Hell and Good Company, Richard Rhodes
Hell and Good Company, Richard Rhodes
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Hell and Good Company
The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made

Author: Richard Rhodes

Narrator: Christian Coulson

Unabridged: 8 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/03/2015


Synopsis

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).

About Richard Rhodes

Richard Rhodes is the author of numerous books and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He graduated from Yale University and has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Appearing as host and correspondent for documentaries on public television’s Frontline and American Experience series, he has also been a visiting scholar at Harvard and MIT and is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Visit his website RichardRhodes.com.


Reviews

Human stories during the Spanish Civil War woven into a compelling book. In the initial section Rhodes details in a readily understandable form the build up to the Spanish Civil War and how General Francisco Franco led a military revolt against the republic aided by Mussolini and Hitler. The republi......more

Goodreads review by Lance

The Spanish Civil War has long been considered a dress rehearsal for World War Two, which it missed overlapping by only five months. But beyond terror bombing, most people don't know exactly what that means unless they're well-read on the war. "What that means" is the reason given for this book -- t......more

Goodreads review by Scott

A fascinating book about an amazing "little war." Sandwiched between the two World Wars from 1936-1939, Germany and Italy backed Franco to overpower the Republicans, backed by France, Britain, Russia, Canada and just about everyone else. It was a test run for the Axis vs. Allied of WW II. The suppor......more