Seekers and Partisans : Americans Abroad in the Crisis Years, 1935-1941 / David Mayers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mayers, David, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Americans.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (456 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Seekers & Partisans

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

This book recounts the tales of individual Americans, some well-known and some not, who strove to understand their nation and its place in the world in the roiled years 1935-41. David Mayers identifies these individuals as 'seekers' and 'partisans.' Primarily disillusioned idealists, both on the left and right, they hurried from America to explore and be part of a different world. Among those featured are John Robinson, a Black aviator who in 1935 led the Ethiopian air force against the Italian invasion; Agnes Smedley, who joined the Chinese communists during the Sino-Japanese war; eminent Black civil rights theorist W. E. B. Du Bois; Helen Keller, an advocate of the seeing- and hearing-impaired; architect Philip Johnson; Ezra Pound, a lauded poet who championed Mussolini; and Anna Louise Strong, drawn to Stalin's USSR. The lives and stories of this diverse group shed light on the contested nature of American ambitions, aims, and national purpose, and destabilize what it means to be 'American.'

Contents:

Cover

Half-title page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Contents

List of Figures

Preface

Chronology, 1935-1941

1935

1936

1937

1938

1939

1940

1941

Introduction

Part I: Wars

Part II: Axis

Part III: Survival

Part I Wars

1 The Lure of Ethiopia

Invasion and Occupation

American Responses

The Brown Condor

2 Quixotic Calling

Civil War

Volunteers

African Americans: James Yates, Oliver Law, Salaria Kea

Jewish Americans: Henry Rubin, Alvah Bessie

From Nevada to Spain: Robert and Marion Merriman

3 Chinese Maelstrom

War and Diplomacy

Air War Adviser

Revolutionist

Part II Axis

4 Apologia for Mussolini

IL Duce!

Political Poet

Thus Spake Pound

5 Japan Forays

Race and Power Politics

International Color Line

To the Lighthouse

Peace Mission

6 Chasing after Strange Gods

Pestilential Days

Slouching Toward Berlin

Lamentations

Part III Survival

7 In Vichy France

Accommodation

Resistance

Rescue

8 Defense of the Islands

American Hesitation

Aviators

Brief Life

Secret Agent

9 Soviet Crucible

Nonaggression Pact to Armageddon

New World Arising

Upheavals

Diplomacy and War

10 Coming Home

Fitting In

War and After in American Ithaca

Odysseys since 2000

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Feb 2026).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-009-62985-9

1-009-62984-0

OCLC:

1574115320