Probably the most enlightening book about the process that led to civil war, written by one of the historians who have most contributed to the debate on a crucial period of Spanish history. This book argues, based on unpublished documents, that the insurrection of October 1934 is, strictly, the beginning of the Spanish war and not a mere episode or a different precedent. It proposes a shift in research on civil war and a clarification of one of the decisive, culminating events of the twentieth century.
The new edition, in the 70th anniversary of the end of the Civil War and ten years after its first edition, includes a foreword by Stanley G. Payne and a new afterword by the author.
"A truly great book" (Carlos Seco Serrano)
"The most important effort of the last two decades, by any historian, and in any language, to reinterpret the history of the Republic and the Civil War" (Stanley G. Payne)