Reviews for Democracy and Civil War in Spain 1931-1939

The average rating for Democracy and Civil War in Spain 1931-1939 based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-08 00:00:00 Fredrik Balldin Not the kind of presentation I was expecting/hoping for, but a solid presentation from an admittedly biased point of view. Not knocking the bias, but it is there. I will note that the editor could have easily made some of the notes (with additional information relevant to the text, not those merely citing sources or recommending other sources) foot- instead of end- as it would have made it a less choppy read in sections.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-28 00:00:00 Joseph Roeder The Reconquista of Spain is an interesting story, but the telling of it fell short here, in my opinion. Author Joseph F. O'Callaghan is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History at Fordham University, where he has taught since 1954. Joseph F. O'Callaghan: I found the writing here overly dry and ardous; a somewhat common problem that plagues many of the history and science books I've read. O'Callaghan tends to machine-gun names, dates and places at the naive reader without providing any relevant context. He mentions some obscure Spanish count, then drones on in a monotonous fashion; rattling off a torrent of statistics and more unfamiliar names. I really don't like when books do this... The narrative structure of Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain also left much to be desired for me. O'Callaghan frequently jumps back and forth bewtween the many crusades, successfully managing to completely lose the reader in the weeds... I would not recommend this one. If it were any longer, I would have put it down. 1.5 stars.