Forces Unleashed: Why the Spanish Civil War Still Matters

Scholars have called The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) a “fratricidal war in Europe’s backwater.” The conflict became much more, galvanizing adversaries on the left and the right and serving as a prelude to the Second World War. More than 60 years later, that “war in Europe’s backwater” and its consequences still loom large in Spain and beyond. Because of its profound political, social and artistic influence, the war and the lessons learned from it still have much to teach us about how societies confront the crises that increasingly threaten civil society.