An inspiring account of an inspiring period in the history of the Anarchist movement. Bookchin provides essential detailed background information to explain how the CNT came to be such a hugely successful organization, provides critical accounts of all the significant events of the period, and writes throughout in a style which cannot help but capture the imagination.
This popular, well-researched book opens with the Italian Anarchist Fanelli's stirring visit to Spain in 1968 and traces the movement's checkered but steady growth for the next seventy years. Intimate portraits are vividly juxtaposed with striking descriptions of events: peasant revolts, labor unrest, the saintly Fermin Salvochea, official repression, the terrorists and the evolution of exciting organizational forms. Bookchin weaves his way geographically through the whole of Spain, revealing the shadings and subtleties of each small section. Fromthe peasants of Andalusia to the factory workers of Barcelona, the Spanish people—and their exuberant belief in and struggles for freedom and self-determination—come alive.
"I've read The Spanish Anarchists with the excitement of learning something new. It's solidly researched, lucidly written, and admirably fair-minded... Murray Bookchin is that rare bird today, a historian." —Dwight MacDonald
"I have learned a great deal from this book. It is a rich and fascinating account... Most important, it has a wonderful spirit of revolutionary optimism that connects the Spanish Anarchists with our own time." —Howard Zinn
Murray Bookchin has written widely on politics, history, and ecology. His books To Remember Spain: The Anarchist And Syndicalist Revolution Of 1936 and Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm are both published by AK Press.
