Author Archive for Robert Shaffer

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Spanish Civil War in U.S. History Textbooks

February 4, 2021
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The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Spanish Civil War in U.S. History Textbooks

How do the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the broader American response to the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 appear in introductory college-level United States history textbooks? A survey of a dozen highly regarded textbooks published in the past quarter century reveals a mixed picture. Some ignore altogether the American volunteers who fought alongside the...
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Rejecting the Cold War Alliance with Franco

June 10, 2016
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Rejecting the Cold War Alliance with Franco

In 1949 Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior under Franklin Roosevelt, described General Francisco Franco as a “mimic of Hitler” whose regime “chokes the breath out of liberty in a police state.” Four years later, The Christian Century, a liberal Protestant magazine, called Spain “that pathetic remnant of medievalism.” The Spanish Civil War...
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