Melting Pot Soldiers

Download Melting Pot Soldiers full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Melting Pot Soldiers ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Melting Pot Soldiers

Author : William L. Burton
Publisher : North's Civil War (Hardcover)
ISBN 13 : 9780823218271
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (182 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Melting Pot Soldiers by : William L. Burton

Download or read book Melting Pot Soldiers written by William L. Burton and published by North's Civil War (Hardcover). This book was released on 1998 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melting Pot Soldiers is the story of the way immigrants responded to the drama of the Civil War. When the war began in 1861, there were, in most states in the North (primarily from Western Europe), large populations of immigrants whose leaders were active in American politics at the local, state, and national levels. Just as native-born Americans, both individually and collectively, reacted to war, so did these newcomers. A characteristic feature of the formation of the Union armies was the role played by politicians in the recruitment of the regiment, the basic unit of the army. Ethnic politicians (and a few were women!) like their native-born counterparts, actively recruited young men into regiments- in this case regiments based upon the country of origin of the recruits. There were dozens of such regiments, mostly German and Irish, but also a Scandinavian unit, a polygot outfit, and there was an attempt to form a Scottish regiment. AS the war progressed and casualties mounted, these regiments gradually lost their ethnic composition. Ethnic entreprenuers were the key figures in the organization of these regiments, and such men ordinarily intended to parlay their military service into a post-war political career. Burton examines the impact ethnic entreprenuers had during the war, both by their key role in the organization of their regiments and by their post-war political careers.

Melting Pot Soldiers

Author : William L. Burton
Publisher : Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN 13 : 9780813811154
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (111 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Melting Pot Soldiers by : William L. Burton

Download or read book Melting Pot Soldiers written by William L. Burton and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 1988 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the war began in 1861, there were, in most states in the North (primarily from Western Europe), large populations of immigrants whose leaders were active in American politics at the local, state, and national levels. Just as native-born Americans, both individually and collectively, reacted to war, so did these newcomers. A characteristic feature of the formation of the Union armies was the role played by politicians in the recruitment of the regiment, the basic unit of the army. Ethnic politicians (and a few were women!) like their native-born counterparts, actively recruited young men into regiments-- in this case regiments based upon the country of origin of the recruits. There were dozens of such regiments, mostly German and Irish, but also a Scandinavian unit, a polyglot outfit, and there was an attempt to form a Scottish regiment. As the war progressed and casualties mounted, these regiments gradually lost their ethnic composition. Ethnic entrepreneurs were the key figures in the organization of these regiments, and such men ordinarily intended to parlay their military service into a post-war political career. This text examines the ethnic units as well as the impact ethnic entrepreneurs had during the war, both by their key role in the organization of their regiments and by their post-war political careers.

Reinventing the Melting Pot

Author : Tamar Jacoby
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0786729732
Total Pages : 348 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (867 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Reinventing the Melting Pot by : Tamar Jacoby

Download or read book Reinventing the Melting Pot written by Tamar Jacoby and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nothing happening in America today will do more to affect our children's future than the wave of new immigrants flooding into the country, mostly from the developing world. Already, one in ten Americans is foreign-born, and if one counts their children, one-fifth of the population can be considered immigrants. Will these newcomers make it in the U.S? Or will today's realities -- from identity politics to cheap and easy international air travel -- mean that the age-old American tradition of absorption and assimilation no longer applies? Reinventing the Melting Pot is a conversation among two dozen of the thinkers who have looked longest and hardest at the issue of how immigrants assimilate: scholars, journalists, and fiction writers, on both the left and the right. The contributors consider virtually every aspect of the issue and conclude that, of course, assimilation can and must work again -- but for that to happen, we must find new ways to think and talk about it. Contributors to Reinventing the Melting Pot include Michael Barone, Stanley Crouch, Herbert Gans, Nathan Glazer, Michael Lind, Orlando Patterson, Gregory Rodriguez, and Stephan Thernstrom.

Melting Pot Soldiers

Author : William L. Burton
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780823296071
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (96 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Melting Pot Soldiers by : William L. Burton

Download or read book Melting Pot Soldiers written by William L. Burton and published by . This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Melting Pot Soldiers is the story of the way immigrants responded to the drama of the Civil War. When the war began in 1861, there were, in most states in the North (primarily from Western Europe), large populations of immigrants whose leaders were active in American politics at the local, state, and national levels. Just as native-born Americans, both individually and collectively, reacted to war, so did these newcomers. A characteristic feature of the formation of the Union armies was the role played by politicians in the recruitment of the regiment, the basic unit of the army. Ethnic politicians (and a few were women!) like their native-born counterparts, actively recruited young men into regiments- in this case regiments based upon the country of origin of the recruits. There were dozens of such regiments, mostly German and Irish, but also a Scandinavian unit, a polygot outfit, and there was an attempt to form a Scottish regiment. AS the war progressed and casualties mounted, these regiments gradually lost their ethnic composition. Ethnic entreprenuers were the key figures in the organization of these regiments, and such men ordinarily intended to parlay their military service into a post-war political career. Burton examines the impact ethnic entreprenuers had during the war, both by their key role in the organization of their regiments and by their post-war political careers.

Americans All!

Author : Nancy Gentile Ford
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
ISBN 13 : 1603443290
Total Pages : 218 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (34 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Americans All! by : Nancy Gentile Ford

Download or read book Americans All! written by Nancy Gentile Ford and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the First World War, nearly half a million immigrant draftees from forty-six different nations served in the U.S. Army. This surge of Old World soldiers challenged the American military's cultural, linguistic, and religious traditions and required military leaders to reconsider their training methods for the foreign-born troops. How did the U.S. War Department integrate this diverse group into a united fighting force?The war department drew on the experiences of progressive social welfare reformers, who worked with immigrants in urban settlement houses, and they listened to industrial efficiency experts, who connected combat performance to morale and personnel management. Perhaps most significantly, the military enlisted the help of ethnic community leaders, who assisted in training, socializing, and Americanizing immigrant troops and who pressured the military to recognize and meet the important cultural and religious needs of the ethnic soldiers. These community leaders negotiated the Americanization process by promoting patriotism and loyalty to the United States while retaining key ethnic cultural traditions.Offering an exciting look at an unexplored area of military history, Americans All! Foreign-born Soldiers in World War I constitutes a work of special interest to scholars in the fields of military history, sociology, and ethnic studies. Ford'sresearch illuminates what it meant for the U.S. military to reexamine early twentieth-century nativism; instead of forcing soldiers into a melting pot, war department policies created an atmosphere that made both American and ethnic pride acceptable.During the war, a German officer commented on the ethnic diversity of the American army and noted, with some amazement, that these "semi-Americans" considered themselves to be "true-born sons of their adopted country." The officer was wrong on one count. The immigrant soldiers were not "semi-Americans"; they were "Americans all!"

Searching for Black Confederates

Author : Kevin M. Levin
Publisher : UNC Press Books
ISBN 13 : 1469653273
Total Pages : 241 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (696 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Searching for Black Confederates by : Kevin M. Levin

Download or read book Searching for Black Confederates written by Kevin M. Levin and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth. Moreover, Levin shows that belief in the existence of black Confederate soldiers largely originated in the 1970s, a period that witnessed both a significant shift in how Americans remembered the Civil War and a rising backlash against African Americans' gains in civil rights and other realms. Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history.

Germans in the Civil War

Author : Walter D. Kamphoefner
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807876593
Total Pages : 558 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (78 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Germans in the Civil War by : Walter D. Kamphoefner

Download or read book Germans in the Civil War written by Walter D. Kamphoefner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: German Americans were one of the largest immigrant groups in the Civil War era, and they comprised nearly 10 percent of all Union troops. Yet little attention has been paid to their daily lives--both on the battlefield and on the home front--during the war. This collection of letters, written by German immigrants to friends and family back home, provides a new angle to our understanding of the Civil War experience and challenges some long-held assumptions about the immigrant experience at this time. Originally published in Germany in 2002, this collection contains more than three hundred letters written by seventy-eight German immigrants--men and women, soldiers and civilians, from the North and South. Their missives tell of battles and boredom, privation and profiteering, motives for enlistment and desertion and for avoiding involvement altogether. Although written by people with a variety of backgrounds, these letters describe the conflict from a distinctly German standpoint, the editors argue, casting doubt on the claim that the Civil War was the great melting pot that eradicated ethnic antagonisms.

Dip Into Something Different

Author : Melting Pot Restaurants
Publisher : Favorite Recipes Press (FRP)
ISBN 13 : 9780979728303
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (283 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Dip Into Something Different by : Melting Pot Restaurants

Download or read book Dip Into Something Different written by Melting Pot Restaurants and published by Favorite Recipes Press (FRP). This book was released on 2008 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Create a perfect night out by gathering friends and family around a pot of warm melted cheese, chocolate or a cooking style eager to add flavor to your favorite dipper. The Melting Pot dares you to Dip Into Something Different with this collection of recipes from our fondue to yours.

Eight Flavors

Author : Sarah Lohman
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1476753954
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (767 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Eight Flavors by : Sarah Lohman

Download or read book Eight Flavors written by Sarah Lohman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-12-06 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique culinary history of America offers a fascinating look at our past and uses long-forgotten recipes to explain how eight flavors changed how we eat. The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population which makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. In Eight Flavors, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table. She begins in the archives, searching through economic, scientific, political, religious, and culinary records. She pores over cookbooks and manuscripts, dating back to the eighteenth century, through modern standards like How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. Lohman discovers when each of these eight flavors first appear in American kitchens—then she asks why. Eight Flavors introduces the explorers, merchants, botanists, farmers, writers, and chefs whose choices came to define the American palate. Lohman takes you on a journey through the past to tell us something about our present, and our future. We meet John Crowninshield a New England merchant who traveled to Sumatra in the 1790s in search of black pepper. And Edmond Albius, a twelve-year-old slave who lived on an island off the coast of Madagascar, who discovered the technique still used to pollinate vanilla orchids today. Weaving together original research, historical recipes, gorgeous illustrations and Lohman’s own adventures both in the kitchen and in the field, Eight Flavors is a delicious treat—ready to be devoured.

The Color of Success

Author : Ellen D. Wu
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691168024
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Color of Success by : Ellen D. Wu

Download or read book The Color of Success written by Ellen D. Wu and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-29 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Color of Success tells of the astonishing transformation of Asians in the United States from the "yellow peril" to "model minorities"--peoples distinct from the white majority but lauded as well-assimilated, upwardly mobile, and exemplars of traditional family values--in the middle decades of the twentieth century. As Ellen Wu shows, liberals argued for the acceptance of these immigrant communities into the national fold, charging that the failure of America to live in accordance with its democratic ideals endangered the country's aspirations to world leadership. Weaving together myriad perspectives, Wu provides an unprecedented view of racial reform and the contradictions of national belonging in the civil rights era. She highlights the contests for power and authority within Japanese and Chinese America alongside the designs of those external to these populations, including government officials, social scientists, journalists, and others. And she demonstrates that the invention of the model minority took place in multiple arenas, such as battles over zoot suiters leaving wartime internment camps, the juvenile delinquency panic of the 1950s, Hawaii statehood, and the African American freedom movement. Together, these illuminate the impact of foreign relations on the domestic racial order and how the nation accepted Asians as legitimate citizens while continuing to perceive them as indelible outsiders. By charting the emergence of the model minority stereotype, The Color of Success reveals that this far-reaching, politically charged process continues to have profound implications for how Americans understand race, opportunity, and nationhood.

Lost Battalions

Author : Richard Slotkin
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466860936
Total Pages : 863 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Lost Battalions by : Richard Slotkin

Download or read book Lost Battalions written by Richard Slotkin and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-12-24 with total page 863 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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.

We are All Multiculturalists Now

Author : Nathan Glazer
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674948365
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (483 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis We are All Multiculturalists Now by : Nathan Glazer

Download or read book We are All Multiculturalists Now written by Nathan Glazer and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The melting pot is no more. Where not very long ago we sought assimilation, we now pursue multiculturalism. Nowhere has this transformation been more evident than in the public schools, where a traditional Eurocentric curriculum has yielded to diversity--and, often, to confrontation and confusion. In a book that brings clarity and reason to this highly charged issue, Nathan Glazer explores these sweeping changes. He offers an incisive account of why we all--advocates and skeptics alike--have become multiculturalists, and what this means for national unity, civil society, and the education of our youth. Focusing particularly on the impact in public schools, Glazer dissects the four issues uppermost in the minds of people on both sides of the multicultural fence: Whose "truth" do we recognize in the curriculum? Will an emphasis on ethnic roots undermine or strengthen our national unity in the face of international disorder? Will attention to social injustice, past and present, increase or decrease civil disharmony and strife? Does a multicultural curriculum enhance learning, by engaging students' interest and by raising students' self-esteem, or does it teach irrelevance at best and fantasy at worst? Glazer argues cogently that multiculturalism arose from the failure of mainstream society to assimilate African Americans; anger and frustration at their continuing separation gave black Americans the impetus for rejecting traditions that excluded them. But, willingly or not, "we are all multiculturalists now," Glazer asserts, and his book gives us the clearest picture yet of what there is to know, to fear, and to ask of ourselves in this new identity.

The Last of the Doughboys

Author : Richard Rubin
Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0547843690
Total Pages : 549 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (478 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Last of the Doughboys by : Richard Rubin

Download or read book The Last of the Doughboys written by Richard Rubin and published by HMH. This book was released on 2013-05-21 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Before the Greatest Generation, there was the Forgotten Generation of World War I . . . wonderfully engaging” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). “Richard Rubin has done something that will never be possible for anyone to do again. His interviews with the last American World War I veterans—who have all since died—bring to vivid life a cataclysm that changed our world forever but that remains curiously forgotten here.” —Adam Hochschild, author of To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918 In 2003, eighty-five years after the end of World War I, Richard Rubin set out to see if he could still find and talk to someone who had actually served in the American Expeditionary Forces during that colossal conflict. Ultimately he found dozens, aged 101 to 113, from Cape Cod to Carson City, who shared with him at the last possible moment their stories of America’s Great War. Nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century, they were self-reliant, humble, and stoic, never complaining, but still marveling at the immensity of the war they helped win, and the complexity of the world they helped create. Though America has largely forgotten their war, you will never forget them, or their stories. A decade in the making, The Last of the Doughboys is the most sweeping look at America’s First World War in a generation, a glorious reminder of the tremendously important role America played in the “war to end all wars,” as well as a moving meditation on character, grace, aging, and memory. “An outstanding and fascinating book. By tracking down the last surviving veterans of the First World War and interviewing them with sympathy and skill, Richard Rubin has produced a first-rate work of reporting.” —Ian Frazier, author of Travels in Siberia “I cannot remember a book about that huge and terrible war that I have enjoyed reading more in many years.” —Michael Korda, The Daily Beast

Slavery at Sea

Author : Sowande M Mustakeem
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252098994
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Slavery at Sea by : Sowande M Mustakeem

Download or read book Slavery at Sea written by Sowande M Mustakeem and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most times left solely within the confine of plantation narratives, slavery was far from a land-based phenomenon. This book reveals for the first time how it took critical shape at sea. Expanding the gaze even more deeply, the book centers how the oceanic transport of human cargoes--infamously known as the Middle Passage--comprised a violently regulated process foundational to the institution of bondage. Sowande' Mustakeem's groundbreaking study goes inside the Atlantic slave trade to explore the social conditions and human costs embedded in the world of maritime slavery. Mining ship logs, records and personal documents, Mustakeem teases out the social histories produced between those on traveling ships: slaves, captains, sailors, and surgeons. As she shows, crewmen manufactured captives through enforced dependency, relentless cycles of physical, psychological terror, and pain that led to the the making--and unmaking--of enslaved Africans held and transported onboard slave ships. Mustakeem relates how this process, and related power struggles, played out not just for adult men, but also for women, children, teens, infants, nursing mothers, the elderly, diseased, ailing, and dying. Mustakeem offers provocative new insights into how gender, health, age, illness, and medical treatment intersected with trauma and violence transformed human beings into the world's most commercially sought commodity for over four centuries.

The Thinnai

Author : Ari Gautier
Publisher : Hachette India
ISBN 13 : 9389253489
Total Pages : 141 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (892 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Thinnai by : Ari Gautier

Download or read book The Thinnai written by Ari Gautier and published by Hachette India. This book was released on 2021-08-25 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If there was anything our neighbours envied us, it was our thinnais. The working-class district of Kurusukuppam is not the Pondicherry of tourist brochures. Here, residents are a bewildering mix of Creoles, colonial war veterans, proud communists and French citizens who have never left India's shores. It is a place of everyday tragedies, melodramatic occurrences and stubborn, absurd hope. But life in Kurusukuppam is upturned by the arrival of a curious tramp, Gilbert Thaata, a wizened Frenchman who has clearly seen hard times. Settling down on the narrator's verandah, his thinnai, Gilbert Thaata begins to earn his keep by recounting the tale of the rise and fall of his family's fortunes as the custodians of a mysterious diamond, the Stone of Sita. The fanciful story that unfolds is one that stretches across centuries and encompasses the history of France's colonial legacy in India. As entranced as they are by the raconteur, his listeners cannot help but ask - just who is this old man and how did he fall on such misfortune? Masterfully translated from the French original by Blake Smith, Ari Gautier's The Thinnai offers a panoramic view of Pondicherry's past, the whimsical eccentricities of its present and shines a light on the quirks of history that come to define us.

The Scent of Death

Author : Andrew Taylor
Publisher : HarperCollins UK
ISBN 13 : 000749307X
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (74 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Scent of Death by : Andrew Taylor

Download or read book The Scent of Death written by Andrew Taylor and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2013-02-28 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *WINNER of the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award 2013* ‘Andrew Taylor wrote superb historical fiction long before Hilary Mantel was popular’ Daily Telegraph From the No.1 bestselling author of THE AMERICAN BOY comes a new historical thriller set during the American War of Independence.

Chicago's Irish Legion

Author : James B. Swan
Publisher : SIU Press
ISBN 13 : 0809386445
Total Pages : 329 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (93 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Chicago's Irish Legion by : James B. Swan

Download or read book Chicago's Irish Legion written by James B. Swan and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2009-03-18 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extensively documented and richly detailed, Chicago’s Irish Legion tells the compelling story of Chicago’s 90th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, the only Irish regiment in Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s XV Army Corps. Swan’s sweeping history of this singular regiment and its pivotal role in the Western Theater of the Civil War draws heavily from primary documents and first-person observations, giving readers an intimate glimpse into the trials and triumphs of ethnic soldiers during one of the most destructive wars in American history. At the onset of the bitter conflict between the North and the South, Irish immigrants faced a wall of distrust and discrimination in the United States. Many Americans were deeply suspicious of Irish religion and politics, while others openly doubted the dedication of the Irish to the Union cause. Responding to these criticisms with a firm show of patriotism, the Catholic clergy and Irish politicians in northern Illinois—along with the Chicago press and community—joined forces to recruit the Irish Legion. Composed mainly of foreign-born recruits, the Legion rapidly dispelled any rumors of disloyalty with its heroic endeavors for the Union. The volunteers proved to be instrumental in various battles and sieges, as well as the marches to the sea and through the Carolinas, suffering severe casualties and providing indispensable support for the Union. Swan meticulously traces the remarkable journey of these unique soldiers from their regiment’s inception and first military engagement in 1862 to their disbandment and participation in the Grand Review of General Sherman’s army in 1865. Enhancing the volume are firsthand accounts from the soldiers who endured the misery of frigid winters and brutal environments, struggling against the ravages of disease and hunger as they marched more than twenty-six hundred miles over the course of the war. Also revealed are personal insights into some of the war’s most harrowing events, including the battle at Chattanooga and Sherman’s famous campaign for Atlanta. In addition, Swan exposes the racial issues that affected the soldiers of the 90th Illinois, including their reactions to the Emancipation Proclamation and the formations of the first African American fighting units. Swan rounds out the volume with stories of survivors’ lives after the war, adding an even deeper personal dimension to this absorbing chronicle.