Hochschild, A: Spain in Our Hearts

'With all due respect to Orwell, Spain in Our Hearts should supplant Homage to Catalonia as the best introduction to the conflict written in English' New Republic

For three crucial years in the 1930s, volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a Fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. The Spanish Civil War was the century's first modern, total war, but it was soon overshadowed by the world war that it helped introduce. Today it is mostly remembered through classic accounts from Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell, and in Robert Capa's photographs. But in Spain in Our Hearts, Adam Hochschild presents equally compelling, if less well-known, characters and weaves their stories together to reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war.

'Hochschild's contribution lies in the storytelling, his sure command of military history, and his beautiful sense of private hurt . . . effortlessly hopscotches from global history to individual - and emotional - experience' Guardian

'Hochschild tells nuanced tales of political awakenings and disillusionments, but also steadfast ethical commitment. He never descends into easy moralizing . . . Spanish Civil War history is a minefield but Hochschild has entered it sure-footedly' BBC History Magazine