Essays

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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“Brother” North: Morocco’s Involvement in the Spanish Civil War

January 4, 2013
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Summary of the essay “El abrazo mortal de Franco: La participación de las tropas marroquíes en la Guerra Civil Española,” which earned an Honorary Mention in the Undergraduate category for the 2012 Watt Award. Although the Spanish Civil war is an extensively studied topic, the role of Spain’s neighboring country Morocco in this conflict...
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Watt Award: U.S. newspapers and the Lincoln Brigade

January 4, 2013
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Watt Award: U.S. newspapers and the Lincoln Brigade

U.S. newspaper coverage of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade reveals the domestic and foreign policy debates that arose in the late 1930s and continued into the late 1950s. I focus on The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which was sympathetic to the cause of the Spanish Republic due to the left-leaning population of the greater Cleveland...
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Watt Award: Canadian veterans and the politics of memory

January 4, 2013
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Watt Award: Canadian veterans and the politics of memory

In the latter half of the 1930s, 1,700 Canadians journeyed to Spain to defend the elected republic against General Francisco Franco’s military revolt. Decades later, as these men approached old age, they began pressing for official recognition from the Canadian government for their service in Spain; they were ultimately unsuccessful. A close analysis...
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Guernica and Guernica in British and American Poetry

September 17, 2012
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Guernica and <em>Guernica</em> in British and American Poetry

What role has poetry played in the way we think about the Spanish Civil War? Along with photography and film, it helped bring home the image of the Spanish Civil War as an idealistic struggle and a tragic catastrophe.
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Canada should recognize its SCW heroes

September 16, 2012
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Canada should recognize its SCW heroes

Quick, identify the Canadian battalion that celebrates its 75th anniversary this month. If you didn’t guess the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion you’re not alone. Few would.
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Why Not Teach the Spanish Civil War?

September 15, 2012
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Why <em>Not</em> Teach the Spanish Civil War?

When taught properly, the Spanish Civil War allows students in a Spanish class not only to learn about a major historical event but to think, write, and talk about political, moral, and cultural questions that are as relevant today as they were 75 years ago.
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