**A comprehensive and deeply-researched history of the Spanish Civil War
through the lens of the men and women who traveled from around the world
to fight Franco's fascism.
**
The Spanish Civil War was the first armed battle in the fight against
fascism, and a rallying cry for a generation. Over 35,000 volunteers
from fifty-two countries around the world came to defend democracy
against the troops of Franco, Hitler, and Mussolini.
Ill-equipped and disorderly, yet fueled by a shared sense of purpose and
potential glory, disparate groups of idealistic young men and women
banded together to form a volunteer army of a size and kind unseen since
the Crusades, known as the International Brigades. These passionate
liberal fighters-from across Europe, China, Africa and the
Americas-would join the Republican cause, fighting for over two years on
the bloody battlegrounds of Madrid, Jarama and Ebro. Were they heroes or
fools? Saints or bloodthirsty adventurers? And what exactly did they
achieve?
In this magisterial history, award-winning historian Giles Tremlett
tells-for the first time-the story of the Spanish Civil War through all
the human drama of an historic mission to halt fascist expansion in
Europe. The International Brigades shows just how far ordinary people
will go to save democracy against overwhelming odds.
