"Brou enables us to feel that we are actually living through these epoch-making events.... D]o not miss this magnificent work."--Robert Brenner, UCLA A magisterial, definitive account of the upheavals in Germany in the wake of the Russian revolution. Brou meticulously reconstitutes six decisive years, 1917-23, of social struggles in Germany. The consequences of the defeat of the German revolution had profound consequences for the world. Pierre Brou (1926-2005) was for many years Professor of Contemporary History at the Institut d' tudes politiques in Grenoble and was a world renowned specialist on the communist and international workers' movements.

First published in France in 1961 as La Revolution et la guerre d'Espagne,this book explains the major issues of the Spanish Civil War in a remarkably clear and comprehensive fashion. The authors focus on the internal affairs of the Republic and the Anarchist collective experiments in particular. For further description, the book is best served by its critics: "The Broue-Temime work is the best general interpretation available concerning both the revolution of 1936 and the war. It is especially valuable for analysis of the CNT, the POUM, and the anarchists in both the industrial and rural areas of Catalonia. It contains rich chapters on the first days of the war in the large cities and on the May, 1937, struggle in the streets of Barcelona." —Gabriel Jackson, Hispanic American Historical Review "This, by contrast (with the work of Hugh Thomas), is what gives weight to the fine works of Pierre Broue: the effort by which he constructs a Spanish war where events, parties, and man, the motives that guided them, the difficulties they encountered, their feelings, debates, ideas, and sacrifices are arranged and told in order to make them comprehensible." —Jean-Pierre Peter, Annales: Economies, Societes, Civilisations "Broue has prepared the first half [of the book], dealing with the Spanish background, the revolution, and the first year of the war... [He] gives a particularly good treatment of the origins of the Spanish Communist party. "In the second half of this composite work, Temime has presented a clear, concise, and perceptive account of the military events in the last two years of the war and of the construction of Franco's authoritarian state." —Stanley G. Payne, Journal of Modern History

La personnalité de Trotsky est aussi hors du commun que sa destinée. Machine intellectuelle parfaitement agencée, au rendement exceptionnel, on peut dire de lui ce que lui-même disait de Lasalle et de Jaurès quant à la puissance physique de leur intellect. Rigueur et imagination, puissance de rêve et finesse de l'analyse, netteté des objectifs et souplesse des méthodes, il disposait de tout cela. Mais cet orateur gigantesque, cet écrivain à l'immense talent a été aussi chef d'armée, dirigeant de l'Etat, du parti, diplomate, organisateur des transports et l'un des plus fin analystes de la société civile et des questions culturelles. Il a fait la révolution et travaillé avec Lénine à la tête de l'Etat soviétique pendant cinq années décisives. Il est tombé du pouvoir dans l'exil plus vite qu'il n'y avait accédé (avant de voir les siens systématiquement supprimés, et de succomber en 1940 sous les coups d'un bras armé par Staline). Du fait de la plus formidable tentative de l'Histoire menée pour faire de lui une " non-personne ", il a pu sembler oublié du peuple soviétique. Or l'on découvre qu'il a conservé sa place dans " l'histoire vécue " qui se raconte dans les familles et que son souvenir hante au moins les salles et les turnes des universités d'URSS. Aucun des autres " Grands " des pays étrangers en 1917 ne jouit d'une renommée aussi universelle et de la capacité à provoquer des polémiques à partir de son seul nom.

"Broue enables us to feel that we are actually living through these epoch-making events.... D]o not miss this magnificent work."--Robert Brenner, UCLA A magisterial, definitive account of the upheavals in Germany in the wake of the Russian revolution. Broue meticulously reconstitutes six decisive years, 1917-23, of social struggles in Germany. The consequences of the defeat of the German revolution had profound consequences for the world. Pierre Broue (1926-2005) was for many years Professor of Contemporary History at the Institut d'etudes politiques in Grenoble and was a world renowned specialist on the communist and international workers' movements.