History and Legend: Writing the International Brigades

In this ground-breaking and controversial study of the myths surrounding the International Brigades, Robert Stradling argues that the civil war can be seen as the climax of the struggle between the claims of culture and art for autonomy - even for supremacy - and the demands of political commitment. Stradling traces this conflict through the reactions of figures such as W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, George Orwell, and Benjamin Britten, as well as many lesser-known writers, and in terms of the Brigades’ reputation and history in the context of some of the war’s key episodes. History and Legend dissents from the orthodox interpretation of the role of artists and intellectuals in the Spanish Civil War, questions the basis of the Republic’s claim to spiritual superiority, and analyses the assumptions behind the notion that ‘art’ and ‘the good cause’ are necessarily synonymous. It is a major new interpretation of the historical, political and cultural legacy of the International Brigades.