Summary of Adam Hochschild's Spain In Our Hearts is an account of the involvement of US citizens in the Spanish Civil War. It focuses on the experiences of a number of individual volunteers and reporters and provides a broad view of how the war affected Spain, the United States, and Europe.
The Spanish Civil War began as a conflict between a democratically elected left-wing government, the Spanish Republic, and right-wing military officers led by General Francisco Franco. At the same time, workers in Catalonia, Aragon, and Andalusia staged a revolution against landowners and established anarchist communities in some areas. These revolutionaries joined with the Republic to fight the fascists.
Fascist dictators Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany provided extensive weaponry and manpower to Franco. Josef Stalin of Communist Russia sent more limited aid to the Spanish Republic. The leaders of the Republic hoped Western democracies, such as France, Britain, and the United States…