-46% $13.59$13.59
$3.99 delivery Tuesday, May 28
Ships from: Fifty Third Street Books Sold by: Fifty Third Street Books
$9.99$9.99
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Zoom Books Company
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
OK
Audible sample Sample
Spain in Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939 Paperback – March 7, 2017
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Purchase options and add-ons
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world, as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini.
Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa’s photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war: a fiery nineteen-year-old Kentucky woman who went to wartime Spain on her honeymoon, a Swarthmore College senior who was the first American casualty in the battle for Madrid, a pair of fiercely partisan, rivalrous New York Times reporters who covered the war from opposite sides, and a swashbuckling Texas oilman with Nazi sympathies who sold Franco almost all his oil—at reduced prices, and on credit.
It was in many ways the opening battle of World War II, and we still have much to learn from it. Spain in Our Hearts is Adam Hochschild at his very best.
“With all due respect to Orwell, Spain in Our Hearts should supplant Homage to Catalonia as the best introduction to the conflict written in English. A humane and moving book.”—New Republic
“Excellent and involving . . . What makes [Hochschild’s] book so intimate and moving is its human scale.”—Dwight Garner, New York Times
- Print length480 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherMariner Books
- Publication dateMarch 7, 2017
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.2 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100544947231
- ISBN-13978-0544947238
Books with Buzz
Discover the latest buzz-worthy books, from mysteries and romance to humor and nonfiction. Explore more
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
Review
New York Times best-seller “Excellent and involving . . . What makes [Hochschild’s] book so intimate and moving is its human scale.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times "With all due respect to Orwell, Spain in Our Hearts should supplant Homage to Catalonia as the best introduction to the conflict written in English. A humane and moving book, it is well-paced and meant to be read rather than studied." —New Republic “Admirable . . . an unusually well-written narrative, full of telling detail and vignettes that capture great human drama.” —Wall Street Journal “A commanding performance. Digging through archives, Hochschild finds characters whose lives … pull the war into tight, human-scale focus … After reading Hochschild’s book, it’s impossible to feel anything but admiration — and awe.” — San Francisco Chronicle “The tragic story of the Americans in the doomed Lincoln Brigade . . . comes vividly to life in Adam Hochschild’s compelling ‘Spain in Our Hearts,’ a long-overdue book that explores this long-overlooked conflict.” —Los Angeles Times "By assembling a well-chosen set of individual narratives, many about figures who are relatively unknown, [Hochschild] captures why so many people thought the fate of the world might be decided by who won the conflict ... Consistently vivid ... Captivating." —New York Times Book Review "A vivid and level-headed new history of American participation in the Spanish Civil War." —The New Yorker “Excellent … Hochschild captures both the passionate, partisan views of particular combatants and the larger political currents that shaped their experiences. It’s a moving and useful investigation into the dangers and promises of idealism.” — Christian Science Monitor "Exemplary . . . Moving and powerful." —Seattle Times "The book’s narrative is driven by Hochschild’s deft handling of the personal stories, some heartbreaking, of a half dozen Americans . . . highly engaging . . . A book like Hochschild’s keeps their stories and spirit alive." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A sweeping, suspenseful, and somber chronicle of the Spanish Civil War … Mak[es] superb use of diaries and letters.” — Minneapolis Star-Tribune “Hochschild tells the story of this heady time with moving, well-paced prose exploring both international policy and intensely personal experiences … Exceptional.” — Los Angeles Review of Books “A fine new chronicle of Americans … determined to do their part to fight fascism. One’s heart breaks to read what awaited them.” — Dallas Morning News “Brings history alive … Hochschild is a writer capable of making any topic interesting, relevant, and accessible … Spain in Our Hearts is a primer, a meditation, and a story of American adventure abroad.” — Tampa Bay Times “Well-paced … Closes on a poignant note of mourning and remembrance.” — Boston Glo —
About the Author
ADAM HOCHSCHILD is the author of eleven books. King Leopold’s Ghost was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, as was To End All Wars. His Bury the Chains was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and PEN USA Literary Award. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Product details
- Publisher : Mariner Books; Reprint edition (March 7, 2017)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0544947231
- ISBN-13 : 978-0544947238
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.2 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #200,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #121 in Fascism (Books)
- #243 in European Politics Books
- #1,842 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Adam Hochschild (pronunciation: ''Hoch'' as in "spoke"; ''schild'' as in "build") published his first book, "Half the Way Home" in 1986. Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times called it "an extraordinarily moving portrait of the complexities and confusions of familial love . . . firmly grounded in the specifics of a particular time and place, conjuring them up with Proustian detail and affection." His "Bury the Chains" was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Two of his books, “To End All Wars” and “King Leopold’s Ghost,” have been finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The American Historical Association gave Hochschild its 2008 Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award for Public Service, a prize given each year to someone outside the academy who has made a significant contribution to the study of history. "Hochschild is a superb writer who makes light work of heavy subjects," wrote Jennifer Szalai in reviewing his “Rebel Cinderella” for The New York Times.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
Supporting the Nationalists--Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's Italy, the Catholic Church (who participated in executions and book burnings), America's Texaco Oil Company (without whose oil the Republic might have prevailed) and America's Hearst Newspaper chain.
Supporting the Republic-- Cardena's Mexico, Stalin's Soviet Union, the Republic's citizen army, George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway who fought alongside the Republicans and idealists and dreamers everywhere. Forty thousand men and women from more than 50 countries rushed to the aid of the Republic among them several thousand from America who formed the Abraham Brigade. In all there were five International brigades made up of men and women ready to lay down their lives for the Spanish people.
It was a lost cause for the Spanish people. Despite the fact that large segments of their populace pleaded for their government's intervention the governments of the United States, Great Britain and France stood by and watched as Spain burned beneath German air power and the fascist Italian ground troops. Soon after the entire world was at war with the Germans and Italians. Perhaps it could all have been avoided had the Allies stepped in to defend Spain.
Years ago I had the privilege of attending one of the last annual get togethers and dinners of the surviving members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. At that time there were only a handful still alive and recently I read where the last survivor had passed away. These volunteers were the best of humankind. As Che Guevara once said "To be a revolutionary requires great love for ones people."
Hochschild's book is a masterpiece--so well written, so encompassing, so well researched. After reading it I felt as if I had lived it. Being an idealist myself it is likely I would have joined the Lincoln Brigade had the timing been right. I admire the men and women of the world that rushed to the side of the Spanish people and I do not think a book could better capture the drama, the history, the hardship, the sacrifice, and the tragedy than "Spain in our Hearts".
This story was summed up before Hochschild even began it when in the Prologue he quoted the great novelist Albert Camus who said "Men of my generation have had Spain in their hearts...It was there that they learned....that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, and that there are times when courage is not rewarded."
To me, this is the real story of this horrible war--that somehow a brutal dictatorship in a backward country could become the shining light on the hill luring some otherwise intelligent people to a fight about which, they learned, they really knew nothing; and that this dream was then shattered by the reality of bullets and bombs, and the obvious indifference of the Russians to these misguided souls. How did they feel, when, having struggled to reach Spain and join the fray, it quickly became apparent that they were on the losing side, but couldn't get out of the war nearly as easily as they got in it.
SO--an excellent read, with this reservation: I came to the story with little knowledge of ithe Spanish revolution.. I learned that there were "Republicans," and there were "Nationalists,." To my constant confusion, the Nationalists, whom I kept thinking must be the government folk, were the revolutionaries, and they were basically proxies for Germany and Italy. The Republicans, on the other hand, were the forces of the government, but, again to my surprise, they were the darlings of the left and of the Russians. That's tough enough, but Hochschild wasn't able to find a single word that always meant "government) or "revolutionary"--I had to keep remembering the various names by which each was called.
Which if, as they, is the worst I can offer, that really isn't too bad. And it wasn't, but it made the redsing a little bumpier for me. Otherwise I was thoroughly pleased with the book.
AMD, subject to that one nittlint comment5, I felt the fook was a reaqlly worthwhile read. I learned a lolt, not jus aout the specifics of this Warl but the horrors of all wars for those fighting them, especially when it suddenly appears to warriors on one side or the other than they are going to down in defeat.
Top reviews from other countries
I had picked it up wanting to learn more about the Spanish Civil War, and not really caring in particular about what individual Americans had contributed, but their stories, and the way they were written was incredibly compelling so that the entire narrative fit together seamlessly. Hochschild also did a great job outlining the broader contributions of internationals in general, what they experienced, and why they felt the need to join a foreign war. Besides, when one of these characters is Ernest Hemingway, it's hard not to want to do a deeper dive into that.
I recommend this book for anyone wanting to further their understanding of the Spanish Civil war, and the further implications it had on the progression of WWII. It is an excellent way to spend a few hours of your life.
Many Americans and Canadians felt a need to act and this translated in a significant participation in the Spanish civil war with sometimes serious personal sacrifices including death.
This book describes a difficult period in a balanced and objective manner.