Description
Book SynopsisFor many of the 200,000 black soldiers sent to Europe with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, encounters with French civilians and colonial African troops led them to imagine a world beyond Jim Crow. Lentz-Smith narrates the efforts of these African American soldiers to gain full citizenship rights as recompense for military service.
Trade ReviewBrimming with energy and insight, this rich and powerful book opens new vistas on the early civil rights movement, and adds knowledge and texture to the history of World War I and the African American experience. -- Jane Dailey, author of
Before Jim CrowAn important book about the impact of World War I on black Americans. A host of historical figures, many of whom will be new to readers, took the path to activism rather than submit passively to the realities of Jim Crow America. Their stories are inspiring, and this book will establish Lentz-Smith in the front rank of young scholars of the African American experience. -- John Dittmer, author of
Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in MississippiDuring World War I, the United States was governed by a president who believed white men were the 'real citizens' of the nation. In this powerful, elegant book Lentz-Smith shows how African American thinkers, activists, teachers, and soldiers seized that war, at home and abroad, as an opportunity to prove otherwise.
Freedom Struggles brings this pivotal moment in U.S. history to life, and announces the arrival of an important new historian. -- Stephen Kantrowitz, author of
Ben Tillman and the Reconstruction of White SupremacyLentz-Smith has crafted a superlative internationalized local history that transcends borders yet is complicated by definitions of national and parochial identities. In her skillful hands, the freedom struggle comes alive as a range of African American men and women fight for full rights even while the forces of Jim Crow and colonialism appear to become more entrenched. This book adds a significant chapter in our understanding of the long struggle for freedom both in the United States and globally. -- Carol Anderson, author of
Eyes Off the PrizeWith acute analysis, Duke historian Adriane Lentz-Smith's
Freedom Struggles traces the experiences of the 200,000 African-American soldiers who shipped out to France in 1917 and 1918 with the American Expeditionary Forces. She argues that the Great War "supplied a new theater for Americans to wage old battles over nation and state, color and access, power and rights." -- John David Smith * News & Observer *
In offering a unique vision of African American aspirations, frustrations, and political sensibilities, Lentz-Smith convincingly contends that the Great War era represented a "transformative moment" in the black freedom struggle...[
Freedom Struggles] provides a thoughtful, accessible portrayal of a civil rights struggle we believe we might already understand but one that we should come to know much, much better. -- Lauren Sklaroff * Journal of American History *
Lentz-Smith's terrific new book is a balanced and beautifully written account of the black soldier's experience in World War I. It raises important questions about the ways that law and status in the United States is shaped by developments abroad. -- Joel E. Black * Law and History Review *
Table of Contents* Illustrations * Introduction: Studying War * World on Fire * Fighting the Southern Huns * Men in the Making * At War in the Terrestrial Heaven * The World's Experience * Saving Sergeant Caldwell * Forewarned is Forearmed * Epilogue: The Fruit of Conquest * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index
