The Spanish tragedy: The Civil War in perspective

by Raymond Carr

London. 1977. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. 22x14. 336p.

Genres: History, Spain, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 1977

About the author

Sir Raymond Albert Maillard Carr FBA FRHS FRSL, known as Raymond Carr, was an English historian specializing in the history of Spain, Latin America, and Sweden who was Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford, from 1968 to 1987.

Reviews

[Monty Milne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn’t quite what I was looking for, which was a good detailed chronological history of the Spanish Civil War written without any political bias. It is thematic in approach, and – like almost everything written in English about this conflict – it has a distinctly Republican bias. Nevertheless it is interesting and benefits from Carr’s extensive contacts on both sides, and his post war interviews with both winners and losers.

Carr writes of the “progressive policies” of the Republic but I wondered what was so “progressive” about agrarian reform which amounted to state sponsored theft (land was confiscated, I was startled to learn, without compensation – though you have to consult the footnotes to realise this). The persecution of the Catholic church is of course well known. Carr notes that when the Republicans forced the closure of church schools, they were not replaced with anything else. Presumably even an obscurantist pedagogical methodology is better than no education at all: this is one of many examples of how Republican policies harmed the very class they were supposed to aid. How does it help a poverty stricken child if the means of learning how to read and write is suppressed?

The election of 1936 was won by the Left with a wafer thin majority. Had the right won, the left would have responded with revolution, as Largo Caballero admitted. This is the essence of the tragedy, that conflict was unavoidable, although of course the Republicans were able to claim the “moral high ground” (very dubiously, in my view) because the other lot started it. And yet the provocations on both sides were so many and so violent that it is hard to discern who started what. It reminded me of the story of the pugilistic sectarian Ulsterman who said “I didn’t start it! I was just getting my retaliation in first!”

Carr puts some of the blame on the unbending, intolerant reluctance of Spanish conservatives to make any kind of concessions, and contrasts this with the readiness of British conservatives, who realise that for some things to stay the same, other things need to change. The Spanish on all sides seem to have had a pathological disregard for compromise: on the left, when Azana was asked why he enacted policies which had no point other than to “rub salt in the wounds”, said “Because it amuses me.” No good can ever come from this.

There is an interesting Epilogue which Carr penned after Franco’s death. To his credit, he notes the things which hadn’t worked out as he’d expected. I’d like to read his much more detailed book “Spain 1808-1939”, which is the great tome on which his reputation rests. But the gold standard in detailed chronological history of this conflict – and no discernible political biasn- must remain Hugh Thomas’s “The Spanish Civil War”. It is a little surprising that someone like Carr – an enthusiastic foxhunter, married to an Earl’s daughter, and a member of the Bullingdon Club – should have had Republican sympathies and allowed them to show so clearly. Especially when Thomas – who was a member of the Labour party – does not. For men of their generation, their experiences of living through the second world war inevitably became the prism through which they understood Spain. Nowadays, Spain is – by and large – an open society with equal opportunity. This seems in spite of, not because of, the actions and policies of both sides in this aptly named Tragedy.

[Susie Anderson-Bauer · Rating 2 out of 5]

You'd have to know a lot about Spanish history to keep up with the book.