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Books

With only one American veteran of World War I still alive and a five-year lag until centennial commemorations, that most horrific of conflicts has been practically forgotten. A new book by Peter N. Nelson tells the story of a group of soldiers in that war who “could not be forgotten because they were never fully known.”

They were the 15th Infantry Regiment of the New York National Guard, reconstituted as the 369th U.S. Infantry Regiment, and they were largely unknown in part because they fought for the French Army but mostly because they were black.

In “A More Unbending Battle: The Harlem Hellfighters’ Struggle for Freedom in W.W. I and Equality at Home” (Basic Civitas Books, $27.50), Mr. Nelson seeks to rectify history’s egregious oversight.

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