Among the Dead Cities [Hardcover]

A C Grayling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 20, 2006

In the course of WWII, the air forces of Britain and the United States of America carried out a massive bombing offensive against the cities of Germany and Japan, ending with the destruction of Hamburg and Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Was it justified by the necessities of war? Or was it, in fact, a crime against humanity? This is now one of the last great remaining controversies of that time. And it matters, argues A. C. Grayling, 'that history is got right before it distorts into legend'. Among the Dead Cities is both a lucid and revealing work of modern history and an urgent moral investigation. Grayling asks what are the lessons that we can learn for today about how people should behave in a world of tension and moral confusion, of terriorism and bitter rivalries.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The Allied bombing of Axis cities, which killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and made smoking ruins of Dresden, Tokyo and Hiroshima, remains one of the great controversies of WWII; this probing study does the issue full justice. Philosophy professor Grayling (The Meaning of Things) focuses on Britain's "area bombing" of entire German cities, a strategy adopted initially because bombers couldn't hit smaller sites and then, as attitudes hardened, continued as a deliberate attack on civilian morale. Grayling scrupulously considers the justifications for area bombing—that it would shorten the conflict by destroying Germany's economy and will to resist, that civilian workers were also combatants or that it was simply the rough justice of war—and finds them wanting. British bombing, he contends, did little damage to the German war effort at an unconscionable price in innocent lives, in contrast to American pinpoint bombing of industrial and military targets, which succeeded in paralyzing the German economy with few civilian casualties. (The Americans, he sadly notes, resorted to area bombing in their devastating air campaign against Japan.) Drawing on firsthand accounts by theorists, architects, victims and opponents of area bombing, Grayling situates a lucid analysis of the historical data within a rigorous philosophical framework. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Grayling's purpose is not to condone the atrocities carried out by the Axis or to condemn the Allies for carpet bombing cities in Germany and Japan, but to show that, even in a good war, the good guys can do bad things. He examines the decision making, the circumstances, and the contemporary debate over the practice that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the destruction of so many cities. While the author discusses the practical military drawbacks of the tactic, he is most engaged with its moral implications. Black-and-white photos show the effects of the campaign. This is an engaging and readable work, intended to bring readers into contact with the shaded moralities of war.–Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing; First edition (February 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0747576718
• ISBN-13: 978-0747576716
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,969,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A moral conviction against strategic bombing of civilians., November 15, 2006

By 

stephen boyd "keywest63020" (st.louis mo.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a book that glorifies the civilian bombing campaigns over Europe ,dont waste your money. If you are looking for another book that is essentially "History written by the victors" dont waste your time. If are expecting a book that will say "Hell yah...we bombed the hell out of them and they deserved it.",you will be sorely disappointed.

And that is apparently what the negative reviwers of this book were looking for. After viewing some of their other reviews it seems they were essentially seeking another book that agreed with their point of view or opinion that we never, ever did anything wrong.

Admittedly, there are some chronological,and technical errors,minor in context, but this was not meant to be a reference book.

As the proud son of a American WW2 veteran ,whos job it was to difuse mines ,shells,and bombs ,i certainly am no bleeding heart anti-american liberal looking to condemn our courageous veterans.

But as in all wars, i find that atrociites start at the top, in the command structure,and there was no difference here. "Bomber Harris" gets the credit/blame for getting this ball rolling.And he is unaploigetic about it.

If you are looking for a book that presents a "relatively" unbiased view ,in courtroom case manner, then you will find it a very interesting read.

The view from both sides of the arguement is looked at, and analyzed, and judged ,aginst the statistical outcome that was achieved.

If instead we had surrounded civilian poulation centers and told the commanders to send in their troops ,and go to every 6th building and drag the inhabitants out into the streets and kill them, then blow up or burn the structure to the ground,the results would have been the same statistically. But that would have been considered a war crime. Yet somehow ,the impersonal act of strategic bombing non combatant population centers gets a pass in the eyes of many history books.

And that is the wrong that this book strives to right. Will this book change the past..no...But it can change the way this event is viewed in historical reference ,and hopfully prevent it from happening again.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A book that asks the hard question..., February 5, 2008

By 

J. Rudy "Major, USAF" (Fairfax, VA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Among The Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan (Paperback)

Growing up in the United States during the height of the Cold War, we learned all about the atrocities of the Nazis and the Japanese. "Among the Dead Cities" is a philosophical analysis of whether the Allied powers were also guilty of war crimes, through their indiscriminant bombings of civilian areas in Germany and Japan.

Aside from detailing the destruction of the cities, Grayling offers countering arguments and also explains the slow escalation of aerial bombardment attacks between Nazi Germany and the United Kingdom. This escalation also carried over to American bombing campaign in Germany, and also into the Pacific. The discussion of the strategic thoughts at the time, are provided not as a means of establishing sympathy, but for readers to develop an understanding of the strategic thoughts at the time.

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." These words spoken by Robert E. Lee during the Battle of Fredericksburg poignantly describe the destruction brought forth by the Allies. This book needs to be read not just by Airmen, but by all who answered the call to the Profession of Arms.

98 of 126 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A step in the right direction, but overly cautious, March 19, 2006

By 

Me, Myself, and I "Me, Myself, and I" (State of Confusion) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan (Hardcover)

A.C. Grayling's "Among the Dead Cities" is a valiant, but ultimately flawed attempt to examine the moral ramifications of the Allied bombing of civilians in Germany and Japan during the Second World War. Few authors in the English-speaking world have yet had the courage to examine this issue and this book is both welcome and valuable, particularly in light of the bearing that this moral dilemma poses on subsequent policies undertaken by the victorious nations. Grayling's main philosophical question here is whether or not the bombings were wrong. In the pursuit of his answer, he examines the possible justifications for the bombing of civilians thoroughly and, for the most part, objectively. His training as a philosopher allows him to neatly torpedo the arguments in favor of the bombing of civilians in a concise and articulate manner, though his historical accuracy is occasionally wrong on some of the details. (For example, in a list of conquered territories and client states from which Hitler obtained resources, he lists Silesia, a region which was mainly populated by German-speaking peoples from the 13th century onwards and had been part of Prussia or Austria since the 15th century.) These instances are fortunately few and usually of a technical nature.

Of greater consequence are some of the ways in which he ultimately undermines his own argument. While no book on the European theater of WWII would be complete without mention of the Holocaust, Grayling's constant emphasis on how much worse it was than anything that the Allies had done has the net effect of defusing his own argument. The Holocaust, for all of its horrors, is as incidental to his examination of the morality of the bombing of civilians in Germany and Japan as the criminal history of a man would be in the trial of his sister's rapist. No competent judge would allow such material to be considered in a rape trial and, similarly, the constant evocations of the Holocaust, no matter how horribly wrong it was, do not belong in this book. Weighing the relative "wrongness" of the different events gives the impression of excusing the less wrong one, no matter how much Grayling protests to the contrary in the text. Comparing atrocities to see which is more atrocious is an intellectually useless pursuit and will never lead to the prevention of future atrocities. Grayling seems to be aware of this, but he can't help himself from doing it anyway.

Other ways in which he undermines his efforts are his insistence on using the lowest possible casualty figures for the cities that were bombed (25,000 in Dresden?!?) and his reliance on English-language source material alone in making his case. The former he explains as an effort to be conservative and the latter as an effort to maintain his independence from the opinions of the writers of Germany and Japan who are often portrayed as using their civilians' victimhood to attempt to minimize their own culpability in WWII. Both of these are mistakes, though the latter is the more egregious one as it renders the victims voiceless. The understatement of casualty figures is a more minor mistake because there are never reliable casualty figures for events of this magnitude. One need look no further than the attack on the World Trade Center to know that.

Overall, though, this book is a definite step in the right direction towards creating a more valid and nuanced picture of the Second World War and the moral complexities thereof.