Why read Torchbearers of Democracy?

Book cover of Torchbearers of Democracy: African American Soldiers in the World War I Era

Book description

On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson thrust the United States into World War I by declaring, ""The world must be made safe for democracy."" For the 380,000 African American soldiers who fought and labored in the global conflict, these words carried life or death meaning. Relating stories bridging the war…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Torchbearers of Democracy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Jennifer Mittelstadt

Author

Torchbearers is a pathbreaking history of the fight for American democracy during World War I, told from the perspective of African American servicemen who joined, fought, and returned from battle. Already engaged in conflict over civil rights in the US, African Americans took seriously the call to “make the world safe for democracy.” Through writing, activism, and organizing, they linked their domestic fight to the foreign fight against democracy’s enemies. Perhaps no other group in the US, Williams shows, was poised to engage the very biggest questions that animated the war – questions of citizenship, rights, freedom, and empire –…

From Jennifer's list on military, war, and society in 20th century US.