Is anyone else interested in the Spanish Civil War?

I am. I just finished writing a paper on it for my 20th Century Europe class. I've read Homage to Catalonia and For Whom the Bell Tolls. I love that book. If any of you have read it, I just wanna say I would have no problem stepping right into Robert Jordan's shoes.

It's just such an interesting and unsung conflict. Does anyone else agree?

Once.

I wrote a paper as an undergrad on the foreign volunteers that fought for the Republicans.

One of the tales I remember from the Spanish Civil War was from a young man fighting for Madrid. While assaulting a building he shot in the scrotum with the bullet going in-between his testicle and out. I always thought that he was one of the luckiest men born.

Orwell was shot through the neck sideways, and the bullet missed his spine, trachea, esophagus, carotid artery and jugular vein. He said he was the luckiest man alive and that 95% of men died from wounds like his.

"For Who the Bell Tolls" (Castro's favorite book and he say it taught him everything he needed to know to be a guerilla leader.)and Dorothy Parkers dispatches from Spain.

....courage and atrocities on both sides...though the fascist were, it seems, quicker to torture and murder.

and of course it left Franco in position to remain as the last European dictator after his cronies hitler and Il Duce passed on...yes, a fascinating conflict.

my bro-in-law is Spanish...his family fled when he was a boy to the mountains (I can never spell Pyrennies correctly) and recalls seeing bombers of German make passing overhead....his father fought for the Republicans (the designation THEN meant one of the good guys...when he married my sister his best man was the son of a nationalist soldier....

With a little less than three feet of space of my bookshelves....

And just last week found a used copy of "Blood of Spain: An Oral History of the Spanish Civil War" by Ronald Fraser. Haven't started on that one yet. I just got into the subject a couple months ago after listening to the song Spanish Bombs by the Clash for about the millionth time in my life. It struck me that I knew absolutely nothing about the conflict. It's been a long time since high school history class but I don't remember that even getting a mention in any of my classes.

I'm making notes of other books mentioned in this thread and will try to find some of them.

Also I love the propaganda posters produced during that time.

One of my favorites....

Begging your pardon, sir.

I've been looking for a really good book on the conflict WITH pictures. And haven't been able to find one. Either they're really really really detailed with tiny type and no pictures, or just sort of dry, with no pictures.

I like to have photos of all the parties involved to help me visualize. Which of the tomes in your collection might you recommend for an interested gal like me?

FSC

...beginning of World War Two.

It's a conflict I'd like to learn more about. An old man I knew when I was a kid was a volunteer who fought Franco's fascists. I wish I had asked him more about it.

one of the most interesting experiences of my life occured.

I was at the Young Democrats table registering US citizens to vote in the election, reading Homage to Catalonia. This old woman walked up and said to me "Oh, young man, I see you're reading Homage to Catalonia..."

I'm thinking "I don't have time for this..." Next thing she said was "My husband fought in Spain!" I was dumbfounded and jokingly asked which side he was on. I had one of the most interesting conversations of my life right then and there. If you were to ask me how old she was I would have guessed 70, but then she mentioned that she is the oldest student at U of T. How old? 91 years old. Damn blew my mind.

In the end she said Bush is the same as Franco and wished us luck with the registration.

They won't let her die until it's paid off!

you can get free public university education if you're over 80 years old.

for Asia which started in 1937

On September 18, hust outside Mukden, now called Shenyang. Tjere began the real invasion, with occupation of Manchuria, and encroachment over succeeding years into northern China. What followed the incident at the Marco Polo Bridge was more an intensification than a new condition....

The Spanish Civil War was the start of WWII. I too, would like to learn more about it.

is essential reading on this topic. Also any work on The Abraham Lincoln Brigade or the International Brigades. It is fascinating history because in Spain fascism and socialism clashed head on with tremendous passion. I have read about it for years and have numerous books I could recommend. I empathized most with the CNT/FAI, the Spanish anarchist groups.

It's a valuable resource.

The Devil's Backbone

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256009/

A beautiful, spooky movie set in a Spanish orphanage in 1939, as Franco's right-wing Nationalists approach. A ghost story that even a skeptic and atheist like me can love, since the "ghosts" are very much alive (as they usually are). And did I mention there's an unexploded bomb buried in the courtyard of the orphanage?

Land and Freedom (Tierra y Libertad)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114671/

Director Ken Loach's take on "Homage To Catalonia," with many events in Orwell's book turning up on-screen. A modern character stands in for us, tracking down the story behind the faded newspaper clippings and love letters found in her grandfather's trunk. Along with the war story, excellent non-boring portrayals of the bitter political fights between the Spanish Republicans and their erstwhile allies, the hard-line Stalinists.

Quite accurate in tone....

by the Nationalists but I think it has some inaccuracies. I've just seen it once. It has a lot of flashback sequences.

If I could get the title right. It's something like The Last Pale Horse and is not friendly to the Franquistas! Any idea?

Very good, moving documentary.