The International Brigades
Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
** Shortlisted for the Military History Matters Book of the Year Award **
'Magnificent. Narrative history at its vivid and compelling best' Fergal Keane
The first major history of the International Brigades: a tale of blood, ideals and tragedy in the fight against fascism.
The Spanish Civil War was the first armed battle in the fight against fascism, and a rallying cry for a generation. Over 35,000 volunteers from sixty-one countries around the world came to defend democracy against the troops of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini.
Ill-equipped and disorderly, yet fuelled by a shared sense of purpose and potential glory, these disparate groups of idealistic young men and women formed a volunteer army of a size and type unseen since the Crusades, known as the International Brigades. Were they heroes or fools? Saints or bloodthirsty adventurers? And what exactly did they achieve?
In this magisterial history, Giles Tremlett tells – for the first time – the story of the Spanish Civil War through the experiences of this remarkable group. Drawing on the Brigades' archives in Moscow, as well as first-hand accounts, The International Brigades captures all the human drama of a historic mission to halt fascist expansion in Europe.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Tremlett (Isabella of Castile) presents an exhaustive history of the volunteer force of 35,000 fighters who came from 65 countries to support the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). Vastly outnumbered by the Italian and German forces sent to aid dictator Francisco Franco's army, members of the International Brigades were predominantly communist and 10%–20% Jewish, according to Tremlett. He describes many Brigade defeats, including a Christmas 1936 battle near Córdoba, when Brigaders with "just... five days of training and six shots each" suffered heavy casualties against hardened Francoist troops. He also details tensions between soldiers of different nationalities and profiles volunteers including Oliver Law of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who became the first African American to command white troops in battle. Exploring the different roles Brigaders played when they returned home, Tremlett notes that many French volunteers were active in the Resistance during WWII, while some German volunteers led East Germany's secret police during the Cold War. Though the individual stories get lost in the mountain of detail, Tremlett provides a lucid and thorough history of the Brigades' military campaigns. Spanish Civil War buffs will savor this epic account.
