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Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Civil War > Item 108
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Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War
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by Michael Seidman
Sales Rank: 119488
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List Price: $24.95
$24.95
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on 8-7-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 406 pages
Published by: University of Wisconsin PressEdition: 1st Edition September 5, 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0299178641
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0299178642
Book Dimensions:
9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 14.9 ounces
Reader Reviews
In his "social history" of the Spanish Civil War Michael Seidman provides a grimly fascinating history of the decline and fall of the Loyalist government. In his introduction Seidman announces that he will bring back the individual. Instead of concentrating on collectivities such as class or party or gender or region he will look at individuals and their own choices. There is something vaguely libertarian and Ayn Randian about Seidman's "individualism." Individuals, after all, fall in love, have children, get married, join political parties or churches. In other words individual men and women can only realize their full potential in working and living with other people. But for Seidman "individualism" refers to selfishness, opportunism, cynicism, and apathy. Although such motives ultimately led to the destruction of the Loyalist cause, one supsects that Seidman believes these were more worthy of our sympathy than the high-handed and bullying abstractions of the Spanish government. There is considerable detail in the book, and Seidman often makes comparisons with the French, English, American and Russian civil wars. The passages on collectivization are particularly interesting. During the conflict the Communists argued that the anarchists were forcing people into collectives that they didn't want. In response the anarchists argued that the Communists were using force to destroy them. Seidman argues both were right. He further adds that while some peasants supported them, others, from a variety of rural classes, were less enthusiastic about them. Some collectives were not successful. Others were successful but they either were selfishly concerned with their own petty local concerns or they reverted to autarky. However well they worked on a local level, they were not successful enough on a national level. Seidman's tale tells of a whole host of problems. Soldiers are infected with veneral disease. They are passive and unagressive while their officers are incompetent and occasionally treacherous. Desertion is a constant problem, encouraged by shortages of food and clothing, inadequate medical care, and delays in pay. The Loyalist zone is hampered by hyperinflation, while looting soldiers alienate the peasants and hamper critical offensives. In response to these and price controls farmers refuse to produce, while workers engage in strikes or absenteeism and show little enthusiasm for the cause. There are shortages of everything. Morale is weak, conscription is unpopular and the soldiers it produces are insufficient and unenthusiastic. Corruption and inefficency hamper the cause at every turn. The Nationalists face some of the same problems, but they are more successful in controlling them. By the end of the war the majority of the Loyalist zone are willing to accept peace at any price. All in all, Seidman tells a grim, fascinating story, and the experience is like watching a corpse decay before your eyes. But the "corpse" did not die until 1939, and that is the key problem with Seidman's account. (1) Although this book's "individualism" reminds one of the late Richard Cobb, unlike Cobb this is not a story that looks at individuals per se. Instead it consists mostly of complaints by central government authorities whose first priority was to win the war. We do not actually look at specific people, and as such their motives are oversimplified. People are either militant or opportunist (or worse); they are never people with conflicting interests trying to make the best of an impossible situation. (2) Seidman's sources consists of archival sources and a large reading of the literature. But reading the archival notations often provides little or no information on the source. Was the complaint a reasoned analysis, an intemperate complaint or a partisan polemic? Seidman only rarely tells us. There is also a tendency to rely on Francoist historians, such as Martinez Blande or Salas Larrazabal, with their ideological bias only becoming clear as one goes through the book. And the story stops with the Francoist victory. How did the cynics and opportunists respond when they faced the starvation and repression so ably delineated by Michael Richards in "A Time of Silence"? (3) There is also a problem of cause and effect. Poor morale, economic collapse, and a disintegrating army are more the result of military defeat than the cause of it. Which leads us to (4). Seidman's comparative account misses several key points. Although the Spanish Right did not have a majority of the Spanish people behind it, it had during the Republic been able to mobilize a large portion of the Spanish people behind it. This is in contrast to the Russian Whites, where support for non-socialist parties was virtually non-existent among the peasantry, and who consisted of a tiny elite who had to build up everything from scratch. At the same time the Nationalist had most of the army, superior foreign support and superior air support. By contrast the legal government was in chaos and had to rebuild everything anew, as we will see in Helen Graham's new book on the war. Considering these disadvantages, it is surprising that the Republic lasted as long as it did.
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Republic of Egos: A Social History of the Spanish Civil War
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Updated on 8-7-2008.
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