Will I love The International Brigades?

Histories of the Spanish Civil War are inevitably challenging. The protagonists are varied and complex, the context labyrinthine, and the analysis and implications contested. But in the hands of a skilled historian like Giles Tremlett, the complexity is rewarding. The story of the International Brigades is fascinating, inspiring and frustrating, and lends itself to comparisons with future conflicts.

In 1936 an attempt by a coalition of reactionary army officers to overthrow the Spanish government outraged left-wingers around the world. By the start of the next year the International Brigades had been formed under the watchful eye of the Soviet Union to help the beleaguered Republic. At least 35,000 men from countries as diverse as Britain, China, Sweden, and Cuba fought and died on Spanish battlefields for a lost cause. Giles Tremlett’s expansive narrative history brings them vividly to life, with both their heroism and flaws, and shows why their struggle is still remembered today.

It is no exaggeration to say that historical as well as fictional narratives about the Spanish Civil War number in the tens of thousands. Just when we thought the final word had been written on this heart-breaking event, along comes Giles Tremlett with a blockbuster tale of the thousands of volunteers, from as far afield as Ethiopia and Pakistan, who journeyed to Spain to fight against tyranny. 

Tremlett tells the story of a corps of idealistic though imperfect people, some of whom behaved badly in Soviet satellite countries. Yet they pursued a virtuous common objective: the destruction of fascism in… show more.