The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade: Americans in the Spanish Civil War by Peter N. Carroll Stanford University Press, 1994 Hardcover,  440 pages  ISBN 0804722773

Claire Chennault, Robert Patterson, and Raoul Lufbery are painted in the pages of American history as prescient heroes.  These men, we are told, risked all to join foreign armies to fight against a totalitarianism that they believed would one day threaten the United States.  And so, Claire Chennault accepted the pay of General Chiang Kai-Shek and organized the Flying Tigers to fight the Japanese in Chinese skies.  Robert Patterson joined the Royal Air Force and fought the Luftwaffe with the Eagle Squadron.  And Raoul Lufbery donned a French uniform in the First World War to fly against the Hun in the Escadrille Lafayette.  Americans all, their fame and renown stem from the fact that they not only joined foreign armies to fight an enemy whom the United States would later take up arms against, but that they joined units within those armies composed almost entirely of American volunteers.

Often omitted from the list of these 20th century American heroes is another unit composed of Americans who served in a foreign army.  They too fought a totalitarianism against which United States forces would later be arrayed.  Indeed, their actions were often heroic, and always against formidable odds.   One third of those who went never came back, and almost all of the survivors could count at least one wound sustained in action.  Of them it was said "You are history. You are legend."  Despite this, the majority of Americans have never heard of this unit, nor have they heard of the history that the unit's veterans wrote after the close of the conflict in which they fought.   We are referring to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade - American volunteers in the Spanish Republican Army who fought against the Spanish Fascists led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco and supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.

Americans fought in several distinct units during the Spanish Civil War, to include the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the George Washington Battalion, the MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion and the Regiment de Tren.  Collectively they are referred to as the "Abraham Lincoln Brigade."  The chronicle of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade is ably, and rivettingly told by Peter N. Carroll in his book The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade; Americans in the Spanish Civil War.

Interestingly, only a relatively small portion of the book is devoted to the Lincolns' military history.  While this is an important aspect, Carroll devotes the majority of the book to discussing the soldiers and veterans themselves.  Beginning with their origins, and following them into the Great Depression, Carroll explores the experiences and qualities that led some 2,800 young Americans to Spain.  Following them through the war, and back to the United States, the book traces the struggles and travails faced by the veterans from their return in 1938 - 1939 to the 1990's.  Why was life so difficult for them?  In a nutshell, the Lincolns made some unpopular political choices; while the Lincolns fought against a clearly defined fascism, their most salient political characteristic was Communism.  This communist affiliation makes it tempting to dismiss the Lincolns as either communist ideologues or dupes.  However, Carroll's careful analysis casts this characterization into doubt.

One leaves the book with the feeling that the Lincolns suffered from an ideological malady which was most often expressed through communism owing to the lack of any other suitable outlet.  The majority of the veterans interviewed by Carroll were idealists dedicated to bettering the lives of what they perceived as an oppressed working class.  That working conditions for industrial and agricultural workers in the first four decades of the twentieth century were abysmal is hard to debate.  That conditions worsened considerably during the Depression is simply fact.   It was within this crucible that many future Lincolns formed their political identities.  The (sad) fact remains that the only political outlet for the poverty, desperation, frustration and rage experienced by working class and immigrant America during that time were with the parties of the left, such as the Socialists and the Communists.  Furthermore, the left wing parties were often the only ones achieving positive results for those they claimed to represent.

However, this writer would posit that rank and file American communism of the 1920's and 1930's was a unique animal that bore less resemblance to Stalinism and Leninism and more to nineteenth century American populism.  Based on Carroll's presentation, the Lincolns allegiance was to America and Americans.  They saw themselves as fighting the first battles to stop an encroaching fascism that might one day threaten the United States.  As it turns out, they were right.  Carroll points out how the Lincolns amassed an impressive record in United States service during the Second World War, despite military and governmental efforts to frustrate their efforts to get into combat units.  Additionally, after the war, the Lincolns were a seminal force in the nascent civil rights movement.

Perhaps the most important message carried by the spirit of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade as evoked by Peter Carroll, is that one not only doesn't have to accept a national or governmental policy that one considers unjust, unwise, or immoral, but that one has a moral obligation to do everything within one's power to protest that policy, and work towards its change.  In this light, despite their left wing political caste, the Lincolns bear more in common with modern American firearms owners and advocates than either group would care to admit.  Despite the political polarization, there is much to be learned from the Lincolns' example, and much of value to be gleaned from Mr. Carroll's book.  "Struggle," said Milton Wolff, one of the Lincolns' commanders, "is the elixir of life.  I mean, if you're not struggling, you are dead."  In these days of ever increasing government encroachment on personal and civil liberties, these may indeed be wise words to live by.
 

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