Essays

“The Earth Endureth Forever”: Hemingway in Spain

June 10, 2016
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“The Earth Endureth Forever”: Hemingway in Spain

Diverse opinion abounds with regards to Hemingway’s actions during and after Spain’s Civil War. The Spanish journalist and diplomat Álvarez del Vayo recalled that “I talked with him in Madrid and I realized the Spanish war was fundamentally alien to him. Hemingway’s was the Spain of the running of the bulls at...
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Spain and Syria: Beyond Superficial Comparisons

June 10, 2016
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Spain and Syria: Beyond Superficial Comparisons

There are numerous comparisons that can be made between the conflict in Syria and the Spanish Civil War. Both conflicts feature a ruthless dictator, appalling loss of life, war crimes and the massive displacement of tens of thousands of refugees. However, such superficial comparisons apply to many other conflicts. Merely in terms of...
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Remembering Margaret Powell

March 22, 2014
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Remembering Margaret Powell

Lily Margaret Powell was born in March 1913, one of nine children, at Cwm Farm, Llangenny, where her father farmed a small Welsh hill farm. She attended the village school, leaving home aged 16 to train as a nurse, first in Essex, later in London at St Giles’, Camberwell, and St Olave’s, Rotherhithe –...
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“And when I get another ship…”

March 21, 2014
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“And when I get another ship…”

The unsung story of the British ships and seafarers who defied fascist bombs and u-boats – along with British government indifference – to trade with Republican Spain.
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Visualizing the war in Spain

March 21, 2014
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Visualizing the war in Spain

Her reputation as a ground-breaking war photographer long overshadowed by that of Robert Capa, Gerda Taro is the focus of a new book* that powerfully asserts the importance of her work in the Spanish Civil War, writes Jim Jump.
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Lavapiés and the anarchist roots of 15-M

January 4, 2013
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Lavapiés and the anarchist roots of 15-M

How much does Spain’s 15-M movement owe to past political struggles? The protests that broke out on May 15, 2011 reveal an interesting convergence of the old and the new. On the one hand, the encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid (Acampada Sol) was a 21st-century revolution driven by social media like...
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Remembering Bethune in Málaga and Montréal

January 4, 2013
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Remembering Bethune in Málaga and Montréal

The recent popularity of public commemorations of violent events from the Spanish Civil War and the Franco dictatorship has rubbed some academic historians the wrong way. “We’ve known about these events for years,” they say. “We’ve written dozens of books and articles about them. We know almost all there is to know about the...
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Ocho interpretaciones sociales de la crisis en España (1)

January 4, 2013
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Ocho interpretaciones sociales de la crisis en España (1)

Parte primera: los relatos en declive (Version in English.) La crisis económica que muchos pensaron pasajera se vuelve interminable. Algunos aún se aferran al recuerdo de las últimas crisis españolas y confían en que queda poco para salir. Otros ven el camino de Grecia, o incluso el de otros países del sur que sufrieron...
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Eight ways to read the Spanish crisis (part 1)

January 4, 2013
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Eight ways to read the Spanish crisis (part 1)

The economic crisis in Spain, which many thought short-lived, appears to have no end in sight. Everyone has a story—a narrative of the crisis that points to some responsible party, and claims to know whose feet should be held to the fire to begin finding some solutions.
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“Franco’s soldiers'” hostility to the war

January 4, 2013
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Summary of the essay “Political surveillance measures against the soldiers of the rebel army: ‘Franco’s soldiers’ and their gradual hostility to and rejection of the war, December 1937-1939,” which received an Honorary Mention in the Graduate category of the 2012 Watt Award. In July 1936 the military forces stationed in Africa rose against the...
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