The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background…

2370 The Spanish Labyrinth: An Account of the Social and Political Background of the Civil War, by Gerald Brenan (read 23 Mar 1991) This is a study of the social and political background to the Spanish Civil War, and has only a chapter--called an epilogue--on the war itself. I did not like the book, not because it was not pro-Franco (it is also not pro-Communist) but because of gratuitous anti-Catholic remarks. Obviously the Church in Spain has dark sides in its past, but some of the author's remarks show his anti-Catholic bias. The book is obviously well-researched, but I suspect there is some bias in his treatment of figures on the right in Spain before 1936 as well. But the book does leave me with a much clearer idea of Spanish history in the years before 1936. Brenan treats church-burnings and priests' and nuns' executions as just kind of a trait of Spaniards, rather than an impious evil--he tells his English readers to think of English atrocities against Catholics and so not to be so condemnatory! ( )

a classic but not easy read ( )