The Great War And The Crisis Of American Nationality

The unit was officially named the first United States volunteer cavalry, but after many disreguarded nicknames, they eventually became known as "Roosevelt's Rough Riders." The volunteers that formed the rough riders came from four states, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Theodore Roosevelt used his political influence to outfit his regiment with all the latest weapons and uniforms designed to set them apart from the rest of the army. The rough riders encountered their first problem before even leaving the US for Cuba. General Shafter ordered the departure of the rough riders early before there was sufficient space for all the troops, equiptment, and horses. One fourth of the men in the regiment were left behind as the troops set off for Cuban shores, and virtually all the horses and mules were left behind as well. The regiment was then struck by a series of deaths caused by malaria and yellow fever also before hitting Cuban shores, sending the men into Cuba with a low morale before the fighting even started. Leaving the regiment without most of their horses which they were trained to used also contributed to the low morale of the unit. The band of soldiers although having to suffer through unbearable heat, millions of misquitoes, and scorpions, only had to wait 2 short days to see combat. They were one of many regiments at the assault of the Spanish Fortification at Las Guasimas. However they recieved many praises for their

The Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, commanded by Robert Gould Shaw, was one of the most famous regiments of black soldiers. Among its members were two of Frederick

The Harlem Hellfighters were able to make a name for themselves in World War One. The African-American Hellfighters, based out of New York City since 1913, were some of the first US soldiers to fight on the front lines. They were officially known as the 369th Infantry Regiment (“Harlem…”). The Harlem Hellfighters received their nickname from the Germans for being from Harlem, New York and having to go to “Hell” to fight a war. This regiment had approximately 370,000 soldiers.

In the United States World War II has been one of the most remembered wars of all time. Acclaimed historian Ronald Takaki asserts that for many Americans, World War II was fought for a “double victory”: on the battlefront as well as on the home front. Takaki’s book Double Victory: A Multicultural History of America in World War II reminds the audience that there was much, much more happening at home and on the frontlines during World War II than in the battlefield. Takaki presents a strong central argument; it illuminates the incongruity of America's own oppressive behavior toward minorities at home, even while proclaiming the role in World War II as a fight against oppression abroad. It also pays tribute to the determination and perseverance of ethnically diverse Americans in their two-front war against prejudice and fascism. In addition Takaki tells the story through the lives of ethnically diverse Americans: Japanese Americans who felt betrayed by their own country when families were sent to internment camps; For African Americans, the war for freedom had to be fought in their country’s own backyard; a Navajo code talker who uses his complex native language to transmit secret battle messages and confound the Japanese, while his people are living in desperate poverty on a government reservation. Their dual struggle to defeat the enemy abroad and overcome racism at home gives the Double Victory its title and its texture.

officials eventually began to recruit these internees into the American army. Not only was WWII a war about political alliances and geographical sovereignty, but it was also a war about race and racial superiority throughout the world. Propagating this idea, Dower (1986) argues, “World War Two contributed immeasurably not only to a sharpened awareness of racism within the United States, but also to more radical demands and militant tactics on the part of the victims of discrimination” (War Without Mercy: p.5). In elucidating the racial motivations and fallout from WWII, Dower helps one realize the critical role that race and racial politics played during the war and are still at play in our contemporary world. An analysis of this internment process reveals how the ultimate goal of the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans and the United States’ subsequent occupation of Japan was to essentially “brainwash” the Japanese race into demonstrating allegiance to America.

The U.S. Army, given the size of the force, was pressed by American public alert, and even more by the develops of Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt, a New York official, and his First Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, a collection of western cowboys and eastern elites recognized as the “Rough Riders” (Robert, 1993, p. 74).

The equipped power required more work or, as African-American warrior James Henry Gooding put it with annoying effect, "more conspicuous help for its vivacious throat." By 1865 around one tenth of each Union officer and sailors were African- American, and around 80% of these started from the slave states. Dull troopers fight with imperative valor. Exactly when gotten they went up against extensively more discernible mercilessness from Confederate warriors than did their white confidants. Union affiliation, in any case, was no affirmation of for all intents and purposes indistinguishable treatment. Decrease warriors in the Union prepared power served in separated troops, as often as possible as possible tested humble assignments, and got cleave down pay—$10 dependably to white officers' $13. In this letter to President Lincoln, Gooding, making in the energy out of himself and his related reduce warriors, attempted these

Double Victory: Multicultural History of America in World War 11”, is a book written by Ronald Takaki was published in the early 2000s. Double Victory shows the wartime responses from many ethnic backgrounds as well as the war at home against racism and the war abroad against fascism. Takaki also shows the roles of; African-Americans, Native-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Asian-Americans, during the war and the sacrifices made for their country. In Double Victory, Takaki introduces different revisionist arguments that I will be discussing in this essay along with the connection it has to previous knowledge of the World War II era, and the relation it has to the understanding of the expansion and contraction of citizenship and equality throughout history.

Long after the war for independence had been fought, such literature continued to function as the means by which racial ideologies were reflected, reinforced and reconstructed. Takaki's survey of nineteenth-century white prejudice towards those both native and foreign to America reveals how national identity ultimately emerged out of a national literature.

Historically, the United State is not a color-blinded nation. Racial oppression, segregation, and discrimination have powerfully shaped American history from its beginnings. During the World War II, a complex moment in American history, racism powered by the war tremendously influenced the lives of minority groups, race relations, and institutional system. As one of the greatest black American writers, Chester Himes, in his novel “If He Hollers Let Him Go,” reveals how American society in wartime uses patriotism as an excuse to rationalize white racism and enforce power to oppress minorities through criminalizing them and depriving them of their labor opportunities and social opportunities in order to prevent them from moving upward. In this

This made the 369th the only unit to serve in those lines longer than any other American unit, and as previously stated they were less trained as other regiments. Black soldiers were regarded as some of the strongest fighters during the Great War, so much so that the Germans had various names for them. The 369th Infantry were called the Harlem Hellfighters by German forces. The 369th was named this because of their relentless fighting style and where they come from, Harlem. Other regiments were referred as Blutlustige Schwarzmänner meaning bloodthirsty black men. The Germans were scared of these men, so much so, that they airdropped leaflets over the 369th’

As stated earlier, the Harlem Hellfighters came back from WWI as one of the most-decorated American units, but their journey to that point was not an easy one. Originally the 15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment, the Harlem Hellfighters were an all-black infantry unit during WWI. Their name was changed to the 369th Infantry during the war. The infantry, although properly trained for battle, began the war with labor jobs rather than seeing the battlefield. They mostly spent their time unloading ships. While in America, they never got a chance to see battle because white soldiers in other regiments refused to fight with African Americans. In an NPR article titled, “The Harlem Hellfighters: Fighting Racism in

Often when we speak of the struggle for America we think of the Revolutionary War, or even of the Civil War. We reminisce of tales of bravado and of cunning, of George Washington and our country’s forefathers leading the revolution against the British and of pursuing the dream of a nation free from tyranny. But often the tyranny that this new nation itself took part in is largely glossed over. It is largely accepted that America unfairly pushed out the Native Americans from their homelands, but the means in which they did so was crueler than the British tyranny that we rebelled against. In Colin Calloway’s The Shawnees and the War for America, we learn of a different struggle for America, we learn of the plight of the Native Americans

In the document “W.E.B. Du Bois, The Returning Soldiers (1919)”, displays an African American marvel figure of the twentieth century America encouraging blacks to enlist in the army for World WarⅠ. However, due to the circumstances for African Americans being discriminated by society in the early twentieth century, Du Bois argued military service would claim equal citizenship. Conversely, African Americans were not granted privilege thus resulting with Du Bois to issue an indictment of returning black soldiers in order to combat the endeavor for racial justice. Moreover, after his compelling proposition, it portrays America’s infringement history. Furthermore, in the document Du Bois elaborates the reason why African American soldiers should

This book withholds eight true stories entailing American men’s courage in fighting for their country. It contains no real names, just real stories. The book spans from 1776 to 2007 including the Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War II, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War and the Iraq War. The first account is that of a spy of General George Washington’s. This man was a school teacher when the Revolution began, but felt he needed to fight for freedom. He started at the bottom just as part of the militia This man saw many men in his unit die in battle and due to diseases such as influenza. As we continued to fight, his commanding officers saw him as being capable to blend in behind the enemy lines. He became a spy and worked under General George