Today in the archives, I found Edward K. Barsky's unpublished manuscript and read the first few chapters on his personal accounts of Spain. I really enjoyed reading the novel and wish I had more time to sit down and read the entire thing this afternoon. Since I am currently considering applying to Medical school and becoming a doctor, his story was even more interesting to me. He writes beautifully on the art of medicine, beginning in the forword when he says: " The suffering of other human beings has come so near to us that we can no longer be indifferent; we must put our souls in their soul’s stead.” In Chapter One, he reflects on his response to seeing a man with his entails falling out, recalling " I felt blinding anger against creation; this man ought to have been unconscious, instead he was so sensitized that he read my soul.”

At one point in Chapter One, Dr. Barsky writes about his reasons for going to Spain. He remembers he was moved by the Spanish Republic's desire for a "modest liberty," modest in that it was a democracy won by legal means. This he contrasts with the rather brazen and immodest American revolution, which called for radical changes in the meaning of liberty. This comment leads me to believe that Dr. Barsky wasn't a radical Communist, although he was a member of the Communist Party of America. He was more of a moderate, American Communist who joined the party as a resort for desperately needed social assistance during the Great Depression, not because he fervently believed in a revolution of the social class structure. He wanted to fight for a more "modest liberty."

When I read Barsky's comment further on in Chapter One that the International Brigade men spoke so many different languages, I thought again about the meaning of this integration of different nationalities, in New York, in America, in the International Brigades, and in the world at large as we entered an international modern age of diplomacy, cooperation, and conflict. Can the seemingly perfect balance between nationalism and internationalism demonstrated by the International Brigades be attainable world-wide? If this balance is attained, will there be peace? How does this balance shape an American national identity? How do the American International Brigade volunteers contribute to this national identity?

I just started on Chapter Four, "A Soldier's Story," in which Barksy relates the story of one of the Spanish Republican soldiers. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the manuscript. So far I have found many moving passages. I have also gotten a better understanding of the perspective of a moderate Communist in Spain, which can be useful in my research on the Communist Party of America.