It seems to me that the Spanish Civil War is a period that is lost for most of us today. Very few of us lived through it and overshadowed as it was by other events soon afterwards, the passions it aroused, though virulent and enduring in both art and literature, have become dimmed over time. I imagine that in the generation under thirty-five today, those who have the vaguest notion of what took place then, would hardly form a legion. Of course, it is better known that a number of major figures from the literary and artistic world of the twenties went to fight (some on either side) in Spain. It is also probably well known that the Germans, Russians and Italians all sent troops or technical specialists to sharpen their own wares for the conflict to which this one proved but a prelude. Yet the extraordinary passions that were aroused in Spain and that reached out and infected so many of the foreign volunteers, have to be experienced by individuals and perhaps the best way I know of coming close to the tremulous heart of that ugly story is through Malraux. The book has been written as fiction by a master storyteller. The action, all of which is real and much of which was witnessed at first hand, is simply gripping. The tears it should properly evoke will also, I have no doubt, be real ones. In a way, Malraux, who also wrote a similar and equally fine book about revolution in China, is offering us a lament for all that died in those years, for crushed spirits and youth spent as fodder for cannons. It is a magnificent human story; regrettably it is one of tragedy. But if we are to remember the Holocaust of the Nazis, why should we forget the deadly internecine warfare of Spain? Indeed, how could we.

This review concerns the translation by Stuart Gilbert and Alastair Macdonald, which was excellent. Once again, there are so many books in the world, I know, but this one should not be out of print.

with so many tiny tidbits of interesting information stuck in here and there it was a learning experience just reading the special highlights throughout the book. There were useful lists of important dates and happenings throughout each chapter and even suggested websites relating to each chapter's material for further information. The way the book was written made for easy understanding of the material and better memory of what was read. Although the book follows a text book formula it was fun to read which is rare. A real find!

I looked for a long time to find a decent world history; one that was neither 10,000 pages nor painfully dry. This is the best I found. It is a very readable book of reasonable length. The authors make good use of sidebars with thought-provoking bits of literature which are scattered throughout the overall history. They also make a good attempt at discussing underlying causes and patterns behind the historical events. I perfer that to a dry recounting of the facts, even if I may not always agree with them on the interpretation. It was surprisingly neutral on religious topics, given the origin of the book.