The pain in Spain: Writing Spanish Civil War history in Aotearoa

In this podcast, Mark Derby talks about his recent book Frontline Surgeon: New Zealand Medical Pioneer Douglas Jolly, published by Massey University Press/University of Nebraska Press. Frontline Surgeon and related publications record New Zealand’s response to the Spanish Civil War, and its present-day significance.

Central Otago-born doctor, Doug Jolly, pioneered mobile emergency surgery during the Spanish Civil War. His surgical manual, based on battlefield experiences close to the front line, was widely used in later conflicts. Mark makes a case for Dr Jolly to be recognised as one of the most influential medical figures of the 20th century.

Frontline Surgeon is part of a long-running, unplanned, and ongoing project to record New Zealand's response to the Spanish Civil War and its present-day significance. The project began in 2006 when Mark edited a book of seminar papers — Kiwi Compañeros: New Zealand and the Spanish Civil War (ed. Mark Derby, Canterbury University Press, 2009.) This appeared in a Spanish translation as Compañeros Kiwis — Nueva Zealanda y la Guerra Civil Espanola (University of Castilla- La Mancha, 2011).

Mark later discovered a cache of letters by Christchurch nurse Dorothy Morris in the Alexander Turnbull Library. This resulted in a full-length biography, Petals and Bullets: Dorothy Morris, New Zealand Nurse in the Spanish Civil War (Potton and Burton Publishing / Leeds University Press, 2015.)

Mark has also written about this history for the Virtual Museum of the Spanish Civil War, a Te Ara-like online resource. The British publisher Bloomsbury has been recently contracted to publish a book based on the Virtual Museum’s content.

In this talk, Mark speaks about these inter-related projects, and how they were produced.

Virtual Museum of the Spanish Civil War

The talk was recorded live at the National Library of New Zealand on 7 August 2024, as part of the Public History Talks series, a collaboration between the Alexander Turnbull Library and Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

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