HarperCollins, 1999, hardcover, illustrated, illustrated, index, 393 pages, condition; as new.
A bravura new interpretation of the course, causes, and characters of the Spanish Civil War, still the twentieth century's bloodiest internal conflict. Analysis of the Civil War has always focused on victors and vanquished, but what of those who eschewed the struggle, those who stood apart from the carnage and chaos? Was there a Third Way? Starting at the extreme right of the political spectrum and moving across it to the extreme left, using the emblematic lives of ten key individuals, Preston builds up an astonishingly vivid picture of how the War came to pass, and how those who started, suffered and stopped it were coloured by the experience. Here are brilliant psychological profiles of the communist firebrand La Pasionaria, of the canny falangist Primo de Rivera, of the aloof intellectual non-participant Salvador Madariaga, and of the enigma himself, Generalissimo Franco. Comrades presents us with fascinating portraits, case studies that illustrate variously nobility, arrogance, self-delusion and evil.
"Comrades has helped me understand Spain in the 1930s far more than the straightforward history books. Accounts of the Left doing this and the Right doing that, with sections of the population called anti-clerical or anarchist or regionalist, make the civil war look like a ruthless game of chess played to confusing rules by faceless combatants.
This book brings alive the personalities of nine key figures in those events. Each of them lived out a multi-layered approach to Spanish society, based on military or civil background, social status (aristocratic in one case, peasant origins in another), religious conviction or lack of it, education (university learning for some, in another case, the child of a family unable to pay school fees) and regional origins. Where Preston excels is in conveying the inner conflicts which those influences produced, whether in prime minister or academic. He draws out the personality concerned so that the inconsistency or self-limiting behaviour of some makes sense. In others the reverse applies: that they are single-minded in their aims and achieve success, at least to a degree. I found the character of Franco a revelation, with his early experience in the Foreign Legion shown to be a key in the subsequent years of cruel repression. But it was his skill in manipulation which was crucial in building his personal path to power.
The civil war has become a legend for later generations and this book will counteract the simplistic labels that have stuck.
