Bokprosjektet
70 years after the end of the Spanish civil war, the first book about Norway and the war is published. In October 2009 the book «Tusen dager. Norge og den spanske borgerkrigen» (“A thousand days. Norway and the Spanish civil war”) will be released by a major Norwegian publisher, Gyldendal.
The authors have a rather different background.
Jo Stein Moen (37) is formerly vice president in the Labout Youth League (AUF), and has worked as a political adviser to the Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland and as a political adviser for the Labour party in Parliament. He has been project coordinator in the Programme for International Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (PICCR) at the Fafo institute for Applied Social Science in Oslo. He was part of the senior political staff of the Ministry of Enviroment for two years, working as a political adviser for the Labour government 2000-2001. Since then he has been a communications adviser in the PR sector. He works and lives in Trondheim.
Rolf Sæther (72) is a lawyer from Oslo. He was Managing Director in The Norwegian Shipowners’ Association, and has held the position as Chairman and Board Member in a number of companies in finance, oil and shipping. He is an avid bookcollector and his collection of Spanish Civil War books is probably one of the larger private ones in Northern Europe.
The book is a comprehensive study of the impact of the Spanish Civil War on Norway, as well as a story of the experiences of a number of Norwegian individuals in Spain during the war.
The authors have drawn upon material from numerous archives abroad, included the Marx Memorial Library in London (picture above), the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives in New York City, the Internationa Insititute of Social History in Amsterdam and several Spanish archives.
They have received funding from the foundation Fritt Ord.
For questions to the authors on the book or Norway and the Spanish civil war, please send us a message using the contact form.