And the big black birds gathered in the sky

The Guardian has a review of a new edition of Antony Beevor's Battle of Spain (last titled the Spanish Civil War.) Read the review to see how flat out evil that war became, with atrocities aplenty on each side. Read it also for the comparison to Iraq which may itself be entering such a war, although its is ethnic rather than class based. I thought it was a rather well written review and then I noticed it was written by Piers Brendon, author of the stunning Dark Valley. That book is about the 30s and the slow slide to war. While the 40s were terrible, the 30s were no picnic and this book will convince you of that.