西班牙内战是E. P. 汤普森政治视域中不可或缺的一部分。少年汤普森的国际主义意识因“西班牙的事业”而萌发，自此之后，西班牙内战基本被这位社会主义者纳入反法西斯斗争的序列中。其论述虽偶有瑕疵，但大体坚持结构性与能动性相结合的历史学径路。经由对国际纵队英烈的纪念，英国共产党成员汤普森着力动员了地方的左翼运动；通过援引西班牙人民的抗争精神，80年代的汤普森团结西班牙同志，助推了欧洲核裁军运动。汤普森未能言明西班牙内战中人民阵线失利的内因与教训，他更熟稔这场战争同“二战”的联系，聚焦宏大的时代背景、社会结构中福克斯、考德威尔等英国志愿者的抉择。承继他们的精神遗产的汤普森昭示人的能动性，来者亦会在此基础上不断创造自己的历史。

The Spanish Civil War was an indispensable part of E. P. Thompson' s political vision. Teen Thompson's internationalist consciousness sprouted due to 'the cause of Spain'. Since then, the Spanish Civil War had been basically included in this socialist's sequence of anti-fascist struggles. Although his discussion was occasionally flawed, he generally adhered to the historical path of combining structure and agency. Through the commemoration of the martyrs in the International Brigade, Thompson, a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, mobilized local left-wing movements. Via citing the spirit of struggle in Spain, Thompson united with his Spanish comrades, promoting the European Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980s. Thompson failed to explain the internal reasons and lessons of the failure of People's Front in the Spanish Civil War. He was more familiar with the connection between this war and World War II, focusing on the choices of British volunteers such as Fox and Caldwell in the grand background of the times and the social structure. Thompson, who inherited their spiritual heritage, illustrated people's agency, and the comers would continue to create their own history on this basis.