Americans in a World at War: Intimate Histories from the Crash of Pan Am's Yankee Clipper

During World War II, a Pan American flight, the Yankee Clipper, crashed in the Tagus River, killing 24 of its 39 passengers and crew. Americans in a World at War explores the backstories of seven worldly Americans aboard the plane, revealing a surprising history of American noncombatants abroad in the years leading up to the conflict. The passengers' biographies challenge conventional American narratives about World War II, showing how their travels defy boundaries between the home front and the war front.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 512 pages
Publication date: 29 November 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

On February 21, 1943, Pan American Airways celebrated the 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 simplification. The book also explores the impact of the war on American society, examining how it altered the course of American history and culture. It sheds light on the experiences of American soldiers and civilians alike, from the hardships of rationing and displacement to the triumphs of victory and the challenges of rebuilding. Ultimately, Americans in a World at War offers a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the role that Americans played in the Second World War and the lasting impact that the conflict had on the world.

Weight: 958g
Dimension: 168 x 246 x 38 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780199322008