Spain in Our Hearts

Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939

By: Adam Hochschild

Narrated by: Henry Strozier

From acclaimed best-selling author Adam Hochschild, a sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War told through a dozen characters, including Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell: a tale of idealism, heartbreaking suffering, and a noble cause that failed.

For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa's photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war: a fiery 19-year-old Kentucky woman who went to wartime Spain on her honeymoon; a Swarthmore College senior who was the first American casualty in the battle for Madrid; a pair of fiercely partisan, rivalrous New York Times reporters who covered the war from opposites sides; and a swashbuckling Texas oilman with Nazi sympathies who sold Franco almost all his oil - at reduced prices and on credit.

It was in many ways the opening battle of World War II, and we still have much to learn from it. Spain in Our Hearts is Adam Hochschild at his very best.

©2016 Adam Hochschild (P)2016 Recorded Books

Moving and profound

An excellent rendition of a sad, beautiful moment in human history. Every American should read this book.

Fantastic portrait

This was recommended to me and I hesitated buying the book thinking to myself, "I don't really want to know about a war". Wrong I was. This was a very engaging reading of an era I had no knowledge of.

Beautiful and Heartbreaking

I wanted to learn more about the Civil War in Spain because my education in America was curiously lacking - Which I suppose isn’t -surprising reaction to how terribly America failed the Spanish citizens in their mission for sovereignty. The narrators voice is so full of emotion in the last chapter I sobbed the entire time and it seemed like he had to take breaks during recording to do the same.

I believe the story of the Spanish Civil War is one of the most important to reflect on, not just reflecting on dangers of expanding fascism and it’s brutality. But more importantly,the hopeful spirit of idealism in a human struggle, fighting for the belief that something greater is possible.

Great history lesson

The narrator was excellent. I found this a great history lesson. If you like history, I recommend this book.

Open your heart for Spain

The best people the communist movement ever had paid the highest price for their naiveté and for your and my freedom.