March 15, 2023
Historical study of a period during which fascism and oppression inspired women to act. Drawing on poems, memoirs, stories, and essays, Watling, author of The Olivier Sisters, examines women artists, writers, and activists for whom the Spanish Civil War, which began in July 1936, was "a provocation that demanded an answer." Her subjects include war correspondent and travel writer Martha Gellhorn, who became the third wife of Ernest Hemingway; American writer and journalist Josephine Herbst; British novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner and her lover, poet Valentine Ackland; writers Nancy Cunard and Virginia Woolf; Jewish photographer Gerda Taro, a refugee from Nazi Germany; British communist Nan Green, who joined her husband after he became an ambulance driver for the Republic; and African American nurse and desegregation activist Salaria Kea. Most of the women saw going to Spain "as a gesture of solidarity," a way to bear witness to fascist oppression. Some were able to publicize the conflict in major venues, such as the New Yorker, Manchester Guardian, and Collier's. A few, notably Green and Kea, worked alongside Spanish soldiers on the ground. Others spoke out in lectures and at congresses; they traveled back and forth to Spain, reporting on the valiant efforts of the Republicans. Woolf came late to responding at all, fearful that allowing politics to seep into her work would impede her creativity. Yet as much as these women believed their work could offer a morale boost to the Spanish fighters, some worried that they walked a fine line between solidarity and appropriation. As she traces the women's various responses to the rise of fascism and their frustration over their home countries' political positions, Watling recounts the progress of the brutal war and the women's growing conviction that inaction was not an option. Unfortunately, her decision to refer to these women--and less consistently to the men they were involved with--by their first names gives her serious, thoughtful narrative a gossipy tone. A well-informed group biography of bold activists.
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Starred review from May 22, 2023
In this brilliantly conceived study, historian Watling (The Olivier Sisters) spotlights international writers, artists, and activists who opposed the fascist takeover of Spain in the 1930s, arguing that the conflict drew in individuals who conceived of themselves as outside the mainstream. Watling sees the Spanish Civil War as a flash point when “people from all walks of life,” and especially artists, understood the conflict “as a question, a provocation that demanded an answer,” which as outsiders they were primed to provide. Watling’s most prominent profile subjects are women—Nancy Cunard, Martha Gellhorn, Josephine Herbst, and Sylvia Townsend are among the most well-known. Other memorable outsiders include Jewish photojournalist Gerda Taro, who documented the plight of Spanish refugees with fellow photographer Robert Capa before she was killed in action, and African American nurse and memoirist Salaria Kea, whose dedicated service at a hospital outside Madrid “reawakened” the idealism of poet Langston Hughes when he visited the facility in the fall of 1937. Digging deep into the archives to resurface overlooked stories, Watling skillfully traces the motivations that led so many different people to make the extraordinary decision to fight fascism. The result is both an essential take on the Spanish Civil War and a stirring reflection on personal responsibilities in times of crisis.
Starred review from April 1, 2023
British historian Watling, author of The Olivier Sisters (2019), illuminates a varied group of women who devoted their talents and passion--and, in some cases, gave their lives--to telling the world about what was happening during the Spanish Civil War. Writers Nancy Cunard, Martha Gellhorn, Josephine Herbst, Sylvia Townshend Warner, Jessica Mitford, and Virginia Woolf, along with photographer Gerda Taro, activist Nan Green, and nurse Salaria Kea, were all moved by the courage of Spaniards fighting a military coup to take action, help, and bear witness. Most governments, including those of the U.S. and Great Britain, turned their backs on the Spanish Loyalists or pleaded neutrality, while Hitler and Mussolini openly backed Franco with planes and armies. Watling delves into the motivations that drew these women to Spain and how their experiences there were transformative. This focus, especially on Taro, Kea, and Green, whose contributions have been underreported or misappropriated, adds greatly not only to our understanding of women in the Spanish Civil War but also to our sense of women as full participants in history. This book belongs in all library collections next to Adam Hochschild's Spain in Our Hearts (2016).
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