History of the Second World War

In this episode we will discuss how the Republican zone of control was organized and some of the disagreements between the various factions. As these disagreements will be an essential theme of this entire series of episodes, this will not be the last time we discuss it. We will also end this episode with some discussion of the role of women within the Republic, and how that participation differed from the gender expectations before the war, and also how the Nationalists used that difference as part of their propaganda campaign. A few of the interviews will also focus on this topic, with some excellent individuals who are far more knowledgeable about the subject than I am. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of our Spanish Civil War Interview Series I was joined by Dr. Ariel Lambe from the University of Connecticut to discuss her book No Barrier Can Contain It: Cuban Antifascism and the Spanish Civil War as well as her ongoing researching into Cuban antifascism in the period surrounding the Spanish Civil War. My conversation with Dr. Lambe was fascinating, and provided unique insight into events in Cuba before and after the Civil War, and how those events were both related to events in Spain and uniquely Cuban. Cuba was in a somewhat unique position given its colonial past and its continuing connections with Spain and its rich history. We also discussed the somewhat unique role that Cuban volunteers in Spain would play due to their bilingual and international nature. One of the topics that I knew nothing about that we touched on near the end of our interview was the effects that the civil war had on the political situation within Cuba, and how it played a role in altering the course of Cuban history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We check in with the leadership situation in the aftermath of the coup, and then discuss the violence of the opening months of what was rapidly becoming a civil war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of our Spanish Civil War Interview Series I was joined by Dr. Morris Brodie. One of the major reasons I wanted to do this interview series was to talk to people who had done research into the reactions of people outside of Spain to the events occurring within Spain. It can be challenging to research this myself given the scale of the world, and I was very excited with Dr. Brodie agreed to do the interview. Dr. Brodie is the author of Transatlantic Anarchism During the Spanish Civil War and Revolution, 1936-1939: Fury Over Spain which discusses the anarchist movements in Britain, Ireland, and the United States before and during the Spanish Civil War. This will be just the first of several interviews in which we discuss how various groups around the world viewed the Spanish Civil War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of our Spanish Civil War series I chatted with Dr. Danny Evans. Some of our previous interviews in this series revolved around Anarchism, and this time I discussed the Anarchist movement during the Civil War. We discussed the preparedness of the Anarchist groups for the war, their reactions to the start of the conflict, and then many of the political developments that occurred within the Republican camp as the Civil War developed. One topic that we discuss, that I think is worth reiterating here before the episode begins is that it can be easy to categorize people into certain political ideologies based on their self-categorization or due to the groups that they belong to. However, when looking at historical individuals or movements, it is far more important to look not at their statements or titles, but instead at their actions. This is true for Communists like we discuss in this episode, but can also be applied to many other groups at almost any time in history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As political unrest escalated military leaders all across Spain and Morocco began to put in place a plan to drastically alter the situation in Spain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of our Spanish Civil War Interview Series I was joined by Dr. Matthew Kerry the author of Unite, Proletarian Brothers! Radicalism and Republicanism in the Second Spanish Republic which was released earlier this year. Our discussion focused on the events in Asturias, a region of Spain, in 1934. During October 1934, there would be a national strike throughout Spain, and in most areas this strike would be either quickly broken up or would rapidly burn itself out. However in Asturias the strike would morph into a true revolution and for two weeks Asturias would be under the control of revolutionary committees. In the end 1700 people would be killed in Asturias, and 260 members of the Spanish military. One of the topics that we touch on near the end and which I think is really important is the role that Asturias would play in Franco's narrative of imminent and very possible revolution during and after the events of the Civil War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is our first episode in our Spanish Civil War interview series. In the decades before the Spanish Civil War Spain had experienced a very rocky political period. The Spanish economy had been somewhat precarious even before the economic upheavals of the First World War, and the resulting economic booms and busts of that war would set the country up for a tumultuous 1920s and 1930s. There were many different political beliefs present in Spain at this time, and one political ideology that would gain a lot of traction within Spain was Anarchism. In the following interview I chatted with Dr. James Yeoman to discuss why the Anarchist movement was so well supported within Spain, and how the role of anarchist groups both within Spain and as viewed by international Anarchists, played an important role in the years before the Civil War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last few months I have been recording interviews with a host of excellent guests. All of these interviews have been centered around one topic, the Spanish Civil War. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is the first interview for the podcast, but certainly not the last. Last week I released the Warspite special, when I did that I did the normal social media stuff, and when I posted on Twitter Iain Ballantyne was tagged. For every series of episodes for the podcast there is a foundational source, it is sometimes the book I read first, sometimes the book I find the most useful, but there is always something that functions as the baseline for all of my other research. For the Warspite special that episode was Mr. Ballantyne's Warspite. After a bit of back and forth on Twitter we ended up arranging an interview that was done just the past Wednesday, and I wanted to get it out as soon as possible. I hope you enjoy it, our conversation discussed a few pieces of the podcast, and some of the research that Mr. Ballantyne did for the book. If you would like to check out any of Mr. Ballantyne's books you can find a link in the show notes or on the website over at historyofthesecondworldwar.com/interviews. You can look forward to more interviews starting on Sunday December 13th, at which point the Spanish Civil War Interview series will begin.Find other works by Iain Ballantyne at http://iainballantyne.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices