Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made - Hardcover

Richard Rhodes

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 147112617X ISBN 13: 9781471126178

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2015

Synopsis

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) engaged an extraordinary number of exceptional artists and writers: Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, John Dos Passos, to name only a few. The idealism of the cause - defending democracy from fascism at a time when Europe was darkening toward another world war - and the brutality of the conflict drew from them some of their best work: Guernica, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homage to Catalonia.

Paralleling the outpouring of writing and art, the war spurred breakthroughs in military and medical technology. So many different countries participated directly or indirectly in the war that Time magazine called it the 'Little World War'; Spain served in those years as a proving ground for the devastating technologies of World War II, and for the entire 20th century.

About this title

Review:

'Mr Rhodes's informed and elegant narrative may encourage readers to look further into the conflict's many ripples' The Economist

'There are few [accounts] that evoke more powerfully the horror and comradeship of that dreadful conflict, and fewer still that ask the question all good history should ask: what would you have done?' --Ben MacIntyre, The Times

'Highly readable narrative of the Spanish conflict by the Pulitzer-Prize holder provides a well-researched insight... The personal portraits he brings to life are those of the defenders of legitimacy, such as Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway, whose life wand work are intimately linked to the Spanish war. Yet equally intriguing are the tales of lesser known participants, 'the human stories which had not been told or had been told only incompletely' --Military History Monthly

About the Author:

Richard Rhodes is the author of several books. He received the Pulitzer prize for THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB and the History of Science Society's Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize for DARK SUN. He has received numerous fellowships for research and writing, including grants from the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation Program in International Peace and Security and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard and MIT and a host and correspondent for documentaries on public television's Frontline and American Experience series. He is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 147112617X
• ISBN 13: 9781471126178
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320