Spanish Civil War: 4th Edition - Softcover

Thomas, Hugh

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141011610 ISBN 13: 9780141011615

Publisher: Penguin UK, 2003

Synopsis

Since its first publication, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War has become established as the definitive one-volume history of a conflict that continues to provoke intense controversy today. What was it that roused left-wing sympathizers from all over the world to fight against Franco between 1936 and 1939? Why did the British and US governments refuse to intervene? And why did the Republican cause collapse so violently? Now revised and updated, Hugh Thomas's classic account presents the most objective and unbiased analysis of a passionate struggle where fascism and democracy, communism and Catholicism were at stake - and which was as much an international war as a Spanish one. 'Remarkable ... a definitive account'
  Sunday Times 'A prodigy of a book ... about the most heroic and pitiful story of the twentieth century'
  Michael Foot 'His masterwork'
  Independent 'A full, vivid and deeply serious treatment of a great subject'
  The New York Times Book Review Hugh Thomas is the author of, among other books, The Spanish Civil War (1962), which won the Somerset Maugham Award, Cuba: The Pursuit of Freedom (1971), An Unfinished History of the World (1979), and the first volume of his Spanish Empire trilogy, Rivers of Gold (2003).

About this title

From the Inside Flap

A masterpiece of the historian's art, Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War remains the best, most engrossing narrative of one of the most emblematic and misunderstood wars of the twentieth century. Revised and updated with significant new material, including new revelations about atrocities perpetrated against civilians by both sides in this epic conflict, this "definitive work on the subject" (Richard Bernstein, "The New York Times) has been given a fresh face forty years after its initial publication in 1961. In brilliant, moving detail, Thomas analyzes a devastating conflict in which the hopes, dreams, and dogmas of a century exploded onto the battlefield. Like no other account, The Spanish Civil War dramatically reassembles the events that led a European nation, in a continent on the brink of world war, to divide against itself, bringing into play the machinations of Franco and Hitler, the bloodshed of Guernica, and the deeply inspiring heroics of those who rallied to the side of democracy. Communists, anarchists, monarchists, fascists, socialists, democrats -- the various forces of the Spanish Civil War composed a fabric of the twentieth century itself, and Thomas masterfully weaves the diffuse and fascinating threads of the war together in a manner that has established the book as a genuine classic of modern history.

From the Back Cover

"Mr. Thomas has understood [the Spanish Civil War] incredibly well and has written it superbly. A full, vivid and deeply serious treatment of a great subject."
–Vincent Sheean, The New York Times Book Review

"Stands without rivals as the most balanced and comprehensive book on the subject."
–American Historical Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin UK
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0141011610
• ISBN 13: 9780141011615
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 1116