“Moving, revealing, and lovingly researched, this book is a must read, and a great read, for any of us whose forebears came from overseas—meaning just about all of us.” — Erik Larson
The author of the award-winning The Children’s Blizzard, David Laskin, returns with a remarkable true story of the immigrants who risked their lives fighting for America during the Great War.
In The Long Way Home, award-winning writer David Laskin traces the lives of a dozen men who left their childhood homes in Europe, journeyed through Ellis Island, and started over in a strange land—only to cross the Atlantic again in uniform when their adopted country entered the Great War.
Though they had known little of America outside of tight-knit ghettos and backbreaking labor, these foreign-born conscripts were rapidly transformed into soldiers, American soldiers, in the ordeal of war. Two of the men in this book won the Medal of Honor. Three died in combat. Those who survived were profoundly altered–and their heroic service reshaped their families and ultimately the nation itself.
Epic, inspiring, and masterfully written, this book is an unforgettable true story of the Great War, the world it remade, and the humble, loyal men who became Americans by fighting for America.
David Laskin is the author of The Children's Blizzard, winner of the Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award for nonfiction and the Washington State Book Award. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Smithsonian magazine. He lives in Seattle, Washington.
Table of Contents
Twelve Who Served xi
Introduction xv
Chapter 1 Old Countries 1
Chapter 2 Journeys 23
Chapter 3 Streets of Gold 44
Chapter 4 The Weak, the Broken, and the Mentally Crippled 65
Chapter 5 The World at War 79
Chapter 6 The Army of Forty-Three Languages 122
Chapter 7 I Go Where You Send Me 157
Chapter 8 July 4, 1918 173
Chapter 9 These Fought in Any Case 194
Chapter 10 The Jews and the Wops and the Dirty Irish Cops 221
Chapter 11 The Arc of Fire 242
Chapter 12 Breaking the Line 255
Chapter 13 Blanc Mont 271
Chapter 14 Why Should I Shoot Them? 296
Chapter 15 Postwar 312
Acknowledgments 351
Sources 359
Index 373
What People are Saying About This
Erik Larson
“Moving, revealing, and lovingly researched, this book is a must read, and a great read, for any of us whose forebears came from overseas-meaning just about all of us.”
From the Publisher
"[A] quietly absorbing glimpse of some of the brave soldiers who helped win WWI." —-Publishers Weekly
