Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made

By Richard Rhodes

Celebrated historian Richard Rhodes explores the Spanish Civil War through the stories of the reporters, writers, artists and doctorswho witnessed it

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) engaged an extraordinary number of exceptional artists and writers: Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, John Dos Passos, to name only a few. 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 drew from them some of their best work: Guernica, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homage to Catalonia.

Paralleling the outpouring of writing and art, the war spurred breakthroughs in military and medical technology. So many different countries participated directly or indirectly in the war that Time magazine called it the 'Little World War'; Spain served in those years as a proving ground for the devastating technologies of World War II, and for the entire 20th century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Feb 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781471126192

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 for Hell and Good Company

[marshapetry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Seems to be well-researched. Interesting "listen" but it jumped around a bit too much and made the audio book hard to follow - probably a much better "read" than listen. Overall recommend for WWII readers since this is one of the early conflicts either in or before WII (depending on your perspective). I found the personal stories about medical tactics and relationships more interesting than the leaders and their strategies since the pure politics and war positions jumped around a lot; however, the stories about lovers, and the stories about medical innovations were presented in order which made them easy to follow. Given that, I don't think I got a good sense of the order of the war so much as understanding some of the innovations that occurred. Overall recommend.

[lostinalibrary · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“’War is psychologically like hell, supernatural like it and also, as we have been taught to expect, full of good company’” -Edward Barsky, American surgeon, volunteerThe Spanish Civil War is often viewed as the real beginning of WWII. It has also become something of a touchstone for many Romantics and Idealists. As author Richard Rhodes says in his Introduction to his book Hell and Good Company, ‘[m]any books have been written about the Spanish Civil War’ but it is ’the human stories that had not been told or had not been told completely’ that he chooses to write about. In 1931, after centuries of rule by the Church, the Aristocracy, and the army, Spain finally became a Republic. In 1936, General Francisco Franco, with the support of Hitler and Mussolini, began a military revolt against this Republic. The war attracted many idealists from elsewhere to aid the new Republic in the struggle. They came from different countries and different walks of life. There were doctors, surgeons, nurses as well as labourers, engineers, writers, artists and WWI vets. Many formed their own brigades including the Abraham Lincoln Brigade from the United States. They represented many different political views but they had one thing in common – they were determined to stop fascism. In that, they failed but much of what they did including the art and the literature still inspire today including Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls and Picasso’s Guernica. Rhodes recounts their involvement along with other famous and not-so-famous people who were willing to risk it all for idealism, politics and, in more than a few cases, for the adventure.He also focuses on the medical professionals including Canadian surgeon Norman Bethune whose cobbled together mobile blood units helped reduce the number of casualties in combat and the Catalan doctor Josep Trueta whose method for cleaning, packing and casting wounds saved countless lives and preserved limbs that would have otherwise been amputated. Rhodes describes in fascinating detail the many innovative technologies that these and many other medical professionals developed which are still used today: ‘advances in blood collection, preservation, and storage; in field surgery; in the efficient sorting of casualties’. InHell and Good Company, Rhodes gives a well-researched, well-written, and fascinating look at the people, both national and international, who fought to preserve the Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He captures the hell of the war, its insanity and its horrors but, most of all he captures the bravery and the idealism of those who volunteered at such great risk to themselves – they were the best of good company.