Last Crusade: Spain 1936

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) is an event that generally goes ignored in American history classes. At most it is a sidebar leading up to World War II, explaining why Spain was not involved on either side. The country had been devastated by an internal war between pro-Carlist (supporters of the exiled Spanish royalty and of Spanish Catholic tradition) Nationalist forces and the pro-Communist, pro-cultural overthrow Republican forces. The Nationalists eventually won, though their main general, [...]

Para ponerlo de una manera fácil: este libro es el que deberían leer las masas progres de España ya. Digo ya porque no paran de azuzar los sentimientos guerracivilistas, no paran de abanderar el victimismo de siempre. El partido de los pobres, de los obreros no, el partido de los envidiosos, de los resentidos, de los vagos y los bandidos, de los inmorales y sin escrúpulos, de los que gritan ¡al ladrón, al ladrón! Cuando son ellos quienes roban. Cuando estalló la guerra civil estaban a la [...]

This was an excellent presentation of what was clearly a "just war" on behalf of the Nationalists, in light of the many atrocities committed by the Spanish Republic. A narrative that is rarely presented, mostly because die-hard supporters of the left, are too deluded, or embarrassed to admit that an extermination of Christians was carried out by their predecessors in "progressivism" (i.e. communists, socialists, and anarchists). Forget about "For Whom the Bell Tolls", and read this book if you w [...]

While the book's contents were quite fascinating to me, I found it quite difficult to read the entire work in one go. Of course, one cannot be expected to do so in one sitting, but doing so even over several days or weeks seemed arduous. I still give the work four stars, even if it took me several months to read it, piece-by-piece. I still recommend it, but don't expect to stay up all night, not wanting to put this book down!

I was disappointed with this book, not with the content, but with the writing itself. It was too packed with facts and any opinion or explanation of those facts seemed to one-sided to me - and that is coming from someone who is very interested in this subject matter and believes that Spain was saved from the communist regime that was trying to expand in the early part of the 20th century, no matter what the cost.There was a lack of connection to the characters, I think as a result of too much fo [...]