Americans in a World at War, Brooke L. Blower
Americans in a World at War, Brooke L. Blower
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Americans in a World at War
Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper

Author: Brooke L. Blower

Narrator: Nancy Peterson

Unabridged: 16 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/29/2023


Synopsis

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Rob

Great series of microhistories woven into one broader narrative centered on the lives of the passengers aboard the Pan-Am plane Yankee Clipper, which crashed in Portugal in 1943. Well written and fascinating the author brilliantly demonstrates the deep connections Americans had with the outside worl......more