Spanish civil war book reveals hidden history of female journalists

‘Restless women who wanted to break with convention]: Gerda Taro (second left) with militants in Córdoba during the Spanish civil war. Photograph: Robert Capa. International Center of Photography (ICP), New York.

A new book has shed light on the little-known history of nearly 200 female journalists from 29 countries who covered the Spanish civil war.

While Ernest Hemingway and Arthur Koestler were among writers who made their names reporting on the war, Bernardo Díaz Nosty’s 900-page Periodistas extranjeras en la Guerra Civil (Foreign Female Journalists in the Civil War) uncovers the story of 183 women whose writing gave a new slant on the 1936-39 conflict, distinct from the masculine and bellicose tales of life on the frontline.