spanish civil war (Books?)

I am very interested in the Spanish civil war, and therefore I would like to know, if anyone could recommend me any book about that topic.

I am not really looking for scientific books about socialism, but rather something about the military and the war itself (Antony Beevor?) that is not to hard to read.
And I'd also like to see some kinda stories like from the view of a soldier.

Would be nice If somebody could recommend me something and describe it a little bit.

Homage To Catalonia by George Orwell

Sounds good. Thanks for the link Fallen Raptor!

I have a book about the Spanish Civil War written by Antony Beevor. It's called The Battle for Spain.

Here's a link to the introduction of it: http://www.antonybeevor.com/spain/index.htm

Collected writings of trotsky on the Spanish Revolution:
http://marxists.org/archive/trotsky/spain/index.htm

Thanks comrades. I just started reading Orwell, his book is very exciting to read.

If you want to read pro-communist stuff on the Spanish Civil War in English, I recommend Arthur Landis' Spain! The Unfinished Revolution and They Shall Not Pass: The Autobiography of La Pasionaria. Landis was a historian who actually fought in the battle of Madrid as a part of the International Brigades.

If you want to read very objective and highly scholarly stuff (that also happens to make the communists look good), I would recommend Helen Graham's The Spanish Republic at War: 1936-39. Graham tries very hard to be objective, and when you do that, you can't help but shred through the anarchist/Trot myths. Graham goes so far as not to even include Orwell's bullshit in her bibliography.

Intelligitimate wrote:

If you want to read pro-communist stuff on the Spanish Civil War in English, I recommend Arthur Landis' Spain! The Unfinished Revolution

My friend gave lent me a copy awhile ago when I was still coming over to the Left. It was signed by Landis himself (RIP). And, moreover, my friend bought it for a penny online. Interwebz ftw. Landis wrote a great book though.

Although it's hardcore anti-communist (and therefore stupid), for some reason I enjoyed Murray Bookchin's The Spanish Anarchists: The Heroic Years 1868-1936*. It's about the period of time before the Civil War, a time when the Anarchists had a strong presence in Spain.

*Note- I don't endorse the views of that book. It was simply interesting to see what the "other" side of the Left had to say about Spain.

In many ways, the anarchists in Spain before the War were the better forces on the Left. For instance, the socialists (under the leadership of Francisco Largo Caballero) supported the dictatorship of the Primo de Rivera, while the anarchists bitterly opposed it. Even Lenin generally thought the Second International Marxists were worse than anarchists, and I think Spain is a good example of that.

Intelligitimate wrote:

In many ways, the anarchists in Spain before the War were the better forces on the Left.

I'll agree to that, and I certainly think Lenin did as well.

I also highly recommend Daniel Kowalsky's Stalin and the Spanish Civil War (username: coy password: empire) as a good scholarly work refuting a lot of the nonsense coming from Trotskyists and anarchists. Kowalsky is a mainstream bourgeois academic, and does a fantastic job with the material. To quote him:

Quote:

“Was Stalin the malicious meddler, saboteur, opportunist, and murderer that detractors from both Spanish camps have long maintained? The evidence presented in this study allows for an emphatic if qualified refutation of the long-held demonization of Stalin's role in the Spain.”

Highly recommend Steve Nelsons THE VOLUNTEERS.
By an American Red who fought in the main front around Madrid.
Much more truthful book then Orwell's CATALONIA.