Help with my thesis? [Spanish Civil War related]

[southernmissfan]

So I have a 25 page research paper for Senior History Seminar this semester. I would like to write on American involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Naturally it will focus on participation in the International Brigades and how the working class felt about the conflict. But the response of the American government and corporations will also be discussed. I have to use primary sources as my main source of information, though some secondary sources are also required. So if anybody knows any sources, primary or secondary, that might be helpful for the topic I would certainly appreciate it. My problem is coming up with a thesis for the paper. I know what I want to talk about but I don't know exactly what my argument should be! If anybody could help me come up with an argument or point to prove, I would love you! Anyway, here's a quick summary on the purpose/topic of the paper:

The intent of this paper is to take a look at American involvement in the Spanish Civil War. The paper will ask what role Americans played in this conflict and what implications their involvement had back in America. This is a significant topic that is rarely explored in history courses, especially those with an emphasis on American history. It is a rare occurrence of Americans voluntarily participating abroad in a foreign conflict for ideological reasons. Of particular significance was the participation of women and African-Americans. It can also be seen as a high point of radicalism and international solidarity in the American working class.

This paper will focus on the more than 2,000 American volunteers who participate in the Spanish Civil War. However, to provide context, the official neutrality policy of the American government as well as involvement of key American corporations will be touched upon. First-hand media coverage as well as personal letters and memoirs of participants shed light on the topic. Secondary description and analysis on American involvement will also be used.

[Invader Zim]

Well Hemingway spent time there during the war was a journalist, a number of collections of his articles as a reported have been published as have his correspondence. I'm not sure what you will find, but it is a place to start. Similarly George Orwell, though a British author, also faught in the Spanish civil war, and there is a collection of writings - which includes his war memoir Homage to Catalonia - called Orwell in Spain which may contain some relevent comments.

[southernmissfan]

Well Hemingway spent time there during the war was a journalist, a number of collections of his articles as a reported have been published as have his correspondence. I'm not sure what you will find, but it is a place to start. Similarly George Orwell, though a British author, also faught in the Spanish civil war, and there is a collection of writings - which includes his war memoir Homage to Catalonia - called Orwell in Spain which may contain some relevent comments.

Thanks for the input. I have heard of Homage to Catolonia but not Orwell in Spain.

I just have to figure out a good purpose or argument so I can write a thesis!

[Invader Zim]

Thanks for the input. I have heard of Homage to Catolonia but not Orwell in Spain.

I just have to figure out a good purpose or argument so I can write a thesis!

Well Orwell in Spain is not a publication that Orwell produced himself, unlike Homage. It is a collection of a considerable portion of his writings on Spain, including Homage, an essay he penned some time later, some of his correspondence as well as a number of his writings at the time.

[gestalt]

You may already be consulting this, but the online archive (http://www.alba-valb.org/resources/digital-library) of the Abe Lincoln Brigade would be a good place to start for primary sources.

Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War is still probably the best introduction to and overview of the conflict, it could be invaluable to you.

I remember reading a few academic articles on covert aid from the U.S. to the Republicans during a Great Depression/New Deal seminar, some of the claims were open to interpretation, but I can try to find the titles if you have access to JSTOR or something similar.

The Neutrality Act supposedly barred trade with "belligerents" (in isolationist logic, the Republicans) while some American vendors, especially the major oil companies, sold on credit to the Nationalists.

Attempts by the Spaniards to nationalize certain foreign-owned industries, especially telecommunications and the Nazi-financier ITT, obviously met with corporate backlash.

[Invader Zim]

Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War is still probably the best introduction to and overview of the conflict, it could be invaluable to you.

As i have noted when individuals have suggested Thomas, the man is a Thatcherite and neo-conservative historian, and while his work can be good for finding interesting information, his analysis is steeped in his own rightwing perspective. I am coming at this from having read his door stop on the Slave Trade and not his book on the Spanish Civil War, so it is possible that I am misjudging him and my observation is unfair.

[iskrabronstein]

As i have noted when individuals have suggested Thomas, the man is a Thatcherite and neo-conservative historian, and while his work can be good for finding interesting information, his analysis is steeped in his own rightwing perspective. I am coming at this from having read his door stop on the Slave Trade and not his book on the Spanish Civil War, so it is possible that I am misjudging him and my observation is unfair.

I have not read his work on the slave trade, but I can vouch that his history of the Spanish Civil War is both impartial and comprehensive in its presentation of the relevant events. His take on the infighting in Republican lines, during the May days in Barcelona for instance, may strike many as cynical but I for one found it refreshingly unideological.

[revolution inaction]

this might be useful http://libcom.org/tags/spanish-civil-war

[gestalt]

As i have noted when individuals have suggested Thomas, the man is a Thatcherite and neo-conservative historian, and while his work can be good for finding interesting information, his analysis is steeped in his own rightwing perspective. I am coming at this from having read his door stop on the Slave Trade and not his book on the Spanish Civil War, so it is possible that I am misjudging him and my observation is unfair.

I do not disagree with your assessment and there are passages which can and should be called into question in this book and others. However, seeing as how our comrade here is a fellow student of history, I trust he possesses critical thinking abilities.

[PhoenixAsh]

Research the Lincoln Brigade

[southernmissfan]

Thanks for all the suggestions! I really appreciate it! And by the way, whenever I have a finished product (which is towards the end of the semester obviously) I will certainly share it here on the history board. And yeah Lincoln Brigade will certainly be a main focus of the paper.

I have been thinking a possible point of the paper could be that the Spanish Civil War represented the division of American society along political lines: the radicalism, internationalism and racial integrationism of the militant working class and left intelligentsia, the isolationism of the American government/politicians (which would be later replaced by the Lend-Lease Act and "arsenal of democracy") and growing sympathy for reaction and fascism among corporations and the bourgeoisie. Maybe I can kinda compare and contrast these three elements and their different attitudes and what effects they had on conflict.

What do y'all think? I think it's a fairly decent idea and that I'm on the right track, but I'm not positive.

[Anarchist Skinhead]

Anthony Beevor "The Battle of Spain" is definitely recommended as well!

[ellipsis]

Thanks for the input. I have heard of Homage to Catolonia but not Orwell in Spain.

I just have to figure out a good purpose or argument so I can write a thesis!

your thesis could focus around how american volunteers started the fight against 20th century facism in europe long before the US government got involved in the fight against the axis powers.

[syndicat]

if you're looking at the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, i'd recommend Bill Herrick's memoir Jumping the Line. he was a member of the Communist Party from New York City. he ended up rejecting the CP line on Spain.

[x359594]

...Hugh Thomas's The Spanish Civil War is still probably the best introduction to and overview of the conflict, it could be invaluable to you...

Respectfully, I must disagree. The Thomas book is saturated with the ideology of its author, and is a prime example of counter revolutionary subordination (a term Noam Chomsky used to describe another bourgeois history of the Civil War.)

Thomas's book has been superseded by Antony Beevor's The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) published in 2006. I also recommend The Spanish Civil War: Origins, Causes, Outcomes by Francisco J. Romero Salvado (2005) that incorporates much new Spanish material.
For a Marxist perspective see The Revolution and Civil War in Spain (1972) by Pierre Broue and Emile Temime (a much more readable history than Thomas's white elephant by the way.)

For the Lincoln Battalion probably the best book is The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War (1994) by Peter N. Carroll.

[RED DAVE]

Primary source:

Archives of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (http://www.alba-valb.org/)

RED DAVE

[southernmissfan]

I really appreciate the input from everybody! It is always helpful to recieve opinions and recommendations from fellow leftists so that I can avoid wasting my limited time (and amount of books I can check out from the library!) on right-wing hack jobs.


your thesis could focus around how american volunteers started the fight against 20th century facism in europe long before the US government got involved in the fight against the axis powers.

Yes this is certainly an idea I have considered and want to explore. As I mentioned earlier, I have been thinking that a good way to approach the topic would be analyzing the three main divisions in American society at the time and how these divisions were reflected in responses to the SCW. You have the militant sections of the working class along with radical intelligentsia who responded with internationalism, solidarity and racial integration. Then there's the traditional insolationism and "non-intervention" of various elements of the government, politicians and other segments of society. Lastly, there were reactionary elements, particularly with certain corporations and segments of the ruling class, that were sympathetic and even allied to the fascists (not just in Spain). It may be the case that when I get further along in my research and really begin the writing process that I end up focusing (perhaps almost exclusively) on the idea of American volunteers leading the fight.

That's my rough idea(s) as far as a thesis or purpose of the paper. I don't really think I could make a qualitative statement on the effect of American involvement. Obviously if I argue that the US had very little effect/influence on the conflict then there would be no point in the paper. If I argue there was an effect, I would have to figure out what side benefitted more, to what extent and how it compared with the effects of other nations' participation. Obviously Italy, Germany and the Soviet Union had a much greater effect on the conflict. So really I would have to justify why I am even writing on the subject. So I think the above idea is the better direction for the paper.

And this is a bit off topic, but last semester I had a smaller paper on the Freedmen's Bureau that I wrote for my American Civil War and Reconstruction course. It's not exactly the most profound or groundbreaking writing in the world (I procrastinated and hastily put it together the day before it was due). But if anybody is interested I could post it in a new thread. I don't know, maybe it will be helpful or fascinating for those who are interested in or studying the Civil War and/or Reconstruction.

[manic expression]

I wrote my thesis on the Abraham Lincoln Brigades a few months back. The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades is an excellent study, and I strongly second the recommendation. Here are some other books that I found helpful:

Our Fight: Writings by Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is a useful collection of primary materials written from a political perspective. African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: "This Ain't Ethiopia, But It'll Do" will tell you a great deal about Black volunteers. A City in War: American Views on Barcelona and the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39 covers what diplomats and other officials had to say about the changes and politics of Barcelona during the war, including primary materials. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class is written about many episodes in the history of Blacks, but it has a specific chapter on Black volunteers to Spain that helped quite a bit. Spain's Cause Was Mine: A Memoir of an American Medic in the Spanish Civil War is a good resource if you're interested in the convictions and motivations of Jewish-American volunteers. Comrades: Tales of a Brigidista in the Spanish Civil War is another good memoir to check out.

I think you're definitely onto an interesting focus with those three areas. Let us know how it's developing...good luck! :thumbup1:

[southernmissfan]

Manic, thanks a bunch! My university library has several of the books you recommend (along with a few others that have been posted) so I'm definitely on to a good start with sources.

What was your thesis about if you don't mind me asking?

[manic expression]

In analyzing the ALB and its roots, I focused specifically on the experiences of labor/union militants, Blacks and Jewish-Americans; this included the different struggles these groups faced before volunteering and how they subsequently viewed the SCW (and, by extension, the cause against fascism) in relation to their own challenges. The intertwining of these three histories (as well as the Communist Party and its role in political development) before and during the deployment of the ALB formed the core of the study. It was interesting to see how leftist militants and future volunteers were exposed to fascistic violence long before they joined (the SS Bremen incident of 1935 and the Chicago race riots of 1919 are two examples). Also, I wanted to illustrate how such a task was made possible...and on this I argued that it was due to organizational autonomy developed by the CP and Comintern. Most broadly, I tried to show why these men and women volunteered, what they did and didn't accomplish and how it affected the American experience. If you have any questions on these themes, definitely let me know. FWIW, it was hard to cover all of that (I probably didn't do it justice) and I had to write 40 pages (double-spaced), so getting a manageable area of study is always a good idea.

[syndicat]

but you see, this tells you what the CP's line was: "This was a fight against fascism. to defend an elected democratic republic." Except that in reality it was a revolutionary class war. the working class of Spain had carried out a revolution, expropriating the agrarian and industrial capitalists. it was an anti-capitalist, workers revolutio. CP didn't want to talk about that.

ALB is indistinguishable from the CP. as Herrick points out, half the members of the Abraham Lincoln Battalian (not Brigade) were members of the CP. virtually the entire Bronx Young Communist League was killed at the battle of Belchite.

[southernmissfan]

but you see, this tells you what the CP's line was: "This was a fight against fascism. to defend an elected democratic republic." Except that in reality it was a revolutionary class war. the working class of Spain had carried out a revolution, expropriating the agrarian and industrial capitalists. it was an anti-capitalist, workers revolutio. CP didn't want to talk about that.

ALB is indistinguishable from the CP. as Herrick points out, half the members of the Abraham Lincoln Battalian (not Brigade) were members of the CP. virtually the entire Bronx Young Communist League was killed at the battle of Belchite.

But do you think that the individuals who were in the ALB (or International Brigades in general) were really there simply to support the CP line? I agree with you that there was a revolutionary class war and that the CP's line and role in the conflict was flawed. But at the same time, that shouldn't discount the sacrifices of those who volunteered or give the illusion that they were all identical ideologically. What the official line of the CP was and what actual rank and file members actually thought wasn't always the same. In fact, Race Rebels discusses how many black CP members and ALB volunteers were often at odds with the official party line and leadership. They were often influenced just as much by radical black politics as they were by the "socialism" of the CP.