Foreign involvement in the Spanish Civil War Contingent. While not supported officially, many American volunteers such as the Abraham Lincoln Brigade fought for the Republicans. 'Spain' became the cause célèbre for the left-leaning intelligentsia across the Western world, and many prominent artists and writers entered the Republic's service. As well, it attracted a large number of foreign left-wing working class men, for whom the war offered not only idealistic adventure but also an escape from post-Depression unemployment. Among the more famous foreigners participating on the Republic's side was George Orwell, who went on to write about his experiences in "Homage to Catalonia". Orwell's novel "Animal Farm" was
The Civil War series considerable pictorial archive the publisher had accumulated for the main series, including their own commissioned maps. Nor has the "Illustrated History" remained the only stand-alone Civil War title by Time-Life; despite the fact that the publisher had largely withdrawn from book publication in 2003, subsequent iterations of the company did release additional Civil War book titles – aside from re-issuing the "Illustrated History" title in 2011 () – , mostly on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the war, being in essence largely rehashings of the considerable editorial effort they had undertaken for the main series thirty years earlier.