Dame Frances Lannon DBE is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to higher education. She has published extensively on the cultural and political origins and significance of the Spanish Civil War, including ‘Privilege, Persecution and Prophecy: The Catholic Church in Spain 1875–1975’ (1987), and articles on women in the Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 was of enormous international as well as national significance. In this gripping volume, Frances Lannon explains how this internal conflict saw the fight between democracy and communism played out on a small scale, only to be fought out again in the Second World War.

• IntroductionChronologyBackground to warWarring sidesThe fightingPortrait of a soldierThe world around warPortrait of a civilianHow the war endedConclusion and consequencesFurther reading

Dame Frances Lannon DBE is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to higher education. She has published extensively on the cultural and political origins and significance of the Spanish Civil War, including ‘Privilege, Persecution and Prophecy: The Catholic Church in Spain 1875–1975’ (1987), and articles on women in the Civil War.

The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 was of enormous international as well as national significance. In this gripping volume, Frances Lannon explains how this internal conflict saw the fight between democracy and communism played out on a small scale, only to be fought out again in the Second World War.

• IntroductionChronologyBackground to warWarring sidesThe fightingPortrait of a soldierThe world around warPortrait of a civilianHow the war endedConclusion and consequencesFurther reading