American Volunteers for Service in Ethiopia

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In 1935 there were only two countries in Africa that were not considered colonies by one European power or another. So when Italy moved to attack Ethiopia, many African Americans felt that it was not just this one black nation under assault. What was under assault was the very notion that a free, independent black state could exist at all. And so they came to its defense. Now technically it was illegal for an American to sign up to fight on behalf of any other country while the United States wasn't involved in the fight. But hundreds of African American men nevertheless signed up.

An authoritarian ruler moves to invade a smaller country and take it for himself. People around the world rally to that country’s defense. European and American leaders grapple with how to stop the invasion and prevent a wider war. But this isn’t Russia and Ukraine in 2022. It’s Italy and Ethiopia in 1935. Rachel Maddow and Isaac-Davy Aronson explore what we can learn from the very different choices made decades ago, when the world faced a similar challenge.

Featuring:

Deborah Cohen, the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History at Northwestern University, and author of Last Call At The Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War.

Susan Pedersen, the Gouverneur Morris Professor of History at Columbia University, and author of The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire.

Anne Applebaum, staff writer at The Atlantic, and author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.