The Spanish War as Dress Rehearsal for Paul Robeson’s Political Song

Abstract

During the time Paul Robeson lived in Britain he became a global star: a singer, film and stage actor, and in due course a political activist. It is to this time that scholars attribute his political awakening, which entailed, a broadening of his outlook to encompass an internationalist perspective. The Spanish Civil War galvanized the singer to action. His involvement in the war, which included regular appearances at rallies in Britain and singing to the troops in Spain in early 1938, was, by the singer’s own estimation, a turning point in his life, and a catalyst for the singer’s turn to activism. The claim I make is that Robeson’s internationalist politics was not only expressed in song but emerged through it. I identify several strands to Robeson’s musical internationalism, showing how the field of war provided a platform for the song strands to coalesce into a meaningful statement.