A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home [Hardcover]

Peter N. Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nelson (Left for Dead) tells the story of the 369th Infantry, a segregated regiment that overcame discrimination to make an enviable combat record in the trenches of WWI. Nelson describes the regiment's organization in 1916 and its success in attracting volunteers despite a racist environment. American Expeditionary Force commander John J. Pershing considered blacks suitable only as labor troops. But the French forces, decimated by war, welcomed the 369th, which earned respect the hard way: the nickname Harlem Hellfighters came from the Germans, who faced them. The 369th stood in the front lines alongside France's best chasseurs alpins and Moroccans. Pershing responded by replacing all the regiment's black officers with whites. That would have broken morale in many units, but the 369th continued to distinguish itself until the armistice. Almost 200 were awarded the French Croix de Guerre, and the regiment, which never lost a foot of ground nor a prisoner, received a unit citation. The blacks' war at home endured, but the Hellfighters' legacy helped win that one as well, and Nelson's tribute is informative and long overdue. (May 18)
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Review

New York Times
“In rich detail, Mr. Nelson recalls how the regiment fought valiantly at the front (and through its marching band helped introduce jazz to Europe.) Some of the most moving passages, though, are about what happened before and after.”

Kirkus Reviews
“Nelson seamlessly interweaves the military narrative with vivid firsthand accounts…[He] offers a nuanced, in-depth portrait of this group of ordinary men who fought with inspiring courage and dignity. A valuable addition to World War I and civil-rights scholarship on a subject too frequently overlooked.”
Marilyn Nelson, Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Award, and three-time National Book Award honoree, Connecticut Poet Laureate, and author of Carver: A Life in Poems and A Wreath for Emmett Till
“Having watched the Tuskegee Airmen receive their due respect some sixty years after they served, I commend Peter Nelson’s A More Unbending Battle for the respect it gives to an earlier and equally deserving group of American patriots. This book, long overdue, makes an invaluable contribution to American and African-American military history.”

Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University
“A thrilling story of the heroes and horrors of war, A More Unbending Battle restores the overlooked Harlem Hellfighters to their rightful glory. Peter Nelson has brought to life an extraordinarily pivotal moment in the history not only of World War I, but of race in the American consciousness.” 

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Basic Civitas Books; 1St Edition edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465003176
• ISBN-13: 978-0465003174
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,743 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pete Nelson lives with his wife and son in Westchester, New York. He got his MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop in 1979 and has written both fiction and non-fiction for magazines, including Harpers, Playboy, Esquire, MS, Outside, The Iowa Review, National Wildlife, Glamour, Redbook. He was a columnist for Mademoiselle and a staff writer for LIVE Magazine, covering various live events including horse pulls, music festivals, dog shows, accordion camps and arm wrestling championships. Recently he was a contributing editor and feature writer for Wondertime, a Disney parenting magazine. He's published twelve young adult novels, including a six-book series about a girl named Sylvia Smith-Smith which earned him an Edgar Award nomination from the Mystery Writers of America. His young adult non-fiction WWII history, Left For Dead (Randomhouse, 2002) about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis won the 2003 Christopher award as was named to the American Library Association's 2003 top ten list. His other non-fiction titles include Real Man Tells All (Viking, 1988), Marry Like a Man (NAL, l992), That Others May Live (Crown, 2000) and Kidshape (Rutledge Hill, 2004). His novel The Christmas List was published by Rutledge Hill Press in 2004. He wrote, with former army counterintelligence agent Dave DeBatto, a four book series of military thrillers, including CI: Team Red (2005), CI: Dark Target (2006), CI: Mission Liberty (2006) and CI: Homeland Threat (2007) published by Time-Warner. A More Unbending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighters' Struggle for Democracy in WWI and Equality at Home, was published in 2009 by Basic Civitas books. His novel, I Thought You Were Dead, will be published by Algonquin in 2010. He also has two CDs out on the Signature Sounds label, the first entitled The Restless Boys Club (1996), the second called Days Like Horses (2000).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than One Battle, July 24, 2009

By 

Keskasay ""Arrrr matey"" (Connecticut, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home (Hardcover)

Review: "A More Unbending Battle" by Peter N. Nelson
This wonderful book is really 3 stories in one. A black regiment goes to France to fight in World War I, but their fight includes racial bigotry within the civilian and military population, in addition they become musical ambassadors.
The 369th US Regiment, assigned to the French army, is fighting for a country that has a good proportion of the population wishing them ill and to see them fail. Rather than succumb to a "demoralizing from within" environment they strive to do their best as American soldiers. They fight and are awarded France's highest honors. In doing so they find, in the French, a people that do not degrade them based on the color of their skin. They introduce to the French, jazz.
Peter N. Nelson has woven this tale with organizational skill and excellent writing. He puts the reader in the trenches and behind the scenes of an almost forgotten part of American black wartime history.
At the end of the book during a narration of the 369th's march in New York City up to Harlem, Peter intersperses bios of the men noted in the book. What happened to them after the war ends. Something you always are curious about when reading a documentary.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A More Ubending Battle; The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle..., May 7, 2010

By 

Dudley Davis - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home (Hardcover)

The story of the great contribution made by black men of Harlem, NYC. I saw them march down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan about seventy years ago.
This also cleared up a mystery, for me, as to why the guidions had
NY 15 instead of NY 369. They were a very proud group of men.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars time alive, May 21, 2009

By 

Jano Brindisi "folk goddess/house painter" (Glenview,IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighter's Struggle for Freedom in WWI and Equality at Home (Hardcover)

Mr Nelsons book brings history to life. He creates richly detailed scenes that made me feel like I was walking through the pages, and marching with these men- these honorable, mostly forgotten warriors who fought many wars simultaneously, forging the way for freedoms for all.
This book tells their story in an honest, unflinching ,time-alive way that gives their history the solid place it deserves.