THE WOUND IN THE HEART

by Allen Guttmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 15, 1962

This is an exhaustive, excellently annotated check-list of and comment upon practically relevant to the Spanish Civil War that could be located in American periodicals, books, plays, films, cartoons, speeches and broadcasts (circa 19). Author editor Guttmann cuts a wide swath through the flashy, frenetic maze of Rightist lesftist, Nationalist Loyalist; he shows the responses, pro and con, to what is termed ""the last great cause"" on the part of cultural heavyweights and lightweights, of Hollywood celebrities of churchmen and politicians. But somehow the ideological implications of the bombings which supposedly signalized the end of Ivory Towerism and the invocation of the social muse, seem somewhat naive in retrospect. What's wrong is pinpointed in an Upton Sinclair flummery popularly describing the war as the ""clearest class alignment"" in history. Granted the totalitarian nature of the Franco side, would the much individualism of the peasant and the dream of freedom from his lands have kept free of the constrictions of collectivism et al? The Wound in the Heart is highly sophisticated, sparklingly perceptive as a recapitulation and salute, on such scores as the Popular Front movement, while Stalin was deep in the bloodiest purge of modern times not too long before he smilingly signed a pact with Hitler. This for the Spanish War buffs, a must- even if some will view it as iconoclastic.

Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1962

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan-Free Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1962

Categories: NONFICTION