Bloomsbury Academic Spain at War: Society, Culture and Mobilization, 1936-1944

Review An inventive exploration of military mobilization during the Spanish Civil War, Jamie Matthew's wide-ranging volume offers new perspectives on the conflict by examining the experiences of spies, conscripts, children, and other 'ordinary' Spaniards during turbulent and dislocating times. - --Mary Vincent, Professor of Modern European History, University of Sheffield, UK Product Description Spain's principal and most devastating war during the 20th century was, unusually for most of Europe, an internal conflict. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 two competing armies - the insurgent and counterrevolutionary Nationalist Army and the Republican Popular Army - engaged in a conflict to impose their version of Spanish identity and the right to shape the country's future. In its aftermath, Francoist Spain remained on a war footing for the duration of the Second World War. In spite of the unabated flood of books on the Spanish Civil War and its consequences, historians of Spain in the 20th century have focused relatively little on the interaction of society and culture, and their roles in wartime mobilization. Spain at War addresses this omission through an examination of individual experiences of conflict and the mobilization of society. This edited volume acknowledges the agency of low-ranking individuals and the impact of their choices upon the historical processes that shaped the conflict and its aftermath. In doing so, this new military history provides a more complex and nuanced understanding of Spain's most intense period of wartime cultural mobilization between the years 1936 to 1944 and challenges traditional political accounts of the period. 1. Introduction - James Matthews (Independent Scholar, Spain) Initial Mobilization 2. 'With Nothing but Our Bared Chests': Republican Militia Columns in the Early Phase of the Spanish Civil War - Michael Alpert (University of Westminster, UK) and James Matthews (Independent Scholar, Spain) 3. Red Berets, Blue Shirts: Nationalist Militia Forces in the Spanish Civil War - Mercedes Peñalba Sotorrío (Manchester Metropolitan University)Mobilizing for Total War 4. Foot Soldiers for the Two Spains: Conscript Experience during the Spanish Civil War - James Matthews (Independent Scholar, Spain) 5. Desertion and Shirking in the Civil War: Man Versus Propaganda - Pedro Corral (Independent Scholar, Spain) 6. The Reds and the Greens. Encounters between Moroccan and Republican Enemies during the Spanish Civil War - Ali Al Tuma (University of Leiden, Netherlands) 7. Republican Spies and their Civilian Informers in the Nationalist Rear Guard during the Spanish Civil War - Hernán Rodríguez Velasco (University of Salamanca, Spain) Rear Guard Areas and Actors 8. Political Economies and Monetary Policies during the Spanish Civil War - Michael Seidman (University of North Carolina, USA) 9. Social Work in the Spanish Civil War - Ángela Cenarro (University of Zaragoza, Spain) 10. A Lost Generation?: Children and the Spanish Civil War - Verónica Sierra Blas (University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain) 11. Homefront Cooking: Eating and Daily Life in Republican Cities during the Spanish Civil War Suzanne Dunai (University of California San Diego, USA) Legacies of the Spanish Civil War, 1939-1944 12. The Demobilization of Francoist and Republican War Veterans, 1939-1944: A Great Divergence? - Ángel Alcalde (European University Institute, Italy) 13. A Spanish Exception in a War of Extermination? The 'Blue Division' on the Eastern Front, 1941-44 - Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas (Ludwig-Maximilian University, Germany) 14. 'Boys into Men': The Emergence of Francoist Martial Masculinity 1939-1944 - Ian Winchester (University of New Mexico, USA) About the Author James Matthews is a delegate with the International Committee of the Red Cross. He is the author of Reluctant Warriors: Republican Popular Army and Nationalist Army Conscripts in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (2012), which was a