ABSTRACT
As the source of one of the broadest movements of solidarity in history, the Spanish Civil War represents an ideal laboratory for the culture-oriented and increasingly transnational historiography that has developed since the turn of the century. This chapter examines the discourse and actions of the activists who supported – or refused to support – the Spanish Republic as combatants, relief workers or intellectuals, focusing on their conceptions of anti-fascism. Thus, it tries to move beyond existing international histories of the war to gauge the extent to which a transnational imagined community built on this notion operated throughout this period, its relations to parallel movements in various regions and its changing contours. While the often invoked Anti-fascist International never achieved actual unity, it served as an effective bond between disparate actors and projects and had a considerable performative force in sustaining Republican resistance throughout the conflict.
