Democracy, Deeds and Dilemmas: Support for the Spanish Republic within British Civil Society, 19361939

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the British public raised one to two million pounds for Republican Spain, mainly through small individual donations. The response was quintessentially British, with picnics, whist drives, concerts, dances, and rambling expeditions. Innovative fundraising campaigns ran alongside lectures, film screenings, and exhibitions, engaging people with the Spanish conflict. The book explores how the Republican cause resonated with notions of British identity and with the crises that different groups perceived to be threatening their world order. It argues that humanitarian support for the Spanish Republic offers an example of active citizenship and popular internationalism in Britain between the wars.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 01 September 2018
Publisher: Sussex Academic Press

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the British public raised an estimated one to two million pounds for Republican Spain, primarily through small individual donations at a time when large parts of Britain were experiencing severe economic depression. People across the country were moved by the plight of Spain, a land in which most had never set foot. The response was quintessentially British; through picnics, whist drives, concerts, dances, and rambling expeditions, the war in Spain became embedded in British social and cultural life. Innovative fundraising campaigns ran alongside lectures, film screenings, and exhibitions, engaging people with the Spanish conflict. However, it was a fragile alliance of progressive opinion, as those involved often had very different interpretations of the political significance of the war and of the Republic's fight for a broadly defined concept of democracy.

The book provides a fresh perspective on what is a well-trodden area of scholarship. It places British humanitarian responses to Spain within the context of Britain's flourishing civic and popular political culture, following the advent of mass democracy in 1928, as supported by the Equal Franchise Act. Emily Mason explores engagement with Spain through three foci: the peace movement, the cooperative movement, and British Christians groups that were at the heart of the humanitarian response but remain underexplored in current historiography. The book explores how the Republican cause resonated with notions of British identity and with the crises that different groups perceived to be threatening their world order. It explores the dilemma that non-intervention posed for many Britons and argues that humanitarian support for the Spanish Republic offers an example of active citizens.

Weight: 342g
Dimension: 154 x 229 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781845199586