Lindbergh (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 1998; vuoden 1998 painos)

An extraordinary man living through an extraordinary time in history. I loved this book with a passion. I find Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, to be fascinating people. This was definitely a commitment and took me awhile to finish, but it was worth every moment. Not only did the author cover the usual biography stuff, he was able to explore the history of aviation, the Word Wars and the ensuing political storm of that time, as well as the rise of the media and sensationalistic news reporting. Just fabulous. ( )

Living minutes from Lindbergh Boulevard and Lambert field, I simply wanted an introduction to the man beyond bare facts, and that's what I got. Turns out his St. Louis roots weren't as deep as I thought, beyond his having been based here at the time of the 1927 flight, but as I learned, he rarely settled in one spot for long. I learned a lot of things, such as his helping to develop the artificial heart, his deservedly controversial wartime views, his early support of the development of rocketry, and his extensive conservation work, among other things. But the chapter narrating the first Atlantic solo flight is by far the highlight. It also gives perspective on the emergence of contemporary celebrity culture.

The figure I sympathized with the most, however, was Anne, ever in his shadow. I really felt for her loneliness, her struggle to assert her identity and mount her own career, all of which comes through keenly because of her skill as a diarist. ( )

Autographed b author

The subject of media attention throughout his life, Charles Lindbergh is a man whose legacy has been much defined by the images he left in the public imagination: his flight to Paris, the kidnapping and death of his son, his support of isolationism before the Second World War. Yet such events were only part of Lindbergh's astonishingly varied life, one that A. Scott Berg recounts in all its diversity.

Benefiting from access to Lindbergh's enormous collection personal papers (the consequence, Berg notes, of his desire to avoid distortions of his life), Berg provides a thorough account of his many activities, including his involvement in medical research and his support for environmental causes. His examination of the pilot's personal life is especially insightful; Lindbergh's wife Anne receives almost as much attention as her husband does, and Berg's account of their marriage is one of the great strengths of this book.

Yet there are many problems with the book. On occasion, Berg burdens the reader with details, clogging the text with irrelevant information about the minutiae of his subject's life (what his purpose was in detailing the layout of each place where the transient Lindbergh family lived escapes me). Moreover, he falls victim to a classic biographer's problem. Having immersed himself in Lindbergh's life, he views all of the events of the times through it, often overstating his contribution to them. Lindbergh comes across, for example, as the single greatest influence on the development of commercial aviation, yet were his ideas really that unique? And was Lindbergh really so dominant a media figure that his departure for Europe in 1935 launched a countrywide discussion on "the dismal state of the nation"? Berg's lack of critical analysis leaves such interpretations open to question.

Such flaws aside, Berg has written a good, sympathetic account of Lindbergh's life. Though readers will question some of the author's conclusions, this book will probably remain the standard work on the great aviator for decades to come. ( )

Man of many talents — not just pilot, naturalist, inventor — on + on

This is a most compelling story of a most significant life; the most private of public figures finally revealed with a sweep and detail never before possible. In the skilled hands of A. Scott Berg, this is at once Lindbergh the hero--and Lindbergh the man.