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laithian's review against another edition
3.0
So this one is tough because I really find the Spanish Civil War interesting as it was a conflict that pretty much summed up a lot of what was coming. A nation strifed by economic mismanagement and poverty has a population that is slowly radicalizing to both extremes of the political spectrum. Simply, Fascism and Communism, however the more you look into it the greater the nuance between these two factions. There are subfactions and ideologies at odds with each other within these two factions. A country united by people, language, history ripping each other apart because of ideology. Now this book looks into it in great detail but doesn't read very easily. It does feel like a textbook and that is probably the reason I put it down. I may come back to it, but for now I've stopped a third of the way through.
charles_fried's review against another edition
4.0
First historical account of the Spanish civil war that I have read that explained it all, as least as much as such a terrible and complex thing can be explained. If you are interested in understanding what happened there and then, this is the best book!
eoinmeen78's review against another edition
3.0
Good history book. Gets bogged down in military details as you can imagine. Struggles to emphasise any overarching points as a result. That's ok because otherwise it'd be skipping over too much detail I imagine. 3*
u2fan1977's review against another edition
3.0
Reading this was like reading a history book for college, but it was certainly informative and interesting. However, I have to admit: I didn't finish all of it, and ended up doing what I did for all my college classes, which is to say I skimmed most of it. Except the parts about the Basques. I read those parts.
friendofgosig's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
This is a very detailed and rewarding account of the Spanish Civil War, considering the politics and tactics of both sides. While I preferred the political sections to the descriptions of individual battles, the were for the post part clear and understandable.
There did seem to be more of a focus on the Republican side, when compared to the Nationalist side, though this may be because the Nationalist side organised themselves fairly quickly under Franco’s leadership, where as the power balance between left republicans, communists and anarchists meant that there was more jostling for power on the Republican side. Having recently read Franco’s biography, this didn’t really bother me, though it could be seen as a bias towards the leftists.
On the whole it was a very thorough account of a complicated and bloody war, which I would recommend to those interested in this area of history.
There did seem to be more of a focus on the Republican side, when compared to the Nationalist side, though this may be because the Nationalist side organised themselves fairly quickly under Franco’s leadership, where as the power balance between left republicans, communists and anarchists meant that there was more jostling for power on the Republican side. Having recently read Franco’s biography, this didn’t really bother me, though it could be seen as a bias towards the leftists.
On the whole it was a very thorough account of a complicated and bloody war, which I would recommend to those interested in this area of history.