Rating: 
Summary: From Journalist to Combatant to Commentator
Review: In late 1936 George Orwell went to Spain to write newspaper articles about the civil war, but joined the POUM militia almost immediately "because at that time and in that atmosphere it seemed the only conceivable thing to do ... it was the first time that I had ever been in a town where the working class was in the saddle." Seven month later, he escaped from Spain, a wanted man, sought out by the Stalinist forces because of his membership in the communist POUM militia! Although an eye-witness, Orwell recognizes the subjectivity of his account:"I hope the account I have given is not too misleading. I believe that on such an issue as this no one is or can be completely truthful. It is difficult to be certain about anything except what you have seen with your own eyes, and consciously or unconsciously everyone writes as a partisan. In case I have not said this somewhere earlier in the book I will say it now: beware of my partisanship, my mistakes of fact and the distortion inevitably caused by my having seen only one corner of events." Orwell describes the misery of life in the trenches well. Prior to reading this book I had viewed (and reviewed) the video LAND AND FREEDOM, which is loosely spun off of Orwell's experiences. This book manages to capture the misery and discomfort that most war movies gloss over: lice, cold, damp, chill, sleeplessness, etc. Although he has much positive to say about the equalitarian nature of the militias (the same pay, food, & clothing for officers & men, mingling on terms of equality, voting on decisions), he repeatedly points out "uncivilized" and unsanitary conditions and behavior. For example: "Sometimes it gave you a sneaking sympathy with the Fascist ex-owners to see the way the militia treated the buildings they had seized. In La Granja every room that was not in use had been turned into a latrine-a frightful shambles of smashed furniture and excrement." Besides life in the trenches, he tells of the street fighting in Barcelona between anti-Fascist forces, tells of being wounded, of treatment, the ban on the POUM, and living as a wanted man until his escape. The politics of the Spanish civil war are Byzantine at best. Orwell separates the political struggles of Republican Spain into two separate chapters, allowing readers who wish to ignore them to focus on his account of life during the struggle. He characterizes the Spanish struggle as the collision of three forces: 1) The workers (the anarchist FAI & CNT, the communist POUM, and liberal socialists), 2) the Fascists (led by Franco's rebellious forces), and 3) the "republican" Liberals, Communists (Stalinists), and "right-wing" socialists. The workers seized the opportunity of opposing Franco's Fascism to promote social revolution. The Liberals and Communists worked to oppose social revolution and championed their struggle as one of liberal democracy against totalitarian Fascism. This led to the suppression of the workers' parties and militias. Orwell returned to England, still hoping that Franco with his Nazi and Fascist mercenaries could be turned back. Ultimately, the social revolution in Spain was suppressed, first by "liberal" forces, and then, they, too, were suppressed by the Fascists. This tale paints a human picture of life during the Spanish civil war. Orwell was able to leave the conflict. Most were not. Although the terrorism of smashing jumbo jets into skyscrapers shocks our consciousness, the systematic terror of Franco's government had a far higher toll in human life and liberty. As we face the challenge of responding to terrorism, let us remember that governmental suppression is far more dangerous in the long run than a few determined fanatics. Five stars for literary ability. Five stars for being able to present the Spanish political situation comprehensibly. Five stars for an enjoyable and powerful story. While less well known than Orwell's ANIMAL FARM and 1984, this book intensifies the meaning of his more popular writings. (If you'd like to dialogue about this review, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)
Rating:
Summary: One of Orwells best
Review: This story provides vivid depiction on the Spanish civil war from someone who fought the batlles in the trenches. Like all Orwell books the subject matter is dealt with in an extremly honest manner. The story takes place as a young Orwell follows his idealistic goals in fighting for the Spanish Anachists. The book demonstrats the mess the war evolvs into.
What I really appreciate most about Orwell is his candidness and open mindedness. The book starts with his conviction of the rightness of the communists and anarchists and ends with his disgust with the insainity, corruption, and incompetence of the players involved. Sometimes virtue and good intentions alone arnt enough.
I would judge this book as one of the best of Orwells works.
Rating: 
Summary: a great analysis of the Spanish Civil War
Review: George Orwell, in his usual "live free or die" mentality, tells his personal experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Although, interesting, it was, at times boring. One of the most ironic points Orwell explains in the book is how the USSR essentially sold out its "fellow socialists" in pursuit of its own best interests. You'll have to read to understand. And you should if you are at all interested in the Spanish Civil War.
Rating: 
Summary: Not your average Orwell
Review: Whatever you think of Orwell and his two most famous works, 1984 and Animal Farm can be set aside when reading "Homage to Catalonia". The book's most valuable asset is that it lends credibility to Orwell's rather strong political views that are so eloquently expressed in his other works. It is one thing to rail against Communism or Totalitarianism, it's another thing entirely to pick up a gun and do something about it at great risk to life and limb. The book in and of itself is not a great book. It is a description of a rather banal civil war that at times is pathetic, comical, and as with any war, ultimately sad when taken at face value. That it is a non-fiction account of the author's participation at Catalonia sets it aside from Orwell's other work. It has made a few top 100 lists, however, I struggled to find a justification for such a lofty ranking. If you are a fan of Orwell, Huxley, etc or are a fan of European history then this book will appeal. Absent such a range of interests, the (potential) reader is probably better off searching elsewhere for an engrossing novel. Ultimately, I enjoyed this book to the extent that it allows for a much deeper perspective on Orwell and his philosphies.
Rating:
Summary: The best political book ever written
Review: Those who seek total and undiluted dominion over others understand that people are susceptible to the language -- but not necessarily the substance -- of noble ideals. In Spain, those who heralded the noblest ideals turned out to be the most brutal of totalitarians. The language of noble ideals is also present in modern political culture. Orwell's observations are as important now as they were 60 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: Truth is beauty
Review: The author's first-hand experience of the egalitarian society created by genuine anarchists in Spain's Civil War, and the valiant efforts to protect it against all kinds of fascism, is a useful counterpoint to the offhand references in American media to "anarchists" as irrational and immature thugs. I suggest that you find and read this book immediately. ...
Rating:
Summary: Important for Its History, Its Literature, Simply Important
Review: George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia is an amazing look at the Spanish Civil War from one of its participants written within six months of the incidents described. This is an important book for historians of the period as well as an important piece of writing for those who love the fiction and ideas of Orwell as one can easily see their development through his experiences in Spain. The sections on the fighting in Barcelona between the Anarchists and the Communists (instead of against their true enemy, the Fascicts) as well as the subsequent suppression of the POUM are among the most riveting. He is always clear about his personal biases and he is not writing as an historian but as an observer who has been betrayed yet is still hopeful. The flashes of humour are among the many surprises in this very personal account of the devastation of a country and the growth of a writer.
Rating:
Summary: this is orwells true classic
Review: George Orwell has become a literary and political icon for so many causes it must make him spin in his too early grave.The left loved him {the road to wigan pier} the right posthumously embraced him {animal fram and 1984}. The truth is, as always more elusive, and less obvious. Orwell was a socialist,which in the land of the free and the brave is always tarred with the same brush as soviet communist{of course}. Orwell grew up in a society of severe class distinction{more pronounced than in America},and despised class distinction. So, like many left leaning folks in the 1930's he went offto Spain to fight in the great conflict between right and left. What began as a coup by Fascists led by Franco turned into 3 years of savage butchery{on ALL sides} that eventually led to 50 yeARS OF FASCIST RULE.Orwell spares no one{even himself,true to form} in this account.The little descriptive moments that enliven this sad account{the sign in a barcelona resturant,please do not insult us by tipping}, the description of various kinds of body lice as lies lies, wet and cold in the trenches are perfect Orwell moments. Of course, Orwell was wounded, and later,incredibly,labeled a memeber of a por-fascist element and had to literally run fo his life.Along with Simone Weil{who had similar expierences,being saved from death by her own awkwardness, and equally disillusioned} and from the royalist side, the great French novelist Geroge Bernanos{he was revolted by the conduct of "religiois" people, and moved to South America} Orwell set the record straight on this war. Often thought of as a macarbe tone poem for WWII, this war had all of the elements of its won unique horrors.{The bombing of civilian populations,the mutilations of so many clerics,children being forced at gunpoint into conscription from both sides}Homage to Catalonia is , I think Orwell's greatest achievment.It destroys myths on both sides,as Orwell tries to find {in himself] the elusivethird way{between capitalism and communsim}. Searing, epochal,magnificent. Highest rating, absolutly essential reading !
Rating:
Summary: brutally honest
Review: George Orwell went to Spain in late 1936, in his role as a journalist, but then, pretty inevitably, put down his pen and spent the next year fighting with the P.O.U.M (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista) Militia against the Fascist forces under Francisco Franco. Homage to Catalonia, written immediately after his return and published in 1938, tells the story of his military service with the POUM, both against the Right and the Left, and, in quick succession, of his initial hopes for the classless society that he thought he had found on first arrival, then of his disappointment with the level of disorganization of the Leftist forces and finally of his disillusionment when pro-Stalinist "allies" began attacking Socialists and Anarchists who refused to toe the Soviet line. Orwell, who by then had nearly been killed when shot through the neck in battle, and his wife were ultimately forced to flee from Spain, to avoid Stalinist security forces, which had labeled him pro-fascist. The one thing, more than any other, that makes Orwell one of the great literary and cultural figures of the 20th Century, is that it was this last fact that truly galled him. Orwell was committed to the idea of revolutionary Socialism. As he says when the security forces attack POUM: I have no particular love for the idealized 'worker' as he appears in the bourgeois Communist's mind, but when I see an actual flesh-and-blood worker in conflict with his natural enemy, the policeman, I do not have to ask myself which side I am on. He was fueled by an animus towards the class system which is almost incomprehensible to us Americans, but which came naturally to young British intellectuals, particularly in the wake of the First World War. Accordingly, he was not unsympathetic to the Soviet decision that they had to take over the Left in Spain; in his revolutionary heart, he could understand that such a maneuver, however brutal might eventually serve the greater cause of the Workers. No, what he could not tolerate was that the perpetrators and their fellow travelers in the Press lied about it. It is the essence of the man that being purged was tolerable, but having his political beliefs portrayed incorrectly was intolerable. Orwell's concern for honest language is easy to discern in 1984 (see Orrin's review) and Animal Farm (see Orrin's review) once you know to look for it, but it is first evident here. He recognized early on that one of the ways in which dictators would attack freedom was to degrade the language and by cheapening the meaning of words, deaden the emotional reaction of the citizenry to events. Prescient in so many ways, Orwell was never more correct than when he made this connection between the integrity of language and the integrity of the men using it. One can only imagine a profile of Bill Clinton as written by Orwell. The Spanish Civil War is second only to the Hitler/Stalin pact as a dividing line between mere Left-Wingers and genuine Communists. It was here that the true nature of the Soviet Union first intruded itself upon the public consciousness to such a degree that its defenders truly had to be considered apologists, not simply naive do-gooders. Orwell, objective and honest as always, wrote only about what he saw, so his portrayal of events is necessarily incomplete and, writing while the conflict was still going on, he was not able to form the really harsh judgments that our historical perspective allows us to make. But it is to his great good credit that he wrote what he did and when he did. Many of his brethren on the Left refused to do so for fear of hurting "the cause". Orwell chose to tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may; for that alone he should be celebrated. GRADE: A
Rating:
Summary: reverberates with Orwell's passion for equality and
Review: A vivid account of Orwell's experience as a militiaman in the Spanish Civil War, "Homage to Catalonia" reverberates with Orwell's passion for equality, justice and humanity. According to Orwell himself, "The Spanish Civil War and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democartic socialism, as I understand it." The events of that chaotic period clearly influenced Orwell enormously and within the pages of "Homage to catalonia" one can find the reasons why: "I had dropped more or less by chance into the only community of any size in Western Europe where political consciousness and disbelief in capitalism were more normal than their opposites. Up here in Aragon one was among tens of thousands of people, mainly though not entirely of working-class origin, all living at the same level and mingling on terms of equality. In theory it was perfect equality, and even in practice it was not far from it. There is a sense in which it would be true to say that one was experiencing a foretaste of Socialism, by which I mean that the prevailing mental atmosphere was that of Socialism. Many of the normal motives of civilized life--snobbishness, money-grubbing, fear of the boss, etc.--had simply ceased to exist. The ordinary class- division of society had disappeared to an extent that is almost unthinkable in the money-tainted air of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no one owned anyone else as his master. One had been in a community where hope was more normal than apathy or cynicism, where the word 'comrade' stood for comradeship and not, as in most countries, for humbug. One had breathed the air of equality. I am well aware that it is now the fashion to deny that Socialism has anything to do with equality. In every country in the world a huge tribe of party-hacks and sleek little professors are busy 'proving' that Socialism means no more than a planned state-capitalism with the grab-motive left intact. But fortunately there also exists a vision of Socialism quite different from this. The thing that attracts ordinary men to Socialism and makes them willing to risk their skins for it, the 'mystique' of Socialism, is the idea of equality; to the vast majority of people Socialism means a classless society, or it means nothing at all."
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