Come Fly the World: The Women of Pan Am at War and Peace

Hardback

Main Details

Title Come Fly the World: The Women of Pan Am at War and Peace
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Julia Cooke
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:288
Dimensions(mm): Height 222,Width 144
Category/GenreTrue Stories
True Stories - Discovery
Transport
Travel writing
ISBN/Barcode 9781785786884
ClassificationsDewey:387.706573
Audience
General
Illustrations 8 Plates, black & white

Publishing Details

Publisher Icon Books
Imprint Icon Books
Publication Date 8 April 2021
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Glamour, danger, liberation: in the Jet Age, Pan Am offered young women the world. Come Fly the World tells the story of the stewardesses who served on the iconic Pan American Airways between 1966 and 1975 - and of the unseen diplomatic role they played on the world stage. Alongside the glamour was real danger, as they flew soldiers to and from Vietnam and staffed Operation Babylift - the dramatic evacuation of 2,000 children during the fall of Saigon. Cooke's storytelling weaves together the true stories of women like Lynne Totten, a science major who decided life in a lab was not for her, to Hazel Bowie, one of the relatively few African American stewardesses of the era, as they embraced the liberation of a jet-set life. In the process, Cooke shows how the sexualized coffee-tea-or-me stereotype was at odds with the importance of what they did, and with the freedom, power and sisterhood they achieved.

Author Biography

Julia Cooke is a journalist, travel writer and contributing editor at Virginia Quarterly Review. Her work has featured in Time, Conde Nast Traveller, Salon and Best Women's Travel Writing (Vol. 9), among many others, and she has taught writing at The New School and Columbia University. Her first book, The Other Side of Paradise (Seal Press) profiled young Cubans in post-Fidel Havana. Cooke's writing shows a persistent interest in how people-and women, in particular-negotiate individual desires and ambitions within the culture, history, and politics of wherever they call home. She lives in Vermont.

Reviews

...In confident, clear-eyed, multi-layered prose, Julia Cooke brings to life the true stories of unforgettable Pan-Am stewardesses who defied convention, to seek more from life than they were given. This is a well-researched and fascinating history of air travel, gender equality, and so much more. -- - Rachel Khong, author of GOODBYE VITAMIN Come Fly the World is a pop passport to another time. Take a social history flight with the women of Pan Am. -- - Lily Koppel, author of New York Times bestseller THE ASTRONAUT WIVES CLUB Before second-wave feminism came along to challenge the admissions policies of law, medical, and business schools, there were stewardesses-women every bit as daring and determined as their later counterparts in the professions, and having more fun... [Come Fly the World is] a rollicking, rambunctious ride down the runway of mid-century modern life. -- - Megan Marshall, author of Pulitzer Prize-winning MARGARET FULLER: A New American Life and ELIZABETH BISHOP: A Miracle for Breakfast This engrossing account, which reads like a novel, offers a combination of riveting personal stories and little-known history, and will draw in readers from the first page. -- - Library Journal 'Here's the chance to travel-in time and in the sky-vicariously. Julia Cooke's intimate storytelling weaves together the real-life tales of a memorable cast of Pan Am flight attendants as they embraced the liberation of their new jet-set life. The nonfiction work also unearths little-known stories about how Pan Am flight attendants went above and beyond, including their role in the Vietnam War.' -- Fortune