''The Spanish Civil War'' is a book by British historian
Hugh Thomas, first published in London by
Eyre & Spottiswoode
Eyre & Spottiswoode was the London-based printing firm that was the King's Printer, and subsequently, a publisher prior to being incorporated; it once went by the name of Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & co. ltd. In April 1929, it was incorporated as E ...
(xxix, 720 pages, illustrated with photos and maps). It won the
Somerset Maugham Prize
The Somerset Maugham Award is a British literary prize given each year by the Society of Authors. Set up by William Somerset Maugham in 1947 the awards enable young writers to enrich their work by gaining experience in foreign countries. The awa ...
in 1962. A second revised edition was published by
Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Harper & Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...]
, which was printed again in 2001 and 2013. Thomas said that the excellent reviews the book got on its release were a determining factor in his own life and career.
The book has been translated in various languages, among them Greek, French and Spanish.
Reception
Upon its release in 1961, John Murray called it "an exhaustive study, ably and conscientiously documented". In 1963, Robert G. Colodny wrote a similarly positive review, praising in particular the vast amount of research material examined.
Shortly after the death of Thomas,
Pablo Guimón called it "a seminal book on the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
", "a highly influential work during the country's
transition to democracy
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...
" and "a classic reference in the existing literature about the 1936–1939 period in Spanish history".
Paul Preston
Sir Paul Preston CBE (born 21 July 1946) is an English historian and Hispanist, biographer of Francisco Franco, and specialist in Spanish history, in particular the Spanish Civil War, which he has studied for more than 30 years. He is the win ...
claimed that "it marked the first attempt at an objective general view" of the Civil War.
Richard Baxell wrote that "it is by no means faultless; there are many errors of fact and judgement and Thomas has rightly been accused of occasionally valuing narrative style above factual accuracy." Baxell is also critical of the faulty depiction of International Brigaders in the first edition.
Spanish translation
The book was forbidden in
Francoist Spain
Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...
. The translation and publication of the book was undertaken by , a publishing house in Paris, founded by Spanish political refugees. It was targeted by Francoist authorities, and was the target of a terrorist attack by a pro-Franco group. Copies were smuggled across the border with France, and Spaniards caught in possession of the book sometimes went to prison. For example a
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...
n, Octavio Jordá, was caught at the French border having a pair of suitcases packed with many copies of the book. Jordá was later found guilty of "illegal propaganda" and "spreading communism", and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
It wasn't until after
Francisco Franco’s death in 1975 that the book could be freely distributed in Spain.
In response to Thomas's book, Franco's then minister of information,
Manuel Fraga
Manuel Fraga Iribarne (; 23 November 1922 – 15 January 2012) was a Spanish professor and politician in Francoist Spain, who was also the founder of the People's Party. Fraga was Minister of Information and Tourism between 1962 and 1969, Amba ...
, set up an official centre for civil war studies to promote the regime's official historiography. So successful was the book that even
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
was regularly asked to comment on statements in it.
In 2016, Spanish historian Guillermo Sanz Gallego argued that the Spanish translator, José Martinez, manipulated his translation to follow an ideological pattern that favoured the
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
side. Moreover, the translation used less objective language than the original text when narrating events such as the assassinations of
José Calvo Sotelo
José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo, GE (6 May 1893 – 13 July 1936) was a Spanish jurist and politician, minister of Finance during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and a leading figure during the Second Republic. During t ...
and
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...
. In the case of the
Paracuellos massacres
The Paracuellos massacres ( es, Matanzas de Paracuellos) were a series of mass killings of civilians and soldiers by the Republican faction of the Spanish Civil War that took place before and during the Siege of Madrid during the early stages of ...
, the number of the deaths, several thousand in the original, was reduced to "approximately a thousand" (millar aproximado). Sanz Gallego's claims attracted attention from the media.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spanish Civil War
1961 non-fiction books
20th-century history books
British non-fiction books
English-language books
History books about Spain
History books about the 20th century
Spanish Civil War books