Monday, February 03, 2003

By Heather White, PR Intern

WILMINGTON- Dr. Michael M. Seidman, a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, had his work, Republic of Egos, published by University of Wisconsin Press. This book takes a new look into the social history of the Nationalists and the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War. Seidman has been interested in the social aspects of the war ever since he was a young child. He believes that social history provides a fuller picture of the experiences of individuals in armed conflict.

Republic of Egos offers a new explanation of the outcome of the Spanish Civil War. According to Seidman, the Nationalists were able to feed and equip their soldiers with sufficient supplies. On the other hand, the Republicans suffered from a lack of resources and disorganization; thus, their military and civilians became poor fighters and workers. Nationalists proved more capable of managing a wartime economy than their enemy, the Republicans. Seidman argues that rank-and-file soldiers on both sides were often un-aggressive and uncomfortable in their trenches and frequently fraternized with their adversaries.

Prof. Stanley Payne, the author of many books on Spanish history, calls Republic of Egos, “a remarkable book — in some ways, the most original piece of research on the Spanish Civil War that I have ever seen. There is nothing like it in any language.” Seidman said he hopes that this book will, “help to show the importance of social history, which can explain much better than political history, the experiences of the common people and the outcome of a conflict.”

Seidman is also the author of the comparative history Workers against Work: Labor in Paris and Barcelona during the Popular Fronts (1936-38). He is currently working on a comparative study of the Russian, Chinese, and Spanish Civil Wars with a sociologist from UNC Chapel Hill.

To order Republic of Egos, call University of Wisconsin Press at (773)-568-1550 or write Customer Service Department, University of Wisconsin Press, c/o Chicago Distribution Center, 11030 S. Langley Ave., Chicago, IL 60628, U.S.A. Copies may also be ordered through the publisher’s Web site, www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/books/2140.htm.