Alvah's Books

[Editor's Note: Since the publication of Landis' book, another definitive history of the Lincolns was chronicled in 1994 by Peter Carroll's The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades. In this book Carroll presents (with differences) an honest picture of the volunteers and their role in the war.]
At Last – The Definitive History of the Lincoln Brigade in Spain

THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN BRIGADE, by Arthur H. Landis.
New York, The Citadel Press.

Reviewed by Alvah Bessie in
The Worker, Sunday, July 31, 1966

“Since so many anti-human victories have been won in the name of a puerile anti-communism,” writes Arthur Landis, “this work will not seek to advance itself by either adopting that tactic, or its opposite . . . It should, in fact, be sufficient to honest inquiry that judgement be made on that which was, factually, and that which was done, literally. For all men in truth, should answer only to how they have lived within their milieu, and how they have shaped up to the social crises of their times.”

The men of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade “shaped up” to the social crises of their time in so integral and so passionate a manner that the time is not far off when their contribution to the preservation of American (and world) democracy will be honestly appraised.

*

This book by one of the veterans of that volunteer outfit in the Spanish war will not be published until September, but it is – on this 30th anniversary of the day Francisco Franco and his supporters rebelled against the democratic Spanish Republic – the definitive history of the Brigade, and the measure of Landis’ achievement lies in the patent fact that the job will never have to be done again.

For Landis has not only spent many years in research and study in preparation for this history, but he has so thoroughly examined, understood, digested and projected the very mood and temper of the times, and precisely what “was done literally,” that there is not one aspect of American participation in Spain that he has missed; not one facet of that crucial struggle that he has failed to evaluate – and evaluate on sound, historical grounds.

*

There had been one previous history of the Abraham Lincoln battalion, but it was written in 1939 in the months immediately following the “end” of the war, and Edwin Rolfe, its poet-author, and himself a veteran of Spain, accomplished a near-miracle that was of major assistance to the author of the present history.

Landis has corrected many of the errors Rolfe inadvertently made, just as he corrects the deliberate misinterpretations and scandalous distortions of history perpetrated by both honest – and frankly fascist -”interpreters” of the role the Americans played in the Spanish war.

He has done far more than this; he has examined the background of the volunteers and their subsequent history. He has re-created the temper of the 1930s (in America and the world), to explain why they volunteered to fight and die in a cause that “was not their own.” He has traced the open and the secret history of the diplomatic intrigue that spelled the death of the Spanish Republic -and he has laid the guilt where it belongs.

He has not missed a single action in which the American participated – from that hideous (and actually criminal) baptism of fire on the slopes of Pingarron Hill in the Jarama Vally of February 23 and 27, 1937, to the final holocaust that ended the great Ebro offensive in the Sierra Pandols and the Sierra Caballs of Catalonia in September, 1938.

Each of these actions is placed in perspective in the overall strategy and tactics of the war. Eye-witness accounts that recreate the very personalities of the men involved alternate with logistical studies made decades after the events they describe. Landis has plumbed the work of such fascist “historians” as Manuel Aznar, and such honest reporters as Herbert Matthews, Vincent Sheean and Ernest Hemingway, as well as endless books and newspaper accounts, in many languages, in order to present a balanced picture of the truth and the lie, the misinterpretation and the facts.

*

Veterans of the Brigade will cherish this book as the total expression of what they believed – and suffered – so many years ago. The generation that has grown up since 1939 will find in it what they will not find in any of their history books today – the true story of the Spanish conflict. The casual reader will not remain casual for he will find himself under the screaming shells and the white-hot sun, the freezing rain, the machine-gun, rifle and mortar fire that tortured the American volunteers in all those places whose names will live forever in the annals of man’s struggle against oppression and degradation: Jarama, Villaneuva del Pardillo, Quinto and Belcite, Brunete, Fuentes de Ebro, Teruel and that town called Atlas de Celedas that the Americans called “The North Pole,” Seguro de los Banos, Caspe, Alcaniz, Batea and Gandesa, Corbera and Villalba de los Arcos – all are here, all live again and rise to memory or are created for those who knew them only as newspaper headlines or never heard about them till today.

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade is a monumental contribution to American history, for what the Lincolns did in Spain was American (as well as world) history, and the book will be mined for decades by historians, scholars and ordinary readers who want to know “that which was, factually, and that which was done, literally.”

This is the true and indispensable role of honest history, which to Napoleon may have been “a fable agreed upon.” Emerson was closer to the truth when he said, “There is properly no history, only biography.” In Landis’ hands, however, history is the unadulterated truth about how a specific body of men lived in their milieu and shaped up to the social crisis of their times.

Today is Memorial Day and many of us are honoring the soldiers who defended our country and ideals in the numerous wars we’ve fought and in our current ones in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In today’s post, I’d like to honor the writer-warriors of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. These men and women were volunteers from the United States who served in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Of the 2,800, writers such as Alvah Bessie, Edwin Rolfe, James Gardner–son of humorist Ring Lardner and brother of screenwriter and Hollywood Ten member Ring Lardner, Jr.–Milt Woolf, James Neugass, and many more, illegally crossed into Spain from France to fight Franco and save the democratically-elected Spanish government. According to estimates, 800 American volunteers died in Spain including James Lardner–the last American casualty.

Not many Americans know of the Abraham Lincoln Brigades, its history, or about the Spanish Civil War-a war known as the practice run to World War II. Readers who want to learn more about the “Abies” as they were known in the 1930s, should read Peter Carroll’s The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade or read Alvah Bessie’s Men in Battle. For a quick introduction visit the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives.

As to why these men and women volunteered in a war that America wanted no part, reporter James Gardner said it best in a letter to his mother:

Mother, darling,
This is a letter which I started to write on April 10. At that time I thought I was going to have to break the news to you gently, but you seem to have heard it before I had the chance. I have kept putting off writing you because each day it seemed as it on the next I would know what I was going to do and where I would be stationed. I still don’t know exactly what the situation is, but I am leaving in half an hour for Badalona, about seven miles up the coast, where I will learn the rudiments of artillery in company with a new mixed international unit. It looks as if French will be the medium of instruction. I shall let you know more as soon as I can.

This is a most exclusive army. It has taken me twelve days of going from person to person and office to get where I am. I have listened to advice of all varieties, a large part of it against my enlisting at all. The decision has been very much my own, and I took it after a great deal of consideration. My closest friend and principal adviser here has been Vincent (Jimmy) Sheean, who told me not to join, which shows you how stubborn I am, if you didn’t know. Ernest Hemingway’s advice was that it was a very fine thing if I wanted to fight against fascism, but that it was a personal matter that could only be decided by me.

I don’t know how closely you have followed the war, but I imagine you must have an exaggerated idea of the danger of our position. On the map it looks as if Catalonia were a small fragment of territory about to be pushed into the Mediterranean, but in reality it is a lot of country, and I don’t think it will ever be conquered. There are too many people here who are fighting for things they believe in, and too few on the other side.

My views on the whole question are too complicated for me to try to explain here. I hope you are on our side and will try to convince your friends that I am not just being foolish. Not that I mind being though foolish, but American opinion is a very important factor.

I have made up a list of reasons why I am enlisting in the International Brigade, which is fairly accurate, as I did it for my own information. I am copying it here so that you may see for yourself which are the real ones. Some of them are picayune and most of them would have been insufficient in themselves, but all have something to do with it.

Because I believe that fascism is wrong and must be exterminated, and that liberal democracy or more probably communism is right.

Because my joining the I.B. might have an effect on the amendment of the neutrality act in the United States. Because after the war is over I shall be a more effective anti-fascist.
Because in my ambitious quest for knowledge in all fields, I cannot afford in this age to overlook war.
Because I shall come into contact with a lot of communists, who are very good company and from whom I expect to learn things.
Because I am mentally lazy and should like to do some physical work for a change.
Because I need something remarkable in my background to make up for my unfortunate self-consciousness in social relations.
Because I am tired of working for the Herald Tribune in particular and newspapers in general.
Because I think it will be good for my soul.
Because there is a girl in Paris who will have to learn that my presence is not necessary to her existence.
Because I want to impress various people, Bill for one
Because I hope to find material for some writing, probably a play.
Because I want to improve my Spanish as well as my French.
Because I want to know what it is like to be afraid of something and I want to see how other people react to danger.
Because there may be a chance to do some reading and I won’t have to wear a necktie.
Because I should like once more to get in good physical condition.

The first four reasons and the ninth, especially the first, are the most important ones in my opinion, but you may decide for yourself. I have also considered a few reasons why I should not join the army, such as that I might get seriously wounded or killed and that I shall cause you many weeks of worry. I am sorry for your sake that they are not enough to dissuade me. If it is any comfort to you at all, I still hate violence and cruelty and suffering and if I survive this war do not expect to take any dangerous part in the next.

If you still consider me one of your sons, you can send me an occasional letter and possibly a package now and then. My address here, I think, will be in care of the Brigadas Internacionales, but for a while I think it will be simpler to communicate through the Sheeans. Anything edible would be appreciated, milk chocolate or raisins, or anything in cans that does not require preparation.

Love,
Jim

In memory of those who fought and died in Spain.

Salut!