Distributed for University of Wales Press
Paradise in Hell
Alcohol and Drugs in the Spanish Civil War
A comprehensive analysis of the role played by drugs (including alcohol) in cultural, political, economic, and social terms in modern and contemporary wars.
Paradise in Hell studies the role played by alcohol, morphine, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines in the Spanish Civil War. The book analyzes the moral discussions that were produced around these substances, the policies implemented by civil and military authorities, the consumption by combatants and civilians, and the role they played in the war effort. From these four perspectives, it explores the everyday experiences of soldiers and civilians, the physical, psychological, and emotional effects of war, the rituals of camaraderie, and the impact that the absence of these substances had on the morale of soldiers and civilians. The book also gives special attention to the role these substances played in the development of respectable, tough, and cocky masculinities, in the construction of a sense of national community and everyday nationalism, and in the dehumanization of the enemy in a way that legitimized violence.
Paradise in Hell studies the role played by alcohol, morphine, cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamines in the Spanish Civil War. The book analyzes the moral discussions that were produced around these substances, the policies implemented by civil and military authorities, the consumption by combatants and civilians, and the role they played in the war effort. From these four perspectives, it explores the everyday experiences of soldiers and civilians, the physical, psychological, and emotional effects of war, the rituals of camaraderie, and the impact that the absence of these substances had on the morale of soldiers and civilians. The book also gives special attention to the role these substances played in the development of respectable, tough, and cocky masculinities, in the construction of a sense of national community and everyday nationalism, and in the dehumanization of the enemy in a way that legitimized violence.
280 pages | 5.43 x 8.5 | © 2024
Iberian and Latin American Studies
History: European History, Military History
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part One: Bullets and Alcohol
1. Controversies, paradoxes and compromises
2. The bar front: respectable masculinity on the home front
3. ‘Drinks of death’: respectable masculinity at the front
4. ‘Raging drunk’: Republican dehumanisation of the enemy
5. ‘Who are the real drunkards?’: Insurgent dehumanisation of the enemy
6. ‘Drunk on blood and alcohol’: ethylic monsters and violence
7. ‘Drinking reveals the good warrior’: everyday nationalism, tough and cocky masculinity
8. Alcohol on the front line
9. The ‘malignant’ consequences of alcohol: discipline, psychosis and alcoholism
Part Two: Artificial Paradise
10. Drugs and modern war: a global context
11. The unstoppable path towards ‘degeneration’
12. The toxic enemy: anti-drug discourses during the Spanish Civil War
13. ‘Morfo’ and ‘coco’ in the Spanish Civil War
14. The pharmaceutical industry and the war effort
15. The black market and the war on drugs
16. From kif smoke to the amphetamine myth
17. The psychoactive legacies of war
Conclusions
References
Introduction
Part One: Bullets and Alcohol
1. Controversies, paradoxes and compromises
2. The bar front: respectable masculinity on the home front
3. ‘Drinks of death’: respectable masculinity at the front
4. ‘Raging drunk’: Republican dehumanisation of the enemy
5. ‘Who are the real drunkards?’: Insurgent dehumanisation of the enemy
6. ‘Drunk on blood and alcohol’: ethylic monsters and violence
7. ‘Drinking reveals the good warrior’: everyday nationalism, tough and cocky masculinity
8. Alcohol on the front line
9. The ‘malignant’ consequences of alcohol: discipline, psychosis and alcoholism
Part Two: Artificial Paradise
10. Drugs and modern war: a global context
11. The unstoppable path towards ‘degeneration’
12. The toxic enemy: anti-drug discourses during the Spanish Civil War
13. ‘Morfo’ and ‘coco’ in the Spanish Civil War
14. The pharmaceutical industry and the war effort
15. The black market and the war on drugs
16. From kif smoke to the amphetamine myth
17. The psychoactive legacies of war
Conclusions
References