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Inspired by the story of a distant cousin, investigative journalist Julia Harte explores the rich and hidden history of American citizens who fought against imperialism and dictatorship abroad, only to be excoriated at home.
One night in 1940, a group of Stalinists opened fire on Leon Trotsky's compound in Mexico City. In the end, the victim was not Trotsky, but his bodyguard: a young American named Sheldon Harte. For investigative journalist Julia Harte, the quest to uncover the truth about Sheldon—her father's second cousin—was just the beginning of discovering a wider, hidden history of Americans who traveled abroad to join revolutionary liberation movements—and in return were labeled radicals by the U.S. government.
From Americans who fought in the 19th-century Greek revolution to modern-day solidarity volunteers in Palestine, Harte chronicles two centuries of Americans whose support for international causes at odds with U.S. geopolitical interests put them in their own government's crosshairs. The surprising characters she profiles include African American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War who battled bigotry and McCarthyism upon returning home; a Jewish American woman who helped the Black Panthers establish an international wing in post-independence Algeria; a teenage activist who organized Filipinos against the repressive Marcos regime; the forgotten Native American contingent in Nicaragua's Sandinista-Contra conflict; and many more. These figures held various ideologies and beliefs, yet each in their own way sought to fight oppression and saw their actions as grounded in American ideals of equality, self-government, and human rights. Meanwhile, U.S. officials responded to them with surveillance, blacklists, travel bans, and prosecution.
Through meticulous research and on-the-ground reporting, Harte brings her subjects to life in deeply personal detail, exploring not only their heroic sides but also the tensions between their actions and ideals. Interrogating how and why activists were branded as threats by an expanding security state, Harte asks what makes a 'radical'. In lively narrative and rich detail, this eye-opening book reveals the long history of transnational radicalism as an irrepressibly American tradition.
"Americans Without Bordersis a powerful and beautifully crafted history of the Americans who took their ideals beyond national boundaries and paid the price for it. Julia Harte combines rigorous research with elegant, immersive storytelling to trace a lineage of activists who fought for liberation movements around the world, even as they were surveilled, marginalized, or condemned at home. With striking clarity and emotional depth, Harte reveals the enduring tension between America's founding principles and its political realities. This is an illuminating, thought-provoking, and deeply human book—one that reshapes how we think about dissent and patriotism." —Reza Aslan, author of An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville
"Julia Harte's narrative about two centuries of idealistic Americans who enlisted in conflicts around the world is rich in insight and original stories and expressed with great passion and flashes of wit. On this captivating but little-known history, Americans Without Borders is a book without equals." —Michael Kazin, author of What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party
"Julia Harte's group biography of American radicals abroad is written with lyricism, moral intelligence, and an acute awareness of the complexities of political engagement in other people's political struggles. A book about solidarity, commitment, and the passion for justice, it could hardly feel more urgent." —Adam Shatz, author ofThe Rebel's Clinic: The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon
"Through finely drawn portraits and strong reporting, Julia Harte chronicles these American citizens' journeys to risk their lives in the struggles of faraway peoples—and reveals how the United States policed their idealism more than the tyrannies they resisted." —Sheila Coronel, author of The Rulemakers: How the Wealthy and Well-Born Dominate Congress
"At a time when America's imperial legacies have come home in the form of authoritarianism, it is gratifying to read Julia Harte's sharp and moving accounts of Americans who crossed borders and risked everything to fight for their ideals. The stories she finds are sometimes inspiring and sometimes troubling. All make for urgent reading." —Jonathan M. Katz, author of Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire