Americans in a World at War
Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper
Published on 29. November 2023
Book
Hardback
560 pages
978-0-19-932200-8 (ISBN)
Description
A vivid narrative of an ill-fated Pan American flight during World War II that captures the dramatic backstories of its passengers and, through them, the impact of Americans' global connections.
On February 21, 1943, Pan American Airways' celebrated seaplane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from New York's Marine Air Terminal and island-hopped its way across the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving at Lisbon the following evening, it crashed in the Tagus River, killing twenty-four of its thirty-nine passengers and crew. Americans in a World at War traces the backstories of seven worldly Americans aboard that plane, their personal histories, their politics, and the paths that led them toward war.
Combat soldiers made up only a small fraction of the millions of Americans, both in and out of uniform, who scattered across six continents during the Second World War. This book uncovers a surprising history of American noncombatants abroad in the years leading into the twentieth century's most consequential conflict. Long before GIs began storming beaches and liberating towns, Americans had forged extensive political, economic, and personal ties to other parts of the world. These deep and sometimes contradictory engagements, which preceded the bombing of Pearl Harbor, would shape and in turn be transformed by the US war effort.
The intriguing biographies of the Yankee Clipper's passengers--among them an Olympic-athlete-turned-export salesman, a Broadway star, a swashbuckling pilot, and two entrepreneurs accused of trading with the enemy--upend conventional American narratives about World War II. As their travels take them from Ukraine, France, Spain, Panama, Cuba, and the Philippines to Java, India, Australia, Britain, Egypt, the Soviet Union, and the Belgian Congo, among other hot spots, their movements defy simple boundaries between home front and war front. Americans in a World at War offers fresh perspectives on a transformative period of US history and global connections during the "American Century."
On February 21, 1943, Pan American Airways' celebrated seaplane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from New York's Marine Air Terminal and island-hopped its way across the Atlantic Ocean. Arriving at Lisbon the following evening, it crashed in the Tagus River, killing twenty-four of its thirty-nine passengers and crew. Americans in a World at War traces the backstories of seven worldly Americans aboard that plane, their personal histories, their politics, and the paths that led them toward war.
Combat soldiers made up only a small fraction of the millions of Americans, both in and out of uniform, who scattered across six continents during the Second World War. This book uncovers a surprising history of American noncombatants abroad in the years leading into the twentieth century's most consequential conflict. Long before GIs began storming beaches and liberating towns, Americans had forged extensive political, economic, and personal ties to other parts of the world. These deep and sometimes contradictory engagements, which preceded the bombing of Pearl Harbor, would shape and in turn be transformed by the US war effort.
The intriguing biographies of the Yankee Clipper's passengers--among them an Olympic-athlete-turned-export salesman, a Broadway star, a swashbuckling pilot, and two entrepreneurs accused of trading with the enemy--upend conventional American narratives about World War II. As their travels take them from Ukraine, France, Spain, Panama, Cuba, and the Philippines to Java, India, Australia, Britain, Egypt, the Soviet Union, and the Belgian Congo, among other hot spots, their movements defy simple boundaries between home front and war front. Americans in a World at War offers fresh perspectives on a transformative period of US history and global connections during the "American Century."
Reviews / Votes
Blower shows us the Second World War from wholly novel and thought-provoking points of view. Recounting the doomed transatlantic flight of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper in 1943, Blower re-creates the strikingly worldly view of American civilians borne aloft and into a global cataclysm. Blower's original research and powerful prose carry us along on the journey, making us feel as if we know these people and allowing us to worry about their fates as if their story were happening right in front of us. * Eric Rauchway, author of Winter War: Hoover, Roosevelt, and the First Clash Over the New Deal * In this brilliant, creative, and compelling work, Brooke Blower brings readers into World War II through the lives of travelers on an ill-fated transatlantic flight, allowing readers to see the world on the edge of war. The author's beautiful writing and astonishing range of sources make this book a model of the integration of biography and global history. * Mary L. Dudziak, author of War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences * By expertly blending the international and the personal, Brooke Blower gives us a new and fascinating way to understand American reactions to the Second World War. This powerfully written and originally researched book shows the complexities and contradictions of America's rise to global superpower. Americans in a World at War is a prime example of the new and exciting generation of scholarly analyses of World War II. * Michael S. Neiberg, author of When France Fell: The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Relationship * It's a satisfyingly fresh perspective on the era. * Publishersweekly.com * Ambitious and compelling. The book offers new insights into the history of global war, while also generating a path for historians seeking to broaden the field of diplomatic history. Blower's meticulous research spans continents and types of sources, and she has adopted an innovative narrative style that weaves together collective biographies with the history of a plane crash...Blower takes this one moment-amidst a sea of tragic wartime losses- and explains the spaces between combat and home front...Blower has provided a fresh way to understand the complexity of American lives in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. * Tammy Proctor, H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews * This is an unusual book by any standard, well worth the attention of any World War II scholar or aficionado... It is a 'you-are-there' tour de force...Your reviewer cannot say enough good things about the quality of the writing and the research underlying it...The body of the work moves effortlessly, which makes Americans in a World at War such a pleasure to read. * Nicholas Reynolds, Journal of the American Military Past * Americans in a World at War, is both ambitious and compelling. The book offers new insights into the history of global war, while also generating a path for historians seeking to broaden the field of diplomatic history. Blower's meticulous research spans continents and types of sources, and she has adopted an innovative narrative style that weaves together collective biographies with the history of a plane crash... It will be a book that I return to as a reference when I teach or think about the forces shaping the transnational world of the past century and a half. * Tammy Proctor, H-Diplo * Blower has written a poignant book based on the February 21, 1943, crash of a Pan American seaplane in Lisbon, Portugal...Blower is to be praised for her archival work and complex genealogy studies. Her abilities to mix biography with history will keep readers on edge. An excellent contribution to 20th century US history. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. * Choice * An excellent contribution to 20th-century US history. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. * Choice * This exhaustively researched, creatively structured, and superbly written book provides an altogether different history of the war and the way it entangled the lives of American private citizens. * Andrew Johnstone, American Historical Review *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
50 black and white halftones
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 279 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
953 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-932200-8 (9780199322008)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Brooke L. Blower
Americans in a World at War
Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper
E-Book
08/2023
OUP eBook
€26.49
Available for download
Brooke L. Blower
Americans in a World at War
Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper
E-Book
08/2023
OUP eBook
€26.49
Available for download
Person
Brooke L. Blower is Associate Professor of History at Boston University. She is the author of the award-winning Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the World Wars (OUP, 2011) as well as the co-editor of The Familiar Made Strange: American Icons and Artifacts after the Transnational Turn and volume 3 of the Cambridge History of America and the World. She is a founding editor of the journal Modern American History.
Content
Preface
Cast of Characters
Maps
Note on Names and Language
Introduction: Into the Vortex
Part I: 1914-1920
1. Balloon Work: George hopes to fight in France
2. Autumn Flies: Tamara survives civil war in Ukraine
3. Blood of the Earth: Harry learns the oil business in Romania
4. Tramp Trade: Manuel watches the Great War tear Spain apart
Interlude: New York to Bermuda: Sully greets his passengers
Part II: 1920-1939
5. Free Lunches: Frank competes in the Amsterdam Olympics
6. Unfinished People: Tamara struggles in the Bronx
7. The Silk-Stocking Revolt: George runs for Congress against the New Deal
8. Twelve Mile River: Ben falls in love with Roosevelt's Washington
9. Woman and Bird: Tamara finds fame on Broadway
10. Tea-Time: Frank moves to the Philippines
11. Stolen Soil: Manuel's schemes reach Mexico and Cuba
Interlude: Bermuda to the Azores: Sully flies past the Point of No Return
Part III: 1939-1942
12. Three-Minute Channel: Ben endures the London Blitz
13. Back to Porridge: Frank contends with the fall of the Netherlands
14. Ship's Stores: Manuel is arrested for smuggling
15. Easy Dish: Frank braves the invasion of Java
16. Red Mississippi: Ben reports from Russia
17. Hold Your Hats: George joins the army
Interlude: The Azores to Portugal: Sully prepares for arrival
Part IV: 1942-1943
18. Patent Denials: Harry manages his company's German ties
19. Dangerous Acts: Tamara volunteers to entertain troops
20. The Charter Offer: Manuel makes a bargain
21. Small Potatoes: Frank broadcasts from Australia
22. Acid Test: Ben witnesses the Quit India campaign
23. Hot Questions: George testifies before Congress
Conclusion: A Strange and Frightening World
Appendix: The Yankee Clipper's Last Passenger Manifest
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Cast of Characters
Maps
Note on Names and Language
Introduction: Into the Vortex
Part I: 1914-1920
1. Balloon Work: George hopes to fight in France
2. Autumn Flies: Tamara survives civil war in Ukraine
3. Blood of the Earth: Harry learns the oil business in Romania
4. Tramp Trade: Manuel watches the Great War tear Spain apart
Interlude: New York to Bermuda: Sully greets his passengers
Part II: 1920-1939
5. Free Lunches: Frank competes in the Amsterdam Olympics
6. Unfinished People: Tamara struggles in the Bronx
7. The Silk-Stocking Revolt: George runs for Congress against the New Deal
8. Twelve Mile River: Ben falls in love with Roosevelt's Washington
9. Woman and Bird: Tamara finds fame on Broadway
10. Tea-Time: Frank moves to the Philippines
11. Stolen Soil: Manuel's schemes reach Mexico and Cuba
Interlude: Bermuda to the Azores: Sully flies past the Point of No Return
Part III: 1939-1942
12. Three-Minute Channel: Ben endures the London Blitz
13. Back to Porridge: Frank contends with the fall of the Netherlands
14. Ship's Stores: Manuel is arrested for smuggling
15. Easy Dish: Frank braves the invasion of Java
16. Red Mississippi: Ben reports from Russia
17. Hold Your Hats: George joins the army
Interlude: The Azores to Portugal: Sully prepares for arrival
Part IV: 1942-1943
18. Patent Denials: Harry manages his company's German ties
19. Dangerous Acts: Tamara volunteers to entertain troops
20. The Charter Offer: Manuel makes a bargain
21. Small Potatoes: Frank broadcasts from Australia
22. Acid Test: Ben witnesses the Quit India campaign
23. Hot Questions: George testifies before Congress
Conclusion: A Strange and Frightening World
Appendix: The Yankee Clipper's Last Passenger Manifest
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index