy Studies in London from 1979 to 1991, as an ally of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He became a life peer as Baron Thomas of Swynnerton, of Notting Hill in Greater London in letters patent dated 16 June 1981. He has written pro-European political works, as well as histories. He is also the author of three novels.

Thomas's The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440-1870 "begins with the first Portuguese slaving expeditions, before Columbus's voyage to the New World, and ends with the last gasp of the slave trade, long since made illegal elsewhere, in Cuba and Brazil, twenty-five years after the American Emancipation Proclamation," according to the summary on the book jacket.

Thomas should not be confused with two other historical writers: W. Hugh Thomas writes about Nazi Germany and Hugh M. Thomas is an American who writes on English history.

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Displaying 1 - 30 of 100 reviews
Profile Image for William2.
783 reviews3,311 followers
November 27, 2021
The Spanish Civil War was the proving ground for much of the technology (tanks, aviation, artillery, etc.) used in World War II. This alone makes an account of it essential reading. The only one-volume history of war that I can compare Mr. Thomas's book to is Neil Sheehan's A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and American in Vietnam. The books are structurally different. Sheehan uses the central figure of Vann as a kind of biographical spine on which to build his history. The Spanish Civil War has no such core narrative thread. The story, in fact, is much more heterogeneous, since Thomas is interested in bringing the quantitative specifics of the war into the English language: planes, artillery, personnel, Italian, German and Russian contributions, etc. It is, in fact, extraordinarily detailed. Even actors of marginal significance, it seems, are named and their roles described. Sheehan, on the other hand, writing about an American war which played out on television in many private living rooms, has less such quantification to do. I think the saddest part of Thomas's book is the story it tells of the murderous dissension among the anarchists, communists, non-Stalinist Marxists (POUM) and socialists of the Republic.
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Their ideological imperatives seemed far more important to them than the fascist threat. "The carnival of treachery and rotteness," Ernest Hemingway had called it. Add to that the fragmentation of Republican Spain into Basque Country, Catalonia and an elected government which moved from Madrid to Valencia and then to autonomous Catalonia -- where it was perceived as a virtual coup d'etat -- and one wonders how those on the Republican side ever hoped to win. The Russians, for whom everything was political, were the worst. Their persecutions of the POUM were horrible. They thought they could run the war through collectivist committees. The anarchists (no angels themselves; they burnt churches and killed ecclesiastics by the hundreds) were often shot at the front because they refused to take communist orders. Lastly, the hypocritical pretense known as the Non-Intervention Committee must be mentioned. Germany and Italy were supplying the nationalists with war material, as were the Russians the Republic, while at the same time sitting on the committee! Everyone seemed to know this but it allowed the British to turn a blind eye. How convenient. Chamberlain and Daladier's appeasement of Hitler at Munich was just around the corner.
Profile Image for Miquixote.
285 reviews37 followers
July 31, 2023
Unfortunately it has a predictably status quo left liberal slant.

" for some curious reason, has acquired the reputation of being a definitive history of the conflict - is pretentious, superficial, and factually unreliable. For a devastating critique, the reader should consult Vernon Richard's "July 19, 1936: Republic or Revolution?" in Anarchy, No.5 (July, 1961)' and Richard's introductory remarks to Gaston Leval's "Collectives in the Spanish Revolution " ( London, 1975). " - Murray Bookchin' p. 299 "The Spanish Anarchists".

There is liitle on the popular revolution which ocurred in Spain duing the war, a glaring ideologically based omission.

Chomsky, "Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship" : "obviously the historian's account must be selective; from the left liberal point of view (like Hugh Thomas and Gabriel Jackson) the liquidation of the revolution in Catalonia was a minor event, as the revolution itself was merely kind of irrelevant nuisance, a minor irritant diverting energy fom the struggle to save the bourgeois government...Thomas' extensive study barely refers to the popular revolution, and some of the major events are not mentioned at all."


How can so much work be done and such honours bestowed on such a 'major work', with such glaring omissions? An honest study of the Spanish Civil War MUST be accompanied by histories such as The Spanish Anarchists (Murray Bookchin), Homage to Catalonia (George Orwell) and On Anarchism (Noam Chomsky). But above all, Pierre Broue and Emile and Emile Temime's 'The Revolution and the Civil War in Spain'. Which is infinitely preferable as a general account of the Spanish Civil War. According to Chomsky, the best general history of the war.

In his favor, Hugh Thomas does give excellent suggestions on further study of the role of Anarchism in the bibliography. I can only assume the curious omissions are due to it being too risky in elite academic circles to focus too much (or at all) on the most 'dangerously' liberating democratic idea in history: anarchism, or if you prefer, libertarian socialism.
Profile Image for Olethros.
2,669 reviews491 followers
June 13, 2018
-Su edición supuso muchísimas cosas.-

Género. Historia.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro La Guerra Civil Española (publicación original: The Spanish Civil War, 1961) es un acercamiento al conflicto en España en 1936 que retrocede en el tiempo para analizar situaciones previas y que se extiende un poco más de su final para plantear ciertas consecuencias.

¡Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Profile Image for Erik Graff.
5,060 reviews1,222 followers
March 31, 2013
After Mom left Dad she developed a medical condition which she could not pay for--despite the fact she worked full-time at a hospital--and had to move back to Norway where medical care was available for free, even for a native daughter who had taken on U.S. citizenship years before. I visited her there upon graduating from seminary and met the fellow, Egil, whom she was ultimately to wed.

Egil Karlsen, like many Norwegians, had a condo on the Mediterranean shore of Spain, not too far west of Malaga. For the rest of Mom's life we were to get together either there, occasionally, or, annually, when she and he would come to visit her family and friends in the States. Ultimately, I visited Spain three times: once with Linda, once alone and once with my brother Fin.

Prior to the first visit I decided to read up on modern Spanish history and, scanning the bookshelves, came upon Thomas' The Spanish Civil War. It was an ideal choice as it covers much more than the war itself, going way back in explaining the political, cultural and class divisions of the country which led to the conflict. The period of the thirties was pretty familiar to me in its North American and European aspects, but the focus on Spain was new.

Surprisingly, in Spain I found few young people interested or very knowledgeable about their recent history. Andalusia appeared to be pretty political, judging by the stickers and painted slogans (mostly left wing in those parts) all over the place, but the best conversation I had about the civil war was with an older taxi driver. The only younger person who ever got into the subject with me was a female lawyer I spent an afternoon with in Madrid while changing planes.
Profile Image for Jack.
12 reviews7 followers
September 7, 2012
Of the three histories of the Spanish Civil War I've read, Thomas's is the most comprehensive and balanced. He seems not to have an ideological axe to grind, which is impressive considering this war was inherently ideological. He focuses on the social and political causes of the war, the diplomatic and international consequences of it, and the military maneuvers that eventually led to Franco's victory. If you read one history of the Spanish Civil War, you wouldn't be wrong to choose this one.
Profile Image for Tim Pendry.
1,041 reviews392 followers
November 29, 2020

This is a remarkably good, detailed but highly readable account of the Spanish Civil War that still stands up decades after its first publication (but make sure that you get the 1977 Edition or later since Thomas was perfectly happy to revise his views with new research).

It is, as they say, 'magisterial' which implies breadth and depth - over 1,000 pages covering the run up to the war, wisely not trying to giving us the later history of Spain under Franco while helpfully telling us something of what happened to the combatants.

The notes are excellent and lie on the pages themselves as they should do, so informative, in fact, that the bulk of them were read with pleasure because they added important detail and anecdote to an otherwise fluid narrative. This is narrative history at its best.

There are decent maps although it might be useful to have a map of Spain by your side as you read the book. Wars need to be understood geographically even if this is not only a military but a political and social history with coverage of economic and cultural matters.

There has been much work done since this book, notably by Paul Preston. Some facts and interpretations will now be superceded but it nevertheless gives a grounding for later study. Personally I read it not so much for definitiveness but as good narrative history in its own right.

And what of the subject matter? A quarter of the book is devoted to the origins of the war but, once the rebellion of the generals (not just Franco) has taken place, it becomes a history of Spain over just three years from 1936 to 1939.

Thomas is, above all, fair-minded, humane and allows us to make our own moral judgements - some of which are easy to make amidst the vileness of civil war. There is a necessary abandonment of partisanship to let the facts speak for rhemselves. I hope the same can be done for Syria one day.

The overwhelming sense here is of despair at the horror of it all as civilisation crumbles in the hands of largely inept liberal politicians and callous generals but I am afraid it is not quite the simple tale of good and evil that either side might like us to think it is.

On the Republican side, bitter working class rage at conditions and hatred of clericalism resulted in an anarchism that had become a millennial tradition. It performed atrocities that were easily equal to the deliberate use of terror by the generals, especially by Franco.

Why was Franco so brutal to his own people? Part of the answer lies in the importation of methods used in imperial warfare in Morocco (Moroccan troops were central to the revolt against the Republic) in which the Spanish working class and Left intellectuals were to be deemed 'savages'.

This re-importation of imperial policing into the homeland is not unique to Spain. It is an extreme example of similar tendencies elsewhere. It is an expression of an elite fearful of its own people and seeing them as the enemy within. Any methods become tolerable to survive.

British policing of ethnic communities would later rely on methods and habits derived from its Empire. Colonial counter-terrorism methods were to be applied to Ireland but no other country saw such imperial methods introduced under full national civil war conditions.

In fact, the Falange (the fascist movement) comes across as surprisingly decent and moderate at its leadership level, possibly more so than a vengeful Catholic Church or the Carlists although the rapidly growing Falangist rank-and-file were more than happy to engage in brutalities.

The fascism of Antonio Primo de Rivera, untested in office, strikes this reader as more thoughtful and less brutal than that of Mussolini or the Spanish Generals but we will never know whether he would have been a restraining influence or the opposite.

The Falange was simply appropriated after APdR's murder in the Republican zone. merged with the Carlists and turned into a different sort of fascist movement. Was Franco a fascist? He certainly cannot simply be written off as a catholic authoritarian any more. He was a moral monster.

He was easily as brutal as Mussolini (who had his own blood lust to satiate in Spain) and, if not atheist and corporatist in the same way, he was methodologically no less fascistic than his interwar peers and certainly introduced a cultural totalitarianism under a manufactured one party state.

Were the Republicans any better? Terror was not a instrument of top-down policy except amongst the Communists whereas Nationalist terror was deliberate and encouraged, horribly under what purported to be a Christian polity (as usual, few clerics spoke out and some participated).

But terror took place regardless in the Republican zone. Anarchist atrocities were early in the game and they did not have the excuse of barbarism in response to barbarism. It was also an instrument of policy for the Communists especially against their Trotskyist rivals in the POUM.

Not that the POUM were saints - I think we should be in no doubt that, if POUM had been stronger, it would have behaved in an equally barbarous way. Clerics and middle class nationalists in one zone, workers and republicans in the other - both were slaughtered just for being who they were.

Thomas gives a good account of the conduct of the war itself and of the international interventions (Fascist and Nazi on one side and Soviet on the other) as well as the rather repulsive and weak non-interventionist manouevrings of the democratic countries.

If you are a military history nerd and want precise numbers and makes of aircraft in particular battles or the formations engaged and how the battle front moved, you will get that alongside the problems of arms supply and the details of arms trading.

Sometimes you sense that many of the Republican officers who opposed the Nationalist rebellion did not always have their heart in it. A few were traitors, most did their best but the Republic was not inspiring when many of its proponents were as interested in revolution.

The naval history is almost an allegory of the larger war - not involved in the original plot (the air force was largely Republican and progressive as is often the case in this era), the naval forces split and the Republican side played minimal role while the Nationalists controlled the seas.

If Franco's Moroccans had not been able to cross the Straits in force (and he required German help to get the first of them across by air) and if nationalist exports and imports, especially arms, could have been blockaded, it is probable that a better organised Republic could have won.

As it was, the opposite happened - ships (including British ships) intended for Republican ports were sunk and the French border was only intermittently open for arms trades. Without the Soviets, 'democracy' would have crumbled much more quickly.

Incidentally, the lack of action by the British naval and political authorities in response to attacks on British shipping gives us some sense of just how weak the British Empire had become by the late 1930s compared to its Edwardian heyday. This was an empire ripe for falling.

Thomas is good on the detail of Western non-interventionism even if these are the only sections where one feels one is watching paint dry as possibly intentionally naive liberal bureaucrats are cynically played by diplomats like Neurath, Ciano and Maisky.

In fact, it is hard to see what Western democrats could have done without triggering a general European War (which the Republicans wanted to ensure more aid). They were not prepared for this eventuality. Allying with the Soviet Union for Republicanism was a bridge too far in the late 1930s.

While Italy was happy to go grandstanding around the Meditterranean for effect (before Spain it was Ethiopia and after Spain it was Albania), none of the other players actually wanted war either because it was too early (Germany) or because it was too terrifying in and of itself (everyone else).

Three sets of players, Germany, the Liberal Democracies (a weak Britain and a weaker France with the US nervous of domestic voters) and the Soviets (where Stalin was working every trick in the book to deter invasion), were dancing around each other, aware of the possibility of the 'big one'

The interventionists were certainly cynical, happy to prolong the war and not particularly interested in the victory of the side they backed. The Germans wanted mining rights, the Italians military glory and the Soviets a bargaining tool in trying to build rapprochement with the West.

Stalin sent over vast amounts of equipment and advisers, to be sure, but it was all covered by the Spanish gold reserves held in Moscow which Spain was never going to see again. The Communists were there not for revolution but to build a 'popular front' mentality against fascism.

Both sets of interventionists treated Spain like a military testing ground. Guernica now looks like an unintended blunder from soldiers learning their trade more than the deliberate act of terror that it was interpreted to be but the general attitude was one of blindness to human life.

Franco was just cleverer than the Republicans at managing his allies - tantalising and frustrating the Germans over their access to minerals, ensuring as much control as possible over allied military forces (not always successfuly) but eventually able to kick them out when it was all over.

Communist dominance in the Republic simply arose from their superior competence, especially compared to anarchists who were ill-suited to the discipline of modern warfare. It is intriguing that so many Republican military officers and administrators joined the Party just for that reason.

It turns out that the Spanish Communist Party quickly ceased to be a revolutionary workers' party and soon became a party of middle class technocrats and officers whose sole concern (whatever Stalin thought) was to defend the Republic. The officers tended to scuttle when the Party failed.

The war (so similar in complexity to the current Syrian situation) was the more complicated in having two opposing sets of monarchists as well as radical fascists on one side, two major regional separatisms and two warring Left ideologies as well as the split within Bolshevism on the other.

Liberal and moderates scarcely stood a chance even if they had not between so consistently inept and, when not inept, negative and pessimistic. Liberal moaning will have undermined morale. A rump of the Cortes remained but was no more useful than Parliament in the English Civil War.

Given the cards he was dealt, the final Prime Minister of the Republic, the Socialist Negrin, was capable of decisiveness and tough political decision-making but it was all too late in the game after the Government was forced to scuttle from Madrid, almost but not actually encircled.

There is a lot of classical heroism as well by ordinary officers and men on both sides and moral courage by a few. Nationalists holding out under fearful odds in redoubts, the battle for Madrid, the resistance in the Asturias, the International Brigades and the battles on the Aragon Front.

There is so much to ponder in this story about class conflict, petty nationalism, the burden of history, imperialism, the vulture-like behaviour of some countries and the weak self interest of others as well as the intrinsic weakness of middle class liberalism when things get existential.

Franco, though, must be accepted as a political genius who got everyone else to do his fighting for him, out-manouevred his generals and the various nationalist factions, knocked their heads together to create a 'regime' and died in office, the last fascist to survive, decades later.

He played every card well in a poker game where his own life was at stake against much weaker opponents, using his allies instead of being used by them.

The Spanish Civil War thus remains historically important not just to Spain but in wider European history as a practice run for the Second World War and as a test bed for various ideologies and military operations but also of how civil wars start, are maintained and end.

A civil war is the sign of a failure of a polity even if it wins (which it did not on this occasion), it requires the merging of social forces to the point where there is nothing but killing or being killed and, eventually, one will win and seek to wipe out all traces of the defeated.

There is no instinct for reconciliation and management of the peace as there is after one nation has defeated another in national wars, a lesson slowly learned in stages between 1870 and 1945, just the determination to re-mould the nation in the image of the victors.

The Nationalists continued their terror past victory and there is no reason to believe that Republican revolutionary terror would not have followed its own victory although with more chances for international public opinion to moderate behaviour.

The War destroyed the pretensions of romantic idealism whether anarchist, internationalist or falangist, showed that Machiavelli had it right about power and demonstrated the brutal cynicism of fascism and communism and why liberal democracies are their own worst enemies.

Civil War is an exceptionally bad thing. Here, responsibility lies as much as with the maladministration and naivete of socialists and liberals in the run-up to the rebellion as it does with the fascist brutes, anarchist millenarians and communist torturers enabled by failure.

As a guide to the war and its complexity and as a baseline for the facts required to allow sensible moral judgements, Thomas' book is invaluable - not the last word perhaps but still a book worth reading.

Profile Image for منوچهر محور.
152 reviews10 followers
March 18, 2024
در اسپانیا، پس از سالهای طولانی درگیری سیاسی، انقلابات محدود و جنگهای موضعی، سرانجام در سال ۱۹۳۶ نظامیان ناسیونالیست بر علیه دولت جمهوری کودتا کردند. این کودتا نتوانست در همه کشور موفق باشد و باعث شد یک جنگ داخلی بین کودتاچیان و دولت جمهوری درگیرد‌. بلافاصله آلمان و ایتالیا به پشتیبانی ناسیونالیستها تسلیحات و افراد نظامی روانه اسپانیا کردند. فرانسه و انگلیس به ظاهر بی‌طرف ماندند و شوروی پس از چند ماه به حمایت دولت جمهوری برخواست ولی بسیار کژدار و مریز. همچنین از سراسر اروپا و ایالات متحده، داوطلبانی برای جنگ با کودتاچیان (جبهه فاشیست) حتی به صورت قاچاق به اسپانیا رفتند تا از ایدئولوژی خود دفاع کنند.
هیو تامس در این کتاب مسائل جنگ اسپانیا را، از پیشینه تاریخی تا جزئیات نبردها و سیاست‌بازی‌های پشت جبهه، به خواننده ارائه می‌دهد. کتاب افراد زیادی را نام می‌برد که در سیاستها و نبردها نقش داشتند و اگر خواننده با به خاطر سپردن نام آنها کنار بیابد، از مطالب کتاب هم استفاده خواهد برد و هم لذت. البته مترجم با زبان اسپانیایی آشنا نبوده و نامها را به روش من‌درآوردی ثبت کرده است؛ حتی نام مکان‌ها را در هر جای کتاب با تلفظی متفاوت، فرانسه یا عربی یا انگلیسی، آورده است. خوشبختانه نثر نویسنده سرراست و ساده است و ترجمه تحت‌الفظی کتاب لطمه زیادی به آن نزده است.
چندین تن از نویسندگان و شاعران آن زمانِ اروپا در جنگ داخلی شرکت داشتند و در جای جای این کتاب از نوشته‌های آنها یاد می‌شود؛ معروفترین آنها زنده باد کاتالونیا ارول و زنگها برای که به صدا درمی‌آیند؟ همینگوی هستند. این همه باعث شده است هیجانی که جنگ داخلی اسپانیا در جهان آن روز برانگیخت به تصویر کشیده شود.
هر چند در این کتاب نویسنده بی‌طرفی را حفظ کرده و باعث شده کارش به عنوان اثری کلاسیک درباره جنگ داخلی اسپانیا شناخته شود، اما گویا انقلابهای آنارشیستی ابتدای جنگ داخلی حوادث مهمی به دنبال داشت که در این کتاب از آن بحثی نشده است. فصل نتیجه‌گیری هم، با توجه به حقایقی که خود نویسنده در فصلهای قبلی کتاب ارائه داده، کمی سطحی و ساده‌انگارانه است۰
Profile Image for T. Fowler.
Author 6 books19 followers
June 2, 2014
The story of this civil war, as told by Hugh Thomas, amazed me. Full of drama, courage and atrocity, idealism and deceit. It constantly surprises me how human societies can suddenly collapse, tearing themselves apart, and so easily resort to killing others whose beliefs differ. Is there a parallel to the current civil war in Syria? Where a rebel side seeks to overthrow a government which has lost touch with its people, but external volunteers enter to distort the picture. I knew little of the Spanish Civil War before this book, but it really has informed me well.
Profile Image for Christopher Saunders.
961 reviews883 followers
March 20, 2018
For decades, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War (first written in 1961 and periodically expanded and updated until Thomas's death) has been the standard English-language history of that cataclysmic conflict. Despite its forbidding length (1,100 pages in its last revision) and the topic's sheer scope, it's briskly written and surprisingly accessible. Thomas proves as adept sketching the war's convoluted origins (a break-down in Spanish society caused by labor unrest, disastrous foreign wars and an ineffectual monarchy that made Franco's reaction seem appealing), diplomatic dimensions (from the Republic's doomed attempts to court foreign support to Franco's easy alliance with Italy and Nazi Germany) and the messy military maneuvers. To a relative novice like me, the main thing standing out in Thomas's account is the utter brutality of both sides, with civilians regularly massacred, raped and otherwise mistreated in savage ways more expected from feud turf wars than a modern, "civilized" nation. Thomas is less perceptive addressing Spain's internal politics, with a simplified view of the different Leftist factions backing the Republicans, reducing key events like the liquidation of the Trotskyist POUM to a footnote, and occasionally lapsing into Cold War sloganeering about the Communist-progressive alliance. For all that, it's a rich and engaging portrait that holds up remarkably well considering subsequent scholarship and the minefields involved in analyzing it.
Profile Image for Monty Milne.
912 reviews60 followers
August 12, 2021
I’ve just re read this, alongside Beevor’s “The Battle for Spain”, and it has confirmed my opinion that Thomas is really the best book on the conflict available in English, despite the fact that it is now somewhat dated. It is the only balanced and unbiased book I have found on the subject. Beevor’s bias towards the Republicans is unobtrusive but there nonetheless, which wouldn’t really matter except that his book also somehow lacks the punch of his other writings (especially his masterpiece on Stalingrad). Paul Preston, a Professor of Hispanic studies who has written numerous books on Franco and the Civil War, has openly admitted his overt Republican bias and his works have been criticised for it. I haven’t read him and don’t intend to.

I like Thomas’s style, and his anecdotes – of which there are many – are well chosen for what they reveal, pungently and wittily expressed, and often very funny. This was a conflict in which horror, irony and absurdity all found expression. General Sanjurjo crashed his plane because he insisted on overloading it with his extensive collection of full dress uniforms; General Varela wore his medals on his dressing gown. The description of Queipo de Llano’s broadcasts is hilariously insane. The Nationalists delivered messages to besieged comrades by attaching them to live turkeys and dropping them out of aeroplanes – the turkeys of course being eaten on arrival.

The Republicans too are a rich source of the comic and the grotesque, such as the Communist conference speech extolling freedom of religion – when every church in Barcelona except the cathedral had just been destroyed by official order. (The Sagrada Familia only survived because, being made of concrete, soaking it in petrol and applying a light didn’t have much effect – another mad detail).

Of course this fascinating wealth of information also comes with its sombre elements. This is unavoidable when dealing with such a savage conflict, in which many atrocities were perpetrated by both sides. (Probably slightly more by the Nationalists, but only because they won, or it would undoubtedly have been the other way round).

There is an interesting and thoughtful analysis of Franco at the end, when Thomas makes comparisons with Octavian. I don’t think Franco had quite the same stature, but both men certainly had immense talent for playing political power games, combined with a curiously unappealing and not obviously charismatic personality.
Profile Image for Jim.
2,174 reviews715 followers
August 12, 2017
We tend to think of the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 merely as a run-up to the Second World War. It was that, as the Germans and Italians not only supplied the Fascists, but fought side by side with them. On the Republican side, the Soviet Communists supplied the Republicans and provided volunteers through the Comintern. Unfortunately for the losing side, Stalin was at the time purging the officers of the Russian army, resulting in the death of such great innovators as Marshal Tukachevsky as well as a large part of the Russian officer corps. Russia was to pay heavily for the timing of this madness: In 1941, the Nazis invaded Russia, and the Russians lost upwards of 20 million of its citizens.

Spain was a much smaller theater of war. In his The Spanish Civil War, author Hugh Thomas estimates the total war dead at 600,000. Franco's German assistance was of vital assistance to his cause, but the Communist assistance was affected by factionalism between Stalinist, Trotskyist, Anarchist, and Socialist groups who saw one another as political rivals.

Also fighting on the losing side were the International Brigades, including forces from Britain, France, the United States, Poland, Bulgaria, Belgium -- in fact, all of non-fascist Europe.

I read the original 1961 edition of this work, because my sympathies are solidly on the Republican side; and Thomas grew more rigidly conservative as he aged, becoming in the end Baron Thomas of Swynnerton and receiving honors from the Franco side.

This is by no means a quick read, but it is well written with an excellent bibliography, index, and appendices. Some of the maps, especially the one of the Fascist campaign in Catalonia, are confusing.
53 reviews3 followers
September 21, 2011
UKIP makes me want to vomit, although the BNP is worse. Reading again Hugh Thomas’s gripping history, I was more moved than I expected to be by the great tragedy which befell Spain in the late 30s and which the liberal democracies allowed to happen by their fear of provoking fascist Italy and Germany.
Putting ones country first whatever the circumstances is a peculiar thing to do. To put ones own vision of what that country means before any other considerations crosses the borders of mental illness. There can be fewer more ridiculous figures than the childish and poisonous, maimed and bizarre, general Millan Astray shouting the Spanish Legionaries nonsensical motto – ‘long live death!’ (When, in the great hall of the University of Salamanca, the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno pointed out how stupid this was, he could vary – ‘death to intellectuals, long live death!’ he cried.)
The republic was not innocent, there were bad men, and bad things were done; but these were not policy. For Franco and the nationalists murder was policy. But the right was disciplined: anarchist units were handicapped by the necessity of holding meetings before going into action. Squabbling on the left was rife and sometimes murderous.
Thomas’s book is long, at over a thousand pages, but is so worth reading again. I was gripped enough to suspend disbelief (or do I mean belief) and to hope as I turned the pages, that the ending would be other than that which I knew it to be. Seventy years is a long time and the right all over Europe still hopes that the rest of us will forget.
The International Brigades are rightly famous and this month Spain will give the elderly survivors Spanish passports. These people fought for what they believed in rather than for their country. The Garibaldi battalion fought much better than the regular Italian units on the nationalists’ side did. (Germans, of course, were different and the Condor Legion made a major contribution to the nationalist victory: Spain was the Wehrmacht’s training ground for Poland, France and Russia.). Largely by the influence of McCarthy and his henchmen, the Abraham Lincoln battalion was declared subversive in 1946. European democracy did not behave like that, (we should not forget Greece however). Those of us who believe that Europe is more important than its individual states should read this book. Read it, and vote against UKIP and its ludicrous identification with a nationalist pseudo-history and false Churchillian imagery.
Profile Image for Filip.
341 reviews4 followers
October 26, 2022
Spanish Civil War by the Hugh Thomas is probably best book about war in Spain. It fallows closly events in Spanish society that led to war and then fallows the faithfull battles and it gives answers on why it had so high casuality numbers.
But best thing about the book is that it is not poluted by left-right politics but it tries to be true to history.
Profile Image for Brian .
913 reviews3 followers
November 1, 2011
Hugh Thomas account of the Spanish Civil War is the most thorough version of the events written to date. His writing style makes the reader believe the entire account could be fiction. It is very easy to read and you hardly feel like you are reading history at all. The Spanish Civil War is one of the most devastating conflicts of the 20th century. It is the precursor to World War II and showcased as well as trained some of Germany, Italy and Russia's top talent. The sheer devastation of tactics involved bullied a civilian population and decimated a country. The rise of Francisco Franco and his victory over the communists was made possible by fascist intervention. The democracies of the world worked hard to try and effect a peace but they were unsuccessful against the determination of the fascists and the communists to prolong the conflict. This is a complicated conflict to understand but Hugh Thomas tries to simplify it as much as he can. This is the best start to understanding the Spanish Civil War and for those who want to understand how World War II began.
Profile Image for David.
Author 26 books175 followers
September 4, 2016
The Spanish Civil War is often read as a backdrop for the much larger Second World War and this is a solid approach to this regional conflict, but the conflict itself has had a much larger historical and cultural impact on the world of today than many readers may believe. For this reason, and many others, this remains a seminal moment [1936-39] in Western and world history.

Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War, 50th Anniversary edition, remains the best, if exhaustive [1,116 pages -- Kindle Edition], single-volume history of the war. There are other good histories but this is the narrative history many readers continue to return to, though it was originally published in 1961.

The reading experience is smooth; the research impeccable; the detail stunning; the historical insight subtle.

For readers looking to read only one book on this conflict, this would be the book to read.

Recommended for students of 20th Century European conflict and ideology

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for Bahman Bahman.
Author 3 books226 followers
July 18, 2016
کلاس ۵ ابتدایی بودم که این کتاب رو خوندم(خیلی‌ تصادفی تو کتابخونهٔ داییم دیدم)و از همون موقع عشق تاریخ جنگ داخلی‌ اسپانیا شدم؛)
Profile Image for Dropbear123.
278 reviews11 followers
June 26, 2022
3.5/5. But I only paid 25p for it so I'm happy with it.

Decent and VERY in-depth (like it takes over 600 pages in to get to the bombing of Guernica for example) . Covers nearly every part of the Spanish Civil War. The first 200 or so pages just cover the prewar politics and the causes of the conflict. Fine if a bit dry. This part gets only 3/5. The next 750 pages cover the entire conflict, including the international politics, the domestic politics and conditions on each side, the economics, the naval side, and a lot on the growing power of the communists in the Republic and this gets a 4/5. The book is fairly top-focused so if you're looking for on the ground stories of ordinary people then this probably isn't for you. The military side of things struck the right balance of providing enough info to know what was happening without getting too deep into army movements. I found the domestic politics of the Republican side to be a little bit difficult to follow but I suppose that comes with the territory, so many factions and variations of leftwinger. It seemed to me to be fairly balanced and not too pro-Republican. The 1994 edition I read had good maps over the course of the conflict to show the Nationalist gains, as well as some military maps showing specific battles and campaigns. Plus a decent conclusion summing up the war, the impact of various things and why the Nationalists won (Thomas mainly puts it on the factions of the right being able to unite and focus on victory while the factions of the left didn't)
Profile Image for Alan.
122 reviews
August 11, 2021
A whale of a book —literally. Weighing in at almost 1000 pages it is comprehensive in every sense. As a reader who prides himself in his general knowledge of history especially the last 200 years — I had little understanding of the Spanish Civil War beyond Guernica ( the painting) Hemingway and that Franco was a fascist. So I undertook the quest to read this work — reputedly the best single volume history of the conflict. I learned a lot - far more than I bargained for. It literally covered every twist, turn, battle, offensive, counter offensive, revolution, counter revolution etc over a 3 year period 1936-39, preceded by almost 200 pages of the origins of the war. I was most interested in the international diplomacy surrounding the war — the key outside powers were Italy and Germany on the Nationalist side and Russia on the Republican side. Meanwhile Britain and France backed a non intervention policy that embargoed arms to either side which Germany, Italy and Russia simply ignored. The Spanish Civil War was a military testing ground for arms, tanks and aviation tactics. The Germans perfected the Blitzkrieg in Spain and carpet bombing cities and civilian population— a preview of what was to come in Britain. To get through this tome in a month I had to skim through some tedious battles and explanations of shifting political alliances. All in all a worthwhile reading experience.
67 reviews1 follower
September 6, 2020
Not for the faint-hearted; it took me a couple of months to get through, and I was already interested in that era of history. However, I'm SO glad I persevered. As the revue says, this is the definitive one-volume story of the war. The shear number of characters is overwhelming, as is the number of political factions. The interaction between players is more bizarre than the wildest book of fiction.

Some surprise guest appearances (for me, anyway): Emma Goldman, Kim Philby, Alexander Orlov, André Malraux, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, John Dos Passos, Pablo Neruda etc. See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

I need to get my own copy for reference purposes.







Profile Image for Javier Sánchez.
84 reviews10 followers
January 29, 2019
Gran libro sobre la guerra civil que analiza los principales motivos políticos que llevaron al estallido del conflicto. Describe de manera estructurada los movimientos de los ejércitos, los apoyos internacionales con que contaron y las luchas internas que surgieron en las dos partes enfrentadas, así como la situación social, política y económica en los territorios de retaguardia de ambos bandos.

Detalla sin llegar a abrumar con detalles excesivamente técnicos, los movimientos de las tropas en los diferentes frentes de batalla y las decisiones que tomaban generales y gobernantes en uno y otro lado.

Es un libro alejado de maniqueísmos, pero tampoco cae en una equidistancia que justificaría los actos realizados en uno u otro lado. Expone los hechos ocurridos en el contexto en que se produjeron y al mismo tiempo remarca cuando es necesario, si la información sobre determinado hecho tiene la base documental suficiente como para ser considerado verídico o más bien una afirmación producto de la propaganda.

Una gran elección si se quiere saber más sobre este conflicto de la mano de uno de los grandes hispanistas de todos los tiempos.
November 23, 2014
Wow. I had no idea. I thought I knew something about the Spanish Civil War, but I knew nothing. It was fascinating, the story of the anarchist left captured the government through democratic elections, and how the government's attempted adherence to the ideology was such a devastating handicap in the war against the falangists.

the conflicted sentiments on the part of the UK and the US over which side they should support, if either, reminds me of the current situation the US faces in the conflict in Syria and Iraq.

A must read.
Profile Image for Czarny Pies.
2,600 reviews1 follower
August 30, 2014
This is a great book which I feel has now been superseded by Antony Beevor's excellent history of the Spanish War. If you are uncomfortable allowing Antony Beevor, who is often accused of being right wing, to form your views on Spain, then read this work by Thomas.

I read both thirty years apart and found both worthwhile.
Profile Image for Joe Remmert.
24 reviews2 followers
August 10, 2022
Very thorough. Thomas remains mostly neutral and gives a good account of the politics leading up to and during the war. He gives plenty of detail on Britain's response to the war.
Profile Image for Maria.
171 reviews1 follower
April 24, 2022
Me gusto tanto aprender de la historia de esta etapa tan profundamente como esta descrita en el libro. aprendi tanto pero a la misma vez me siente que no me acuerdo de nada, y aunque muy dense en algunas partes, disfruté mucho de toda la sabiduría a la que me siento he presenciado.

Los hechos empiezan desde las polaridad en la segunda republica, el levantamiento de los tres generales, uno de ellos franco, quiepo y mola creo recordar, que se hicieron conocidos durante los movimientos del ejército en Marruecos. Y de alli empiezan el levantimiento por diferentes sietos en españa especialmetne galicia, sevilla y salamanca y como se nutren de el soporte de un grupo diverso de derechitas, desde los católicos, monarquistas y fascistas. También llegue a saber de todos los crímenes en las zonas anarquistas donde miles de sacerdotas fueron matados, a respuesta del soporte catolico a los nacionalistas. Y de aquí trancurren los hechos con eventos como el ataque aéreo, el primero de su tipo, sobre Guernica, el pueblecín en el País Vasco, por la legión Condor. También me sorprendió todas la influencias de afuera, con Rusia siendo el único país que casi hasta el final apoyó a los republicanos, mientras los inglesitos y america y francia, a menos extensidad la última, creo la organizacion de intervercion, para prevenir una guerra mundial. Pero esta quiso decir que mientras franco tenia apoyo suficientes en armas y soldados de italia y alemania, la republica tan solo rusia. Y mientras todo también me extraño la cantidad de polaridades dentro del lado republicano entre los comunistas, los anarquistas y los socialistas, y como fue este que hizo que despues de que franco hubiese conquistado todo el norte y el medio hasta madrid, y el sur hasta la mayoria de andalucia, hubo un coup dentro del gobierno republicano, para prevenir que los comunista tuvieran más poder. En fue lo último que me sorprendió como esta ultima zona fue derrotada con bandera blanca, sin guerra, ya que la moral de los soldados estaba por los suelos.

Lo que sí, es que ahora que he terminado este librazo quiero aprender mucho más de lo que era vivir bajo franco, para distantas partes de la sociedad. y luego me llevo a los worm holes de wikipedia, sobre como despues de la muerte de franco, España se movió hacia una democracia de hoy, aunque sin poder olvidar todas la tan majas polaridades que todavía existe en la política. También me ha hecho apreciar mucho más el rencor que le tiene a los policías y el ejército que a todos tiempos perece que apoyó a los derechistas. No sé si por historia o si porque el poder del ejército naturalmente acabo atrayendo a gente de ese lado de la política.

Estos son algunos puntas a través del libro que me gustaron:

"primero se mata a los padres, y luego se hace caridad con los niños, era un comentaria cínico. a pesar de todo, estos centros sociales imporvisados eran lugares animados, montados por las esposas e hijas de los ricos, quizás un poco paternalistas, pero, con una, dedicación que, de haber existido antes de la guerra, seguramente la habría hecho innecesario. De Auxilis Social surgieron otras instituciones, como las Cocinas de Hermandad, organizaciones para confeccionar ropa para los desvalidos, y casas de maternidad. las margaritas, la organizacion de las mujeres caristas, tambien hicieron mucha labor social."

"se declaró la guerras a los escotes y a las faldas cortas. las mangas tenian que llegar a las muécas, y estaban muy mal vistos todos los modales igualitarios. cualquiera que dijers salud al estilo republicano se arriesgaba a recibir la visita de la policía"

" aquella fue la ocasión para los escritores frustrados or resentidos que habian fracasado en timepos de la republica, al decir de ellos, debida ala conspiracion jedeo marxista masonica para dominar las universidades o imponer su favoritismo den el campo de las artes" suena familiar

"azaña: es obligación moral, sobre todo de los que padecen la guera, cuando se acabe como nosotros queremos que se acabe, sacar de la lección y de la musa del escarmiento el mayor bien posbile y cuando la antorcha pase a otras manos, a otros hombres, a otras generaciones, que se acordaran, si alugna vez sientes que les hierve la sagre iracunda y otra vez el genio esañol vuelva a enfurecerse con la inolerancio y con el odio y con el apetito de destrucción que piensen en los muertes y que escuchen su lección la de esos hombre que han caído embravecidos en la batalla luchando magn´nimmamente por un idea gradioso y que ahora, abrigados en l atierra materna, ya no tienen odio, ya no tienen reconr, y nos envian con los destellos de su luz tranquila y remota como la de una estrella el mensaje de la patria eterna que dice a todos sus hijos: Paz, Piedad y Perdón"
105 reviews
October 2, 2022
"Beyond all these deaths of celebrated men, there rose the mass spectre of those many thousands of warriors, known and unknown, who too had died, many giving their lives for causes which, on both sides, they had come to believe were noble; while many others had died without idealism, for causes for which they had fought without hope" (p. 904)

Terrifying but excellent account of the Spanish Civil War. Most Americans and much of Western Europe are instinctively supportive of the Republic, even when this side warrants much more scrutiny. Thomas was surprisingly not automatically biased in favor of it where most 21st century people wouldn't already agree to oppose (against fascism, the mild and largely small Falangist version in Spain, and their Nazi and Italian supporters).

Particularly crushed by this realistic narrative are the anarchists, who I did not realize were as influential as they were, even in their spectacular failure. They are depicted as overly idealistic to a "burn-the-world-down-fault," willing to gorge in violence equal to that of the Nationalist Rebels, ultimately irreconcilable with non-radical, but reasonable changes to Spanish society concerning land distribution, worker rights, the Catholic Church, and basic criminal justice. They also likely discredited the Republic enough during the early days of the rebellion to weaken it when faced with the disciplined forces led by Franco. They along with the communists are often showed to be unyielding and unreasonable where a pragmatic approach might have kept the popular support for the Republic after the early 1930s. Their dogmatism as much as the right-wing zeal in opposing them doomed the Revolution to the same category of death and gore as the French and Russian Revolutions.

The communists forces are depicted as efficient and ruthless, under the thumb of Stalin who purged it from afar of elements that supported Trotsky. The communists achieved much more than the anarchists because of their discipline and especially the heavy money and trained Russian commissars that influenced Republican forces. However, if successful, their actions boded just as ill for the Republic, as they used Stalinist purge tactics and would've likely done the same with show trials in a Stalinized Republic. Though he pulled back support when the Nationalists were increasingly victorious, Stalin's proxy victory would likely have been as horrific if not worse than that imposed by the winners. The arbitrary tribunals, random executions, and petty squabbles while under the nominal support of the Republic and its Popular Front helped to alienate it from a meaningful revolution where few people died and reform rather than destruction happened.

Finally, another interesting angle is the international one. Great Britain and France, already feckless because of appeasement, were constantly bargaining away their own general public support for the Spanish Republic for peace with Hitler in other areas of Europe. It is interesting how the communist and Republican groups in Spain wanted a world war to cement Soviet support and to dilute German and Italian support to other parts of Europe, while Stalin only wanted the world war to happen if he had the firm commitment of Britain and France to face down the Nazi threat.

The Germans, Russians, and Italians used Spain as a proving ground for many tactics, especially in the air, for WWII. Thomas does a good job of showing the horrible impact of the civil war not only on the Spanish people, their society and institutions, but also on the world as it was a playground for the war that would come in 1939.
Profile Image for Reza Amiri Praramadhan.
513 reviews32 followers
May 20, 2020
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a prelude to the larger-scale World War II, where Second Spanish Republic, backed by Soviet Union and famously, International Brigades, where many famous figures like George Orwell, for example, served, pitted against Nationalist Spain, backed by ‘volunteers’ from Nazi Germany (remember Condor Legion) and Italian Legionnaries, while Great Britain and France busied themselves with Non-intervention Committee, that international farce, and politics of appeasement.
In the end, Nationalist Spain managed to triumph, due to General Franco’s apparent success in uniting various bickering factions within the rebellious movement, such as the fascist Falangists, the (Catholic) Church, and the monarchist Carlists. Dull, unimaginative, yet serene, cold, and calculating, Franco emerged at the pinnacle of Spanish politics from among other more colorful characters. Superior quality of supports from Germany, and to lesser extent, from Italy also contributed. The Nationalists were also helped with the apparent failure of Republicans to unite against Nationalist threat, with its politicians continually bickered with each other, even in exile. When the communists, with support from Soviet Union managed to gain nominal hold of the Republic, it did so with inherent suspicions of its allies, the anarchists, socialists, and Catalan and Basque nationalists (not to be confused with Franco’s nationalists), and it was too late.
The author being Hugh Thomas, this book manages to present the Spanish Civil War in balanced and impartial manner. His attention to details, with footnotes that sometimes occupy half of a page, would make reading this book a tedious task. How he managed to compile such a detailed book on a three-year-war, along with the small details such as daily lives of Spanish people, personalities of important figures, military maneuvers and diplomatic intrigues still amazes me.
As conclusion, I highly recommend this book as reference to everyone who is interested in Spanish history, either you want to relive the glory of Generalissimo Franco (like me), or to lament the death of the first overtly Left-Wing regime in western hemisphere and only place where the anarchists were ‘this’ close to power. You are welcome to open this gargantuan of a book and be overwhelmed by the informative footnotes.
Profile Image for Julio Pino.
1,170 reviews76 followers
November 16, 2022
"When I was attending college in the Thirties under the Jesuits, all born in Spain, the Brothers told me of Republican executions of priests. Thus I was able to see this was not a simple struggle between good and evil".---Fidel Castro

"Francisco Franco banned my book THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR just as Fidel Castro banned my history, CUBA: Or, THE PURSUIT OF FREEDOM".---Hugh Thomas

I have been to Spain several times and never gotten over the feeling while sitting in a cafe that fifty or sixty years earlier this place was probably under bombardment or served as a trench for either the Republicans or the Francoists. The Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 did indeed turn into "the cockpit of Europe," per the German ex-Communist turned political commentator Franz Borkenau, or in Hemingway's phrase, borrowed from Donne, the "bell that tolled" for the rest of Europe if Fascism won. Yet, the way Hugh Thomas describes that savage conflict, it need not have happened at all. The Popular Front that ruled Spain on and off from 1931-1936 was so filled with rival factions, from Basque Nationalists to bland Socialists, that it would have collapsed in the 1936 elections and the Right taken power peacefully. What tipped the balance in favor of war was Franco's delirium and delight at the triumphs of Mussolini in Ethiopia and Hitler in the Rhineland. Still, that feeble republic managed to hang on to power for another three years against the combined forces of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. How? The armed forces split along class lines, with Army officers going over to Franco but non-commissioned officers staying loyal, as did the Navy. (The Republic possessed no air force; Andre' Malraux later liked to boast he had invented it from scratch.) The controversial role of the Soviet Union in the Civil War receives mostly a negative treatment from Thomas. (While the USSR still existed I heard one Soviet writer say on US television that FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS WAS published in his home country, "with criticisms of certain passages".) One side benefit, though, is that the Spanish Communist Party, practically a cypher before the war, grew by the hundreds of thousands, drawing other Communist volunteers from the rest of the world. Thomas gets some things wrong; the POUM, for example was not "the Trotskyist party in Spain", Trotsky himself disowned it, but on the whole this tome has stood the test of time in English-language literature on the civil war that divided the world in its day.
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