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Comment by gabriben | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for this! I've been looking for a good book on the Spanish Civil War, in either Spanish or English. The one American book I was recommended by someone, I didn't like. I'd like to keep searching regardless of the book's language or what country it has won prizes in. Could you also include book awards from other non-english speaking countries?

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The war by itself is a far less interesting affair than how it happened, and what made the country be OK with fighting. For that you need to start at the end of the previous dictatorship, and cover the entire 2nd republic. Then the war starts making sense.

So I'd read The Collapse of the Spanish Republic, by Stanley Payne. He was a journalist in Spain through the entire period, so most of what he does is provide a first hand account. He never claims to try to be impartial, but he's pretty nouanced, as he knew a lot of the players personally.

Books on the Spanish Civil War I have read and can wholeheartedly recommend:

- "The Spanish Civil War" by Paul Preston

- "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell

Books on the same topic on my reading list (and quite frankly can't wait to get hold of them):

- "The Spanish Civil War" by Hugh Thomas

- "The Fight for Spain" by Antony Beevor

I've only read Homage to Catalonia out of those, which is a personal retelling from Orwell, are the other books in the same style? What's the difference you'd say between the ones you list?

Paul Preston's "The Spanish Civil War" would be the poster child of the "quality non-fiction" category specified in this post's title. He is, in my opinion, the leading Hispanist historian [1], and I hold his work in the highest esteem. I can also very much recommend his book "A People Betrayed".

Regarding the other two authors in my previous comment: Hugh Thomas was also a leading Hispanist historian [2], and Antony Beevor is a prominent military historian [3]. I expect both books to be in the same vein as Preston's.

(Quick aside for the astute reader that noticed all of the recommended authors being non-Spanish: I find Spanish politics extremely polarized; the Spanish Civil War being perhaps the most polarizing topic. As such, I find outsider's perspectives to be more balanced and objective.)

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Preston

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Thomas,_Baron_Thomas_of_S...

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Beevor

> Quick aside for the astute reader that noticed all of the recommended authors being non-Spanish: I find Spanish politics extremely polarized; the Spanish Civil War being perhaps the most polarizing topic. As such, I find outsider's perspectives to be more balanced and objective

Makes sense to me, even as someone who live in Spain. It's a hard subject to talk to people about, especially because it never really was addressed as a country, everyone (politicians) just agreed to pretend it never happened, sweep a bunch of stuff under the rug and hope for the best. Then everyone act surprised when things start to bubble again...

I think the approach makes sense, also why you probably don't want to read about US politics from people actively inside of US politics, and it's similarly polarized today. Seemingly, at some point, people just lose all head and reason, and just start backing into their side, regardless of what that means.

+1 on this!

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