James Matthews is a delegate with the International Committee of the Red Cross. He is the author of Reluctant Warriors: Republican Popular Army and Nationalist Army Conscripts in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (2012), which was awarded the "Best First Book Prize 2010-12" by the Association for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies.

• 1. Introduction - James Matthews (Independent Scholar, Spain)Initial Mobilization2. ‘With Nothing but Our Bared Chests’: Republican Militia Columns in the Early Phase of the Spanish Civil War - Michael Alpert (University of Westminster, UK) and James Matthews (Independent Scholar, Spain)3. Red Berets, Blue Shirts: Nationalist Militia Forces in the Spanish Civil War - Mercedes Peñalba Sotorrío (Manchester Metropolitan University)Mobilizing for Total War 4. Foot Soldiers for the Two Spains: Conscript Experience during the Spanish Civil War - James Matthews (Independent Scholar, Spain)5. Desertion and Shirking in the Civil War: Man Versus Propaganda - Pedro Corral (Independent Scholar, Spain)6. The Reds and the Greens. Encounters between Moroccan and Republican Enemies during the Spanish Civil War - Ali Al Tuma (UN University Tokyo, Japan)7. Republican Spies and their Civilian Informers in the Nationalist Rear Guard during the Spanish Civil War - Hernán Rodríguez Velasco (University of Salamanca, Spain)Rear Guard Areas and Actors8. Political Economies and Monetary Policies during the Spanish Civil War - Michael Seidman (University of North Carolina, USA)9. Social Work in the Spanish Civil War - Ángela Cenarro (University of Zaragoza, Spain)10. A Lost Generation?: Children and the Spanish Civil War - Verónica Sierra Blas (University of Alcalá de Henares, Spain)11. Homefront Cooking: Eating and Daily Life in Republican Cities during the Spanish Civil War – Suzanne Dunai (University of California San Diego, USA)Legacies of the Spanish Civil War, 1939-194412. The Demobilization of Francoist and Republican War Veterans, 1939-1944: A Great Divergence? - Ángel Alcalde (University of Melbourne, Australia)13. A Spanish Exception in a War of Extermination? The ‘Blue Division’ on the Eastern Front, 1941-44 - Xosé Manoel Núñez Seixas (University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain)14. ‘Boys into Men’: The Emergence of Francoist Martial Masculinity 1939–1944 - Ian Winchester (University of New Mexico, USA)

Spain at War demonstrates a truly impressive archival grounding, and will interest anyone who has perhaps read the broad strokes about the Spanish Civil War, but is ready to explore cutting edge research at the intersections of military and socio-cultural history. For the scholar of Spain, it is essentially reading.