The Truth About Spain! – Mobilizing British Public Opinion, 1936–1939

Based on a combination of a wide ranging, secondhand sources, along with previously unknown archival material from Spain, Britain, France, and the US, this book explores the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 as a propaganda battle aimed mainly at foreign public opinion. It shows how both Nationalists and Republicans used the experiences of previous conflicts, such as World War I, as well as that of their totalitarian allies, to set up a number of propaganda and censorship services with the goal of persuading foreign - and specifically British - audiences of the legitimacy of their causes, and of the need to give them political, military, and relief assistance. The propaganda messages designed by both sides - ranging from the atrocities committed by the enemy to illegal foreign intervention on its behalf - are analyzed in detail, together with the techniques that were employed to transmit these messages, such as eye-witness accounts, official commissions, unofficial missions of investigation, documentaries, art exhibitions, etc. As to the impact of both campaigns on the British population, the book argues that their crude nature helped to mobilize both the extreme right and the extreme left, but alienated the great majority, who preferred to rally to the Non-Intervention policy adopted by the Baldwin and Chamberlain governments. The chronicle of this relatively neglected topic demonstrates not only the utter modernity of the Spanish conflict, but also the origin of some of the arguments still employed by current historians of the war. *** "As Nibel Townson, the series editor, points out in the preface, 'The aim of The Truth about Spain is not to establish the veracity or otherwise of the Spanish propaganda campaigns, but to reveal their inner workings and how these impinged upon their efforts to sway British public opinion.' In this, the author succeeds admirably, presenting a dispassionate and detailed study of the forms and functioning of those campaigns." - Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, 37:1, December 2012, 211-215.