• Spain in Our Hearts

  • Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
  • By: Adam Hochschild
  • Narrated by: Henry Strozier
  • Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (565 ratings)

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Spain in Our Hearts  By  cover art

Spain in Our Hearts

By: Adam Hochschild
Narrated by: Henry Strozier
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Publisher's summary

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
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Spain in Our Hearts

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Great book very well written and narrated

This book could make you cry. It gives a historical background and still is able to give the humanity of the war revealed in each person

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14 people found this helpful

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Personal stories and introduction to history

Was a great book with a great audio performance. The book does a good job of laying out the political landscape, personal stories, and war efforts. it provides a solid introduction that can be further expanded in detail by other books but it itself had a lot of good content to deliver wavering between personal and grander political forces.

I thought it perhaps was a bit quick to judge the flaws of the anarchist movement, as its greatest downfall was the lack of support by foreign countries rather than some fundamental problem with direct democracy. The book reveals the honorable work of many young people looking to make the word a better place and how our own democracies undermined these efforts by inadvertently helping or watching idly on the sidelines of the war.

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12 people found this helpful

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Best book I've read on this subject

Since reading "For Whom the Bell Tolls"as a boy I've been fascinated by this subject. Reading all the books I could find, all the documentary and fiction films I could see, taking Civil War Tours through modern Barcelona, standing where Orwell might have stood . "In Our Hearts" strategy, to tell the history of the war through the lives of Americans who became involved in it, is remarkably successful. Idealism, folly, greed and heroism - what a collection of stories, woven together with such compassion and insight. I would recommend this anyone who enjoys beautifully written historical narrative. The reader's performance is perfect, subtle and spellbinding, moving me to unexpected tears. What a great experience!

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9 people found this helpful

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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.

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6 people found this helpful

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another triumph for Hochschild

detailed yet expansive yet in depth yet focusing on individual American lives. ...an excellent contribution

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6 people found this helpful

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Fascinating, informative, and highly recommended!

A great book about the Spanish Civil War and the many Americans who VOLUNTEERED to fight against Franco and the Spanish nationalists. Unfortunately, most Americans don't have a clue about what happened in Spain. I can't recommend this book enough!!

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4 people found this helpful

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excellent reader and detailed history of Spain

Lots of detail
but great read if you have traveled to Spain or know little about the beginning of world war II

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3 people found this helpful

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Excellent Saga

Emotion filled stories of the Spanish Civil War about Americans who put their hearts and bodies into a complicated struggle. Emotional and sad as the American volunteers defiantly lost their struggle to help Republican Spain in the battles against Franco's fascists, Hitler's Nazis, and Mussolini's fascists.

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3 people found this helpful

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Spain in Our Hearts

When I read a Hochshild book, I never want it to end. Once again, he found a lesser known part of history and makes it important and relevant.

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3 people found this helpful

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captivated by this oft overlooked period

really opened up and explored the world as it was i. this period that is frequently boxed in and overshadowed by ww2

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3 people found this helpful