Americans in the Spanish Civil War - 1936–1939 - Spain in Our Hearts

Very well written and hard hitting. It is a story that everyone should read as dictators like the murderous Franco can be stopped early on before something horrific, like the Spanish Civil War, happens.

very good reading for history romantics like myself...The only disappointment was it tended to ramble from one event to another with no transition or link...Also a little confusing thinking & sifting through the different agenda's of the anarchists, communists, republicans, nationalists, Americans, French, etc etc....

It is a truth that the victorious write history. The history of the other side of the Spanish Civil War has been forgotten. There is nobody left from that generation to tell us anymore. The written history was told by the victorious Franco government. And the population was brainwashed for the next 35 years. I hope that this book is translated into Spanish. There is so much in it that Spaniards should read about. I heard an interview with Mr. Hochschild on PBS radio last March and immediately bought it. I was impressed by American participation in the Lincoln Brigade... who has ideals today? Ideals to really die for? (Everything is economics, unemployment, dysfunctional government...) and how Texaco helped Franco win the war. I was amazed at the details of the Republican soldier's fight for Spain's legal government under unthinkable conditions, ill fed, ill equipped, poorly led. How American volunteers fought at their sides under the same incredibly bad conditions, cold in winter, hot in summer, no water, no medicine, no food, is a story worth reading. And Adam Hochschild tells it so well. He really did his homework. Everything is documented.

Extremely helpful for anyone fascinated by the Spanish Civil war as a prelude to World War II and, of course, the participation in and influence of mid-20th Century social and political movements on contemporary international turmoil.

If you're looking for a balanced historical treatment of the Spanish Civil War, this isn't it. The writer very clearly sides with one side of the story to the point that he glosses over the terrible things that his side did with a rather flippant disregard. However, he found some really fascinating people and told their stories pretty well. I rather liked the different take on Hemingway and Gellhorn and how the author tied their real life escapades to the fictional writing. Well worth the read!

This is an excellent, important book. Five stars for the book. However the Kindle edition is not complete. The endnote numbers/links are entirely missing from the body of the text. There appear to be footnotes, because there are endnotes that refer to something in a footnote, but that page has no footnote. I would very much appreciate if this were corrected and an updated file be made available.

Adam Hochschild's new book, "Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939" is an excellent look at our participation in Spain's Civil war. So many Americans felt the cause and joined the International Brigade. Very good book.

I liked the way The author wove factual and historical details into the narrative, and the way he depicted the time in both the US and in Europe. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history.

There are essentially two books here: a fascinating though sympathetic account of Americans who fought on the side of people whose idea of social revolution included the murder of Catholic priests, religious, and laymen. For a co-founder of Mother Jones, this is not surprising. The second "book" wraps a standard (read: mythological) historical narrative of the war around the otherwise engaging stories of the people who went to Spain in support of the Republic.

Not only can Hochschild write, he knows how to tell a story. The book moves at a brisk pace and kept me up later than I wanted a couple of times because I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter. The people chronicled here are, depending on your perspective, social warriors who bravely fought "fascists" before the rest of the West caught on, or naive buffoons (at best) who locked arms with the murderous Stalin--and who knew better. They were earnest way beyond what should have been allowed; Bob Merriman's ridiculous glasses and uniform could have come right out of a Communist version of a clothing catalog. Although Hochchild describes in graphic detail the effects of war on men (lice, diarrhea, cold, hunger, thirst, and the after-effects of bullets and shrapnel on soldiers will dispel any romantic notions of the realities of combat), he never discusses what any of the social revolution/social justice crowd thought about killing other human beings. Not to worry, though, for he makes plenty of other unsubstantiated claims about Franco's forces and the supposed ease with which they raped, tortured, looted, and murdered their opponents.

Although Hochschild's bibliography is decent, he relies on the notorious Paul Preston and Antony Beevor, leftist historians, to fuel his narrative. Stanley Payne is cited but twice (!), and other historians who hold different opinions are ignored. Still, Hochschild has enough honesty to admit that not everyone sees the SCW his way.

The protagonists are followed to the end of their lives, which is a nice touch. Hochschild is to be commended for what must have been a daunting task of reading through voluminous primary source documents, making sense of them, and crafting a compelling narrative of their time in Spain.

The photographs are good and cover the main characters. My only problem is with the second one, which features General Jevenois and a couple of well-dressed women beneath a photo of some peasants in the middle of back-breaking farm work. He uses the photos to note the disparity between rich and poor in pre-war Spain. But the photo of General Jevenois was taken in 1940, according to the source he cites.

Difficulties with the historical accuracy aside, I recommend the book.

“Spain in Our Hearts” is an extensively researched account of American participation in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. It is primarily a history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, in which idealistic young Americans who sympathized with the Republican cause fought and died. It also is an account of how the war was perceived in the United States, through reporting by two New York Times reporters, one sympathetic to the Nationalist cause (Franco) and the other to the Republican. Hochschild also discusses the roles of Republican sympathizers like George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway and of Nationalist sympathizers like Torvald Rieber, the head of Texaco, who made sure that Franco’s supply of oil never faltered.

The most interesting part of the book is the commentary on the progress of the war, as drawn from material in letters and memoirs, some of it previously unpublished. What is most striking is the idealism of these ordinary men and women, who crossed the ocean to volunteer in a war whose brutality, abetted by Fascist Germany and Italy and their opponent, the Soviet Union, could hardly have been fully appreciated by the volunteers when they set out. Hochschild does not minimize the role of the American Communist Party (or Stalin) in supporting the Republican cause; however, the volunteers’ determination to fight for a cause they believed would bring about greater economic equality and self-determination for an oppressed people speaks for itself.

Ironically, the one weakness of the book is this same commentary by the war’s participants. At times, Hochschild’s desire to let these women and men tell the story of the war in their own words impedes the narrative. There are too many paragraphs that are extended quotations, and the effect, particularly when describing conditions at the front, which are always bad, is repetitious. It is easy, too, to lose track of the many individuals, most of them little known, who appear and reappear. A reader should also be aware that this is not a comprehensive history of the war, so Hochschild often must incorporate enough historical background to place the Americans in context. This, too, is sometimes awkward.

There is some additional writing that can be helpful in conjunction with this book. First, if you haven’t read (or haven’t read in decades) Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” do yourself a favor and pick it up. It’s a wonderful novel still, and Hochschild’s book makes one appreciate it even more. Second, take a look at a recent event: the death, on February 28, 2016, of Delmer Berg, the last of the Lincoln Brigade volunteers (obituary in The New York Times on March 2, 2016). It was followed, a short time later by an op-ed piece by Senator John McCain (“John McCain: Salute to a Communist,” March 24, 2016) in the Times in which he discussed his affection for “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and offered a final salute to Delmer Berg, a humble man who returned to a humble life and never stopped trying to make a better world.

M. Feldman

"Spain In Our Hearts" "Americans In The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939" by Adam Hochschild is a factual and surprising history. The Spanish Civil War took place in the years 1936 to 1939 as most of Europe was preparing to weather the coming storm of Fascism being stirred up by Adolph Hitler. In Spain, the elected government, the Republicans, tilted the leadership of Spain and its institutions to the left. The Communists and socialists along with other supporters of the duly elected government were hard at work bringing relief to the peasants, the poor, the lower classes of Spain, in terms of granting access to arable land, education, medical care and much more. The objective was to help the people of Spain to attain a better way of life. The losers in this Communist and Socialist inspired movement would be, of course, the rich, the powerful, the landholders, large corporations and the military. The conservatives who wanted to take control of the government back by force of arms were called the Nationalists and were led by a military commander named Franco. Franco had nationalist leanings and welcomed the support of Nazi Germany and Hitler, Fascist Italy and Mussolini, and a tacit "go ahead" in the form of a do nothing attitude from England. Meanwhile, the Republicans received support of arms and men from Stalin and Russia. America, under Roosevelt took a neutral stance and did not openly support either side in this Civil War. But, behind the scenes, there were Americans working in support of both sides of the Civil War in Spain. There are lessons to be learned from this book that can be applied when analyzing current events in year 2016 that are taking place in some of the civil wars and wars of revolution being waged in countries like Iraq and Syria.

The author cleverly tells the story of the war where it may be felt most strongly. That is, in the eyes and minds of individual American participants. Young people from various walks of life gave up their comforts in the USA (such as those comforts were during the Great Depression) and chose to join mainly with the Republican forces in Spain in direct combat and take their place as boots on the ground. Some of them were awarded commendations while many others gave their lives or limbs. They went to Spain in violation of government restrictions on travel to that country. They actually, in many cases, had to cross the border into Spain illegally in order to go there to fight. They took up arms. They risked their lives. They basked in the reflected glory of their heroic acts and attitudes. They fell on the battlefield. There were well known people like Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn who went to Spain as war correspondents.

But, there were unsung heroes who also went to Spain. The author led me to research some of the fighters and I discovered a lot of factual information that was new to me. The Abraham Lincoln Brigade was formed to include many Americans and was backed and financed to an extent by the Communist Party members and sympathizers, many of who were US citizens. The Great Depression reduced Americans' confidence in the government and political parties in the USA during the 1930s. Many embraced communism and socialism. And, as today, a percentage of Americans sought adventure and experience as combatants in a foreign army.

The author digs deeply and uncovers financial and material support provided to the Nationalists in Spain as they fought to destroy the duly elected Republican government of Spain. One example was the provision of valuable oil and fuel to the Nationalists by a major U.S. oil company still doing business today. Franklin Roosevelt wanted to keep America out of the coming European War, but a number of his staff and government officials. perhaps with a wink by Franklin Roosevelt, favored the Nationalists over the Communist inspired Republicans. The extreme fighting conditions, the unfair advantage enjoyed by the Fascists and the sacrifices and ultimate destruction of much of Republican Spain will hold the reader's attention. There are stories of great courage. There are tales of deception and well planned destruction of cities, assassinations, wholesale murder of civilians and more. It was a hard time. It was the preview of the coming attraction - World War II. Italy and Germany and their surrogates gained valuable battlefield experience and tested their equipment and new aircraft and other weapons on the Spanish people. Russia provided support to the Republicans but it was not enough and it was reduced when needed most. The lessons of the Spanish Civil War were wasted then and are still being wasted today. You will be glad to read this book and to open your eyes to how politicians and their hirelings can destroy a people.