A Valuable Reference Guide to the Spanish Civil War

Fought in the final years of “peace” before the onset of the Second World War, the civil war in Spain (1936-1939) presaged the horrors of the later conflict.

This handbook offers 25 essays on topics as varied as “Causes,” “Military History,” “Soldiers and Officers,” “Economic,” “Children and Childhood,” “Repression,” “Historiography,” and “Film.”

The essays are well done. Although sympathetic to the Republic, most essays don’t blame everything on the Right, as is often the case in accounts of the Spanish Republic and Civil War.

There are some problems, however. For example, there is no mention of the role of the Army and the Church in bringing about the Republic by refusing to back Alfonso XIII’s attempt to establish a personal dictatorial rule following the stunning outcome of the elections of 1930. Similarly, the work downplays political violence by leftist groups during the life of the Republic, catalogued by Stanley G. Payne, and neglects the importance of the ousting of centrist Republican Niceto Alcala-Zamora as President of the Republic in bringing about the Nationalist coup of July 17, 1936. The role of the various security forces – Guardia Civil, Guardia de Asalto, Carabineros, and even municipal police – in the success or failure of the coup in most areas is also overlooked.

Having studied the Spanish military in this period, your reviewer would have liked to see more detail on the two armies than is included, but overall, despite some quibbles, The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Spanish Civil War a very useful reference for the Spanish Republic and Civil War.

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Note: The Bloomsbury Handbook of the Spanish Civil War is also available in hardcover and e-editions.

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