Spain In Our Hearts: Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939

Spain in Our Hearts tells the history of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) through the lives of a dozen characters, including Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell. During three crucial years in the 1930s, the conflict dominated American headlines as volunteers traveled to Spain to support its democratic government against a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco, with backing from Hitler and Mussolini. Adam Hochschild focuses on lesser-known figures whose stories illuminate the war's full scope: a nineteen-year-old Kentucky woman who went to Spain on her honeymoon, a Swarthmore College senior who became the first American casualty in the battle for Madrid, two rival New York Times reporters covering the war from opposite sides, and a Texas oilman with Nazi sympathies who supplied Franco with oil at reduced prices and on credit. The book examines the American volunteers, including members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, who fought fascism years before Pearl Harbor. It also explores how Hitler and Mussolini used Spain as a testing ground for their armies, positioning the conflict as an opening battle of World War II. Hochschild presents the war through personal narratives that reveal both individual tragedies and the broader significance of a cause that ultimately failed.