Las brigadas internacionales

The Spanish Civil War was the first armed conflict against fascism, and a symbol for an entire generation. More than thirty-five thousand volunteers from sixty countries came to defend democracy from the troops of Franco, Hitler and Mussolini. Disorganized and ill-equipped, but animated by a shared illusion and lust for glory, heterogeneous groups of idealistic young men and women came together to create a volunteer army of a size never seen since the Crusades: the International Brigades. These passionate fighters for freedom came from all over Europe, China, Africa and the American continent to join the cause of the Republic and fight for two years in the bloody battles of Madrid, the Jarama and the Ebro. Were they heroes or delusional? Lay saints or bloodthirsty adventurers? And what exactly did they achieve? This story has been told in the books of Orwell, Malraux and Hemingway, the paintings of Picasso and the photos of Capa and Taro, but in this masterpiece the award-winning historian Giles Tremlett recounts the events of the Civil War for the first time through the experiences of this extraordinary human group. Drawing from the extensive archives of the Brigades in Moscow, Comintern documents, and countless first-hand testimonies, Tremlett manages to capture the drama and passion of the heroic effort to stop fascism in Europe.