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The Airlift by Joseph Pearson

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Summary

A unique and textured portrait of a city under siege, through the eyes of those who were there

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The Airlift by Joseph Pearson

‘A thrilling portrait of the Berlin Airlift as seen through the eyes of those who lived through it ’ - J.M. Tyree, editor of Film Quarterly

In this captivating account of the Berlin Airlift, Joseph Pearson tells the forgotten story of a group of airmen who, in 1948–49, just years after bombing Berlin in the Second World War, returned to the skies. This time they risked their lives to drop chocolate, not bombs. Meanwhile, German citizens looked upwards not with dread and hatred but with hope and admiration.

The Airlift is not your standard military history. Drawing on first-hand interviews and untapped sources from both German and Anglo-American archives, Pearson interweaves personal tales into an extraordinary story: an American pilot crashing in Soviet territory; a Jewish photographer struggling to reconcile with the Germans; the 17,000 women who built Tegel Airport; Cambridge University actors performing in the ruins for British intelligence; Hollywood star Montgomery Clift filming at Tempelhof Airport; and a Berlin girl trying to outrun the boys reaching for chocolate.

Through this deeply human lens, Pearson offers crucial historical insight into how lasting new battlelines were formed. The Berlin Airlift didn’t just supply a city; it wrote the playbook of the Cold War and continues to influence Western thinking and diplomacy with Russia to this day.

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Dr JOSEPH PEARSON was born in Canada, studied at Middlebury College in Vermont and has a doctorate in Modern History from the University of Cambridge. He taught at Columbia University and currently lectures at the Barenboim-Said Akademie and New York University in Berlin. He is the author of My Grandfather’s Knife (The History Press) and Berlin (Reaktion Books), a portrait of the city in which he now lives and works.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781803998220
ISBN 10 1803998229
Title The Airlift
Author Joseph Pearson
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher The History Press Ltd
Year published 2025-10-23
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.