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Kevin J. McNamara is an associate scholar of the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia, PA, and an assistant dean at Drexel University. McNamara earned a BA in journalism and a MA in international politics from Temple University as well as a certificate in national security law from the University of Virginia Law School. McNamara has been a contributing editor to Orbis: A Journal of World Affairs and has been published in The American Spectator, Commentary, Defense News, National Review Online, Society, and The World & I, as well as in newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Detroit News, Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Seattle Times. His work has been translated into Chinese and cited by the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs and a US Commission on Broadcasting to the People s Republic of China. He was awarded fellowships and grants by the Earhart and Tawani foundations to acquire and translate the first hand accounts of the Czechoslovak Legion that form the basis of this book.
An epic story unknown even to many World War I history buffs...With admirable energy [McNamara] has assembled the story by piecing together archival records and the memoirs of the gallant men who served in the rejuvenated Czech Legion during the fateful spring and summer of 1918...A fascinating narrative. --Wall Street Journal Extraordinary... McNamara, an impressive storyteller armed with a treasure of documents only recently available, ably narrates the remarkable feats of these men who fought every inch of the way... A fantastic addition to the shelves of World War I histories. --Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review In this captivating narrative history, foreign policy scholar McNamara reveals the obscure yet grand story of how a small, motley, and hastily organized army ushered in the founding of the nation of Czechoslovakia. --Publishers Weekly, Starred Review A valuable story that is relatively unknown and understood in the West... McNamara's work presents a vital first entry that opens the doors on this integral part of World War I history and the shaping of the Soviet-influenced Eastern European political and social fabric. --Library Journal Kevin J. McNamara highlights this bizarre and heroic story...Much of his extensive source material is only recently available, and he uses it well. The brave misadventures of the Czech Legion deserve the wider recognition this fascinating history should provide. --Shelf Awareness The saga of the Czech-Slovak Legion is one of the great unknown stories of the twentieth century. Kevin J. McNamara brings these fighters back to life by presenting their firsthand account of their travails in World War I and the Russian Civil War. His engaging and valuable work should be required reading for students of the period--and for anyone interested in stories of hardship and heroism. --Max Boot, author of Invisible Armies Kevin J. McNamara is a gifted storyteller and a well-schooled foreign policy analyst who has produced a fascinating work of history and adventure. Dreams of a Great Small Nation shows how an entire country was created from whole cloth amidst the chaos of war and revolution by a very small number of determined individuals. --John F. Lehman, former secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission The story is inherently dramatic and also important, since it was to rescue the legion that President Wilson reluctantly agreed to commit US troops to join the British in the Archangel-Murmansk region, thereby giving rise to the myth of American intervention in the Russian Civil War for the alleged purpose of destroying the so-called Soviet government. --Richard Pipes, author of The Russian Revolution and Russia under the Bolshevik Regime
