War Is Beautiful: An American Ambulance Driver in the Spanish Civil War
Elegant prose, brutal description, and a  wry sense of humor characterize this journal by  a poet and aspiring fiction writer during his  months as a Spanish civil war volunteer in the  Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Although a part of  history largely ignored in favor of World War  II, the Spanish civil war was a testing ground  for German, Italian, and Russian political and  territorial ambitions, as well as a passionate  cause for idealists, Communists, and  anti-Fascists. Neugass records his observations  with prescience and an eye to posterity. After  returning from Spain, he sought to have his  journal published but failed to do so before his untimely death in 1949. The typescript, only  recently found, has been edited and annotated by two board members of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade  comrades and add notes that put his remarks in  context. Although Neugass served for only about  five months in 1937–38, he saw the fall of the  Spanish Republic to the better-equipped Fascist  forces under General Franco. This valuable  addition to Spanish civil war history also  wartime emotions—the boredom, excitement, fear,  pain, and loss. Published in time for the 70th  anniversary of the Great Retreats of the  Republican forces, this work is highly  recommended for academic libraries and libraries with Spanish civil war collections. [See "LJ9/1/08.—Ed.]—Maria C. Bagshaw, Knowledge  & Information Resources, Ecolab, Inc., St.  Paul, MN