The Winged Gospel: America's Romance with Aviation, 1900-1950 - Softcover

Corn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801869625 ISBN 13: 9780801869624

Publisher: John Hopkins University Press, 2002

Synopsis

From the day when two bicycle mechanics made the first flight at Kitty Hawk until the end of World War II, Americans invested extraordinary hope in airplanes, expecting them to revolutionize daily life and transform the world. For many, the flying machine became a virtual god. Exploring these early years of aviation, Joseph Corn describes the fascinating, and often bizarre, plans for the future of manned flight (including the Depression-era dream of "an airplane in every garage") and brings back to life the famous and lesser-known aviators who became American heroes--Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Calbraith P. Rodgers, and many others. Rich in colorful detail, The Winged Gospel: America's Romance with Aviation provides a vivid picture of America in the first half of the century and the exuberant and often utopian response to a major new technology.

About this title

Review:

"Joseph Corn's lively and readable book... is well organized and written, thoroughly researched in primary documentation, and richly anecdotal and fascinating. Here are gathered the couples wedded in the air, the designers of automobiles that fly, the prophets of peace and prosperity -- the true believers... in the millennium of flight." -- Alex Roland, Isis

"Corn exploit[s] a wide assortment of books, periodicals, and cultural symbols and is adept at extrapolating evidence to support his thesis that aviation became something of a secular religion, promoting both prosperity and harmony. The author's enthusiasm for his topic is infectious." -- Roger E. Bilstein, Journal of American History

"A lively study." -- Wall Street Journal

About the Author:

Joseph J. Corn is a senior lecturer in the department of history at Stanford University. He is the co-author of Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future, available from Johns Hopkins.

About this edition

• Publisher: John Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0801869625
• ISBN 13: 9780801869624
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240