Hugh Thomas, 85; historian wrote ‘Spanish Civil War’

Hugh Thomas, a historian who wrote sweeping accounts of rebellion, conquest and struggle, particularly about parts of the world touched by the Spanish empire, and who was an adviser to British prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War, died May 6 in London. He was 85.

His death was first reported in British press accounts. His family said he had a stroke.

Thomas wrote two novels before gaining acclaim as a historian in 1961 with "The Spanish Civil War." Memories were still fresh about the war, which lasted from 1936 to 1939, and Thomas's narrative flair and political analysis gave his book the quality of a modernday epic.

"The Spanish Civil War exceeded in ferocity most wars between nations," Thomas wrote. "It was, for the Western World at least, a most passionate war."

In popular memory, the war seemed to be a dramatic enactment of a clear moral choice between a Marxist-inspired democratic left and the military might of a repressive fascist-aligned regime. Thomas realized in his writing that perception was, at best, incomplete.

"The Spanish War," he wrote, "appeared as a 'just war,' as civil wars do to intellectuals, since they lack the apparent vulgarity of national conflicts . . . It looked, at least at first, when all the parties of the Left seemed to be cooperating, as the great moment of hope for an entire generation."

In the end, the left-leaning groups were defeated by the nationalist forces of Gen. Francisco Franco, who went on to rule Spain as an autocrat for almost 40 years.