This is a local study of the origins of the Spanish Civil War that explores, from the grass roots perspective of ordinary men and women, the polarization of Spanish society that was the prerequisite for civil war. Pamela Radcliff's approach to the War is unique, since, at the core, her book focuses on the relationship between organized political forces and "the masses", and on how ordinary men and women participated in politics and in turn how political struggles translated into the concrete concerns of everyday life.