Recommended reading on the Spanish Civil War

[guerracivil]

Do not miss this amazing new book: "The Spanish Civil War" written by Carlos J. Medina. An ilustrated history with unedited new photographs and an incredible content.

Here you have a link were you can find a preview of the amazing book by Andrea Press:

http://www.andrea-miniatures.com/imagen ... uncio.html

[von thoma]

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Legion Condor Aces (Aircraft of the Aces).
By Robert Forsyth.
2011 Osprey Publishing.

Essential,given the scarcity of books on the subject.

[von thoma]

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Condor Legion,by Peter Elstob.

(Ballantine's Illustrated History of the Violent Century).

Old,but very good.

[Orwell1984]

http://www.amazon.com/Flak-Artillery-Le ... 0764332317



http://www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Von-Thom ... pd_sim_b_5



http://www.amazon.com/Planes-Legion-Con ... 238&sr=1-6



http://www.amazon.com/Legion-Condor-193 ... 238&sr=1-1


http://www.amazon.com/Hitlers-Luftwaffe ... 376&sr=1-1

The Schiffer titles do a great job of covering some little know areas of Legion Condor involvement. Proctor's book is an interesting look at the evolution of Luftwaffe involvement and the lessons carried over from the SCW to World War Two

[Felix C]

I have the chance to purchase the following:

Guerra y Revolucion en Espana 1936-1939 (complete in 5 volumes) by Georges Soria, Ediciones Grijalbo y Ediciones Ocèano, Barcelona, 1978, hardbound, 411, 383, 405, 390 and 387 pgs

opinion on the books and the author?

[Orwell1984]

The Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
Michael Alpert
http://www.amazon.com/Republican-Army-S ... 386&sr=1-6
http://www.cambridge.org/ca/knowledge/i ... cale=en_CA

Publishing date March 2013
From the blurb:

This is a long-awaited translation of a definitive account of the Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. Michael Alpert examines the origins, formation and performance of the Republican Army and sets the Spanish Civil War in its broader military context. He explores the conflicts between communists and Spanish anarchists about how the war should be fought, as well as the experience of individual conscripts, problems of food, clothing and arms, and the role of women in the new army. The book contains extensive discussion of international aspects, particularly the role of the International Brigades and of the Soviet Russian advisers. Finally, it discusses the final uprising of professional Republican officers against the Government and the almost unconditional surrender to Franco. Professor Alpert also provides detailed statistics for the military forces available to Franco and to the Republic and biographies of the key figures on both sides.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations
Archival sources
Note on names
Note of army branches and ranks
Prologue
Maps
1. The Spanish Army in 1936
2. Military and paramilitary forces in Spain on 18 July 1936
3. The militia months: July–December 1936
4. Militarisation
5. Professional officers in the popular army
6. A new officer corps
7. The experience of individuals
8. The political commissars
9. The Communists and the popular army
10. International aspects
11. Reorganisation
12. The Casado uprising
Conclusions
Appendices
Bibliography.

[von thoma]

"Spanish in War" by Osprey /Ediciones del Prado (1995).
Two parts : "Civil War and Blue Division".

espenguerra.jpg

[burguera]

Please, do you know any book about talking about the effects of the position that Spain adopted in the WW2 on the development of its economy?

Thanks

jc

[Ironmachine]

Please, do you know any book about talking about the effects of the position that Spain adopted in the WW2 on the development of its economy?

You can try La economía española y la Segunda Guerra Mundial, by Jordi Catalán (Ed. Ariel, 1995) ISBN 9788434465763, though I don't know if it covers exactly the aspects you are interested in. You can find a review of the book here :http://www.raco.cat/index.php/HistoriaI ... 3064/84894

There is a short article available on-line that may be of interest for you: La economía española y la Segunda Guerra Mundial: un estado de la cuestión: http://e-spacio.uned.es/fez/eserv.php?p ... umento.pdf

Regards.

[durb]

Condor: The Luftwaffe in Spain, 1936 - 1939 by Patrick Laureau. Stackpole Books 2010.

This book is a new edition of author´s book published in 2000. The bad thing is that they obviously made no effort for careful proof reading and editing work for this book. There are many signs of careless editing - in some extent this spoils the book, which otherwise is interesting contribution to the written history of Legion Condor. Problematic are also the long list of names which are located in the bodytext, which should tell fluently the story of Legion Condor. In my opinion it would have been better to make appendix tables where the names of pilots and serving time would have been listed by units. With proper editing and proof reading this book could have been excellent with it´s interesting detail information.

Despite the above, I consider the book with all of it´s faults quite good. My knowledge of Legion Condor was earlier confined only to it´s fighter unite (J/88), but with this book I learned to know other units of Legion Condor and their interesting planes. For example Heinkel 70 was a new exciting plane for me. Also great were some tables showing detailed information about the use of different combat aircraft of Legion Condor - You can find info about the fate of each aircraft of certain type in Spain (like the lists of all Heinkel 111´s and Do 17´s employed in Spain). Also the combat and accident losses by some aircraft types are given. For example You will learn, that Germans lost in total forty Bf 109´s in Spain.

When it comes to photos and colourplates, they are good with some interesting stories.

Overall I would give this book three stars of five. Enough to fit in the category of "recommended".

[durb]

Reading the book of Alcofar Nassaes: La Aviación Legionaria en la Guerra Española (1975).

While interesting in details and going interestingly to some matters other than airwar (for example decription of Republican Navy during the "Battle of Straits" and very interesting description of Baleares during war), the book has some visible problems. First point is that I do not consider it as a genuine attempt to write objective history as the writer is so clearly pronationalist. But I guess that we can hardly wait a Spanish historian of year 1975 to be a neutral on Civil War, which so profoundly divided the nation and which caused so deep wounds (specially those families which lost their members in merciless purges executed by both sides).

The partialism can be also natural consequence of the subject - if you write from the Aviazione Legionaria (AL), it is natural that your focus is on that and it also determines what you write. Your point of view will be the one of AL and its pilots. But still - you should not be carried away that much that you will take onesided truth as granted as Alcofar Nassaes often does.

One thing that Alcofar Nassaes also takes up is that he has not been able to use archive materials, which would have been helpful and necessary for his work. Instead he has relied on literature and interviews, which he has used in great extent and also with some skill. However interviews are often material that is neither objective or reliable - you simply can not replace the lack of archive material by interviews. In some points the author takes this up and makes good effort on comparing different sources. Some myths are shot down and some statements are shown be exaggerated. Sometimes the attack on contradicting sources goes just too far like mocking prorepublican foreign journalists. The Nationalists won the war, but many propaganda battles were lost - and this has motivated some rather bitter comments of Alcofar Nassaes.

The really good side is that there is lots of interesting info and details to be found in the book. If it is read with healthy critical mind, it provides perhaps the best single volume book which we now have available about the Italian "Aviation Legion" in Spanish. Until a up-to-date new volume about this subject is available in Spanish or English, there is nothing better than to take this book if one is really interested about Italian flyers of Spanish Civil War. The author had made lots of work for his book and deserves credit despite the criticism outlined above.

The biggest problem of book is that it is now rather expensive. It has been out of print long time ago, but you can find it available from Amazon and other websites with the price of approx. 25-30 euros + delivery costs (which raise up considerably the price of your purchase). However, this book can be considered something like a "collector´s item" and may thus have a place in your book collection on SCW.

[durb]

Loguloso, Alfredo: The Fiat CR 32 Aces of the Spanish Civil War. Osprey 2011.

This can be read as the up-to-date companion of Alcofar Nassae´s old La Aviación legionaria en la guerra española reviewed above. Alcofar Nassaes book had still its Franco-era echoes and limitations when published in 1975. This one is somewhat more balanced view and compares often critically the air victory claims of Italian and Spanish Fiat pilots with enemy records. You will learn that overclaiming 3:1 was normal.

The Osprey "Aircraft of the Aces" format has its limitations. Thus this book has not bibliography or further reading section which should be a standard in these books. Also you will not find much technical information of Fiat CR 32 or how the plane was evolved from the earlier Fiat CR fighters and no mention to Celestino Rosatelli, who designed both Fiat CR 30 and CR 32. For that you will need other sources.

Nice photos and colourplates are included as always in these Osprey books. Book is thus interesting also for modeller, if you have enough skills to work with available Fiat CR 32 kits (Italeri, Supermodel).

It was interesting to note that Osprey books are sometimes contradictory between themselves. Loguloso claims about the air combat of 31.10.1936 in which Italian pilots Monico and Castellani were shot down that the Republican planes were Dewoitine 372´s, while another Osprey Book - Spanish Republican Aces (Permuy Lopez 2012) claims that the two Italian pilots were shot down by a flight composed by LaCalle´s Hawker Fury and two Ni-H 52. My guess is that Loguloso just repeats the old erroneus sources in this detail while Permuy Lopez has figured it out by the more recent study of Republican sources. However, Permuy Lopez´s book suffers more of careless editing and nonexistent proof-reading than this volume, so you are free to make your own conclusions. They could make some more comparison and checking between the books of same series in the Osprey Publishing!

But that is just a minor detail. If You don´t know Spanish and thus have no access to more detailed Alcofar Nassaes "classic", then this book together with some more technically oriented source will make a nice add to your SCW or airwar book collection.

This is not just a booklet with photos and colourplates, there is lots of good reading.

A wish for the Osprey Publishing in their "Duel series" books: Fiat CR 32 vs. Polikarpov I-15 over Spain

[Haven]

Durruti in the Spanish Revolution
Abel Paz

Buenaventura Durruti was the ultimate working-class hero: carrying the future in his heart and a gun in each pocket. Abel Paz's magnificent biography resurrects the very soul of Spanish anarchism.

The new, unabridged translation of the definitive biography of Spanish revolutionary and military strategist, Buenaventura Durruti. Abel Paz, who fought alongside Durruti in the Spanish Civil War, has given us much more than an account of a single man’s life. Durruti in the Spanish Revolution is as much a biography of a nation and of a tumultuous historical era. Paz seamlessly weaves intimate biographical details of Durruti’s life—his progression from factory worker and father to bank robber, political exile and, eventually, revolutionary leader—with extensive historical background, behind-the-scenes governmental intrigue, and blow-by-blow accounts of major battles and urban guerrilla warfare. An amazing and exhaustive study of an incredible man and his life-long fight against fascism in both its capitalist and Stalinist forms.

PDF Link: https://libcom.org/files/Paz%20-%20Durr ... lution.pdf

[Haven]

The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction
Helen Graham
24 March 2005


[*]Hugely emotive and enduring subject that inspired writers such as Hemingway, Orwell, and Laurie Lee.
[*]Integrates the political, social, and cultural history of the civil war.
[*]Discusses the latest historical debates and applies a highly dramatic narrative, with plenty of personal experience woven into the analysis.
[*]Assesses the impact of the war on Spain's transition to democracy and its contemporary political culture.

This Very Short Introduction offers a powerfully-written explanation of the war's complex origins and course, and explores its impact on a personal and international scale. It also provides an ethical reflection on the war in the context of Europe's tumultuous twentieth century, highlighting why it has inspired some of the greatest writers of our time, and how it continues to resonate today in Britain, continental Europe, and beyond.

Throughout the book, the focus is on the war as an arena of social change where ideas about culture were forged or resisted, and in which both Spaniards and non-Spaniards participated alike. These were conflicts that during the Second World War would stretch from Franco's regime, which envisaged itself as part of the Nazi new order, to Europe and beyond. Accordingly, this book examines Spanish participation in European resistance movements during World War II and also the ongoing civil war waged politically, economically, judicially and culturally inside Spain by Francoism after its military victory in 1939. History writing itself became a battleground and the book charts the Franco regime's attempt to appropriate the past. It also indicates its ultimate failure - as evident in new writings on the war and, above all, in the return of Republican memory now occurring in Spain during the opening years of the twenty-first century.

PDF Link: http://www.myextrahelpteacher.com/books ... vilwar.pdf

[Haven]

Coming of the Spanish Civil War 2nd Edition
Paul Preston
Routledge; 2 edition
(July 27, 1994)

The breakdown of democracy in Spain in the 1930s resulted in a torrent of political and military violence. In this thoroughly revised edition of his classic text, Paul Preston provides a deeply disturbing explanation of the democratic collapse, coherently and excitingly outlining the social and economic background.

Since the first edition of this book was completed more than fifteen years ago, archives have been opened up, the diaries, letters and memoirs of major protagonists have been published and there have been innumerable studies of the politics of the Republic, of parties, unions, elections and social conflict, national and provincial. This edition updates the original text as exhaustively as possible to take account of the new material.

PDF Link of pages, 1-26: http://samples.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/9 ... 520297.pdf