I admit I bought this out of perverse curiosity more than anything: how could Carroll possibly whitewash that the Spanish Nationalists accepted aid from the Nazis? His argument here was simpler and more convincing than I thought possible: Where else were they going to get it? (And the Soviets had not just backed the Republicans, they had turned them into a proxy -- some sort of aid for the Nationalist side was essential.)

I also hadn't known about the indifferent-to-bad relations between the Carlists -- the Catholic faction of the war, anti-centralization and of a piece with the other 'political Catholic' factions of the interwar period, and the one Carroll is most on the side of -- and the Nationalists proper; if all you know of the Spanish Civil War is Hemingway and/or pro-Republican historians, this would be a good thing to read, just to learn the argument for the other side (and that, even though they managed to establish centralized control, neither they nor Franco's subsequent regime were quite as Fascist, or as fascist, as you probably imagine). ( )