Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality

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Henry Holt and Company, Dec 24, 2013 - History - 656 pages

"A work of stunning density and penetrating analysis . . . Lost Battalions deploys a narrative symmetry of gratifying complexity."—David Levering Lewis, The Nation

During the bloodiest days of World War I, no soldiers served more valiantly than the African American troops of the 369th Infantry—the fabled Harlem Hellfighters—and the legendary 77th "lost battalion" composed of New York City immigrants. Though these men had lived up to their side of the bargain as loyal American soldiers, the country to which they returned solidified laws and patterns of social behavior that had stigmatized them as second-class citizens.

Richard Slotkin takes the pulse of a nation struggling with social inequality during a decisive historical moment, juxtaposing social commentary with battle scenes that display the bravery and solidarity of these men. Enduring grueling maneuvers, and the loss of so many of their brethren, the soldiers in the lost battalions were forever bound by their wartime experience.

Both a riveting combat narrative and a brilliant social history, Lost Battalions delivers a richly detailed account of the fierce fight for equality in the shadow of a foreign war.

 

Contents

List of Illustrations and Maps xiii
1
The Origin of the Harlem
35
The 15th New York Goes to War
112
Entering the World
153
Political and Racial Reaction
213
The Allied Offensive Begins
241
The Hell Fighters
275
Whittleseys Command at Charlevaux
305
Race Riots Red Scares
428
Charles Whittlesey and Henry Johnson
462
Public Memory
489
The New Deal and the Renewal of American Nationalism
522
The Myth of the Good War
551
Notes
563
Selected Bibliography
599
Acknowledgments
617

The Lost Battalion as Public Myth
364
The Hell Fighters and
395

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About the author (2013)

Richard Slotkin is the Olin Professor and the former director of American Studies at Wesleyan University. His previous books include Abe: A Novel of the Young Lincoln, National Book Award Finalist Gunfighter Nation, and Regeneration Through Violence, also a National Book Award Finalist and winner of the Albert J. Beveridge Prize. He lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

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