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The Spanish Civil War (Cassell Military Paperbacks) (Paperback)

by Antony Beevor (Author) "Recent events indicate that the Spanish civil war is not yet entirely finished ..." (more)
4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Orbis Publishing; reprint edition (2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0304358401
  • ISBN-13: 978-0304358403
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 119,346 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #16 in  Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > Historians > Beevor, Antony
    #18 in  Books > History > Europe > Spain > Spanish Civil War
    #49 in  Books > History > Europe > Inter-war Period 1919-1938

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Product Description

Raymond Carr, THE SPECTATOR
'essential reading' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
'he has produced a moving masterpiece of the indictment of war.' (Felipe Fernandez-Armesto THE TLS )

'Fascination lies in the human drama, superbly captured by Beevor... a vivid chronicle of a dreadful time and place.' (Max Hastings THE SUNDAY TIMES )

'he is also very good on the political manoeuvrings of this most intensely ideological of conflicts.' (Andrew Roberts THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

'it is an admirably clear-sighted account.... a great achievement.' (Miranda France THE DAILY TELEGRAPH )

'the story he tells is grimly familiar but he presents it with a freshness, an eye for detail and a degree of detachment that makes this one of the best accounts to date of the Spanish crisis.' (Richard Overy THE EVENING STANDARD )

'This is an enthralling bok. The narrative is masterly, wonderfully clear as a guide through the labyrinth. It is even-tempered and full of good sense.' (Allan Massie THE LITERARY REVIEW )

'To appreciate the magnitude of that rapid and extraordinary achievement, do read Antony Beevor's account of the bubbling cauldron of horror from which Spain escaped.' (Tom Rosenthal THE DAILY MAIL )

'clear prose, peppered with fresh perceptions, especially where strategy, tactics, and soldiers are concerned.' (Paul Preston THE TIMES )

Antony Beevor has produced an absorbing re-working of the book he originally wrote in 1982 (Paul Callan THE DAILY EXPRESS )

'It is powerfully brought to life, not only by his practical grasp but by often graphic material found recently in Spanish, German, and particularly, Russian archives. (Jeremy Treglown THE FINANCIAL TIMES )

'it's his most impressive book to date beacause he coolly makes sense of such a complicated story: the narrative sweep is consummate, the seamless use of so many sources masterful, and the eye for details makes it a superb read.' (Simon Sebag Montefiore THE MAIL ON SUNDAY )

'BATTLE FOR SPAIN is this summer's corking military history.... essential if you're going Iberian.' (David Sexton THE EVENING STANDARD )

'it looks destined to become the definitive popular work on the war.' (ROB STOKES SPAIN MAGAZINE )

'his characteristically excellent book' (Barrie Clement TRIBUNE )

'For the big picture of the war, all the more powerful for its blending of narrative intensity with emotional restraint, there is no rival to Antony Beevor's masterly, THE BATTLE FOR SPAIN' (Boyd Tonkin THE INDEPENDENT )

'Beevor's account of the war is a valuable work for anyone wishing to understand the complexities and contradictions of modern Spain.' (Kim Bielenberg THE IRISH INDEPENDENT )

'a brilliant account of the battle for Spain' (Dermot Bolger IRISH SUNDAY INDEPENDENT )

'essential reading' (Raymond Carr THE SPECTATOR ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Recent events indicate that the Spanish civil war is not yet entirely finished. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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156 of 164 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on the Spanish Civil War, 14 Aug 2001
By Dr. Sn Cottam "Steve the medic" (Preston, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
The Spanish Civil War is often poorly understood, indeed misunderstood, firstly because of its complexity (as Antony Beevor makes clear there were multiple conflicts going on at different levels, not least the strife between different Republican groups which weakened the Republican government fatally), secondly because most of us outside Spain know about the war from those who fought on the Republican side and subsequently wrote about it (best known of whom is of course George Orwell in Homage to Catalonia).

Antony Beevor cuts through the confusion with a marvellously clear and concise account of the war, not sparing the reader a taste of how horrific conditions were in Spain for combatant and non-combatant alike. The introductory chapters on the state of Spain and the origins of the Civil War are particularly enlightening.

The book also makes clear and obvious why the Nationalists won - they were better organised, more professional soldiers, better tacticians - and had the support of Hitler and Mussolini, to say nothing of the fatal internecine conflict among the Republican parties.

Perhaps Beevor is a little sniffy about the non-intervention of the western democracies but how realistic this would have been (and whether it would have done anything to help the fatally fissile Republican cause) is to me questionable. But as Beevor points out, as the Spanish proverb has it, history is a common meadow in which everyone can make hay, and there is plenty of raw material for discussion in this excellent book. It should be read by anyone who is interested in European history, 20th century history, politics or simply those interested in how a country can disintigrate into such horror in such a short time.

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41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Squalid War in a Spiteful Land, 1 Dec 2008
By Stewart Murray McRorie "Willoughby" (La Bussiere Sur Ouche, Cote d'Or France) - See all my reviews
  
This review is from: The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (Hardcover)
Anthony Beevor is a fine narrative historian. His books on Stalingrad and Berlin have been widely read and praised. However it would be hard for any competent writer not to produce interesting books on these apocalyptic battles. Spain in the thirties is a very different challenge.

Having read a little of the Peninsular War, I had no enthusiasm to re-visit Spain. A sideshow of the Napoleonic War (despite tireless English efforts to make it more important) it was replete with duplicitous arrogant people, fighting in a mean country, vain incompetent generals, vile politicians, and the pervasive interference of the church. Extreme cruelty is something the Spanish do well. I was not motivated to read further into the twentieth century. Then I watched Ken Loach's film "Land and Freedom" finding the commentary an excellent history lesson. It was on my list to read something solid, so to Beevor's Battle for Spain.

If you want to read one book on the events between 1936-39 then this will do the job. It was originally published in 1982 then revised using fresh research to mark the 70th anniversary. Beevor is a master of detail. An ex soldier his battle descriptions are complex and required supplemental maps to follow the narrative. The politics are also complicated, fragmenented, bizarre especially taken out of context decades on. How could you expect anarchists and communists to form a government, herding cats would be easier? The military aspects, incompetence on both sides, militias, international brigades are uninspiring and savage. The Spanish civil war was a fetid affair, both sides excelled at torturing and shooting prisoners/civilians while in conventional fighting running away and indiscipline was widespread. It was the Germans and Russians who added backbone. As for the Italian military contribution or the role of external intellectuals, no glory is reflected on either.

Big geo political issues were being tested within an essentially pointless civil war - another sideshow with the Spain of 1939 much the same as 1814, a spiteful land. Nationalist and Republican, it was hard to tell who were the most repugnant and the entire dreadful war best relegated to a dusty shelf in history. Proof of this was that after the real war (1939-45) Franco was allowed to drift on until his natural demise in 1975. No one really cared about Spain. From the embers of the war, a plethora of interpretation (much of dubious logic) has emerged seeking to show the relevance of the conflict, that it emboldend fascists, inducing the Second World and then the Cold War.

Left alone I would have skim read this book. But I went to the library and borrowed the CD audio version and loaded it onto my IPod. Sean Barrett read it well, and his Spanish pronunciation was helpful. I listened to his narration as I simultaneously read the book. It made it more enjoyable, actually bearable. If you are feint hearted and peripherally interested in the war - consider doing the same. Beevor has produced a good book but it is a slog to read. I have now filled a gap in my knowledge but do not feel the better for it.



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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Spanish Civil War, 24 Nov 2006
By Thomas Koetzsch (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (Paperback)
Antony Beevor's (AB) book on the Spanish Civil war is excellent background reading on this rather tragic event in the Spain's History. AB goes through every single detail of the war.

He starts off with describing the development of Spain right up to the `Rising of the Generals' in 1936 and follows this up by going through the various factions involved. There is also a whole section on the involvement of other countries - most notably that of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union - in the civil war. When he covers the intellectuals' reaction to the whole event, I was quite surprised at some of the `nostalgic views' expressed. The section, which made me shudder was the book's section on the internal power struggle between the various Republican factions. A lot of this was a copy-cat event of the Stalinist purges in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. AB goes into quite a bit of detail.

I must agree that some of the battles can be hard to follow, but it does help if you study the maps quite thoroughly. But then again I think it would also help if these maps weren't all at the beginning of the book but instead put at the spot of the corresponding battles.

AB of course covers the nationalist victory plus the time after and he doesn't exactly mince words on the style of politics under Franco. But he also asks if a republican victory would have been the better solution and he does not give any definite answer except saying that a Stalinist-type communist regime could have been significantly worse.

All told I found this book very good.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars The Spanish Civil War
Anthony Beevor's book, 'The Battle for Spain' is an excellent and comprehensive study of a complex subject. Read more
Published 4 days ago by Mr. David G. Burton

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction
I started reading this book knowing nothing at all about the Spanish Civil War but learned a whole lot about it as I progressed through the chapters. Read more
Published 13 days ago by Frank Mill

3.0 out of 5 stars I gave up halfway through...
After reading the excellent Stalingrad and Berlin, which were both scholarly and intensely readable, I looked forward to Beevor's account of the Spanish Civil War. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Dr. W. H. Konarzewski

4.0 out of 5 stars Quite Good
The Spanish Civil War by Anthony Beevor is an interesting account of a conflict which in many ways was a prelude to the Second World War. Read more
Published 15 months ago by HBH

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended
Having read the author's 'Stalingrad' a few years ago, I was hoping for something of a tour de force with this book, and I wasn't disappointed. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Alan Lenton

5.0 out of 5 stars An Impressive Piece of Work

The Spanish Civil War is an endlessly fascinating period of history. Mixed in with the undoubted tragedy there's a frisson of romance about it. Read more
Published on 3 May 2007 by Steve Keen

4.0 out of 5 stars Tragic Spain
The Spanish Civil war must be one of the most tragic European wars of all time. Spaniard against Spaniard, a bloody conflict characterised by the failures on both sides but mainly... Read more
Published on 18 Oct 2006 by Michael Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping tale of the fight against facism
Another excellent book from Beevor, highly recommended if you liked Stalingrad or Berlin
Published on 31 May 2006 by Gary Alderson

5.0 out of 5 stars How did they get here?
I live in Madrid, and hear many a spaniard, basque, catalan, andulician, galician, etc., comment about their various regions and the politics. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2005 by paulredone

4.0 out of 5 stars Beevor just as good 20 years ago
Beevor's latest books are good, but I was not sure how he would have approached a subject as complex as this when he was a bit younger. Read more
Published on 4 Jul 2004 by L. P. Lewzey

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