Giles Tremlett

The International Brigades (eBook, PDF)

Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

'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, disparate groups of idealistic young men and women banded together to form a volunteer army of a size and kind unseen since the Crusades, known as the International Brigades. These passionate liberal fighters - from across Europe, China, Africa and the Americas - would join the Republican cause, fighting for over two years on the bloody battlegrounds of Madrid, Jarama and Ebro.

Were they heroes or fools? Saints or bloodthirsty adventurers? And what exactly did they achieve?

This is a story rendered vivid in the writings of Orwell and Hemingway, the paintings of Picasso and the photographs of Taro and Capa. But here, in this magisterial history, award-winning historian Giles Tremlett tells - for the first time - the story of the Spanish Civil War through the experiences of this remarkable group of people. Drawing on the Brigades' extensive archives in Moscow, Comintern documents and first-hand accounts, Tremlett captures all the human drama of an historic mission to halt fascist expansion in Europe.

A fascinating history of resistance, The International Brigades shows just how far ordinary people will go to save democracy against overwhelming odds in a tale of European solidarity that resonates just as strongly today.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK
• Seitenzahl: 720
• Erscheinungstermin: 13. Mai 2021
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781526644541
• Artikelnr.: 61843202

Autorenporträt

Giles Tremlett is the Guardian's Madrid correspondent. He has lived in, and written about, Spain for the past twenty years.

Rezensionen

A narrative of astonishing scope . This latest study is a remarkable act of scholarship, as well as being captivatingly readable. The first overarching history of the brigades in English, it is alive with the testimonies of those who fought, and so much richer for stretching far beyond the obvious and famous Anglophone accounts of men of letters . Tremlett is a worthy custodian of their stories. He has created a dazzling mosaic of vignettes and sources, of lives lived and lost, of acts of heroism, solidarity, betrayal and futility, that builds to a grand picture of a conflict that drew idealists from across the world. The war left many of them in despair, injured or dead - but also hardened many more in their determination to defeat fascism. This book is as close to a definitive history as we are likely to get Dan Hancox Guardian

Meticulously researched and engagingly written. Tremlett resurrects an extraordinary cast of characters … The Brigaders remain heroes of the left for their internationalism and self-sacrifice. Tremlett has done them proud