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[[File:Abraham_Lincoln_Brigade.jpg|thumbnail|175px255px|left|<i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804722773/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0804722773&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=deb544037f6853d805f0f8cea67fedee The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade]</i>]]During the Spanish Civil War, approximately 2,800 American men and women answered the call from the Communist party to defend the Spanish republic from fascist aggression. These men and women served in the Fifteenth International Brigade and formed the Abraham Lincoln, Washington and MacKenzie-Papineau Battalions. These soldiers’ stories have been controversial, because 80 percent of these volunteers were Communists. Until recently, historians have not been able to fully tell the story of these men and women, but access to new archives of the American soldiers and Soviet archives have provided a much fuller picture of the story of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. By Clinton Sandvick
During the Spanish Civil War, approximately 2,800 American men and women answered the call from the Communist party to defend the Spanish republic from fascist aggression. These men and women served in the Fifteenth International Brigade and formed the Abraham Lincoln, Washington and MacKenzie-Papineau Battalions. These soldiers’ stories have been controversial, because 80 percent of these volunteers were Communists. Until recently, historians have not been able to fully tell the story of these men and women, but access to new archives of the American soldiers and Soviet archives have provided a much fuller picture of the story of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
  ===Early Books on the The Abraham Lincoln Brigadeignored by general histories of the war===
Peter N. Carroll, in his book <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804722773/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0804722773&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=deb544037f6853d805f0f8cea67fedee The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade]</i>, stated that there had already been three generations of history written about the Lincoln Brigade by 1994. The first generation consisted of a number of first person accounts by the Brigade members. A second generation of books was written by scholars based on somewhat limited information. Carroll believes that he is part of the third generation of historians who were providing a more accurate depiction of the volunteers because he had access to a treasure trove of material from both the veterans and Soviet archives. As part of the third generation of scholars, Carroll not only tried to tell the story of veterans in Spain, he examined their broader roles in America over the past 50 years. Not surprisingly, this third generation of books has benefited greatly from the creation of archives by the Brigade veterans at Brandeis University and University of California, Berkley.<ref> Carroll, Peter N., <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804722773/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0804722773&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=deb544037f6853d805f0f8cea67fedee The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: American in the Spanish Civil War]</i>, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California 1994, p. vii-x.</ref>
[[File:The_Battle_for_Spain.jpg|thumbnail|left|200px|<i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014303765X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=014303765X&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=532d4ab27591ac134752fae66650b9ac The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939]</i> by Anthony Beevor]]
Rosenstone faced just as many problems when he attempted to determine the ethnic makeup of the brigade. He estimated that Jews comprised approximately 25 percent of the brigade. Rosenstone deduced this number simply by looking at the surnames of the known volunteers. After reviewing the names he determined that approximately 20 percent “had obviously Jewish names.” He then simply rounded up to 25 percent. Rosenstone admitted that it would be difficult to accurately determine the percentage of Jewish Americans because a number of the volunteers adopted nom de guerres during the war. Just as Rosenstone estimated the number of Jews in the Brigade, he guessed that there were probably 50 African American volunteers. It is also clear from Rosenstone’s title that he is only concerned with the men of the Lincoln Brigade, ignored the 60 American women who volunteered in Spain.<ref>Rosenstone, 335, 337.</ref>
Rosenstone’s work suffers from a number of problems. First, Rosenstone did not have sufficient historical resources at his disposal to develop his themes. Second, Rosenstone clearly believes that the veterans were essentially noble. In order to make them sympathetic to an American audience he deemphasized the role the Communist party played in their participation in the Spanish Civil War. It is not clear whether or not this deception was intentional. Additionally, members of the Lincoln Brigade were less willing to talk or give their private materials to historians so soon after a number of them had been persecuted during the 1950s for their Communist affiliations.
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.
 
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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>
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.
<i>African Americans in the Spanish Civil War</i> 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 his book is relevant because the motivations between white and black veterans differed.</ref> Collum, Danny Duncan, eds. <i>African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: “This Ain’t Ethiopia, But It’ll Do”</i>, p. 9.</ref> The differences in motivations made it critical to highlight these differences.
===Conclusion===
===Bibliography===
Bessie, Alvah and Albert Pargo eds., "Our Fight: Writings by Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Spain 1936 -1939, " <i>Monthly Review Press</i>, 1987. Carroll, Peter, “A Premature Anti-Fascists Again” The Volunteer, Vol.XXV, no. 4 (2003)
Carroll, Peter, eds., “A Premature Anti-Fascists Again” <i>The Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeVolunteer</i>, New York University PressVol.XXV, 2006no.4 (2003)
Carroll, Peter, eds., <i>The Odyssey of Good Fight Continues: World War II Letters from the Abraham Lincoln Brigade</i>, Stanford New York University Press, 19942006.
CollumCarroll, Danny DuncanPeter, eds. African Americans in <i>The Odyssey of the Spanish Civil War: “This Ain’t EthiopiaAbraham Lincoln Brigade</i>, But It’ll DoStanford University Press, G.K. Hall & Co., 19911994.
Danny Duncan Collum’s Collum. <i>African Americans in the Spanish Civil War: “This Ain’t Ethiopia, But It’ll Do.” </i> G.K. Hall & Co., 1992.
Landis, Arthur, <i>The Abraham Lincoln Brigade</i>, Lyle Stuart Harrdcover Hardcover (1967.)
Lucid, Robert, “In Our Time: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Historians,” <i>American Quarterly</i>, vol. 22, no. 1, 1970.
Payne, Stanley, “Review of The Abraham Lincoln Brigade,” <i>The American Historical Review</i>, vol 73, no. 1, 1967.
Rosenstone, Richard, <i>Crusade of the Left: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War</i>, Pegasus, 1969.
Rosenstone, Richard, “The Men of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade” <i>Journal of American History</i>, Vol. 54, No. 2, 1967.
===References===
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[[Category:United States History]][[Category:Spanish Civil War]][[Category:Military History]][[Category:20th Century History]][[Category:Historiography]]

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