From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Making of
the Atomic Bomb, "The most extraordinary book about the Spanish Civil
War ever encountered" (The Washington Post).The Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939) inspired and haunted an extraordinary number of exceptional
artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Martha
Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and John Dos Passos. The
idealism of the cause--defending democracy from fascism at a time when
Europe was darkening toward another world war--and the brutality of the
conflict inspired some of their best work: Guernica, For Whom the Bell
Tolls, Homage to Catalonia, The Spanish Earth. The war spurred
breakthroughs in military and medical technology as well. New aircraft,
new weapons, new tactics and strategy all emerged during this time.
Progress arose from the horror: the doctors and nurses who volunteered
to serve with the Spanish defenders devised major advances in
battlefield surgery and frontline blood transfusion. In those ways, and
in many others, the Spanish Civil War served as a test bed for World War
II, and for the entire twentieth century. From the life of John James
Audubon to the invention of the atomic bomb, readers have long relied on
Richard Rhodes to explain, distill, and dramatize crucial moments in
history. Now, he takes us into battlefields and bomb shelters, into the
studios of artists, into the crowded wards of war hospitals, and into
the hearts and minds of a rich cast of characters to show how the
ideological, aesthetic, and technological developments that emerged in
Spain and changed the world forever. "Hell and Good Company is vivid and
emotive...thrilling reading" (The Wall Street Journal).
