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The Abraham Lincoln Brigade: the Historiography of the American soldiers in the Spanish American War
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===The Third Generation===
Peter Carroll’s books <i>The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade</i>, <i>The Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade </i> and Danny Duncan Collum’s <i>African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: “This Ain’t Ethiopia, But It’ll Do” </i> represent what Carroll referred to as the third generation of books on the Lincoln Brigade. Unlike the previous generations of books, these works are utilizing the Lincoln Brigade and Soviet Spanish Civil War archives.
Carroll’s The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is an attempt to provide an up to date and comprehensive history of the members of the Lincoln Brigade both before, during and after the Spanish Civil War. Carroll states that “[f]or forty years, from the time the first American volunteers had journeyed to Spain in December 1936, they had stood outside the mainstream of society.” It is clear from Carroll’s work that these men and women stood outside of mainstream of society even before they journeyed to Spain.
In addition to clarifying the actual political affiliation of the veterans, Carroll attacks a number of important myths surrounding the Lincoln Brigade. Not surprisingly, a number of questionable stories had circulated about the Lincoln Brigade. Some of these stories were told by members of the brigade in their first narratives or in testimony before legal bodies. After the war, several veterans became anti-Communists and circulated stories about the Party. Some of these stories were true and others exaggerations. Additionally, Carroll was extremely critical of a number of stories circulated by deserters. At times, he essentially argues that a number stories told by deserters were fabricated in order to justify their failure to continue fighting in Spain.
Carroll highlights some of the statements by Abraham Sobel and Alvin Halpern made to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. At the hearing, Sobel and Halpern claimed that the Americans were virtual prisoners. While the veterans denied those accusations back in 1938, Carroll argues that their statements were an attempt to cover up their desertion of their fellow volunteers. While one American soldier, Paul White, was executed for desertion after the Battle of Belchite., executions by the Popular Front of American soldiers were exceedingly rare. Not surprisingly the Americans were outraged by the execution and one day after White’s execution, the Spanish command reversed its policy of executions. Carroll could only find two other confirmed cases of executions. Those executions appear to have both been for criminal activity. Even when you include the cases of two soldiers, Albert Wallach and Bernard Abramofky, who appear to have been murdered for insubordination, few Americans were killed outside of combat. Carroll argues that in the case of the American soldiers remained in their units because they felt responsible for fighting for Spain, unlike Orwell’s claim in Homage to Catalonia that discipline was enforced by the use of terror. The difference between Orwell’s and the Lincoln Brigade’s experiences may have differed because the Americans never experienced the same type of political purges that Orwell’s force faced.
Carroll makes it clear that the Communist party did not order any American Communist party members to Spain. Instead, the Soviet archives indicate that several of the Communist party members were considered too valuable to be sent to Spain. Carroll does make it clear, that after the volunteers arrived they were expected to stay until they were no longer needed. Some Communist party members, such Harry Haywood, Steve Nelson and others, were deemed too important in the United States to Communist Party to risk in Spain. Ultimately, a number of these individuals went to Spain and assumed leadership positions in various units.
