Synopses & Reviews
Written with passion and intelligence, the letters of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in World War II express the raw idealism of anti-fascist soldiers who experienced the war in boot camps, cockpits, and foxholes, but never lost sight of the great global issues at stake.
When the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, only one group of American soldiers had already confronted the fascist enemy on the battlefield: the U.S. veterans of the Lincoln Brigade, a volunteer army of about 2,800 men and women who had enlisted to defend the Spanish Republic from military rebels during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). They fought on the losing side.
After Pearl Harbor, Lincoln Brigade veterans enthusiastically joined the U.S. Army, welcoming this second chance to fight against fascism. However, the Lincoln recruits soon encountered suspicious military leaders who questioned their patriotism and denied them promotions and overseas assignments, foreshadowing the political persecution of the postwar Red Scare. African American veterans who fought in fully integrated units in Spain, faced second-class treatment in America's Jim Crow army. Nevertheless, the Lincolns served with distinction in every theater of the war and won a disproportionate number of medals for courage, dedication, and sacrifice.
The 154 letters in this volume, selected from thousands held in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives at NYUs Tamiment Library, provide a new and unique perspective on aspects of World War II.
Review
&“Of recent important works on the history of Turkey, this one should rank among the best in recounting the evolution of the modern state from 1789 to the present....The book is replete with important detail, well written in the translated form, and quite suitable to substitute for other works on the subject. . . . Essential.”
-Choice,
Synopsis
2007 Choice Outstanding Academic TitleIn October 2005, the European Union officially began accession negotiations with Ankara, making Turkey the first predominantly Muslim country to become a candidate for membership. Turkey is an historic crossroads, poised between Europe and Asia, Islam and Christianity, and is the fulcrum upon which great civilizations have turned.
In this authoritative history, Sina Aksin, one of Turkeys most prominent historians, traces the roots of the Turkish Republic to the Ottoman Empire. Turkey, from Empire to Revolutionary Republic treats the period before, during, and after World War I, encompassing the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise of Atatürk. The book closes with three chapters on the 1980s, the 1990s, and the new millennium, concluding with the question of EU accession, and will attract particular attention for the sophisticated Turkish view it provides of the contemporary period.
Unlike most histories of modern Turkey available to Western readers, this clear and compelling work offers the unique perspective of a native Turk. This sweeping narrative will be essential reading as Turkey takes its place on the world stage.
About the Author
Peter N. Carroll is Chair of the Board of Governors of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives. He is the author or editor of fifteen books, including
The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War and
The Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (NYU Press, 2006), co-edited with Michael Nash and Melvin Small.
Michael Nash is the director of New York University's Tamiment Library, a special collection documenting the history of labor and radical politics that administers the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.
Melvin Small is Distinguished Professor of History at Wayne State University and chair of the universitys Abraham Lincoln Brigade Scholarship Fund. His most recent book is At the Water's Edge: American Politics and the Vietnam War.