Episode 72 with Foster Chamberlin

Political violence during Spain’s Second Republic period (1931-1936) was one of the primary causes of the Spanish Civil War. What was the role of Spain’s largest militarized police force, the Civil Guard, in this violence? In this episode, Historias host Bretton Rodriguez interviews Historias host Foster Chamberlin about his new book Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture, and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War to find out. They explore the origins of the organizational culture of the Civil Guard going back to the mid-19th century, the relations between civil guards and local townspeople, incidents of political violence involving the Civil Guard during the Second Republic, and the role of the Asturias rebellion of 1934 in shifting civil guards’ attitudes towards the public.

The Episode

The Guest

Foster Chamberlin is an assistant teaching professor at Northern Arizona University, where he teaches courses in European and world history. He holds a doctorate in modern European history with a specialization in Spain from the University of California, San Diego (2017). Has has previously taught Boğaziçi and Bilkent universities in Turkey. His research concerns how the cultures of military institutions in Europe helped to influence the course of the continent’s violent conflicts from 1914–1945 and contributed to the fall of interwar democratic regimes. His book, Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War (Louisiana State University Press, 2025), considers how the organizational culture of Spain’s gendarmerie, the Civil Guard, contributed to the political violence of the country’s Second Republic period. He has also published in Ayer, War & Society, European History Quarterly and Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies, and he has received fellowships from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, The Fulbright Foundation and the HISPANEX program. He is also the founder and co-host of Historias!

Suggested Readings

• Álvarez Tardío, Manuel and Fernando del Rey Reguillo (eds.).  The Spanish Second Republic Revisited: From Democratic Hopes to Civil War (1931-1936).  Eastbourne: Sussex Academic Press, 2012.
• Baumeister, Martin. “Castilblanco or the Limits of Democracy: Rural Protest in Spain from Restoration Monarchy to the Early Second Republic.” Translated by Jane Rafferty. Contemporary European History 7, no. 1 (Mar., 1998): 1–19.
• Blaney, Jr., Gerald, ed.  Policing Interwar Europe: Continuity, Change and Crisis, 1918-40.  New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007.
• Gil Andrés, Carlos. La República en la plaza: los sucesos de Arnedo de 1932. Logroño: Gobierno de la Rioja/Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, 2002.
• González Calleja, Eduardo. Cifras cruentas: Las víctimas mortales de la violencia sociopolítica en la Segunda República (1931–1936). Granada: Editorial Comares, 2015.
• ———. En nombre de la autoridad. La defensa del orden público durante la Segunda República Española (1931–1936). Granada: Editorial Comares, 2014.
• Hull, Isabel V. Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005.
• Kerry, Matthew. Unite Proletarian Brothers!: Radicalism and Revolution in the Spanish Second Republic. London: University of London Press, 2020.
• López Corral, Miguel. La Guardia Civil. Claves históricas para entender a la Benemérita y a sus hombres (1844–1975). Madrid: La Esfera de los Libros, 2011.
• Shubert, Adrian. The Road to Revolution Spain: The Coal Miners of Asturias, 1860–1934. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987.