ABSTRACT
An analysis of the writings of middle class men who were involved in the Spanish Civil War offers
a fruitful examination of masculinity in the 1930's and allows men to be placed as gendered beings
to better understand their feelings about war, fighting and identities as soldiers. Despite the
pacifist
and anti-war connections of these men, most still had a strong emotional attachment to the idea of
war and to the collective memories of World War One. The background of middle class men
meant
that they inherited a British tradition of interest in foreign affairs and it is not surprising that these
men
chose to show their solidarity with Republican Spain by taking part in the War. Some volunteers
felt
that the Spanish Civil War would be the seminal test of their personal masculine integrity as well
as
that of their generation generally, and eagerly awaited the time when they would be immersed in
the
fighting community. Memoirs show that feelings of masculine community were a central part of
experiences in Spain, and life at the front was a world which women could not penetrate despite
their
presence in Spain as nurses and support workers. Relationships between men were an essential
feature of memories of life in the War, and men felt the solidarity of belief and experiences with
their
friends, sentiments which were confined to the insular world of fighting men.
abstract * introduction * Historiography
* Public School Rebels * Soldiering
and Indentity * Comradeship and Sexuality *appendix
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