The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War - Softcover

"Peter Carroll has written with great skill and understanding the fifty-year story of the Americans who fought in the Spanish civil war. Never has the complicated and intriguing tale been told so fully, drawing as it does not only from survivors who can recount their experiences, but also from a wealth of original material, including the just-opened archives in Moscow. What is particularly fascinating is the account of the tribulations and triumphs of the veterans in the years after they were 'premature anti-fascists.' This is the moment for this book to appear, and one is grateful that it has been done so well." -- Peter Stansky * Stanford University * "Compelling . . . swift-moving collective biography of the Lincoln Brigade. . . . A richly detailed story of men and women who threw themselves into the great events of their times, holding nothing back." -- New York Times Book Review "This rare, this astonishing book-rich, authoritative, and moving as it is on its central subject-through Peter Carroll's way of chronicling becomes something even greater: an urgently contemporary touchstone that helps us discern in our time similar contending forces in moral, not political terms-good against evil, might against right, means against ends. In a vivid, pulsing narrative, Carroll encompasses the historical context, the drama of men in battle, and most of all the haunting human beings themselves. But what can be found nowhere else is his account of the succeeding fifty years of those who survived, as they stubbornly clung to their beliefs in the necessity of action and the possibility of transformative social change." * Tillie Olsen * "Tapping new sources for the first time, this must surely be considered the definitive work on Americans who fought and died for the Spanish Republic." -- Kirkus Reviews

A collective biography of the Americans who volunteered to fight in the Spanish civil war that provides the first comprehensive, objective, and deeply researched account of the brigade's experience in Spain and what happened to the survivors when they returned to the United States.