This is the best introduction and east access primer to the context and conduct , as well as historical perspective , of the Spanish Civil War.A concise yet detailed study within a very readable and manageable book of less than four hundred pages.Especially valuable is the essay bibliography to the many thousands of sources , archives , commentaries and books on the war throughout the decades to the present allowing the reader to choose which parts of the conflict they wish to investigate in a deeper way.An outstanding work by the best academic authorities on the War and its aftermath.
As a historian Preston readily admits he is partial on the side of the victims and oppressed against the powerful and the architects of terror.A viewpoint and stance that gives his work more urgency and credibility than would someone trying for a balance that can ultimately get so out of hand that the historian gives the same voice to both , in the case of the Holocaust, to the victims as well as the lighters of the ovens which can lead to a gross distortion of history and its lessons for our and future times.
On page 25 describes some of the errors of the democratically elected Socialist Government is dealing with the earlier tensions prior to the war "Moreover, the PSOE was hobbled by its reliance on a rigid "Dogmatic" and simplistic faith in French marxism , and on page 47 "The Government did not react strongly enough to a spate of Church burning"
This was due to in large measure of the Government not being able to muster enough resources to counter the anarchistic actions of anarchists , actions that put up the back of the traditional forces and reduced the credibility of the Government to control the law and order situation and command its mandate to govern for all of Spanish Society.This meant that , by page 57 we have "Southern Owners had declared War on the republican government by refusing to plant crops .....with land reform in the air the landowners did not feel disposed to invest in their land ", hence blocking land reform on the pretext of defending Church and "traditional" country values from the attacks of Communists.This in turn led to , on page 59 "Republican imprudence meant the catholic practice was attacked rather than block politics doctrine , thereby alienating many ordinary catholics with a republican disposition."
On page 244 we find "The Communist Party was pushed from relative obscurity to the arbiter of Republican Politics due to Soviet aid passing through its channel". In the perverted sectarian politics of the hard left the Communists and Anarchists spent more resources and treasure trying to liquidate each other than trying to preserve the integrity of the Socialist war effort.This was mainly because Stalin was playing a delicate game of trying to appease the Western Powers , placating the Fascists and using exporting his anti-Trotsky campaign beyond Soviet borders knowing full well that the Soviet Union would not be ready to fight a war with any of these powers for a few years yet.
Preston rightly identifies the War as the first battles of the 2nd WW , where fascism tested the will of the International Community and its commitment to democracy and found the confidence , as in many cases support , to continue the aggression into the International Theatre in the 40s.
The Spanish People should have received the support of the International Order , instead they were the victims of a bloody Fascist filling in a sandwich between capitalism and communism.
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