Sources: African American War Heroes

African American War Heroes. Ed. By James B. Martin. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2014. 203 pages. acid free $89 (ISBN: 978-1-61069-365-3). Ebook available (978-1-61069-366-0), call for pricing.

James B. Martin, Associate Dean U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, editor of African American War Heroes, presents a biographical dictionary in which 80 African American men (79) and women (1—Harriet Tubman) have been "…chosen to recognize specific combat actions that resulted in recognition for heroism." ("Preface," xii). Each of the war heroes profiled in this reference work have been awarded one or more military medals for valor save for three whose actions predate our nation's medal system. Still, inclusion in African American War Heroes is highly selective. Of the eighty-seven African Americans awarded the nation's highest honor fifty-four combat veterans are profiled.

African American War Heroes is arranged in alphabetical order according to personal name. A fact box preceding each biography provides at-a-glance information that includes vital statistics, branch of service, arena of conflict, age at time of award, but not the title of the award or awards conveying war hero status. This is a regrettable omission the more so given the biographical dictionary's alphabetical-by-name arrangement. True, the names of those who received specific military honors are listed in the volume's index under the title of each military award but this presupposes a familiarity with these honors (Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star with Valor Device, Legion of Honor) which students, for whom this reference work is most suitable, may not possess.

Each biographical sketch is signed by one of the five other contributors, three of whom share with the editor posting at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. Each essay focuses in detail on the heroic actions for which the subject received recognition, in a number of cases retroactively and/or posthumously. Black and white photographs illustrate some biographies. All entries provide a list of further readings which may include published books, journal articles, newspaper articles, and web sites with date of access noted. A concluding six-page general bibliography brings these further readings together.

An introductory essay presents an overview of African Americans in the nation's military with an emphasis on combat history in line with the volume's war hero focus. The volume also contains ten sidebars throughout the text (for example "Tuskegee Airmen" on pages 76-77) each of which contributes information about African American participation in the armed forces. Although a color picture of the Medal of Honor appears on the cover of African American War Heroes an additional sidebar devoted to explaining U.S. military decorations in their order of precedence with a brief history of each accompanied by an illustration would not have been unwelcome.

Unlike African American War Heroes, Charles W. Hanna's African American Recipients of the Medal of Honor; a Biographical Dictionary, Civil War through Vietnam War (McFarland & Company, 2002) is comprehensive rather than selective and is arranged chronologically and then alphabetically by name. Rather than summarizing the combat details surrounding the Medal of Honor as African American War Heroes does, Hanna's work quotes the text of each combat veteran's Medal of Honor citation. Hanna's work also includes the several African American seamen who were awarded a Medal of Honor, and in one case two, during peacetime, a practice since disallowed. Although Hanna traces the history of the Medal of Honor in his work's introduction he too presupposes that the Medal's appearance is common knowledge or may be deduced from black and white photographs of Honor recipients wearing theirs.

Catherine Reef's African Americans in the Military (Facts on File, 2004), differs from both Martin and Hanna by expanding coverage to include African American participation in both combatant and non-combatant roles and by defining military service more broadly so as to include a spy, a journalist, and a civilian interpreter. Reef's more expansive approach to her subject results in greater coverage of African American women in the military which neither Martin's nor Hanna's more focused works permit.

African American War Heroes is suitable for public and school libraries. Academic libraries, especially those whose collections already include Hanna's and Reef's reference works, may purchase if comprehensiveness is a collection development policy. Otherwise, African American War Heroes may be considered supplemental rather than necessary.—Sally Moffitt, Reference Librarian and Bibliographer for Anthropology, History, Philosophy, Political Science; Africana, Asian, Judaic, Latin American, and Women's Gender and Sexuality studies; Cohen Enrichment Collection, Langsam Library, University of Cincinnati, Ohio