This is an excellent book on the Spanish Civil War. The author is impartial to a fault. The outlines of the crisis of leadership of the Spanish revolution can be clearly be seen. The Stalinists following the direction of the Comintern opted for the chessboard of international relations rather than the shopfloor. The mass revolutionary movement looked to the anarchists for leadership but the CNT and FAI failed to step up to the plate until too late.
The detail in this book is impeccable, Stalins gold buttons? Inca gold. Every last bit of it that Spain stole was in turn stolen by the Russians. Anarchists diging disinterring the remains of priests and nuns and dancing with them. etc. It has been a while since I read it but I cannot give a stronger reccommendation to someone wishing to get a complete overview of the events of the Spanish revolution and civil war.