Changes

Arthur Landis’s mammoth book, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001QYPMBG/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001QYPMBG&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=c731cc1b4eb06c69a57656bc514df4d The Abraham Lincoln Brigade]</i> is a comprehensive history of the American contingent in Spain. Robert F. Lucid both criticized and lauded Landis’s book by writing, “[t]hirty years after the war, Landis composes with a style and an enthusiasm which are ingenuous in their partisanship. It is impossible for anyone who is knowledgeable about the Spanish Civil War to be removed or unbiased…So one is likely to excuse Landis’ high regard for his comrades-in-arms although he will wish as I did, that the author had tempered his gusto.”<ref> Lucid, Robert, “In Our Time: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Historians,” <i>American Quarterly</i>, vol. 22, no. 1, 1970, p. 116.</ref> Stanley Payne argued that while Landis’ work was reliable when he discussed the military affairs of the Lincoln Brigade, but he found that Landis was completely unreliable whenever he talked about politics.<ref>Payne, Stanley, “Review of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade,” <i>The American Historical Review</i>, vol 73, no. 1, 1967, p. 253-254.</ref> In addition to completely misunderstanding Spanish politics, Landis attempted to dismiss the idea that the Lincoln veterans were predominantly Communist. Payne assails Landis for failing to discuss the role played by the Soviet Communist party in the development of Spanish Communism.

Unlike Landis, Albert Pargo focuses on the role Jews played in the International Brigade. Pargo argued in his article “Jews in the International Brigade” that Jews viewed the Civil War in Spain as the “first organized resistance to European fascism” and anti-Semitism. He emphasized the Jewish character of not only the American contingent, but a number of the international volunteers. Pargo stated that approximately 900 to 1100 of the 2800 American volunteers were Jews. Pargo criticized Landis’s scholarly history of the Spanish Civil War because he completely ignored the Jewish participation in the Lincoln Bridgade. Pargo argued that the level of Jewish consciousness within the left was “minimal” and it did not occur to Landis that a number of American Jews were in Europe fighting anti-Semitism. Not surprisingly, Jews occupied important positions in the American veterans. Both the highest ranking and last commander of the Lincoln Battalions were Jews. More material was available for Pargo in his analysis than was available to Landis back in 1967.<ref> Pargo, Albert, “Jews in the International Brigades”, <i>Jewish Currents Reprint</i>, February-March 1979, p. 3-19.</ref>