Through oral and written narratives, this book examines the interaction between women and the war in Spain, their motivation, the distinctive form of their involvement, and the effect of the war on their individual lives. These themes are related to wider issues, such as the nature of memory and the role of women within the public sphere. Throughout the study the author distils the most recent theoretical work in the fields of oral history, psychoanalytic methodology for historians, and the anthropological, historical and cultural studies on memory and memorialization.