New IB book by Adrian Pole featured in podcast
Adrian Pole’s sharp-eyed and sensitive new book notices what so many historians have missed about the International Brigades: that this army was filled with Spanish recruits. Interactions with everyday Spaniards made up a substantial chunk of foreign soldiers’ days in the rearguard. Due to the high mortality of Brigade units, maintaining fighting readiness demanded conscription of local Spanish soldiers. Over time, Spaniards made up 60% of these units in some cases. Conscription meant recruitment, and recruitment meant interaction with workers, farmers, peasants, and other Spaniards in the Republican sector. By centering these interactions with Spaniards, Pole’s book recasts the story of the International Brigades by making good use of sources like the trench press and the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (which has been digitized). Though Spanish voices can be hard to hear in the archives, they are there, and Pole casts a wide net. As a result, he is able to tell the story of groups we still know little about, like Spanish women and children in the rearguard. This book is an absorbing account of how making anti-fascist war meant constructing “The Spanish People” as ready and willing participants in the fight against global fascism. For more details, listen to Episode #12 of the Family Secrets of the Spanish Civil War podcast here.
