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The Abraham Lincoln Brigade: the Historiography of the American soldiers in the Spanish American War
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Carroll’s story does not end with Spanish Civil War; he follows the veterans through the last half of the twentieth century. Almost five hundred of the veterans fought again in World War II. It is clear that Carroll has an enormous amount of respect for the veterans who continued the fight against fascism. In fact, Carroll dedicated the Good Fight Continues to the twenty four Lincoln Brigade veterans who were killed in combat during World War Two. Carroll does an excellent job highlighting the problems that the “premature fascists” faced after the war in the United States and he does not hide his sympathy for several of these individuals.
===ConclusionBeyond Carroll===One of the sharpest criticisms of Odyssey was made in the collection of essays entitled written by John Earl Haynes an Harvey Klehr <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/159403088X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=159403088X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=8ed06cae78edd741816c6c45c8372b6c In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage]</i>. Two of the essays in the collection accused Carroll of scholarly malpractice for suggesting that the term “premature anti-fascists” was used by the government to classify veterans of the Lincoln Brigade pejoratively. John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr instead argued that the term was adopted by veterans of the Lincoln Brigade as a badge of honor. Carroll fights back in the Lincoln Brigade newsletter stating that Congressional Representative John Coffee in 1945 indicated in a speech that people in Washington had referred to members of the Lincoln Brigade as “premature anit-fascists.” <a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814716601/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0814716601&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=786065cef71742ae630f60c3272fec5c">The Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters From the Abraham Lincoln Brigade</a><img src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=dailyh0c-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0814716601" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />
In addition to Carroll’s <i>Odyssey</i>, the Lincoln Brigade archives have spawned additional books. <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0814716601/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0814716601&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=786065cef71742ae630f60c3272fec5c The Good Fight Continues :World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade]</i> edited by Peter M. Carroll, Micahael Wash and Melvin Small and <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0816173788/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0816173788&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=b4ede868a2a590d4c40fb5749250051f African Americans in the Spanish Civil War :"This Ain't Ethiopia, but it will do."]</i> edited by Danny Duncan Collum contain a number of primary sources from the Lincoln Brigade archives along with a number of interpretative articles. <i>The Good Fight Continues </i> is a collection of letters from Lincoln Brigade veterans during World War II. These letters express a number emotions and feelings. A number of the Brigade members’ were frustrated at being denied combat positions. Still, a number of the veterans did serve in combat and these letters share their experiences. Some of the letters address problems that Brigade members faced in the immediate post-World War II period.
African Americans in the Spanish Civil War talks about explores the stories of the 90 African Americans who served in the Lincoln Brigade. This volume includes first person essays by some of the veterans and an article by Robin D. G. Kelly describing the reasons why several African American men and women fought in Spain. Kelly argues that most of the African American men and women who served were committed Communists who had both an internationalist outlook and a militant race-conscious nationalism. Collum makes it clear that the motivations between white and black veterans differed.
===Conclusion===
The historiography of the Abraham Lincoln has been a mess. Carroll’s The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln is the best attempt to provide a comprehensive and fair account of these veterans lives. Most of the first and second generation accounts were shaped by politics and limited archival sources. The creation of the Lincoln Brigade and Soviet Spanish Civil War archives hopefully can provide the promise of more exciting scholarship on this intriguing chapter of American history.
