Books about Blockade from Amazon.com

The masterfully told story of the unlikely men who came together to make the Berlin Airlift one of the great military and humanitarian successes of American history.

On the sixtieth anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, Andrei Cherny tells a remarkable story with profound implications for the world today. In the tradition of the best narrative storytellers, he brings together newly unclassified documents, unpublished letters and diaries, and fresh primary interviews to tell the story of the ill-assorted group of castoffs and second-stringers who not only saved millions of desperate people from a dire threat but changed how the world viewed the United States, and set in motion the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and to America’s victory in the Cold War.

On June 24, 1948, intent on furthering its domination of Europe, the Soviet Union cut off all access to West Berlin, prepared to starve the city into submission unless the Americans abandoned it. Soviet forces hugely outnumbered the Allies’, and most of America’s top officials considered the situation hopeless. But not all of them.

Harry Truman, an accidental president, derided by his own party; Lucius Clay, a frustrated general, denied a combat command and relegated to the home front; Bill Tunner, a logistics expert downsized to a desk job in a corner of the Pentagon; James Forrestal, a secretary of defense beginning to mentally unravel; Hal Halvorsen, a lovesick pilot who had served far from the conflict, flying transport missions in the backwater of a global war—together these unlikely men improvised and stumbled their way into a uniquely American combination of military and moral force unprecedented in its time.

This is the forgotten foundation tale of America in the modern world, the story of when Americans learned, for the first time, how to act at the summit of world power—a masterful and exciting work of historical narrative, and one with strong resonance for our time..
Price: $17.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A True Story of the Berlin Airlift and the Candy that Dropped from the Sky.

Life was grim in 1948 West Berlin, Germany Josef Stalin blockaded all ground routes coming in and out of Berlin to cut off West Berliners from all food and essential supplies. Without outside help, over 2.2 million people would die.

Thus began the Berlin Airlift, a humanitarian rescue mission that utilized British and American airplanes and pilots to fly in needed supplies. As one of the American pilots participating in the Airlift mission, Lt. Gail S. Halvorsen helped to provide not only nourishment to the children but also gave them a reason to hope for a better world. From one thoughtful, generous act came a lifelong relationship between Lt. Gail and the children of Berlin.

This is the true story of a seven-year-old girl named Mercedes who lived in West Berlin during the Airlift and of the American who came to be known as the Chocolate Pilot.

Artist Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen's evocative paintings illuminate Margot Theis Raven's powerful story of hope, friendship and remembrance.

About the Author: Margot Theis Raven has been a professional writer working in the fields of radio, television, magazines, newspapers, and children's books for thirty years. She has won five national awards, including an IRA Teacher's Choice award. Ms. Raven earned her degree in English from Rosemont College and attended Villanova University for theater study, and Kent State University for German language. Ms. Raven splits her time living in Concord, MA, Charleston, SC and West Chesterfield, NH.

About the Illustrator: Born in the Netherlands, Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Holland. He immigrated to the United States in 1976, and years later he became a children's book illustrator. Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot is Nick's ninth children's book with Sleeping Bear Press. (20021212).
Price: $9.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $119.58 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This book explains how and why Berlin became the symbolic capital of the Cold War. Paul Steege anchors his account of this emerging global conflict in the terrain of a city literally shattered by World War II. By focusing on what happened 'on the ground' in Berlin, the book shows how ordinary people mattered for the development of a global Cold War that dominated world affairs for four decades and offers an interpretive framework with which to reevaluate international conflict in the present..
Price: $70.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This reminiscence of daily life on a Southern plantation during the Civil War was originally published in 1888. This book is filled with vivid details of everything from methods of making dyes and preparing foods to race relations and the effects of the war. The book is an unusual and beautifully written primary source of Southern life inside the blockade imposed by the Union..
Price: $7.07 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The lifeblood of the Confederacy, the blockade runners of the Civil War usually began life as regular fast steam-powered merchant ships. They were adapted for the high-speed dashes through the Union blockade which closed off all the major Southern ports, and for much of the war they brought much-needed food, clothing and weaponry to the Confederacy.
This book traces their operational history, including the development of purpose-built blockade running ships, and examines their engines, crews and tactics. It describes their wartime exploits, demonstrating their operational and mechanical performance, whilst examining what life was like on these vessels through accounts of conditions on board when they sailed into action..
Price: $4.74 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Edwin Gere's The Unheralded: Men and Women of the Berlin Blockade and Airlift tells the story of the greatest humanitarian effort in modern history. With the ground and water routes to West Berlin blockaded by the Soviet Union, the extraordinary Berlin airlift flew coal, food, medicine, and everything needed for survival to 2.24 million West Berliners for 462 days until traditional supply routes were restored in September 1949.

Through personal memoirs, The Unheralded salutes the thousands of ground forces, enlisted soldiers, sailors, and airmen (men and women both), noncommissioned air crew, and German civilians whose valiant efforts made the airlift a success. The Unheralded includes over 30 photographs and gives a concise, insightful history of the Soviet blockade and Berlin airlift. The Unheralded also presents, for the first time, both the biographical detail and accounts of the American, British and Commonwealth subjects, and Germans who lost their lives in airlift-related accidents..
Price: $23.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]