I began researching my final project today, which is going to focus on the rationale for, the effects of, and the reactions to American non-intervention, probably including some discussion of international non-intervention. It seems that ALBA is only sporadically helpful to this line of inquiry, so I would much appreciate any suggestions for relevant archival material, in ALBA or elsewhere. Considering the limitations of ALBA I consulted the big green Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 at Tamiment, which was a great introductory source. I suggest using that dictionary to anyone pursuing extra-archival research because every entry is accompanied by a list of suggested further reading. These lists led me to a somewhat obscure book from 1968 called American Diplomacy and the Spanish Civil War by Richard Traina, which I am getting through Amazon, and which should be a useful source. The only problem I noticed with the dictionary is that it is pretty old (I am not sure how old) so there are some newer books out there that it will not be able to suggest. One such newer book is Arms for Spain: The Untold Story of the Spanish Civil War (1999) by Gerald Howson, which focuses on the role of arms, and lack thereof in the case of the Republic, and has some handy sections discussing the American political climate surrounding neutrality and gives some insight into the inner workings of Roosevelt’s state department. I was lucky enough to come across this book searching through the Strand bookstore’s Spanish History section, which I also recommend for extra-archival research. If anyone has any suggestions for further readings or research on my topic, please let me know.
Note: Another interesting title I just noticed on the Strand’s website is The Spanish Civil War, The Soviet Union, And Communism (2004) by Stanley G. Payne, but it’s out of stock at the Strand. Bobst may have it, and Amazon definitely has it, if this is relevant to anyone’s research.
Dear Ryan,
ReplyDeletethe bibliography on a topic like that really is vast and uneven, so we should definitely sit down and talk before you start reading dated stuff. I think that one way to make sure the project has an archival component would be to focus on the material produced during the war, that discusses the rationale for and against non-intervention. I'm thinking mostly of pamphlets; there's a pretty vast collection of Spanish Civil War pamphlets on microfilm in Bobst. In any case, we should definitely talk about this soon.
I'm pretty sure the young volunteers that Bailey is talking about are Spanish.
great post.
It's cool that you are honing in on a topic. I don't know if you are still thinking of doing this topic, or how your idea has morphed in the last couple of weeks. US politics at the time intrigue me also. I have so much respect for Roosevelt, but here it seems like he blew it. I wonder if he knew the blunder at the time, but was not willing to intervene and risk losing popularity or support for his New Deal programs and reforms among supporters of Franco or general non-interventionalists.
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