Sam Dreben: The Fighting Jew (Great West & Indian Series No 67) [Hardcover]

Art Leibson (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Westernlore Pr (December 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870260987
• ISBN-13: 978-0870260988
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,123,707 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Character, Poor Research, May 7, 2002

By 

"big_gato" (El Paso, Tx USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sam Dreben: The Fighting Jew (Great West & Indian Series No 67) (Hardcover)

Sam Dreben, aka "The Fighting Jew", was a larger than life character. This Russian Jewish immigrant fought in almost every conflict from 1900 to 1920, as either an American soldier or as a mercenary. From the Phillipine Insurgency and the Boxer Rebellion as a soldier, to the Banana Wars of Central America and the Mexican Revolution as a mercenary and as an arms dealer, as a scout for Gen. Pershing's hunt for Pancho Villa and back to the American Army as a hero of World War I, Dreben was a soldier for all seasons. At a time when Jews were stereotyped as meek, Dreben provided a strong role model for America's new immigrants.
Unfortunately, late El Paso newspaperman Art Leibson's book is weak on facts and research and strong on anecdotes and legends. He repeats legends and gossip and recycles old magazine articles without supporting documentation. If the reader can accept a book more of chatty gossip than of history, that's fine.
The real story of Sam Dreben would be exciting and well worth reading. But for that book, we will have to wait.

2.0 out of 5 stars Rousing Tale But Poorly Told, August 13, 2006

By 

El Cutachero (MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sam Dreben: The Fighting Jew (Great West & Indian Series No 67) (Hardcover)

I have this somewhere in my collection and read it through some years ago.
Dreben was born in Russia, and since Jews were persecuted and occasionally set upon by rampant Cossacks, and had no means to defend themselves, he left.
The fact that he was known as the "Fighting Jew" was because in the early twentieth century jewish people were thought to be essentially passive and fit only to be set upon. See the musical "Fiddler on the Rooftop" for a sympathetic view of that time and place.
One might call him a soldier of fortune for he was not a mercenary but served a hitch in the Phillipines where he became a personal friend of John J. Pershing.
Frankly I find him to be an obsessive-compulsive amoral killer who specialized in machine gun work. He was of the same ilk as Tracy Richardson who also fought on the Mexican border. Richardson was considered by the press of the time as just as much a folk hero as Dreben.
Those were coarser times when the Old West was still around and the British Army was killing hundreds of Africans and South Asians.
Today's equivalent would be a man such as Bob Denard, a former French Legionaire whose attempt to stage a coup in the Seychelles Islands in the seventies was foiled.