Legacy

by Harry Fisher

Second Edition. Harry Fisher’s gripping memoir draws us into his extraordinary life and makes us feel a part of it. Organizing with his childhood buddies was a matter of survival in the orphan home where he grew up. The lessons he learned there stayed with him on the mean streets of 1920's New York City; on the hunger marches of the Great Depression; in the labor battles that ultimately brought American workers weekends, the minimum wage, and Social Security; on a sea voyage to Africa, Asia, and Europe with the Merchant Marines; and then in the fight against fascism, first in the trenches of Spain and later aboard an Army Air Force B-26 bomber. An activist alongside a younger generation in the 1960s, he continued to fight for peace and justice right up to March 22, 2003, when, on a march protesting the start of the Iraq war, his heart finally gave out at the age of 92. This honest, first-person account of one man's life offers a revealing glimpse into 20th-century America and particularly into America's 20th-century left. It stands as both a testament to an entire generation of passionate and committed agents of change and as a guide for a new generation of American progressives.

280 pages, Paperback

First published April 17, 2011

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every bit of this book.

[Martha Twain]

This book is an extraordinary true story of growing up poor in the 20th century; finding one's role as a righter of wrongs; "fighter" for peace. Harry Fisher went from life in a repressive orphanage to organize on the streets of New York to volunteering to fight fascisim in Spain to working for the Soviet news agency to the post-Soviet era. He is a wonderful story teller; champion of human rights; and the book tells it all with charm and wit. Once you start reading you won't put it down until the end. The book was finished just before Harry died in his 93rd year at the first demonstration opposing our attack on Iraq in 2003. His children brought it to life just a few months ago.