A powerful and controversial re-examination of Allied strategy in World War II

Every so often, a book offers the insight and courage to re-evaluate history, to change our minds about the wisdom of previously-accepted events. Among the Dead Cities is such a book. In it, the acclaimed philosopher A. C. Grayling offers a powerful, moral re-examination of the Allied bombing campaigns in World War II against civilians in Germany and Japan.

“Was this bombing offensive a crime against humanity,” Grayling writes, “or was it justified by the necessities of war? These questions mark one of the great remaining controversies of the Second World War.” Their resolution is especially relevant in this time of terrorist threat, as governments debate how far to go in the name of security.

Grayling begins by narrating the Royal Air Force’s and U. S. Army Air Force’s missions over Germany and Japan between 1942 and 1945. Through the eyes of survivors, he describes the terrifying experience on the ground as bombs created inferno and devastation in Hamburg, Dresden, and many other German cities; in Tokyo; and finally in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He examines the mindset of those who planned the campaigns in the heat of war, and chronicles the minority voices that opposed attacks on civilians. Based on the facts, he makes a meticulous case for, and one against, civilian bombing, and only then offers his own judgment—that the bombing campaigns were morally indefensible, and that accepting responsibility, even six decades later, is a historical necessity and a moral imperative.

Rarely is the victor’s history re-examined, and A. C. Grayling does so with deep respect and with a sense of urgency “to get a proper understanding of how people and states behave in times of conflict.” Among the Dead Cities is vitally important reading for our time.