"It's no exaggeration to say that Jackson's book, written with a fine and forceful combination of personal involvement and professional detachment, is ... the first comprehensive and trustworthy account in English. The book is much more than a chronicle. It is also an interpretation of the Republic's place in Spanish history, an interpretation comparable in its excellence to George LeFebvre's celebrated study of the French Revolution. We are not likely for a long time to have a book that better deserves the cheapened adjective definitive. " Allen Guttmann, Commentary