Mac-Pap: Memoir of a Canadian in the Spanish Civil War
Book Details
Author(s)Ronald Liversedge
PublisherNew Star Books
ISBN / ASIN1554200717
ISBN-139781554200719
AvailabilityUsually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank3,846,718
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Born in the UK in 1899, veteran of the Great War where he was wounded twice. A Canadian immigrant, by 1927, Ronald Liversedge was already in his late thirties when he signed up to fight for the Spanish Republic.
 Fired by a life long passion for social justice, and outraged by the fascist attack on the Spanish people, Liversedge could hardly wait for the call from the International Brigades, which finally came on May Day 1937. His journey to the East Coast, towards the ship that would take his fellow fighters to Spain, is a journey through late depression North America, as he encounters a steady stream of vivid characters. Â
After surviving an Italian torpedo attack on the freighter attempting to spirit him into Spain, Liversedge and his fellow Canadian fighters arrive in Albacete, where they had been assigned by the International Brigades. Â Liversedge witnessed the action at Albalate, Huesca, Fuentes de Ebro, Benicassim, Cuenca, Valencia and, at the end, the exodus from Barcelona. He gives us a glimpse of the fascinating panoply of characters he encounters, including his American and German comrades in arms in the Lincoln and Thaelmann brigades. Â
Mac Pap remains, even after all these years, a riveting, soldier's eye account of life and death at the front, of men undergoing great hardship and risking their lives, driven by belief in a better life that was in reach. Â
This memoir was first written in the mid 1960s when Liversedge retired after a lifetime as a labourer, organizer, writer and editor in [Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. Its publication at the time was stymied by murky CP internal politics.  However, the manuscript was consulted by Victor Hoar for his pioneering book about Canadians' participation in the Spanish civil war, The Mackenzie Papineau Battalion.  Another effort  to publish Liversedge's memoir in the early 1970s, when interest in left and working class history was at a high pitch, also foundered. Â
There the story might have died, except for the fact that Liversedge had made a few copies of his manuscript, and gave one to a then distracted young student of the left. Many years later that student, David Yorke, edited Liversedge's manuscript, added extensive background annotations, Â and worked with Ronald's family and the Mackenzie Papineau Veteran's Association, to clear the way to its publication.
 After almost half a century, Ronald Liversedge's illuminating account of his career as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War appears for the first time.
 Fired by a life long passion for social justice, and outraged by the fascist attack on the Spanish people, Liversedge could hardly wait for the call from the International Brigades, which finally came on May Day 1937. His journey to the East Coast, towards the ship that would take his fellow fighters to Spain, is a journey through late depression North America, as he encounters a steady stream of vivid characters. Â
After surviving an Italian torpedo attack on the freighter attempting to spirit him into Spain, Liversedge and his fellow Canadian fighters arrive in Albacete, where they had been assigned by the International Brigades. Â Liversedge witnessed the action at Albalate, Huesca, Fuentes de Ebro, Benicassim, Cuenca, Valencia and, at the end, the exodus from Barcelona. He gives us a glimpse of the fascinating panoply of characters he encounters, including his American and German comrades in arms in the Lincoln and Thaelmann brigades. Â
Mac Pap remains, even after all these years, a riveting, soldier's eye account of life and death at the front, of men undergoing great hardship and risking their lives, driven by belief in a better life that was in reach. Â
This memoir was first written in the mid 1960s when Liversedge retired after a lifetime as a labourer, organizer, writer and editor in [Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. Its publication at the time was stymied by murky CP internal politics.  However, the manuscript was consulted by Victor Hoar for his pioneering book about Canadians' participation in the Spanish civil war, The Mackenzie Papineau Battalion.  Another effort  to publish Liversedge's memoir in the early 1970s, when interest in left and working class history was at a high pitch, also foundered. Â
There the story might have died, except for the fact that Liversedge had made a few copies of his manuscript, and gave one to a then distracted young student of the left. Many years later that student, David Yorke, edited Liversedge's manuscript, added extensive background annotations, Â and worked with Ronald's family and the Mackenzie Papineau Veteran's Association, to clear the way to its publication.
 After almost half a century, Ronald Liversedge's illuminating account of his career as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War appears for the first time.
