Paradise in Hell

Alcohol and Drugs in the Spanish Civil War

By (author) Jorge Marco

Publication date:

15 March 2024

Length of book:

280 pages

Publisher

University of Wales Press

Dimensions:

216x138mm

ISBN-13: 9781837721115

BOOK DESCRIPTION
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Paradise in Hell studies the role played by alcohol, morphine, cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines in the Spanish Civil War. The book analyses the moral discourses 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, Paradises in Hell 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 dehumanisation of the enemy in a way that legitimised violence.

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