Ghosts of Passion: Martyrdom, Gender, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil War

The question of what caused the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) is the central focus of modern Spanish historiography. In Ghosts of Passion, Brian D. Bunk argues that propaganda related to the revolution of October 1934 triggered the broader conflict by accentuating existing social tensions surrounding religion and gender. Through careful analysis of the images produced in books, newspapers, posters, rallies, and meetings, Bunk contends that Spain's civil war was not inevitable. Commemorative imagery produced after October 1934 bridged the gap between rhetoric and action by dehumanizing opponents and encouraging violent action against them. In commemorating the uprising, revolutionaries and conservatives used the same methods to promote radically different political agendas: they deployed religious imagery to characterize the political situation as a battle between good and evil, with the fate of the nation hanging in the balance, and exploited traditional gender stereotypes to portray themselves as the defenders of social order against chaos. The resulting atmosphere of polarization combined with increasing political violence to plunge the country into civil war.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Revolution of October 1934 13 2. Sacred Blood: The Martyrs of TurÓn and Conservative Politics 34 3. “Your Comrades Will Not Forget!” Revolutionary Martyrs and Political Unity 61 4. Grandsons of the Cid: Masculinity, Sexual Violence, and the Destruction of the Family 88 5. Hyenas, Harpies, and Proletarian Mothers: Commemorating Female Participation 120 6. The October Revolution in Democratic Spain 150 Notes 175 Glossary of Organizations 211 Bibliography 215 Index 239

About the Author :
Brian D. Bunk is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Click here to visit the author’s website

Review :
"In this clear and accessible book, Brian D. Bunk complicates the historiography on the origins of the Civil War by injecting a cultural perspective and developing the still-nascent study of historical memory in Spanish history. He successfully links a single case study of memory (of the October 1934 Revolution) to larger interpretive debates that transcend the particular topic."--Pamela Radcliff, author of From Mobilization to Civil War: The Politics of Polarization in the Spanish City of Gijon, 1900-1937 "Ghosts of Passion is an important contribution to the historiography of the Spanish Civil War. In this convincing work of revisionist scholarship, Brian D. Bunk aligns himself with those who do memory studies and with a newer crop of Hispanists who see cultural forces as being just as important--if not more important--than economic or political forces in sparking the Civil War."-- Sandie Holguin, author of Creating Spaniards: Culture and National Identity in Republican Spain