City Travel Guides
Home Page > Go back a page
Books : The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
Search Books - select a category
See Larger Image |
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by: Antony Beevor List Price: £25.00 City Travel Guides Price: £17.50 You Save: £7.50 (30%)Prices subject to change. |
|
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Binding: Hardcover EAN: 9780297848325 ISBN: 0297848321 Label: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Manufacturer: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Number Of Pages: 584 Publication Date: June 01, 2006 Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Studio: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Sales Rank: 55834 Related Items:
Related Items:      see moreBrowse for similar items by category:
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - I gave up halfway through...After reading the excellent Stalingrad and Berlin, which were both scholarly and intensely readable, I looked forward to Beevor's account of the Spanish Civil War. Maybe it was my fault for not concentrating fully, but I grew increasingly bored and confused by the narrative, which seemed to me to be little more than a catalogue of one outrageous massacre after another. Eventually I gave up halfway through the book as I felt I wasn't getting anywhere beyond the realisation that the Spanish Civil War was a pretty nasty affair; and that Franco was a pretty nasty character; and that no-one was safe; and it was jolly difficult for a neutral to work out which side to join just to stay alive. Maybe I'll try and finish the rest of the book one day. ... Read More: Rating: - A Squalid War in a Spiteful LandAnthony Beevor is a fine narrative historian. His books on Stalingrad and Berlin have been widely read and praised. However it would be hard for any competent writer not to produce interesting books on these apocalyptic battles. Spain in the thirties is a very different challenge. Having read a little of the Peninsular War, I had no enthusiasm to re-visit Spain. A sideshow of the Napoleonic War (despite tireless English efforts to make it more important) it was replete with duplicitous arrogant people, fighting in a mean country, vain incompetent generals, vile politicians, and the pervasive interference of the church. Extreme cruelty is something the Spanish do well. I was not motivated to read further into the twentieth century. ... Read More: Rating: - Quite GoodThe Spanish Civil War by Anthony Beevor is an interesting account of a conflict which in many ways was a prelude to the Second World War. Having read some of the author's other works I knew that it was going to be well-written with a well constructed narative, although it is not as good as either Stalingrad or Berlin the Downfall. The work itself shows the destructive impact of a Civil War especially on a country as divided on linguistic and political lines as Spain. It also shows how democracy was allowed to be crushed by facism by Britain and France and also how the Nationalist forces were able to exploit the divisions in their opponents to win. All in all a good book although I have read better by this author. Rating:  - Highly RecommendedHaving read the author's 'Stalingrad' a few years ago, I was hoping for something of a tour de force with this book, and I wasn't disappointed. The Spanish Civil War is an incredibly convoluted subject to deal with, but Antony Beevor succeeds admirably in fusing the historical, political and military elements into a seamless whole. Of all the books I have read on this subject, this one is by far and away the best. Rating: - An Impressive Piece of WorkThe Spanish Civil War is an endlessly fascinating period of history. Mixed in with the undoubted tragedy there's a frisson of romance about it. Artists, writers and idealists of many stripes flocked to "help". The likes of Ernest Hemingway, Laurie Lee, George Orwell and Victor Serge have given the Republican side literary credence. Picasso, Dali and others depicted the bestiality in visual art. Numerous commentators and agitators stood on the sidelines or frontlines and stirred the political stew - Trotsky to name just one. Eric Hobsbawm (The Guardian, 17/2/07) has pointed out the very clear paradox of the Spanish Civil War - that it is one of the few conflicts whose history is not monopolised by the victors. Although this ... Read More: |
|