Description: THE LINCOLN BRIGADE The day after Christmas in 1936, a
group of ninety-six Americans sailed from New York to help Spain defend
its democratic government against fascism. Ultimately, twenty-eight
hundred United States volunteers reached Spain to become the Abraham
Lincoln Brigade. Few Lincolns had any military training. More than half
were seriously wounded or died in battle. Most Lincolns were activists
and idealists who had worked with and demonstrated for the homeless and
unemployed during the Great Depression. They were poets and blue-collar
workers, professors and students, seamen and journalists, lawyers and
painters, Christians and Jews, blacks and whites. The Brigade was the
first fully integrated United States army, and Oliver Law, an African
American from Texas, was an early Lincoln commander. William Loren Katz
and the late Marc Crawford twice traveled with the Brigade to Spain in
the 1980s, interviewed surviving Lincolns on old battlefields, and
obtained never-before-published documents and photographs for this book.
Endorsements: "" ... A first hand, first rate work of non-fiction ... ""
Publishers Weekly ""handsome ... substantial text. .. many photos never
before ... published."" NY Times Book Review "" ... a vivid panorama of
a memorable time."" Kirkus ""These unsung heroes will have a special
appeal for young people ... deprived of so much of our history."" Studs
Terkel "" ... [An] important book on an often overlooked period of
history that affected many Americans."" School Library Journal ""Text
and photographs will draw young people interested in the period and in
those who fought for the democratic ideal."" Booklist About the
Contributor(s): William Loren Katz is the award-winning author of forty
books. He is a World War II veteran. Marc Crawford won journalism awards
for Life Magazine, and served as an Ebony associate editor. Robin D. G.
Kelley is a professor of history at New York University and the author
of Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class, and Yo'
Mama's Disfunctional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America.
