Hell and Good Company

The Spanish Civil War and the World It Made

De: Richard Rhodes

Narrado por: Christian Coulson

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, the remarkable story of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of the reporters, writers, artists, doctors, and nurses who witnessed it.

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) inspired and haunted an extraordinary number of exceptional artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and John Dos Passos. The idealism of the cause--defending democracy from fascism at a time when Europe was darkening toward another world war--and the brutality of the conflict drew from them some of their best work: Guernica, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homage to Catalonia, The Spanish Earth.

The war spurred breakthroughs in military and medical technology as well. New aircraft, new weapons, new tactics and strategy all emerged in the intense Spanish conflict. Indiscriminate destruction raining from the sky became a dreaded reality for the first time. Progress also arose from the horror: The doctors and nurses who volunteered to serve with the Spanish defenders devised major advances in battlefield surgery and front-line blood transfusion. In those ways, and in many others, the Spanish Civil War served as a test bed for World War II and for the entire twentieth century.

From the life of John James Audubon to the invention of the atomic bomb, listeners have long relied on Richard Rhodes to explain, distill, and dramatize crucial moments in history. Now he takes us onto battlefields and into bomb shelters, into the studios of artists, into the crowded wards of war hospitals, and into the hearts and minds of a rich cast of characters to show how the ideological, aesthetic, and technological developments that emerged in Spain changed the world forever.

©2015 Richard Rhodes (P)2015 Simon and Schuster

Really good book ...

Rhodes does a great job of mixing his narrative with the memories and recollections of the actual protagonists.

For all to read

The Spanish civil war, so easily forgotten by most, still has a profound impact on Spain and many Spaniards many of those not even realizing that.

Franco’s successors are still around and in may unexpected and influential roles, political parties cherishing the memories of the Caudillo and his wat still het voted on by many. Some pretend to be different and not related but in their acts and plans the heresy is clearly there. Still no opening books and allow memories to be whipped out is often the goal of right wing Spain. Caught in 1930s wording and sometimes propaganda vocabulary it will take even more time for wounds to finally heal.

A must read for many

Interesting but not compelling

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

No. It was a so what book for me.

What was most disappointing about Richard Rhodes’s story?

I didn't feel that I learned anything.

What didn’t you like about Christian Coulson’s performance?

Maybe the book was underwhelming because listening to an Englishman pronounce Spanish words is like a fingernail across a blackboard. The producer could have at least found a reader fluent in Spanish for the audio.

Do you think Hell and Good Company needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No comment

Any additional comments?

None

The Spanish Civil War live on it's feet

What made the experience of listening to Hell and Good Company the most enjoyable?

The writer's courage and enthusiasm for bringing us a different slice of this important civil war

What was one of the most memorable moments of Hell and Good Company?

The writer's ability to create the feeling of adventure and comraderie...and inexperience of the American idealists who fought in Spain against facism...

What about Christian Coulson’s performance did you like?

Consistent energy and voice who handles the Spanish accents quite well.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I still find reading about this intense civil war to be paintful and exciting to a degree that I appreciated taking R & R.

Such an incredible story about a pivotal moment of history. Such a confluence of medicine, art, culture, and politics.

Nothing at all it was fantastic stop asking for negatives really it is obnoxious to pester me for this review

Spanish Civil War. ...texture and context

A book about the texture and context of the war, not events. Excellent and gap-filling

Fascinating history lesson

Enjoyed the story, performance and learned much about a period that I knew very little about before selecting this title. Recommended by a friend and five star worthy!

Great History

Readers of history will find themselves absorbed in this deeply researched and insightful addition on a tremendouly important conflict leading up to WWII. Highly recommended for history buffs of the mid-twentieth century.

Awkward approach to a civil war

What was most disappointing about Richard Rhodes’s story?

I found shocking how Spaniards are describe as mere passive figures in this story. No one can deny the huge influence of external actors in the Spanish conflict, but in the end it was a civil war. This fact doesn't come across at all in this book.

What three words best describe Christian Coulson’s performance?

I wonder why the producer didn't choose a reader fluent in Spanish, since the book is full of names and expressions in this language. Christian Coulson is not even able to mispronounce Spanish words consistently throughout his reading.

Very Different From Other Rhodes Books

If you consider the Spanish Civil War to be a prelude to World War II where technology and tactics were tested, you might expect Rhodes to be well qualified to write about it.  The era is ripe with foreshadowing of triumphs and tragedies to come. Other Rhodes books excel at supplying historical context for understanding the causes and effects of important events.  Unfortunately, that's not the book he wrote.  If you read and liked  The Making of the Atomic Bomb or Energy, this book is absolutely nothing like them.   I was so baffled that I checked several times to be sure it wasn't by a different author named Rhodes. If you're trying to understand what happened or why, don't make this book your introduction to the Spanish Civil War. 

 "The Spanish Civil War and the World It Made," doesn’t explain the effects of the Spanish Civil War on Spain let alone the rest of the world.  There’s nary a word about post war years in Spain or elsewhere. “World changing” events are described so briefly and without detail that it’s difficult to relate them to each other, much less other times and places.   If you looking for a history of the Spanish civil war, this book is definitely not it

Whatever it is, there are remarkably few Spaniards in this book about a Spanish civil war between Spanish factions.  Not politicians, not generals, not activists, not soldiers, not ordinary people….  This is especially perplexing relative to the time spent covering Ernest Hemingway, and other foreign nationals who decided to drop by! The few Spanish perspectives included are exclusively from the republican side -  soldiers cheerful, strong, brave and confident of victory so you might be surprised to learn they lost the war.  Picasso gets plenty of time but his artistic and personal struggles during wartime are an absurd perspective for the backdrop of an enormous bloody conflict. 

So it's not a history of the war or its ramifications.  It's not about the politics of the fighting factions.   New-ish technologies get a page here and there.  Spanish perspectives are gallingly  rare and short.  Most of the book is very loosely related blurbs about people who did not fight and didn't live in Spain before or after the war.  If there was a unifying theme or thing to learn from this messy assemblage, I cannot fathom what it was.