Bøger af Richard Slotkin

The culture wars are pitting us against each other with a vitriol that is fueling outright violence. Slotkin looks to the foundational myths that have shaped American identity-the Frontier, the Founding, the Civil War (Emancipation and the Lost Cause), and the Good War-and reveals why they are bringing the US to the brink of an existential crisis.

"A work of stunning density and penetrating analysis . . . Lost Battalions deploys a narrative symmetry of gratifying complexity."-David Levering Lewis, The NationDuring the bloodiest days of World War I, no soldiers served more valiantly than the African American troops of the 369th Infantry-the fabled Harlem Hellfighters-and the legendary 77th "lost battalion" composed of New York City immigrants. Though these men had lived up to their side of the bargain as loyal American soldiers, the country to which they returned solidified laws and patterns of social behavior that had stigmatized them as second-class citizens.Richard Slotkin takes the pulse of a nation struggling with social inequality during a decisive historical moment, juxtaposing social commentary with battle scenes that display the bravery and solidarity of these men. Enduring grueling maneuvers, and the loss of so many of their brethren, the soldiers in the lost battalions were forever bound by their wartime experience. 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.

Originally published: Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1973.

A masterful account of the Civil War's turning point in the tradition of James McPherson's Crossroads of Freedom.