Review: The Spanish Civil War (Cambridge Essential Histories)

Image: Fascismo

The Spanish Civil War (Cambridge Essential Histories)
Stanley G. Payne
286 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 7/14/12 edition (August 13, 2012)
$27.99

This book is probably one of the best introductions to the Spanish Civil War (or, as the author says: revolutionary/counterrevolutionary struggle).

In short, the political left started the whole thing by excluding the right and instituting an all leftist government, even though half the population of Spain at the time was conservative. Add to this the left's hatred of all things traditional and religious and you have a recipe for disaster.

The left in Spain had a bad habit of calling anyone on the right—even right-of-center—"fascists!" when in fact, as the author points out, this was not at all true.

The left also created a mythology that remains to this day: that their democratic government was unjustly attacked by "fascists!" when in fact their election rigging, exclusion of conservatives from government, murder of political opponents, church burnings, and murders of clergy eventually resulted in their humiliating defeat on the battlefield at the hands of righteously angered (and mostly religious) conservatives (they also got forty years of right-wing dictatorship).


It's no wonder the academy, media, and Hollywood ignores the Spanish Civil War. Their side lost. Badly.

If you want to know the truth about the Spanish Civil War read this book. I was hoping this book would be a good one, in that the truth would finally be told, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was. Kudos to the author and the publisher for telling the unpopular truth.

Everyone in the USA should read this book, because the left is using the same tricks now that they were using then. They want to silence all conservatives and have them removed from government, despite the fact that half the country is conservative and deserves a voice in government.

The USA now, resembling the Spain of 1936, has no place for center-moderate politics, compromise, or tolerance.

We live in a time where the other side is considered evil, and you don't compromise with or tolerate evil; you destroy it.

This is what happened in Spain, and also during the US Civil War. Two different civilizations competed for total political and cultural dominance. There was no room for compromise. Total victory was all that could be imagined.

God help us if we don't change our ways.

This book has a happy ending: the center-moderates eventually formed a democratic government wherein everyone had a say and all peoples were enabled to compromise and tolerate one another. 

It's a shame they couldn't have done that sooner, and avoided the war.

New Ideas in Theology and Philosophy

You can check out some of my new theological and philisophical ideas by going to my website and reading my book: The World Perceived.

Download A Free Book Concerning Theology and Phenomenology

My book, The World Perceived, A Theological and Phenomenological Approach to Thinking, Perceiving, and Living In-The-World has yet to be published, but you can download the PDF version for free.

Simply visit my web site and click on the download PDF version link:

http://www.geocities.com/ajmacdonaldjr/TheWorldPerceived.html

Writing and Printing a Book, Today

Writing and printing a book (or having your writings printed) is easier than ever today. With the aid of the personal computer and the internet, it is very easy to write, edit, and print your own book (or to have your book printed).

I started writing three years ago, and I wrote about the things I had been thinking about for the previous ten years: God, phenomenology, the Bible, the way I perceive the world, reality, etc.

When I began writing, I used a pen and a spiral notebook. It took me quite some time to write-out what I was thinking, and it took a long time to arrange the book so that my thoughts were presented in a logical order.

Over a year after I had begun writing, I was far enough into it (I was finished with a very rough draft) I bought a computer, and I began to copy what I had written (adding to that, all of the things I knew I needed to say, but had put-off writing until I got the computer).

For the next two years I worked the writings into a manuscript, wrote and re-wrote the entire things many times over, edited, corrected, etc., until I was finally finished.

I found CreateSpace on the internet while searching for publishing, pubilishers, printing, ect., and decided to use their print-on-demand services. I did the layout for the book in Word, did the book's cover in Powerpoint, and used the "Save As PDF" function in Word (it's a free add-in you can download from Microsoft. See http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4d951911-3e7e-4ae6-b059-a2e79ed87041&displaylang=en ).

I used these files to create the print files I needed to upload to CreateSpace. I had gotten the Adobe Acrobat free trial download earlier, but it had expired by the time I need to create the print files. So, since I knew what to do from my experience with Acrobat, I went to Kinkos and used their computer, which had Acrobat, to create the files.

I uploaded these files, and I had a proof copy of my book within a week or so. Total cost to me: $5.00 to use Kinko's computer.

This, to me is incredible. Sure, the book will not be distributed by Ingram (which, I know from having worked at Barne's and Noble, distribute most books to the bookstores) and it will only be available online at Amazon, but, to me, this is revolutionary in the world of writing and printing.

If you think about the history of printing, this computer, internet, POD thing is pretty incredible.

The cost to me for the blog and the web site: $0.00.

Print On Demand

Just some thoughts on print on demand book publishing. As I have only written my first book, and since I have virtually no academic credentials for writing the sort of book I have written, I am considering self publishing (via Amazon's CreateSpace) my book. There are, of course, many downsides to doing so, but there are upsides as well.

On the downside, the book will not be considered a real book. That is, a book requires that it be published by a reputable publisher who will print it and distribute it in bookstores. That is what being published is all about. Unfortuantely, this is a long, drawn-out process. Submitting printed, double-spaced manuscripts by mail, and waiting four months for a reply (probably a rejection) is rather discouraging. But success (i.e., being published) does come to those who wait, and to those who perservere. If accepted by a publisher, the book will be in the bookstores in as little as eighteen months!

The upside of print on demand is that my book can be available in a very short period of time (only as long as it takes me to get the files ready and submitted for publication). I've recently been pursuing the POD avenue and I have found it to be quite satisfying. I enjoy working with the files, getting them laid out in book format (including the footnotes, which I prefer, but which publisher no longer seem to approve of). After three years of writing, it was very nice to hold a copy of my book (the proof copy) and to see it just the way I wanted it to look.

The best, and most appealing, aspect of POD is that the financial cost to me has been zero. In the past, self publishing and finally seeing my book in print would have cost me about $5,000. This, to me, is revolutionary. The fact that I can write a book and have it available on Amazon cost-free is amazing. Of course the book isn't yet available on Amazon, but if I do decide to go the POD route, it can be very soon.

Another amazing phenomenon is that my book is available online in a very readable PDF format, which looks exactly as the printed book does. That, to me, is very cool. The only reason I ever wrote the book in the first place was so that the ideas within it could be made available to those who would be interested in them. Haveing the book available online for free, and having the book available in print on Amazon ($16.00) would accomplish that goal to a degree. I would rather have the book properly edited by a publisher and available in bookstores, but with self publishing the ideas are at least out there. And the book can always be published by a publisher at some future time, because, by self publishing, I still retain all of the rights to my work. I hate to think of a publisher publishing the book, only to bury it after a short run. Never to be seen in print again. With POD the book could stay in print virtually forever.

Adobe Share

I have uploaded my book to Adobe.com and you can view it as a virtual book in your web browser. It's really cool, you can turn the pages!

Check it out at:

https://share.acrobat.com/adc/adc.do?docid=a5c8f896-6b4f-4168-82fd-85f8d0e3be03

Publishing

Just some thoughts on publishing my book: The World Perceived. I am thinking about self publishing through Amazon's CreateSpace print-on-demand book service. There are several reasons for why I am exploring this option: 1) it's my first book, 2) I don't have the academic credentials normally required by publishers in order to write this kind of book, 3) I have control over the design and layout of the book (including the use of footnotes, which I prefer over endnotes.

The downside of POD self publishing is mainly the distribution factor, or the book's lack of availability in the major bookstores. The book would be on Amazon, but that's the only place one could find and purchase it. Besides the fact that a writer is not considered "published" unless the book is published by a publishing house. But at least a POD book is in print and available, which is why I am considering the Createspace option. Plus, I can sell the book as a POD book and I still get to keep the rights to my work. With the subject matter of my book being as obscure as it is (the book is subtitled: A Theological and Phenomenological Approach to Thinking, Perceiving, and Living In-The-World) a publisher would not be looking at a runaway bestseller.

I'm actually enjoying doing the layout for the book myself, and CreateSpace managed to print me a proof copy of the book which looks just as I designed it to look (mistakes and all). I will probably go the POD route, although I haven't decided yet. Let me know what you think.

The World Perceived

I have recently completed my book: The World Perceived, which concerns a theological and phenomenological approach to thinking about, perceiving, and living in-the-world, and I have also uploaded it for viewing.

I hope to have the book published soon (either by a publisher or as a print-on-demand book), but for now the book is only available on the web. You may download the book by clicking the link on the right side of this page. Please feel free to print out one copy of the book and to provide me with any feedback (positive or negative) that you may have.