This book offers an interpretation of a foreign conflict that has had a greater impact on modern British politics than any other.

Shelmerdine shows that traditional notions in Britain of Spain as a country of bullfighting, bandits and flamenco were pervasive, and were significant in shaping wider UK government policy towards Spain in the period of the civil war. He assesses political perceptions of the 1930s Spanish scene such as race and ethnicity.

Through oral and written narratives, this book examines the interaction between women and the war in Spain, their motivation, the distinctive form of their involvment and the effect of the war on their individual lives. These themes are related to wider issues, such as the nature of memory and the role of women within the public sphere. The extent to which women engaged with this cause surpasses by far other instances of female mobilization in peace-time Britain. Such a phenomenon therefore can offer lessons to those who would wish to encourage a greater degree of interest amongst women in political activities today.

When a Nationalist military uprising was launched in Spain in July 1936, the Spanish Republic’s desperate pleas for assistance from the leaders of Britain and France fell on deaf ears. Appalled at the prospect of another European democracy succumbing to fascism, volunteers from across the Continent and beyond flocked to Spain’s aid, many to join the International Brigades. More than 2,500 of these men and women came from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, and contrary to popular myth theirs was not an army of adventurers, poets and public school idealists. Overwhelmingly they hailed from modest working class backgrounds, leaving behind their livelihoods and their families to fight in a brutal civil war on foreign soil. Some 500 of them never returned home. In this inspiring and moving oral history, Richard Baxell weaves together a diverse array of testimony to tell the remarkable story of the Britons who took up arms against General Franco. Drawing on his own extensive interviews with survivors, research in archives across Britain, Spain and Russia, as well as first-hand accounts by writers both famous and unknown, Unlikely Warriors presents a startling new interpretation of the Spanish Civil War and follows a band of ordinary men and women who made an extraordinary choice.

The Spanish Civil War has had a profound and lasting impact on Britain. At least 2,400 Britons volunteered to fight for the Spanish Republic (of whom more than 500 died), while others provided medical assistance, visited Spain in delegations, or covered the Civil War as journalists. In this collection of three of his published articles and seven new essays, all based on primary research, Tom Buchanan sheds light on many facets of this complex relationship. The book's central themes are the impact of loss on families and communities, and the importance of Spain itself - its history and culture - in the way that this Civil War was understood in Britain. The book examines individuals involved in the war, such as the writer John Langdon-Davies, the artist Felicia Browne, and the journalist G.L. Steer. It also pursues somewhat neglected themes, such as the response of British artists to the war or the role played by British medical personnel. The final two chapters focus on the long-term impact of the conflict on British politics and on Britain's relations with Spain since 1939. Presenting a chronological progression from the Spanish Civil War to the post-war Franco era, this book has been published to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the war.

"The Spanish Civil War was fought from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939 between the Republicans, who were loyal to the established Spanish Republic, and the Nationalists, a rebel group led by General Francisco Franco. The Nationalists prevailed, and Franco ruled Spain for the next 36 years, from 1939 until his death in 1975"--Wikipedia.