Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography

Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War: History, Fiction, Photography. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2018.

The ability to forget the violent twentieth-century past was long seen as a virtue in Spain, even a duty. But the common wisdom has shifted as increasing numbers of Spaniards want to know what happened, who suffered, and who is to blame. This book shows how historiography, fiction, and photography have shaped our views of the 1936–39 war and its long, painful aftermath. Memory Battles of the Spanish Civil War traces the curious trajectories of iconic Spanish Civil War photographs by Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David Seymour; critically reads a dozen recent Spanish novels and essays; interrogates basic scholarly assumptions about history, memory, and literature; and interviews nine scholars, activists, and documentarians who in the past decade and a half have helped redefine Spain’s relationship to its past.

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Reviews:

Antonio López Gómez-Quiñones, Revista Hispánica Moderna 74.2 (2021): 252-55.

Alessio Piras, Spagna contemporánea 53 (2018): 256-60.

Ana Luengo, Hispanófila 158 (2019), 147-48.

Antonio Cazorla Sánchez, Journal of Modern History (2019): 957-59.

Devesa Gómez, Nélida, Migraciones y Exilios 18 (2019): 201-203.

Richard Baxell, ¡No Pasarán! 2 (2018): 19-20.

Sara Brenneis, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 53.1 (2019): 408-10.

Alison Ribeiro de Menezes, Bulletin of Spanish Studies (2019): 18-19.

Carlos Varón González, MLN 134.2: 500-02.

Nicolás Fernández-Medina, Hispanic Journal 40.2 (2019): 192-94.

Ignasi Gozalo-Salellas, Hispanic Review (2018): 389-92.