Wales and the Spanish Civil War: The Dragon's Dearest Cause

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Description

A study of the Welsh people's experience - ideological, political and cultural - of the Spanish Civil War, dealing not only with the war years themselves (1936-39), but also the background and aftermath. The text's emphasis is on analysis rather than narrative history and it seeks to demonstrate the ways in which the meanings of the Spanish Civil War were constructed by both Welsh contemporaries and by subsequent generations. It also provides an exploration of the myths surrounding histories of Welsh volunteer participation. A large proportion of the work is devoted to the volunteers of the Welsh International Brigades, using memoirs, diaries and archival material in addition to existing secondary material in a variety of media.

Reviews

'well researched and documented book.' Journal for the Study of British Cultures "Stradling's entertainingly-written book, based on painstaking research into archival and oral sources as well as newspapers, memoirs and secondary works, is likely to prove definitive in its field. It needs to be read by anyone interested in the International Brigades or the Communist Party of Great Britain as well as twentieth-century Wales." R.A.H. Robinson, University of Birmingham

Author Bio

Robert Stradling is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Cardiff. He has written widely on Spanish history. His books include History and Legend: Writing the International Brigades (2002), Europe and the Decline of Spain (1983) and The Spanish Monarchy and Irish Mercenaries (1994).