In elegant and accessible prose, Julián Casanova tells the gripping story of the Spanish Civil War. These anguished and traumatic years filled Spain with hope, frustration and drama. Not only did it pit countryman against countryman, and neighbour against neighbour, but from 1936-39 this bitterly contended struggle sucked in competing and seemingly atavistic forces that were soon to rage across the face of Europe, and then the rest of the world: nationalism and republicanism; communism and fascism; anarchism and monarchism; anti-clerical reformism and aristocratic Catholic conservatism. The 'Guerra Civil' is of enduring interest precisely because it represents much more than just a regional contest for power and governmental legitimacy. It has come to be seen as a seedbed for the titanic political struggles and larger social upheavals that scarred the entire 20th century.

Charting the most significant events and battles alongside the main players in the tragedy, Casanova provides answers to some of the pressing questions (such as the roots and extent of anticlerical violence) that have been asked in the 70 years that have passed since the painful defeat of the Second Republic. Now with a revised introduction, Casanova offers an overview of key historiographical shifts since the title was first published; not least the wielding of the conflict to political ends in certain strands of contemporary historiography towards an alarming neo-Francoist revisionism.