This unique transnational history explores the extraordinary lives of left-wing volunteers who fought in not just one, but multiple conflicts across the globe during the mid-twentieth century. Utilising previously unpublished archival material, Heiberg, Acciai and Bjerström follow these individual soldiers through military conflicts that were, in most cases, geographically centred on individual countries but nonetheless evinced a crucial transnational dimension. From the Spanish Civil war of 1936 to the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1979, the authors marshall these diverse case studies to create a conceptual framework through which to better understand the networks and recruitment patterns of transnational volunteering. They argue that the Spanish Civil War created a model for this transnational left-wing military volunteering and that this experience shaped the global left responses to a range of conflicts throughout the twentieth century.

‘Armed Internationalists reconstructs the trajectories of largely unknown professional revolutionaries, creating a rich and insightful history that links the conflicts in Spain, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Nicaragua.’

Nir Arielli - Professor of International History, University of Leeds

‘The jewels in this ambitious book are its rich transnational case studies. They open up the big processes of change across the twentieth-century world, revealing how at their crux lay the war of 1936-39 in Spain.’

Helen Graham - Emeritus Professor of Contemporary European History, Royal Holloway, University of London

‘This is an original and well-structured history of transnational volunteering in the twentieth century, combining the analysis of macro-structural factors with careful micro-analysis of individual trajectories. Moreover, far from the usual explanations that emphasize the role of ideology and idealism, transnational fighters appear in this book as complex actors who make choices, negotiate their identities and engage in foreign wars motivated by a variety of factors. Transnational war experiences transcend borders and oceans and extend from the interwar period to the Cold War. An enjoyable read for anyone interested in understanding war from a global perspective.’

Xosé M. Núñez Seixas - Professor of Modern & Contemporary History, University of Santiago de Compostela