Books in Brief

The Wound in the Heart, by Allen Guttmann (Free Press, $5.95). Allen Guttmann is “not old enough to remember” the Spanish Civil War—nor well-informed enough to write about its impact on the American scene. His account, therefore, is based strictly on one of those doctoral-thesis investigations which consist of reading many books and newspapers but never quite understanding them. It is significant that in his peripheral account of events in Spain, he at no time quotes from Salvador de Madariaga’s scholarly work on that sanguinary conflict. Thrown in helter-skelter among the names of Liberals are those of Communists, who are seldom identified— yet he brushes aside as “far Left” the views of Oswal Garrison Villard. And when he gets involved in the complexities of the American Left and its sectarian squabbles, he is hopelessly lost. More’s the pity. For the Spanish war was a wound in the heart of many Americans—a wound which deserves a defter probe. For many, moreover, it was a double wound —inflicting first the pain of the Franco uprising and, far more bitter, the anguish of discovering that the outpouring of faith had been betrayed by the NKVD. The author, in effect, has taken a good title and a major subject, only to play quotations with them. He has done a further disservice by his inability to distinguish among extreme Rightists, conservatives, Liberals, socialists, and Communists. In short, this is a superficial, muddled, unfeeling book which deserves to be consigned not to the flames, but to the dusty scrutiny of Ph. D.’s seeking a footnote.

R. DE TOLEDANO

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The Wound in the Heart, by Allen Guttmann (Free Press, $5.95). Allen Guttmann is “not old enough to remember” the Spanish Civil War—nor well-informed enough to write about its impact on the American scene. His account, therefore, is based strictly on one of those doctoral-thesis investigations which consist of reading many books and newspapers but never quite understanding them. It is significant that in his peripheral account of events in Spain, he at no time quotes from Salvador de Madariaga’s scholarly work on that sanguinary conflict. Thrown in helter-skelter among the names of Liberals are those of Communists, who are seldom identified— yet he brushes aside as “far Left” the views of Oswal Garrison Villard. And when he gets involved in the complexities of the American Left and its sectarian squabbles, he is hopelessly lost. More’s the pity. For the Spanish war was a wound in the heart of many Americans—a wound which deserves a defter probe. For many, moreover, it was a double wound —inflicting first the pain of the Franco uprising and, far more bitter, the anguish of discovering that the outpouring of faith had been betrayed by the NKVD. The author, in effect, has taken a good title and a major subject, only to play quotations with them. He has done a further disservice by his inability to distinguish among extreme Rightists, conservatives, Liberals, socialists, and Communists. In short, this is a superficial, muddled, unfeeling book which deserves to be consigned not to the flames, but to the dusty scrutiny of Ph. D.’s seeking a footnote.

R. DE TOLEDANO