"A magnificent, revelatory history of a city of slums
and a proletariat of hope. The best book that I've read in the last
decade."
—Mike Davis, author of City of Quartz, Planet of Slums, and
Buda's Wagon
Between 1898 and 1937, competing interests from the national
government, the regional industrialists, and the working class, fought for
control of Barcelona. The social realities of Barcelona—as Spain's economic,
cultural, social, and political capital—provided a perfect backdrop for battle
over the urban future. Chris Ealham explores these complex and often violent
relationships, utilizing an innovative blend of history, urbanism, sociology,
and cultural studies. No other work digs this deep into the composition of an
urban working class movement—and certainly not with such a sympathetic eye for
the aspirations of its anarchist denizens.
