El laberinto español

by Gerald Brenan

Gerald Brenan analizó brillante y minuciosamente los antecedentes y problemas que determinaron la guerra civil española. El autor era un inglés enamorado de España, y en 1936 hacía cerca de veinte años que residía en nuestro país, en contacto cotidiano con sus gentes y dedicado al estudio de sus problemas. Durante cierto tiempo, antes de exiliarse, compartió con el pueblo su tragedia. En los años siguientes completó sus conocimientos en la biblioteca del Museo Británico, y el resultado de esta doble experiencia fue esta obra. El laberinto español desmenuza los problemas de la España anterior a 1936, prestando una especial atención a los años de la Segunda República. Análisis histórico, económico, político y social, esta obra es considerada en el mundo de habla inglesa como la mejor introducción para el profano que desee iniciar una especialización en temas hispánicos o simplemente informarse acerca de ellos. Para los más entendidos ofrece una síntesis admirable de la España del siglo XX.

Genres: History, Spain, Nonfiction, Spanish Civil War, Politics, War

783 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Edward FitzGerald "Gerald" Brenan, CBE was an Anglo-Irish writer and Hispanist who spent much of his life in Spain.

He is best known for The Spanish Labyrinth, a historical work on the background to the Spanish Civil War, and for South from Granada: Seven Years in an Andalusian Village.
He was awarded a CBE in the Diplomatic Service and Overseas List in 1982.


Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Roy Lotz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Civil War was an appalling calamity in which every class and every party lost.

The longer I live, work, and travel in Spain, the harder it is to believe that, less than a century ago, the entire country was torn apart by a bloody war. What set of circumstances could prompt a nation of ordinary, law-abiding people to explode into conflict and kill each other by the hundreds of thousands? This, of course, is just a specific version of a more general question: Why do people wage wars? I may sound naïve, but I do find this perplexing—since, as Brenan points out, in the destruction wrought by war, especially modern war, there are only losers.

Brenan’s work was one of the first serious analyses of the Civil War to be published (in 1943, just four years after the war’s conclusion), and has remained in print ever since. Nevertheless I was somewhat hesitant to read it. I found Brenan’s famous memoirs, South from Granada, to be underwhelming, so I assumed that this book would be as well. Happily I was mistaken. The Spanish Labyrinth is a comprehensive and penetrating work, easily one of the best books about the Civil War—or indeed about Spain—that I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

This does not mean it is accessible. Brenan chose his title well. The events leading up to the Spanish Civil War are intrinsically complex. So many different parties were involved in the accelerating dance of political turmoil that even the most skilled popular writer would have trouble seamlessly weaving it all together. And Brenan, though a strong writer, was too close to the events described to even approach a popular account. As a result the book itself can feel labyrinthine—with valuable comments and data tucked away into footnotes, with several miniature appendices per chapter and a longer one at the end of the book, and a seemingly endless cast of characters, organizations, and movements. Certainly this book, like any excellent book, will repay careful rereading.

Brenan’s take on the Civil War can be helpfully contrasted with that of George Orwell. Orwell, who was in Spain a matter of months and who never learned Spanish very well, saw the Spanish Civil War in terms of the wider struggle between the Right and the Left. For him, it was a straightforward class conflict between the poor workers and the rich fascists, a struggle that was playing out all over the globe. Brenan, on the other hand, who spoke fluent Spanish and who lived in Spain for decades, saw the war as a peculiarly Spanish affair; and his analysis focuses almost exclusively on internal factors. (Both authors, incidentally, did share a distaste for Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia.)

Before the Civil War, political instability plagued Spain for generations. This was, in part, a consequence of economic backwardness; and this backwardness, in turn, had its roots deep in Spanish history—Spain’s commitment to New World gold at the expense of industrialization, and to merino wool at the expense of agriculture. (By the way, Spanish shepherds still hold onto their special privileges, which they demonstrate every year in the Fiesta de Transhumancia, during which sheep are herded straight through the center of Madrid.)

The Church came to identify itself fully with the rich and powerful, alienating itself from the people. As a result, anti-clericalism has played nearly as big a role in Spanish history as the church itself. The army, meanwhile, through a series of pronuciamientos and coups d’etat, came to see itself as the guardian of traditional Spanish values, able and willing to topple any regimes they deemed unsatisfactory—and, as history amply shows, it is always bad news to have a politically active military.

During all this time, Spain was plagued by a long-standing agrarian crisis. In one of Brenan’s most brilliant chapters, he details how different farming traditions sprung up in different regions of the country, partly in response to varying soil and climatic conditions. Unfortunately, many regions of Spain are—either from lack of rain or inferior soil—rather poor for agriculture; and distinct social arrangements (such as small-holding minifundios or large latifundios) are appropriate for these different climatic conditions.

In the hot and dry south, for example, farms are usually quite large; and the work required is seasonal, not year-round. Since a small number of wealthy families controlled these large estates, the vast majority were left to subsist on badly-paid seasonal work, thus leading to inequality and violent political tension. (As I discovered from Gilmore's The People of the Plain, these agrarian problems persisted until the end of Franco's reign.)

In addition to the inefficiency and inequality of Spanish agriculture, there was the ever-present problem of Spanish regionalism. Brenan follows Richard Ford and Ortega y Gasset in seeing regionalism as one of the defining features of Spanish political life. (Those watching the Catalan independence movement unfold today will be little disposed to disagree.) Spain is crisscrossed by several mountain ranges and sudden changes in elevation, thus leading to jarring climatic juxtaposition. I have experienced this myself: one moment I will be driving through a windswept mountain range, and the next I will be on the verdant coast. This is one culprit for the famous Spanish regionalism.

Another is Spain’s history. When Isabel and Fernando were married, thus uniting all of Spain for the first time, their separate kingdoms, Castile and Aragon, had distinct political traditions. As the historian J.H. Elliott describes in his excellent book, Imperial Spain, the Castile of Isabel, with its history of centralized rule and its emphasis on military power, was bound to conflict with Catalonia’s history of liberalism and commercial capitalism. The industrial revolution further fueled these regional tensions, as Bilbao and Barcelona became heavily industrialized while the interior and the south remained mainly agricultural.

These divisions in Spain—climatic, historical, and political—translated into splits in leftist movements in the years leading up to the Spanish Civil War. The fundamental split was between the socialists and the anarcho-syndicalists. The socialists tended to be more reformist, while the anarcho-syndicalists were straightforwardly revolutionary. Each party had its associated union, respectively the U.G.T. and the C.N.T., which most often refused to work with one another as they attempted to bring down the capitalist system using general strikes. Brenan’s histories of these movements—their origins, development, and leaders—constitutes the central portion of this book, and is absolutely first-rate.

On the conservative side, in addition to the wealthy landowners and the Church—not to mention the army—there were the Monarchists and the Carlists. The presence of Monarchists, in a country which still had a king living in exile, requires no explanation. The Carlists, on the other hand, were a distinctly Spanish product. The death of Fernando VII, in 1833, set off a series of civil wars (the one in 1936 was hardly the first in Spain) between two contending lines to the throne. Those who supported the pretender Don Carlos became known as Carlists. Theoretically, Monarchists and Carlists were arch-nemeses; but since, by the 1930s, the last living Carlist claimant was old and without an heir, the distinction had worn thin.

Trapped between these arch-conservative and revolutionary-leftist forces were a comparatively small group of liberals, who attempted to create a Republic in 1931. But they were doomed from the start. First, as Brenan notes, liberalism has historically had little appeal in Spain. What is more, the economic downturn—caused by the great depression—severely limited whatever resources the government had to work with. Meanwhile, forces from every side were determined to undermine or dismantle the nascent state. Go too far to appease one side, and they risked severe retaliation from the other. Threading its way between this Scylla and that Charybdis, the ship of state crashed and sank.

From this rather pathetic summary, I hope you can at least get a taste of how complex a story Brenan had to tell. Climatic and cultural regions, revolutionary movements, workers' unions, political parties, the army, the Church, economical classes—all of these were involved in the conflagration. There do not even appear to be any outstanding individuals towards whom you can orient your gaze. Franco himself was notoriously uncharismatic. The final result is confusion—labyrinthine confusion—and given all this, Brenan did a terrific job in his analysis.

The book is flawed, of course. Like Richard Ford, and like so many foreign writers, Brenan is pre-disposed to find some essential core to the “Spanish personality,” which can be used as a catch-all historical explanation. Most often these are crass stereotypes (Spaniards are lazy, excitable, etc.), or otherwise Romantic wishful thinking—for instance Brenan’s insistence on the Spanish abhorrence of the modern world. Another flaw is Brenan’s focus on the Left. Though his histories of socialism and anarcho-syndicalism are masterful, his analysis of the Right leaves a lot to be desired. One certainly does not get any clear picture of Franco’s program from these pages. Finally, by focusing so exclusively on Spain, Brenan ignores the wider international scope of the conflict. The rise of the communists from an obscure party to the most influential organization on the Republic side, for example, cannot be explained without turning one’s eye towards the Soviet Union.

But it won’t do to dwell on these shortcomings. Given that this book was written, not by a professional historian but an amateur, and that it was written so soon after the conflict came to an end, it is a near miraculous achievement. I may not be any closer to understanding war in general; but I do think I’ve come a long way towards understanding this one.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gerald Brenan explains in his introduction that, having been there at the start of the Spanish Civil War, he wanted to understand what led to it, and preoccupied himself with studying this during the war. This book, first published in 1943, is the result, and is now considered a classic history of the period.

My theory is that it takes at least fifty years before historians can tackle any period with the necessary objectivity to produce anything approaching “truth” – a term that will always be disputed in relation to history. Writers who lived through events are generally unable to avoid two flaws: firstly, they assume their readers are familiar with the people and events of the period and therefore often don’t explain them well enough for future generations; and, secondly, the closer to events a writer is, the harder it is to avoid personal bias and opinion from distorting the story. Having said that, Brenan does his best to avoid bias and for the most part does a good job, but sometimes it’s clear that, like most British intellectuals of the time, his sympathies were with the left, and he tends to forgive their excesses more easily than those from the right. A bigger problem for me, as a newcomer to the period, was that he often left me struggling to follow timelines, or to work out the political alignment or even nationality of a particular person – he obviously assumed his contemporary readership would know these things from reading the news.

Where Brenan excels is in his detailed breakdown of the background to the conflict, especially his explanation of why the various different regions in Spain developed differing political alignments dependant on local geographical, agricultural and industrial factors. While all were affected by the power plays amongst the monarchy, Church and military, he shows that the impact differed according to the economic and social history of each region. I found that I was gradually developing a map of the country in my mind, one that showed not simply where places were but what people did there – how they lived, were they wealthy or poor, who owned the land, was the land fertile, what were their local industries, and so on. He also shows how parts of Spain looked over the border towards Europe while other parts were still influenced by their Moorish past. This left me with a much better understanding not only of the drivers that led to the Civil War, but also, in fact, of the current demands for independence from some regions which are still part of Spanish politics today.

He also delves into the rise of the various factions on the left, explaining why some turned to anarchism while others adopted socialism, etc., again showing how this arose out of local rather than national factors. Syndicalism, a form of trades unionism that was effective in industrialised centres, was less well-suited to rural areas, for example. He explains the Spanish form of anarchism well, making it seem like a reasonable idea rather than the kind of extreme bogeyman philosophy it tends to be seen as now. He does the same for the right, but it wasn’t so divided and so is easier on the whole to understand, and I suspect Brenan was more fascinated by the philosophies underpinning left than right, so he writes about them more deeply and interestingly. He also explains the rise of anti-clericalism, showing how over time the Church ceased to be seen as the champion of the poor and became instead the paid instrument of the rich and powerful, helping them to maintain social control, and thus leading to the hatred that would result in so many atrocities towards clerics.

On occasion, he has a tendency to state an opinion as fact without supporting evidence, or to generalise about the “Spanish temperament” or the “Spanish psyche”, as if they were uniform things, which is a bit odd since the whole book is proving that Spain was a deeply fractured society at the time, region against region, philosophy against philosophy. And it’s easy with hindsight to scoff a little at those things he got wrong, as, for instance, when he suggests that Spaniards would never accept a dictatorship and that Franco’s regime would therefore be short-lived. As a right-wing dictator, he seems to see Franco in the same terms as Mussolini or Hitler, but future history would show distinct differences in Franco’s approach, which is probably why he survived into old age. But predicting the future is always difficult, and he doesn’t go too far down that line.

In the epilogue, Brenan explains that he is writing too soon to give an account of the war itself. He mentions the atrocities and, while accepting that the left participated too, claims the number of executions carried out by the right were far greater – a claim that I believe is now disputed.

Despite the small flaws I’ve mentioned, I found this a fascinating and hugely informative read, that has left me with a much better understanding of what led to the rise of the various factions, and why the drive towards war became seemingly unstoppable. I highly recommend it – its classic status is well deserved. However, I was glad I had already read Stanley G Payne’s The Spanish Civil War first – because it is a more conventional history written much more recently, I had some prior understanding without which I may have found myself floundering too deeply at those points where Brenan assumed existing knowledge.

www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com

[Xan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imprescindible para conocer la historia política de España desde 1860 hasta la Guerra Civil.
Se nota el paso del tiempo en algunos comentarios que hoy serían considerados condescendientes y ofensivos, pero la generosa bibliografía en la que se basa, los testimonios que recoge y las propias experiencias vividas por el autor merecen mantener este libro como un punto de partida para estudiar el siglo XX en España.

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty dense history of the background to the Spanish Civil War, first published in 1943. I liked very much the descriptions of Spain's political and religious structure from the 16th to the 20th centuries and the role of the church, which was very powerful. A good model on how a falsely rich country became destitute and divided.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

The second star is just accumulated goodwill from "South from Granada". This one was virtually unreadable.

[Flora · Rating 3 out of 5]

A difficult but excellent work on socio-politico history of Spain. Update to modern times by pairing this with the recent one by Giles Tremlett for good understanding of Spain.

[Dylan Vieites Glennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really rather enjoyed reading this book - clearly from other's comments - I'm in a minority. Personally, when I started it, I struggled to put it down - though I have a passion for what the book covers. His writing style is certainly an interesting one, perhaps influenced by the fact he was on the edge of the Bloomsbury Group (I'm a big fan of) and how he is attempting to give a comprehensive account. It's a learned prose with a romantic tint in its descriptions such as, "[i]t was the tactic of the bull fight - to provoke the animal to charge and charge until he was worn out, and then to kill him. There was a long tradition among the Spanish governing classes of how to break revolution. Indeed such arts contained for them the whole of politics."The detail is most certainly there, the "labyrinth" aspect of the title may as well refer to the book. Some of the best aspects are found in the footnotes, and you're constantly flicking between maps and appendices and back to the text. It is, of course, one of the first serious analyses to be published on the civil war having been written during and immediately after the civil war.

My greatest struggle when deliberating over the book is the fact it can never be called an impartial book. Even in his preface, Brenan admits so much, and perhaps this makes it even better - we understand where he is coming from in contrast to other's writing with a hidden bias. Furthermore, I'm also sympathetic to his way of thinking and his own attitudes though not necessarily his scathing attacks on the Liberals for their anti-clericalism.

Before writing this review, I scribbled some notes down on blank A4 - though just like the erratic nature of the novel, they took up four pages and seemed to lack a certain level of clarity. I guess that's the struggle the author had when ascertaining where to start in order to explain the Spanish Civil War because that was clearly his main aim. The book, as set out by the author, is split into three parts: the old regime, the condition of the working classes, and the rise and decline of the Republic. Though he doesn't just constrain himself to these three parts rather he jumps around incessantly and dabbles in other histories to try to explain his case such as Oliver Cromwell or the Jacobins.

You could well argue there is a certain degree of historical determinism found in this book. The Agrarian question is very much important in the climactic and geographic division. Brenan focuses on historic Spain united by Isabel and Fernando's marriage but still hugely divided between the world of Castile and Aragon. The south mainly stayed agricultural whilst the Basque region and Catalonia took on industrialisation. Though, these things happened differently to the rest of Western Europe since Spain managed to avoid the industrial revolution and thus the Great Reform Act of 1832 found in Britain. As a direct cause of this, it was Brits who had something to cling to and thus no desire for revolution unlike in Spain where "religion had meant so much to the poor that they were left with the hunger for something to replace it [that being ideology]". The nature of Spain was different. Even in regard to war and fighting, Brenan places the pacifism of Spain in WWI to the loss of Cuba and Puerto Rica in the late 19th century to America. The army is also an interesting one, it believed it should be the Guardian of Spanish values which thus made it political - and a political army is really not the answer.

It must be remembered that Spain was absolutely wracked with political problems prior to the civil war. Alternating between monarchy, dictatorship and the republic. The author very much seemed to romantasise the dictatorship under Primo de Rivero - and trying to rationalise why he supported the socialists. The different parties and how they amassed power is also rather confusing but helpfully explained within the novel. The Church is also an interesting one, it historically had different roles in different places sometimes the monks cozying up with the peasants against the landowners and in other areas cozying up with the landowners against the peasants. Yet, ultimately it transitioned to supporting the rich and powerful since they'd serve it's interests and supporting the coup. The book resides next to me coated in highlights and annotations, I'll prevent myself from boring you with the detail.

Unlike Orwell, Brenan had a much deeper understanding of Spanish society resonating from his lived experience having moved there after World War I to live on his army pension. As a direct cause of this, his familiarity with Spain makes his work make much more sense for exploring the social and political background of Spain in contrast to Orwell. For example, when I read Orwell's Homage to Catalonia the author didn't seem, to me, to know what it was he was writing about - and he lacked a clarity because of this. He also seemed to have a much greater naivety in understanding Spanish politics and the history of Catalonia which also didn't help with the book. Thus, having read Brenan's work, I seem to understand Homage to Catalonia to a greater extent than previously dound - e.g. the relentless acronyms of different groups and the anarcho-syndacylists have meaning.

[Pablo González · Rating 4 out of 5]

En términos generales muy bien, pero me perdí algunas veces...cambia de años en un momento, es necesario ver todas las anotaciones y algunas veces consultar momentos. Narra una realidad, analizando todos los parámetros posibles que hacen desembocar en el golpe de estado.

[jeuss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hace años mi mujer me recomendó este libro, hasta hace poco no lo he hecho y no puedo estar más contento narra una época de la historia de España que todos deberíamos conocer.

[Eseuteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Está wapo. Gerald Brenan; buen escritor, mejor aulario.

[Ben Wolfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a wonderful elucidation over the growth of the political groups which participated in the Spanish civil war. It showed why the Spanish civil war happened when it did, and how it was the inevitable end of centuries of misrule, simmering opinions, exploitation, and unfortunate mistakes.

[David Uclés · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si algo he aprendido después de permanecer años leyendo sobre la Guerra Civil es que lo más importante para comprenderla es leer la situación sociopolítica anterior a esta, y este libro lo hace de forma perfecta, junto al ensayo de Santos Julia sobre las dos Españas. Brenan comprende España tan bien que asusta. Uno de los mejores hispanistas y su mejor obra. Imprescindible.

[Ruboslav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como siempre me pasa con los libros de sociopolítica histórica, acabo aburriéndome. No obstante, este libro en concreto hace, para mí, una acertada visión de la España de esa época. Recomendado para quien quiera conocer la situación que propició la guerra civil.

[Alba · Rating 4 out of 5]

No lo recomendaría para aquellos no familiarizados con la historia de España (especialmente la época de la Restauración, la dictadura de Primo de Rivera, la II república, la guerra civil, etc.). No sigue un orden estricto, ni lógico ni cronológico, y da muchas cosas por supuesto. Me sorprende que el libro esté hecho con el objeto de que los ingleses "entiendan" la historia española, cuando ya me parece bastante complejo para un español (no es que seamos culturas antitéticas e incomunicables, pero imagino que la mayoría de las gentes conocen mejor la historia de su país que de los demás, aunque esto puede que sea un producto de mi imaginación), si bien es cierto que, precisamente por el público al que pretende llegar hace varias comparaciones entre España e Inglaterra. Si, en cambio, tenemos un conocimiento aceptable de la época, y, por tanto, podemos obviar por asimilados las numerosas fechas y nombres, se convierte en un libro muy ameno en casi todas sus partes (el capítulo dedicado a la reforma agraria es harina de otro costal).

A pesar de su densidad, este libro es muy valioso por muchos motivos. Brenan vivió durante más de 20 años en Málaga precisamente en la época previa a la guerra civil, por lo que vivió lo que vivieron los andaluces y vio de primera mano cómo pensaban, vivían y actuaban. Él mismo dice en un prólogo que tuvo que luchar contra fuertes sentimientos, pues los tenía puestos en la República y en las izquierdas (su filoanarquismo queda patente a lo largo de todo el libro, y en numerosas ocasiones, se notan sus deseos de "lavarle la cara" a este movimiento). Debido a esta convivencia con los españoles se aprecia también en él mucho aprecio y agradecimiento hacia ellos, pero también, a veces, un poco de condescendencia, reforzando los tópicos (que a veces pueden ser incluso halagadores) de que los españoles son un pueblo primitivo (lo que les confiere simplicidad y agresividad a la vez que nobleza y pureza de alma), lo que le lleva a caer en muchas ocasiones en contradicciones en los argumentos: por su carácter de españoles, las distintas facetas de la sociedad española son, al mismo tiempo, una cosa y la contraria. Las contradicciones quedan patentes, sobre todo, cuando habla de la Iglesia, pues ésta tiene en la trama el papel de villano que oprime a los pobres y a los humildes, pero a la vez son promotoras de las ideas "socialistas" que los ponen en el bando de aquellos. No obstante, esta incongruencia casi se convierte en iluminadora paradoja si atendemos a las diferencias geográficas, que comportan modos de vida distintos (de organización del trabajo y de la propiedad), y, por tanto, diferentes modos de comportarse del clero; a la jerarquía dentro de la Iglesia, que hace que según el estrato los religiosos sean más propensos a actuar de una manera u otra; y al vínculo que tengan con ellos (personal y/o religioso) los feligreses. Esta necesidad de matizar cada aseveración es lo que da al lector de este libro una sensación de vértigo, como si se encontrara en un "laberinto".

Sobre cómo está estructurado el libro: la mitad primera se ocupa de la etapa apodada "Restauración", y la segunda consiste en un capítulo bastante largo y denso sobre la cuestión agraria (qué cultivos había en cada parte de España, qué método de trabajo, salario, problemas del terreno, de las cosechas, etc.), unos cuantos capítulos dedicados a hablar de las fuerzas revolucionarias y reaccionarias de la época (socialismo, anarquismo, anarcosindicalismo y carlismo), un par sobre la "acción" con todas las letras de la II República y dos epílogos sobre el pasado medieval colectivista de España. El autor tiene una tendencia marxista marcada, pues el foco está puesto durante todo el libro en los conflictos entre clases y los problemas económicos. Para él, la causa principal de la posterior guerra es la incapacidad de la II República de realizar una reforma agraria que satisfaga a los campesinos y mantenga su lealtad. Y no le falta parte de razón. Pero, según mi manera de percibir el conflicto, deja fuera el resto de variantes, entre ellas, una de las más importantes en la época: la cuestión religiosa, a la que no dedica su atención, como si diera por hecho algo muy difícil de imaginar, que España estuviera en los años 30 llena de ateos y los poquísimos fieles que quedaban, fueran indiferentes al estado presente y futuro de su religión.

Aun así, a pesar de sus carencias, que en realidad no son tantas como pudiera parecer por mis palabras, es un libro que merece mucho la pena. Muy revelador, sobre todo para ponerse en la piel de aquellos obreros y campesinos que fueron ilusionándose y decepcionándose con los sucesivos regímenes políticos hasta que repitieron el mismo proceso con la República, y unos, por hartura, otros, por miedo, otros, por odio y rencor, y otros, por fe y esperanza, fueron escogiendo su posición dentro de todas aquellas facciones que luego habrían de enfrentarse.

[Marcos92 · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro escrito por el hispanista Gerald Brenan, en la fecha temprana de 1940, intenta esclarecer las causas inmediatas y profundas de la Guerra Civil española.

Por una parte, llama la atención lo bien documentado que está para tratarse de un ensayo, escrito por alguien que no tiene una formación de historiador y que conoce España como viajero. Hay algunos apuntes muy interesantes, como por ejemplo, el énfasis que pone en la situación del mundo rural, en la mala gestión por parte de los propietarios de tierras y la necesidad ineludible de proceder a una redistribución (el autor se inclina por la colectivización más que por el reparto individual, puesto que la baja calidad del suelo y la irregularidad de precipitaciones en Andalucía hace que no resulten rentables las pequeñas explotaciones)

Pero el libro tiene algún que otro punto negativo que le resta valor. Por ejemplo, las reflexiones acerca de una supuesta psicología del pueblo español, modelada a través de los siglos, psicología que se manifiesta en ciertos momentos y que permite establecer patrones de comportamiento. En esto el autor se adhiere al típico pensamiento nacionalista tan en boga en aquel momento. Afirmaciones así son muy cuestionables, y por desgracia, se repiten obsesivamente a lo largo de toda la lectura.

También me parece fuera de toda proporción razonable el protagonismo que se le concede a los anarquistas en el surgimiento de un clima de inestabilidad prebélico. Por el contrario, las intrigas militares, que son continuas, apenas se esbozan.

Interesante de leer, incluso no está exento de rigor en ciertos puntos. Pero sazonado todo con disparates por aquí y allá. No me parece que deba mantenerse como lectura 'canónica' sobre la Guerra Civil, sobre todo después de tantas décadas de avance en las investigaciones.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Spanish Civil War by Gerald Brenan.

I went to school in the 80s in the United States. I'm not even sure if we were taught about the Spanish Civil War. If we were, it was barely touched upon. I had to learn about it on my own after high school. Once I started digging in to that history, I couldn't get enough. It is such an important moment in time. Obviously for the people of Spain, as it is their history, but also for the rest of the world because of the lessons we can learn from it.

The war lasted from 1936 to 1939. After World War I (1914 - 1918) and just before World War II (1939 - 1945). It was fought by the authoritarian Nationalist faction and the left-leaning Republican faction. The Nationalists ultimately won and Spain was ruled by Franco for nearly 40 years, from 1936 until his death in 1975. After his death, Spain transitioned to a democracy.

Brenan's book was published in 1943, just a few years after the war ended. It doesn't cover the war itself. Rather, it explores in depth the social and political background of Spain from the time of the Ancien Régime (1874- 1931) up through the beginning of the war in 1936. While perhaps a bit dated in some areas now, this is still an excellent text. It provides important context for the war.

[Ludo-Van · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Spanish Labyrinth. What a silly title, I thought. Well I was very wrong. This book depicts the labyrinth that Spain indeed was at the dawn of the civil war. The Spanish Jam, I would have titled it (which sounds even sillier).
Anyway, I picked up this one at a flea market, unaware that this is a classic. The account of the social and political movements of Spain is incredibly interesting, to say the least, however the reader must pay attention to follow the names and the events otherwise you get lost in the labyrinth.
This book was published not long after the end of the war, and one can see that the author is a man of his time. He adds personal comments on the various social classes and political movements, which at time might look rather condescending (or you can see this as something amusing if you take it with the due caution, for example I particularly enjoyed his love-hate comments on the anarchists).
So overall this is not the lightest read, and the reader will have to be critic in the parts where the author adds those clichés. But if somebody wants an account of the social milieu before the Spanish civil war, I would recommend it.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

From his home on the hills of Majorca, which Gerald Brennan got to keep despite opposing Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 a British expat plumbs the depths of the Spanish soul to try and discover how such a sleepy country exploded into political violence in the 1930s and became the crucible of World War II. The Catholic Church, the Army, the monarchists, the republicans, the fascists, particularly Jose Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, the ideological parties of the left, Communist and Socialists, and the Spanish anarchists, all get their turn on the Brennan couch of political psycho-analysis.

[Oliver · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to rate this lower but the chances are if you've picked up this book it's because you have a deep interest in the mess which was Spanish politics prior to the Civil War. This book is hard to read, very hard in fact. Don't read this just because you liked South from Granada, this is a whole different kettle of fish. I am a Spanish A Level teacher and it was a laborious read which I often didn't enjoy but I now benefit from a pretty comprehensive knowledge of all the factions involved in the precursor to the war.

[Eduardo Fort · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obra pionera entre las que analizan las causas y orígenes sociopolíticos de la Guerra Civil Española (1936-1939). Gerald Brenan (1894-1987) se estableció en España y se convirtió en uno de los observadores más agudos de la sociedad ibérica.

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's a good writer, but if you liked Brenan's South From Granada, be prepared that this is very different: dense, richly detailed, and complicated. I gave up after 100 pages because I need a simpler intro to the Spanish Civil War.

[wi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cuenta las claves del golpe de estado de 1936 y la guerra civil que se desató al fracasar. Fue el libro que me explicó la vulgaridad de España, que me explicaba porqué el país era un cuartel con muchos barrios llenos de militares con bigotito franquista, espacios atroces.

[Gothalo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un ensayo muy didáctico en el que hace repaso de la historia de España de los siglos XIX y XX buscando los motivos que llevaron a la Guerra Civil del 36. El hecho de ser un autor británico le da una perspectiva que de otro modo, hubiese sido imposble para un autor español durante los años 40

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic. Very dense and very thorough. It isn’t about the civil war itself, but rather all the things that led up to it. There a lot of players and organizations, and Brennan does an excellent job at letting the the reader know who where what and why.

[Teri Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un trabajo muy bien documentado para entender los orígenes sociales, económicos y políticos de la Guerra Civil Española. Su visión británica deja entrever cierta condescendencia hacia algunos sectores y, aunque su estilo es claro, se extiende, a mi gusto, en temas secundarios.

[Paco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aún vigente.

[Differengenera · Rating 4 out of 5]

thematically and geographically grouped overview of the key factions in the decades leading up to the revolution, served me well as an intro

[Raul Alonzo Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview on the background to the war. Richly detailed -- I went down so many rabbit holes. And honestly Brenan is so randomly, but amusingly, sassy at times in his analysis.

[Tomás Tumino Alvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Empiezo por lo negativo: probablemente se trate de un libro que debería ser leído por gente interesada en la historia de España en general y no únicamente en la Guerra Civil. Y hasta es probable que se tenga que hacer un somero repaso de la historia de España antes de iniciar la lectura, especialmente aquella del siglo XIX. No estoy seguro de si el libro me hubiera resultado interesante de haberme sido ignotos apellidos como los de Narváez, Zumalacárregui, Maura o Cánovas.

Otra recomendación es haber leído con anterioridad el ensayo España Invertebrada de Ortega y Gasset, ya que tanto la tesis principal como la estructura general de Brenan se basan fuertemente en su diagnóstico.

Habiendo dado estas advertencias, este libro me voló la cabeza. Prácticamente cada párrafo contiene una observación interesante sobre los grandes temas de la historia del país.

Discrepo con reseñadores anteriores sobre las supuestas contradicciones y cegueras ideológicas de Brenan con respecto a la iglesia. Su tesis es clara: la Iglesia española partió siendo una institución con raíces fuertes en el pueblo, pero con intereses egoístas que la llevaron a perderlas casi totalmente a lo largo del siglo XIX. En este balance se nota precisamente la marca de Ortega.

En cuanto a las observaciones folklóricas sobre el "carácter" español, es cierto que no envejecieron bien, aunque no dejan de tener algún interés teniendo en cuenta que efectivamente el pueblo español sufrió una transformación antropológica de proporciones durante el franquismo, por lo que, más allá del fetichismo racialista o romántico, el autor suele estar efectivamente describiendo realidades. Sin embargo, no dejan de provocar una sonrisa observaciones psicologistas tales como la del "mesianismo de judío ibérico" de Antonio Maura, del que ni siquiera sabemos si realmente era un "chueta".

[Insurrecto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Si ya el primer volumen sorprendía por la deriva izquierdista de su aproximación a la realidad histórica de España, este segundo volumen se caracteriza por el incremento del sesgo al analizar la situación sociopolítica de la España que llegó, a través de la República a la Guerra Civil.

El análisis de los antecedentes establece la bondad de los principios "progresistas" y el atávico oscurantismo, aliñado de mala intención, de la estructura social española, si bien es cierto que la asunción del liberalismo doctrinario llevó a España a un callejón sin salida, su descripción es un tanto inadecuada.

La cercanía de la redacción de este ensayo a los acontecimientos narrados, y la imprecisión de las fuentes, haxen que este texto sólo tenga un interés de relato de parte.