The Spanish Civil War: Beyond its Romanticized Legacy

For most of the twentieth century, the Spanish Civil War was one of the most vividly remembered conflicts in the recent history of Europe. It remains the most important event in European affairs in the decade prior to World War II. It has often been presented as though it were a kind of fairy tale either of “democracy versus fascism,” of the righteous beset by the incredibly evil, or of “fascism versus communism,” but history is rarely so neat.