The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II

The OLLI Distinguished Speakers Series presents

Stephen R. Platt

The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II

Thursday, June 5, 2025 at 7:00 p.m. ET

Online via Zoom

THE RAIDER is the first authoritative biography of forgotten World War II icon Evans Carlson, secret confidant of FDR, commander of America’s first modern special forces battalion, and one of the most decorated, legendary, and controversial officers of his time. After embedding with Mao’s communist forces during the Sino-Japanese War, Carlson trained his own Marine battalion to fight with Chinese guerilla tactics and dedicated the rest of his life to bridging the cultural divide between the U.S. and China. His wartime heroics in the Pacific propelled him to fame—he was the subject of a Hollywood movie, a household name, and introduced the term “gung-ho” to the English language. But his reputation was destroyed during the McCarthy Era after he was accused of being a communist radical. THE RAIDER is a stunning account of Evans Carlson’s forgotten life and legacy; through Carlson, the book presents a WWII history that spans the U.S., China, and the Pacific, revealing the root of geopolitical tensions between Chinese communists and nationalists, mainland China and Taiwan, and the U.S. and China today. Learn more about the book here.

Stephen R. Platt is an award-winning historian of China and the West whose books include Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom (Knopf, 2012), which won the Cundill History Prize, and Imperial Twilight (Knopf, 2018), which was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and holds a PhD in History from Yale. He lives with his family in Northampton, MA.

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Ticket information:

Admission is $10 for OLLI at BCC members and $15 for the general public.

Admission is free for students, staff and faculty from Berkshire Community College, MCLA, and Williams; youth 17 and under, and those holding WIC, EBT/SNAP, or ConnectorCare cards.