American Patriots by Gail Buckley - Book Report/Review Example

Gail Buckley authored two books The Hornes: An American Family, Knopf, 1986 which deals with the history of the author’s famous family members. This book turned out to be a National Bestseller. Another book called American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm was recently released which garnered much attention on the global front. The book deals with the lives of unsung military heroes who give their lives for protecting the ideals of America. Born in a privileged black family, Gail Buckley turned out to be rich, famous and politically influential.

Gail Buckley was not an exception to the racial discrimination that existed in United States of America and she successfully managed through it to gain a prominent position in the society. She has written for several news papers and magazines which includes Los Angeles Times, Vogue and the New York Daily News. Gail Buckley is a journalist and the daughter of the famous Lena Mary Calhoun Horne who was a popular American actress, singer and dancer. She was also a civil rights activist. After doing some movies, she changed her career route and became a night club and television performer.

Her book American Patriots: The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm focused on the history of the blacks’ involvement in the American military and how much they strived to protect America. The book dealt with several of the popular and serious subjects which includes stories about servicemen working for the cause of protecting the nation and racism which was rife during that period. The author has done justice to the subject by providing an interesting line of unknown information and facts about the unsung military heroes.

It especially deals with the contribution of black servicemen and women to a great extent. Through the book, Buckley manages to bring out the kind of racial discrimination that persisted both inside and outside the military service. The discrimination was even more obvious in the service front which is shown in the segregation of troops and ranking of the officers. From Crispus Attucks to Colin Powell, the book completely tracks all sorts of exploitation meted out to the soldiers of the black race.

The author manages to bring out the truth as to how the high ranking officials and administrators were reluctant in acknowledging the brave acts by the black soldier. In order to bring out the discrimination, Buckley comes out with the quote, "Unlike the black soldiers with whom he would 'never submit to fight,' [future Senator Robert C.] Byrd did not serve in the military in World War II". Many critics came out in praise of the book and consider it to be a top rated book that deals with history of African American in the military.

The soldiers took part in Revolutions, the World War I, the Indian Wars and other such crucial conflicts that took place in American history. They had fought for the American ideals with the sole determination that they belonged to the American community and should save their motherland from any sort of downfall. The brave and intelligent acts of many black soldiers have not been accounted for and the author has successfully gone through these untouched areas. Even in the selection and integration process of the army by President Truman, the black soldiers were not given any prominent position and they were left to feel unwelcome about the whole thing. If