I looked it up on Amazon. I did not know that Orwell was one of the foreign fighters on the Loyalist side. I believe I shall order it (as soon as I get a job). When someone tells me that a particular book "should be required reading," I tend to take it seriously. It means that book made a big impression. I have said it myself a time or three.
The blurb on Amazon mentions political reasons for the defeat of the Spanish Republicans rather than military ones. Is this a reference to interal Spanish forces or the European situation in general? I am tempted to use the dangerous Vietnam analagy with respect to the Spanish Civil War, the way each side had major help from powerful outside nations.