The Spanish Cockpit: An Eyewitness Account of the Spanish Civil War

by Franz Borkenau, Hugh Thomas (Introduction)

"...not only a model of what the study of revolution should be, but one of the best books ever published on Spain."-- Gerald Brenan . "Borkenau went to see the Spanish Civil War with his own eyes and consulted nobody but his own integrity when he wrote what he saw."-- Dame Rebecca West .

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

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1937

About the author

Writer. As a university student in Leipzig, his main interests were Marxism and psychoanalysis. Borkenau is known as one of the pioneers of the totalitarianism theory.

Reviews

[Adam McPhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Important for witnessing the Spanish Civil War and accompanying revolution. At its best when he's bearing witness to that. His analysis is less great. You see the start of totalitarian theory here: Fascism and Communism are the same because they arrest too many people, but America, which would go on to create the largest prison population in world history, is not totalitarian? Give me a break.

A few good anecdotes, especially near the front lines and when he gets arrested on suspicions of trotskyism, but his command of English is a bit clunky. Wish he'd written in German and someone translated. In fact it makes Orwell's endorsement kind of suspect to me, given that he was usually a stickler on writing. But I guess ol' Franz came to the same conclusion in the end (Communism bad, Spanish national character lazy) and that's all that mattered to Orwell.

Also I always have a hard time keeping all the Spanish Civil War factions straight, especially the trade unions on the left and the quasi-fascist groups on the right. FWIW, Borkenau does a better job than most of helping the outsider sort them out.

[Görkem Altıok · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came from Orwell's Homage to Catalonia and was not disappointed. The writer starts with a summary of what happened in spain in the preceding centuries to the Civil War to truly understand it an then presents the facts of the civil war as impartial as one can be through his diaries. A must read for anyone interested in Spain and its notorious civil war.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borkenau writes an interesting piece of history... poorly. That one sentence basically says it all. One of the very dark corners of the Spanish Civil war is given some illumination, but the kind of light from a flickering fluorescent lamp that quickly annoys. The writing style is not enjoyable to read, and at times felt cumbersome and dense. Translation problems perhaps? I do not know, but it did make for difficult reading... a serious no-no for me. 1 star for writing.

The material is quite intriguing however, and really gives a soap opera feel to the behind the scenes politics that wracked the forces opposing Franco. The first person accounting of the Republican forces aligned against Franco showed startling chaos and disorganization, in many cases actually created intentionally by even more sinister forces abroad (Marxists, Communists primarily). 3 stars for content

I would probably recommend Brenan's "The Spanish Labyrinth" over this, though it is not one of my favorite books either. It is a far better read, if somewhat more biased. A trade off perhaps.

Over all, I chose to average out the content and writing style to a 2 star score.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this travel diary from civil war Spain to be a challenging look at how revolutions actually work.

The best part is the description of the role of the Communist Party. Borkenau describes how they successfully insinuated themselves into the leadership of the spanish movement by tacking to the right, opposing the revolutionary developments, and destroying the local cmtes that sprung up in the fight against Franco. It helped that they were the best organizers.

I also liked his look at the anarchists. They were capable of making extraordinary moves toward revolution--but because of their anarchism, they weren't able to take power and mobilize the people to win.

Finally, for all the fans of Land and Freedom and Homage to Catalonia (I loved both) this book is no mash-note to the POUM. FB argues that they could never break out of their sectarian shell to take real leadership of the movement.

[Benjamin Julian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the footnotes in Anthony Beevor's The Battle for Spain which deal with the economical and social aspects of the revolution reference The Spanish Cockpit. I looked about for it, but it was out of print, so I forgot it for a while. Then I came upon a favorable review of it by George Orwell, which got me to buy a used copy online. The book is interesting for those who've read a bit about the war, and who are interested in a journalist's personal account of it. Borkenau's former sincere Marxism, and his experience of Nazi Germany, make him a keen observer of the republic's convoluted politics. But his origin makes him a less fit writer of English prose. In reading the book you'll come across such constructions as "many less executions" and "certain not altogether insignificant number of cases", which are sometimes only slightly off but in certain not altogether insignificant number of cases quite confounding. The prose is also more complicated than was necessary.

His conclusions on the anarchist's revolutionary measures are more pessimistic than I expected, both after The Battle for Spain, and also after some passages of his Diary. He mentions the anarchists' inability to organize as one of their fatal flaws, after having praised the CNT's organizational capacities in the Diary. From his observations I'd have thought Borkenau would consider their aims, not the organization, as the problem.

An important book for students of the Spanish civil war, incomprehensible and irrelevant for others.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great first-hand account of the Spanish anarchists during the civil war by a sociologist. You may want to have a background in it first, though, since he throws around terms like CNT and republicans like you should know what they mean.

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Borkenau provides an eyewitness view of the Spanish Civil War. He visited Spain in 1936 and 1937, and this book reflects his observations and interpretations. This is one of the better first hand reports on this important episode in recent European history.

[Daria Skylark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderfully objective account of the events of the Spanish Civil War witnessed by the author. Moreover, an insightful, and not less impartial, analysis of the mechanisms of war and revolution, ideology and civilization, both in context of Spain and in a more general sense.

[Siddiq Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Orwell was right. The best book written on Spain, full stop.

[Marco Pavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every account and/or textbook I have read on the Spanish civil war was usually a combination of "the anarchist movement was bloody and caused terrorism" and identified as a primary reason for Franco's victory. To a good degree there was also the Bolshevik component as another element of disaster.

References to this book in mainstream literature of the Spanish civil war are near zero, sadly.

In my opinion it should have a much higher role in the historical analysis since it's one of the very few raw accounts of what has actually been going on.

A very strong theme is that most of the republican and revolutionary parties failed to collaborate. Russian help determined Franco's victory as the recipient of such help pointed their attention into crushing anarchism and communism instead, paving the road for Franco to swipe everything.

Both the anarchist and communist experiments were actually having lots of positive collectivization examples were people were thriving. There are accounts of factories increasing productivity and efficiency after collectivization. Unfortunately these experiments were shut down in the name of dogmas on how society ought to be organized.

Results ultimately were bad for the masses, especially peasants. If a more emphasis on collaboration and people ability to thrive was given, we would likely have had a very different Spain

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love learning about the Spanish Civil War but this was interesting until it wasn't. First chapter (and a bit throughout) smacks of classic British imperialism (ex. the Spanish race is like xyz). Yeah, its of that time. Fine. I skipped the whole first chapter (analyses of Spanish history), it was not very interesting and I don't think its the most reliable. The memoirs of Spain started interesting but I couldn't make it through as a book. Perhaps I will revisit it. I know its essentially a diary but perhaps I would be more interested in a book _about_ the experience not logging it. Picked it up due to the reference in Homage to Catalonia. I liked how Orwell told his experience better.

[Pablo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro bárbaro para darte cuenta de que no tienes ni idea de la guerra civil española.

[Elfbiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author did not know at the time that people that wanted to arrest him were probably surreptitious NKVD officers.

[Aaron Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

…after all something seems to be wrong with our own European civilization and… the 'backward', stagnant, and inefficient Spaniard can well compete, in the field of human values, with the efficient, practical, and progressive European. The one seems predestined to last, unmoving, throughout the cataclysms of the surrounding world, and to outlive national usurpers and foreign conquerors; the other, progressive, may progress towards his own destruction.