Len Crome videos

The 2023 Len Crome Memorial Conference, which took place on 11 November 2023, is now available to watch online.

The conversation between leading historians on the Spanish Civil War Helen Graham and Paul Preston, with Richard Baxell in the chair, charts the long roots of the Spanish Civil War.

Helen, Paul and Richard trace the conflict's origins back to the First World War – not only with attempts to wipe out the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 but also to double down on any socially levelling reform inside the developed industrial heartlands of Europe, including Britain.

Paul Preston is one of the world’s foremost historians of the causes, course and consequences of the Spanish Civil War. He is the IBMT’s Founding Chair.

Helen Graham is Emeritus Professor of modern European history at Royal Holloway University of London and is the author of ‘Interrogating Francoism' and ‘The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction’. She is also an IBMT Patron.

Richard Baxell is the author of 'Forged in Spain'. He is a research fellow at the LSE and the IBMT's Historical Consultant.

The video also features Peter Crome, who discusses his father’s life and legacy.

To watch the previous Len Crome Memorial Conferences online, go to the IBMTNews Len Crome playlist on YouTube.

Len Crome Memorial Conference, Manchester, 2nd March 2013. 

Unfortunately Paul Preston was ill and was unable to attend the conference. Jim Jump, secretary of the IBMT, read Professor Preston's paper. The paper noted that while Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' year on year outsells any other text on the Spanish Civil War, it is nevertheless only a partial and localised view of the war and misleading as a description of the reasons for the Spanish Republic's defeat. Preston's paper concluded by saying that Orwell's memoir "had given much succour to those who wished to claim, whether from the far left or the far right, that the defeat of the Spanish Republic was somehow more the responsibility of Stalin than of Franco, Hitler, Mussolini or Neville Chamberlain". He ended his lecture by quoting Orwell: "...curiously enough the whole experience has left me with not less but more belief in the decency of human beings."

'Spanish Women in the 1930s'

Paul Preston on 'Spanish Women in the 1930s', he explained "how the Spanish Republic had given much to women and Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War took away much more." He mentions his book 'The Doves of War' Four women in the SCW'.

Recorded in Manchester, England, at the 2016 IBMT Len Crome Memorial Lecture. More information about the Len Crome Memorial Lectures and the IBMT at www.international-brigades.org.uk