To Remember Spain: The Anarchist and Syndicalist Revolution of 1936

This book is not a history book of Spanish anarchism during the Spanish civil war. It is just the compilation of two relatively short essays written by late libertarian Murrary Bookchin. Although Anarchist participations were distinctive and quantatatively numerous during the Spanish civil war ,therefore embarrassing to Stalinists, there has been strong academic biases against Anarchists and Spanish Anarchists' participationin the war.As Chomsky rightly pointed out , "Mandarins" hardly ever mentioned them or blatantly attacked them in their litany of works. For example, Hugh Thomas, the author of one of the most widely read book on Spanish civil war and the adviser for Margaret Thatcher, hardly ever mentioned about Anarchists and contribution to the republican cause in his 1000+ pages work. Of course, you don't need to believe what Bookchin lauerized about Spanish Anarchists without ciritically judging it ,but please read Borkenau,Orwell,Weil and others who witnessed or participated the civil war, you will know what Bookchin wrote is not entirely derived from his supposedly anarchist belief. It's schintillating essays ,but strongly nostalgic confession of old libertarian and his view on one of the most powerful movement of the people in the 20th century

The two short essays collected in this book serve to complement Bookchin's history of anarchism in Spain leading up to the revolution, titled "The Spanish Anarchists: Heroic Years 1868-1936". These essays do not serve as a proper overview on their own of what happened in the anarchist movement in Spain in the years of the revolution, for a capsule version of that history I recommend checking out sections of Martha Ackelsberg's "Free Women of Spain", or the section in Guerin's "Anarchism: From Theory to Practice". For an in-depth history, check out Broue and Temime or Bolloten's The Spanish Civil War. But Bookchin does draw out some important lessons here about anarchist organization, leadership, charisma, and bureaucratization, and the havoc wreaked by Stlainist influence on the revolution. For those interested in the topic, Vernon Richards' "Lessons of Spain" is another good source.