Lost Battalions

The Great War and the Crisis of American Nationality

Richard Slotkin

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780805041248
• eBook ISBN: 9781466860933
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

"A work of stunning density and penetrating analysis . . . Lost Battalions deploys a narrative symmetry of gratifying complexity."—David Levering Lewis, The Nation
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 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Notice
• Contents
• Dedication
• Epigraphs
• List of Illustrations and Maps
• 1. Safe for Democracy: The Lost Battalion and the Harlem Hell Fighters
• 2. “The Great Composite American”: Theodore Roosevelt and American Nationalism, 1880–1917
• 3. No Black in the Rainbow: The Origin of the Harlem Hell Fighters, 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 15th New York 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 à 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: Whittlesey’s Command at Charlevaux 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 Whittlesey 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
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Also by Richard Slotkin
• About the Author
• Copyright