The Spanish Civil War /

Historians of modern Spain have been divided between explaining the horrific Spanish Civil War (1936-39) as inevitable, given the long-term polarization between liberal progressive forces and conservative traditionalists that began with the Napoleonic invasion, and seeing the war's origin in the short-term political breakdown of the Second Republic (1931-36). The latter argument has best been substantiated by Payne (emer., Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) not only in the present volume, but also in the author's recent monographs (e.g., The Collapse of the Spanish Republic, CH, Mar'07, 44-4080). Here, Payne draws upon decades of his research on modern Spain to impressively document myriad political abuses and constitutional breaches perpetrated by republicans and socialists seeking to illegally keep the Right out of power, as well as detailing a revolutionary--and anticlerical--Left itching more for a fight with the Right than cooperating with the Republic; terror and its uses by both sides; and the rationale behind foreign intervention and nonintervention. Payne also taps into his encyclopedic knowledge in contextualizing the Spanish Civil War within Europe's cycle of revolution and counter-revolution between 1789 and WW II. Essential for interwar and/or modern Spain graduate collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries. E. A. Sanabria University of New Mexico