It's a bit difficult to evaluate the impacts of the Spanish Civil War from a 21st century perspective because the two contending sides--totalitarian socialism/communism and totalitarian fascism--mostly do not exist in today's political geography. Started as a socialist/communist revolt against a repressive monarchy with a limited parliament (1934-36), the civil war then entered a new phase (1936-39) when the right-leaning (eventually Fascist) military staged a counter-revolution and all-out war of attrition. The war would eventually bring in military and economic assistance from the Soviet Union on the Republican or "Loyalist" side and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the Nationalist side. The Republican side enjoyed better press at the time and in the decades that followed because of the building and then world-shaking war against Fascism (two examples include Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and a brief reference to the war in the movie "Casablanca"). However, this book makes pretty clear that a lot of terrible acts, ranging from theft to mass murder, were performed by both sides. [Minor spoiler if you're not familiar with the history:] The Fascist side under Generalissimo Francisco Franco eventually won in 1939 and went on to rule Spain until 1975. Under the new realities of the Cold War, Franco began the slow process of liberalizing the Spanish economy and turning the back into a monarchy. Spain didn't have a formal constitution or traditional Western-style parliament until after Franco's death.

This was a conflict I knew very little about, so it was good to get the knowledge. However, one problem with the organization of the book is that it covers the civil war by topic (political, military, economic) rather than discussing the conflict chronologically. As a result, events are repeated, and it can be difficult to piece things together as a whole. Still, given the high-blown rhetoric occurring in the current U.S. election cycle, I thought it worth reading about this intense left-right conflict that happened not so long ago. One would hope it never gets so bad here. ( )