In November 2020, two books on the Spanish Civil War, Guerre d’Espagne et socialisme international: Dernière chance pour l’ordre démocratique d’entre-deux-guerres by Nicolas Lépine, and Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War by Tyler Wentzell, were launched as part of the Ottawa Historical Association’s first virtual book event. This event was organized with the help of Dr. Dominique Marshall of the CNHH and was co-hosted by Dr. Marshall and, historian and war journalist, Michael Petrou.
[from Recipro]
“Guerre d’Espagne et socialisme international: Dernière chance pour l’ordre démocratique d’entre-deux-guerres“
By Nicolas Lépine, PhD, Presses de l’Université Laval, Québec, 2006; PUL, 2020.
This book documents the little-known political solidarity campaign of the international socialist movement for the Spanish Republic (1936-1939), the first of such magnitude. It relativizes, on the one hand, the passivity of continental socialists, and on the other hand, the ineluctable character of the Second World War.
An appropriate reading for current times; those of the agony of the post-World War II international order (translation of abstract, Presses de l’Université Laval).
The following is a recording of the author discussing his writing process.
[from Recipro]“Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War”
By Tyler Wentzel, University of Toronto Press, 2020.
“Not for King or Country” tells the story of Edward Cecil-Smith, a dynamic propagandist for the Communist Party of Canada during the Great Depression. It is the first biography of a Canadian commander in the Spanish Civil War, and is also the first book to critically analyze the major battles in which the Canadian and American volunteers fought (book abstract, University of Toronto Press).
The following conversation, courtesy of the speakers Tyler Wentzel and Michael Petrou, discusses. Realisation by Philip Primeau.
