Comrades and Commissars.

Comrades and Commissars

Cecil D. Eby

Pennsylvania State University Press

820 North University Avenue, Suite C, University Park, PA 16802

0271029102, $39.95 www.psupress.org 1-800-326-9180

Written by retired Professor of English Cecil D. Eby, Comrades and Commissars: The Lincoln Battalion in the Spanish Civil War is a fascinating history of 2,800 American fighters who formed a Battalion to fight for Generalissimo Francisco Franco and his right-wing nationalists against the Republican government of Spain during the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930's. Building upon Eby's previous study published in 1969, "Between the Bullet and the Lie", Comrades and Commissars draws from additional data that Eby gathered in recent decades, including the Lincoln Battalion archives that have been hidden in a Moscow storeroom for sixty years. These papers shed light on some of the most provocative questions concerning the Battalion, including which Americans were persecuted or even executed by the brigade commissariat. An in-depth reference, composed by an author with a solid reputation for expertise, balance, and objectivity on the topic, Comrades and Commissars is a welcome addition to world and military history reference shelves.