Have we done the Spanish Civil War yet? - Literature
May 13 2005 23:32
just wondering about any literature on the spanish civil war.
I guess Homage to Catalonia is borderline, i.e. a persoanl account could be classed as 'history'.
what else is there? erm, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
any more?
May 14 2005 08:44
#2
Anarchism, the Republic and Civil War in Spain : 1931-1939 by Julián Casanova is good too- very academic but he's got a cool name, so that makes it okay
May 14 2005 11:03
#3
erm I actually meant 'literature', 'fiction'. although its a fine line.
May 17 2005 09:37
#4
L'Espoir by Andre Malraux - I'm not sure what the English translation is called.
May 17 2005 10:29
#5
A day mournfull an overcast. By a member of the Iron Column (a militia column made up of ex prisoners, released through liberation at the start of the civil war), a very good pamphlet, an cheap too. All hail the mighty pamphlet!!!
Jul 31 2006 10:20
#6
There is a film of this - have it but not seen, probably popular front type stuff.
Jul 31 2006 10:24
#7
butchersapron wrote:
There is a film of this - have it but not seen, probably popular front type stuff.
What of the Iron Column??
Jul 31 2006 12:54
#8
enriquemessonier wrote:
erm I actually meant 'literature', 'fiction'. although its a fine line.
I remember quite liking one of Laurie Lee's books and it later emerged that they were more fictional than he had claimed. He wrote two about Spain, I think it was the first one that I liked.
I read For Whom the Bell Tolls when I was a kid, I think it's the one which uses a political metaphor to describe sex. I wish I could track the passage down because it was hilarious.
Jul 31 2006 14:18
#9
Edit: posted as new thread
http://libcom.org.uk/node/8667
Jul 31 2006 14:28
#10
NB - Can no one respond to pingtiao's questions above?
Ping - can you start a new thread for these questions, this thread is about literature
As a note to everyone, staying on topic is much more important now because we have no ability to split threads any more.
Jul 31 2006 14:46
#11
John. wrote:
butchersapron wrote:
There is a film of this - have it but not seen, probably popular front type stuff.What of the Iron Column??
Oops, meant to quote this post:
"L'Espoir by Andre Malraux - I'm not sure what the English translation is called."
There is an Iron Column book on the way as i'm sure you already know...
Jul 31 2006 20:43
#12
If you're pushed for time, I'd recommend the Antony Beevor, and the Bookchin one about the lead up to '36.
Aug 1 2006 09:28
#13
Pilchardman wrote:
If you're pushed for time, I'd recommend the Antony Beevor, and the Bookchin one about the lead up to '36.
he meant fiction...
Aug 1 2006 18:34
#14
John. wrote:
Pilchardman wrote:
If you're pushed for time, I'd recommend the Antony Beevor, and the Bookchin one about the lead up to '36.he meant fiction...
Ah right, sorry. I have all my life believed that non fiction could be "literature" (in more than one sense), but I respect the right of others to solecism.
Aug 2 2006 00:16
#15
The novel Seven Red Sundays by Ramon J Sender was written in 1936 although the story takes place during a CNT uprising in 1933. I quite rated this book - it's an interesting read although a bit weird in parts, but that adds to its charm. Sender was in the CNT when he wrote it, and it's probably one of the few anarchist novels from that period that's been translated into English.
Aug 2 2006 07:01
#16
Serge Forward wrote:
The novel Seven Red Sundays by Ramon J Sender was written in 1936 although the story takes place during a CNT uprising in 1933. I quite rated this book - it's an interesting read although a bit weird in parts, but that adds to its charm. Sender was in the CNT when he wrote it, and it's probably one of the few anarchist novels from that period that's been translated into English.
I agree that it's an interesting read, but i don't think it's lasted very well, it seems very formal and stiff compared to what came just 20 or so years later and the treatment of women seems straight out of mills and boon. But as one of the few types of that book it's worth hunting out.
Aug 3 2006 12:26
#17
catch wrote:
The Asturian Uprising: Fifteen Days of Socialist Revolution - Manuel Grossi
Any good anyone?
catch wrote:
The Signal was Spain: The Aid Spain Movement in Britain 1936-1939 - Jim Fyrth
Is this to do with the CIS (SIS) i can't remember the acronym.
Has this thread shrunk, did we lose some of it in the move, or was it split?
The CNT in the Spanish Revolution, Jose Peirats part 1 & 2.
On a side note, my previews in yellow (oooohhhh ahhhhh)what happened to my spacing?
Aug 3 2006 14:21
#18
Also William Herrick's novel Hermanos! - he went out a stalinist and came back an anarchist...
Aug 3 2006 17:34
#19
Quote:
The Spanish Civil War - Antony Beevor - (Surprisingly good account, and very well informed on the anarchist side of things - recommended as an introduction)
I am too reading that althou' I feel the book is aim at the Spainish market rather than the British market, hence a lack of regional maps. It's a good choice thou' as bookshops are selling them by the bucket-loads you will proabably find that it will take around four chapters before it gets going and not to mention a crash course in Spainish History. I don't think you will going to find much on the meaning of anarchism. So for the caual reader with no knowlege on the subject is going to find the wide range of the social political groups confusing. I am more than happy to read it.
Plus I've bought it after in got knocked down half price twice by mistake! 
Aug 4 2006 10:48
#20
Quote:
The Spanish Civil War - Antony Beevor - (Surprisingly good account, and very well informed on the anarchist side of things - recommended as an introduction)
I thought it's release it was more to do with the fact that he'd just cracked it with his book on Stalingrad (which i still haven't made it all the way through). It's well worth a read.
Aug 16 2006 09:57
#21
Kind of moving on from the Punkt discussion on the 2 new releases from the KSL, one on the Budapest commune, and the other a new pamphlet on the Iron Column.
It looks as though Paul Sharkey/KSL, are low on cash for the translation/printing/distribution, of the Abel Paz (Durrutti. The people armed. Fame) book, The Iron Column: Militant Anarchism In The Spanish Civil War.
You'll find the latest Bulletin on the website http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/bulletin/kslbarch.htm
I've not read up on the Spanish Civil War very much, only Bookchin's book which covers the Anarchist movement in the years running up to the war. But Butchersapron has posted this reading list elsewhere which appears to have most of it covered. Incidentally, I've read For Whom the Bell Tolls, and it's very, very hostile to anarchists throughout:
Anarchist Ideology and The Working Class Movement in Spain, 1868-1898 - George R. Esenwein
The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years,1868-1936 - Murray Bookchin
To Remember Spain - M Bookchin
The Anarchists of Casas Viejas - Jerome R Mintz
The Anarchists In the Spanish Civil War, Two volumes - Robert Alexander
Anarchists in the Spanish Revolution ( & appendix) - Jose Peirats
Vision On Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution
Blood of Spain - Ronald Fraser
The Revolution and the Civil War in Spain - Pierre Broue & Emile Temime (trots but worthwhile)
Anarchist Organization: The History of the F.A.I. - Juan Gomez Casas
The Anarchist Collectives: Workers Management and the Spanish Revolution of 1936-39 - Ed. Sam Dolgoff
Collectives in the Spanish Revolution - Gaston Leval
With the Peasants of Aragon - Augustin Souchy Bauer
The Friends of Durruti Group:1937-39 - Agustin Guillamon
Franco?s Prisoner - Miguel Garcia
Durruti: the People Armed - Abel Paz
Sabate: Guerrilla Extraordinary - Antonio Tellez
The May Days: Barcelona 1937 - Various, Freedom Press
Spain and the World: Social Revolution and Counter Revolution (collection of contemporary anarchist material) - Freedom Press
Lessons of the Spanish Revolution - Vernon Richards
A New World in our Hearts: The Faces of Spanish Anarchism - ed. Albert Meltzer
Homage to Catalonia - George Orwell
The Shallow Grave: A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War - Walter Gregory
The Grand Camouflage: The Communist Conspiracy in the Spanish Civil War
Revolution and Counter Revolution in Spain - Felix Morrow (trot crap bible on Spain - very dishonest)
The Spanish Civil War: 1936-39 - Paul Preston (Passable/fair mainstream history, hostile to anarchism though)
The Republic Besieged: Civil War in Spain 1936-39 - ed. Paul Preston & Ann L. Mackenzie (some useful material)
Comrades! Portraits From the Spanish Civil War - Paul Preston (only concentrates on the big name politicians, including favourable look at the Stalinist la Pasionara!)
The Spanish Tragedy: The Civil War in Perspective - Raymond Carr
The Spanish Cockpit: An Eyewitness Account of the Spanish Civil War - Franz Borkenau
The Spanish Civil War - Antony Beevor - (Surprisingly good account, and very well informed on the anarchist side of things - recommended as an introduction)
The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War - Gerald Brenan
The Spanish Civil War - Hugh Thomas (much revised and still not very good - much loved by clueless academics and journos)
Homage to the Spanish Exiles: Voices from the Spanish Civil War - Nancy Macdonald (account of the post-war refugees)
The Spanish Civil War: The View from the Left - Revolutionary History Volume 4, nos ½ - Various (important book sized edition of trotskyist journal, much very rare info and contemporary material - see also the slighter Vol 1 No 2, The hidden history of the Spanish Civil War)
Spain Betrayed: The Soviet Union in the Spanish Civil War - ed. Ronald Radosh, Mary R Habeck & Grigory Sevostianov (collection of Soviet Documents that conclusively demonstrate the sabotage of the revolution by the Stalinists and their Spanish comrades - recommended)
The Asturian Uprising: Fifteen Days of Socialist Revolution - Manuel Grossi
The International Revolutionary Solidarity Movement - 1st May Group
Cockburn in Spain - ed. James Pettier (Without a doubt the worst book ever written - a collection of Articles from the Eton educated Stalinist reporter for the CPGB?s Daily Worker - the biggest tissue of lies ever to be published - would be funny if it weren?t so tragic)
The Signal was Spain: The Aid Spain Movement in Britain 1936-1939 - Jim Fyrth