An account of the story of the Spanish socialist movement (Party and trade union) during the crucial years of the Civil War. These vital years determined the long-term future of Spain itself, and the Spanish socialist party (PSOE) was the axis of the Republican war effort.

The PSOE's disintegration was a function of that of the Republic itself; but the reverse was no less true. The book investigates the responses of organised socialism to the complex issues raised by the conflict, as it charts the PSOE's devastating experience of political power and desperate crisis in a war it could not win.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. The Struggle for Control of the Psoe's National Organisation 1934-1936: 1. Internal divisions in the Spanish socialist movement 1934-1936
2. The break-up of socialist unity and the coming of the civil war
Part II. The Socialist Left in Power 1936-1937: 3. The appointment of the Largo Caballero government
4. Political realignments inside the socialist movement
5. The socialist left: crisis and collapse
Part III. The Battle in the Party 1937-1938: 6. Ramon Lamoneda confronts the PSOE left
7. The purge of the party left and the growing crisis in the reformist camp
8. The atomisation of reformist socialism
Part IV. The Dispute in the UGT: 9. The battle for control of the union and the eclipse of the socialist left 1937-1938
10. The caballerista old guard: entrenchment and resurgence
Part V. Socialist - Communist Rupture: 11. The Casado cuop and the end of the war
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index.