Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality, by Richard Slotkin

Lost Battalions: The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality, by Richard Slotkin
A John McCrae Book, Henry Holt and Company, 2005
562 pages, plus Notes, Selected Bibliography, Acknowledgments and Index
Library: 940.40089 SLO
No photos, but 5 illustrations and 5 maps

Front Matter
During the bloodiest days of World War I, no soldiers served more valiantly than the African-American troops of the 369th infantry-the fabled Harlem Hell Fighters-and the legendary "lost battalion" composed of "undesirable" New York City immigrants (largely Jews) drawn from the 77th Division, known as the Statue of Liberty division. Though these men had lived up to their side of the bargain as loyal American soldiers, earning their right to first-class citizenship, the country to which they returned chose to maintain and even extend Jim Crow and other laws and patterns of social behavior that had stigmatized them. Denied benefits, further service with the armed forces or other federal employment, and basic civil rights (some of the returning veterans were lynched and murdered)the soldiers' struggle to create consensus in favor of ethnic and racial pluralism would finally prevail. It was the first engagement in a long fight for equal rights that would last half a century.

In Lost Battalions, Richard Slotkin takes the pulse of a nation struggling with social inequality during a decisive historical moment. In a telling story of America's coming of age, he juxtaposes social commentary with battle scenes that display the bravery and solidarity of the men who would later be shunned by their fellow citizens. During combat, each unit found itself cut off behind enemy lines and locked in fierce battles that claimed the lives of more than half the soldiers. Enduring grueling maneuvers and the loss of so many of their brethren, the soldiers in the lost battalions were forever bound by their wartime experiences. Field-grade officers, largely Ivy League and upper class, were devoted to their charges, a loyalty that would continue after the war, even as the United States turned its back on the minority soldiers.

Slotkin's incisive analysis serves as a reminder that the opportunities and ideals of America often slip through the grasp of those outside the mainstream. Both a riveting combat narrative and a brilliant social history, Lost Battalions delivers a richly detailed account of the fierce fight for equality in the shadow of a foreign war.

Table of Contents
1. Safe for Democracy: The Lost Battalion and the Harlem Hellfighters
2. "The Great Composite American": Theodore Roosevelt and American Nationalism, 1880-1917
3. No Black in the Rainbow: The Origin of the Harlem Hellfighters, 1911-1917
4. "The Jews and Wops, the Dutch and Irish Cops": Recruiting the Melting Pot Division, July-December 1917
5. The Politics of Ridicule: The 15tth Goes to War, October 1917-May 1918
6. The Slamming of Great Doors: Entering the World of Combat, May-September 1918
7. Home Fires Burning: Political and Racial Reaction, Summer 1918
8. "Tout le Monde a la Bataille!": The Allied Offensive Begins, September 12-27, 1918
9. The Last Long Mile: The Hell Fighters at Bellevue Ridge and Sechault, September 26-October 1, 1918
10. The Lost Battalion: Whittlesy's Command at Charleveaux Mill, October 1-8, 1918
11. Print the Legend: The "Lost Battalion" as Public Myth
12. "No Man's Land is Ours": The Hell Fighters and the Lost Battalion Return, February-May 1919
13. The Black and the Red: Race Riots, Red Scares, and the Triumph of Reaction, 1919-1924
14. Unknown Soldiers: Charles Whitlesey and Henry Johnson, 1919-1929
15. "Say, Don't You Remember...? Public Memory, Public Myth, and the Meaning of the War, 1919-1930
16. The New Deal and the Renewal of American Nationalism, 1930-1941
17. The Bargain Renewed: The Myth of the "Good War" and the Memory of the Lost Battalions, 1938-1965
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Acknowlededgments
Index

Maps
1.The 369th Infantry and 77th Division on the Western Front
2. The 77th Division's Movements in the Vesle/Aisne Campaign
3. Overview of the Grand Offensive, September 26-October 8, 1918
4. The 369th Infantry from Bellevue Ridge to Sechault
5. The Lost Battalion at Charleveux Mill

Illustrations
1. "Two First Class Americans
2. Science Explains the Prussian Ferocity of War"
3. Destroy This Mad Brute
4. "Is Bolshevism Coming to America?"
5. "Shell Holes and Observation Balloon: Champagne Sector"