A scholarly analysis of the Welsh people's ideological, political and cultural experience of the Spanish Civil War, dealing with not only the war years themselves but also the background and aftermath. 4 black-and-white photographs, a bibliography and index.

This book tells the story of the Basque children who came to Wales during the Spanish Civil War. In 1937, with civil war raging in Spain, 3,862 Basque children fled their country. They were packed on an old cruise liner that left Bilbao for Southampton. Throughout the summer children were dispersed to camps throughout Britain. Eight of those colonies were in Wales. The welcome they received here was a mixture of hostility and kindness. In Brechfa (Carmarthenshire) there was a notorious incident that confirmed the reluctance of many to accept exiles, while elsewhere in Wales, from Caerleon to Colwyn Bay there were many examples of great generosity.

"Mothers! Women! When the years pass by and the wounds of war are stanched; when the memory of the sad and bloody days dissipates in a present of liberty, of peace and of wellbeing...speak to your children. Tell them of these men of the International Brigades." Dolores Ibarruri, 'La Pasionaria, ' Madrid 1938. Almost 200 Welshmen volunteered to join the International Brigade and travelled to Spain to fight fascism with the Republicans during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War. Whilst over 150 returned home, at least 35 died during the brutal conflict. You Are Legend is their remarkable story. Lovingly and thoroughly researched by Graham Davies, You Are Legend outlines the motives, values, and actions of the volunteers from Wales by exploring the social, cultural, religious, and political context of Wales during the 1930s. It also provides a fascinating insight into who they were and their political backgrounds, and follows their journeys to Spain and their experiences in a series of key battles fought by the British Battalion before documenting their deaths or safe return to Wales. Politically active as trade unionists, members of the Communist or Labour parties, and hunger marchers, many were unemployed miners and most were working class with the fighting spirit of the coalfield and the impoverished. Unprepared and sometimes incredulous, these volunteers became immersed in a civil war which created a rupture in the heart of Spain that has never fully healed. You Are Legend is the first book to fully document all of the Welsh volunteers.

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.

Baghdad, Kandahar, Jakarta--not to mention Dresden, Hiroshima, Hanoi: the mass killing of civilians as collateral damage, especially as the result of air bombardment, represents one of the most emotional and ethically urgent issues in the contemporary world. Many experts in the field see the civil war that tore apart Spain as the original site of this "new kind of war," as George Steer, reporting on the bombing of Guernica, christened it. Your Children Will Be Next centers on the bombing of Getafe, a small town south of Madrid, shortly after that war's outbreak--when Nationalist rebels advancing on the capital launched air raids on targets that unfortunately included this suburban township, where thirty young children were killed. The claims of the Republican government produced not only the celebrated poster--"If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next"--but also a worldwide propaganda campaign that stimulated support for the Spanish republic. The core of this thought-provoking book is a meticulous account of the alleged atrocity of Getafe that is presented as part of a wide-ranging survey of both sides' conduct in the matter, as well as the reactions of politicians, soldiers, reporters, writers, and artists. Appealing to anyone with an interest in European history, as well as in the potent powers of media and propaganda, Your Children Will Be Next is guaranteed to stimulate lively debate on a powerful and controversial topic.

'...a lucid and scholarly account of an important and immensely complex subject...Dr. Alpert's command of a broad range of archival material, printed documents and secondary works in six languages is extremely impressive.' - P. Preston, London School of Economics and Political Science It is now twenty years since a study was dedicated to the international aspects of the Spanish Civil War and this new synthesis covering the whole of the era and setting it against major events of the late 1930s is well overdue. Michael Alpert takes full advantage of newly accessible archival sources to disentangle the intricacies of this complex issue.

While the intricate relationship between history, memory and representation is of central concern in contemporary society everywhere, it is perhaps more alive in Spain than in any other European country. The seventy-fifth anniversary of the Spanish Civil War has re-ignited interest in this field – an interest that is reflected in this book and which it will reinforce. This book features cutting-edge, interdisciplinary research on the political, historical, cultural, and literary legacy of the Spanish Civil War by a mixture of new and leading scholars from Europe, North America and New Zealand.