ABSTRACT
The revolution that accompanied the outbreak of the Spanish civil war was one of few occasions in world history when a conscious attempt to change the fundamental relations of a society has been undertaken by masses of people. Students of Spanish anarchism are indebted to the activists who, having survived the war and escaped Francoist repression, wrote about their experiences in memoirs or historical works. The extraordinary efforts of Abel Paz and, in particular, Jose Peirats, to document the movement have provided the building blocks for all subsequent endeavour. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a more general account of the libertarian movement's radical currents than has been offered hitherto, and explains the complex affinities that linked their different manifestations. Prior to the civil war, the libertarian movement in Spain had witnessed a boom in publications dedicated to outlining the post-revolutionary society.
