A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780465003174)

The night broke open in a storm of explosions and fire. The sound of shells whizzing overhead, screeching through the night like wounded pheasants, was terrifying. When the shells exploded prematurely overhead, a rain of shrapnel fell on the men below -- better than when the shells exploded in the trenches . . .

In A More Unbending Battle, journalist and author Pete Nelson chronicles the little-known story of the 369th Infantry Regiment -- the first African-American regiment mustered to fight in WWI. Recruited from all walks of Harlem life, the regiment had to fight alongside the French because America's segregation policy prohibited them from fighting with white U.S. soldiers.

Despite extraordinary odds and racism, the 369th became one of the most successful -- and infamous -- regiments of the war. The Harlem Hellfighters, as their enemies named them, spent longer than any other American unit in combat, were the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine, and showed extraordinary valor on the battlefield, with many soldiers winning the Croix de Guerre and the Legion of Honor. Replete with vivid accounts of battlefield heroics, A More Unbending Battle is the thrilling story of the dauntless Harlem Hellfighters.

Author: Peter Nelson
ISBN-10: 0465003176
ISBN-13: 9780465003174
Publisher: Civitas Book Publisher
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2009
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.20d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 04/01/2009
Publishers Weekly 03/30/2009 pg. 41
Library Journal 05/01/2009 pg. 92
Booklist 05/15/2009 pg. 16
Chronicle of Higher Education 06/26/2009 pg. 17
New York Times Book Review 07/19/2009 pg. 19