Rating:  Summary: A thorough study of Lindbergh and an easy, interesting read. Review: Biographies are often are dry and many times offer an incomplete picture of the subject. This book is a wonderful exception. I was at first intimidated by the book's length (628 pages). But I quickly found myself drawn into this extremely well-written account of a fascinating individual's life. Scott Berg spent 10 years researching Lindbergh, and it shows; I can't imagine getting a more complete picture of Lindbergh's life from any other source. Most interesting to me is the help he received from Lindbergh's widow, Anne Morrow Lindbergh. The author's account of the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby is riveting, and Berg presents enough facts about Lindbergh's so-called Nazi sympathies to set the record straight. When I finished this book, I wanted to write the author and thank him for taking the time to give the world this information.
Rating:  Summary: Not Definitive but A Good Read Review: A. Scott Berg's "Lindbergh" is written from the point of view of, say, a neighbor, or a close acquaintance. From this vantage, Lindbergh remains fascinating, heroic, enigmatic, and unrevealed. It is as Lindbergh would have wished. Berg writes with sympathy but that sympathy comes from family papers and interviews, not from an understanding of Lindbergh's inner life. Lindbergh was a complex figure--too complex for his wife and children and much too complex for a biographer who never met him. Yet Berg assembles Lindbergh's story smoothly from previously private documents and gives us a thoughtful summary of his life. This is material for further analysis, and certainly fodder for a future, more psychological look at Lindbergh. I couldn't stop reading, and I couldn't stop reviewing the story in my mind and trying to refit the pieces. Lindbergh's marriage is especially fascinating. From the moment he met Anne Morrow he tugged at the strings of commitment. They were engaged after their second date, then he disappeared for a month. They spent their honeymoon in a boat speeding along the Atlantic coast from one remote island to the next, never still for long. Lindbergh followed a similar pattern all his life. Anne declared herself a "widow" in 1959, fourteen years before he actually died, because he was never home. In that year he flew to Europe eleven times; in another year, on various junkets, he circled the globe five times. What is missing in this book is the great silent account of what he was DOING on all these trips. I want to know what he read on the airplanes, what he ate, where he stayed, how he passed his time abroad, who he met, how he entertained himself. Lindbergh wrote no letters to his family during these trips; nothing is recorded. Who did he spend time with during these constant journeys? Tucked unobstrusively into this volume is the suggestion that both partners in the Lindbergh marriage had affairs, and that both benefited; perhaps the marriage benefited. Lindbergh abused his wife and his children by neglect. He missed the high school graduation of a son and the marriage of another. He frequently told his wife she was a failure, and he criticized his children destructively. His rages, arising from displaced satisfaction with his own behavior, suggest guilt for events that remain hidden in Berg's account. Lindbergh is the greatest hero of our century. He remains so after you read this biography. He did what he wanted with his life and he was wily enough to keep it private. --Linda Donelson, author of "Out of Isak Dinesen: Karen Blixen's untold story"
Rating:  Summary: Unabashed Hero Worship Review: After having read most of the other reviews, I wish not to be repetitive. However, I believe this book to be a monumental waste of money. Mr. Berg seems to be one of those compelled to adore his subject to death. Others have pointed out -- more or less correctly, I believe -- the various flaws that abound in Mr. Berg's effort. However, I feel that his incessant gushing over Mr. Lindbergh (arguably a flawed hero himself) turned me off about one-third of the way into the book. It became like that unfortunate aftertaste that one experiences when compelled to drink a second-rate bottle of wine or liquor because there is nothing else in the house. What tore it for me was the unbridled adoration Mr. Berg expressed in his writing about Ms. Lindbergh and her poetry. Couldn't finish the book, but then again, there were probably not enough car chases in it for me. Save your money!
Rating:  Summary: Weird man, great book Review: Berg has done a wonderful job on a very paradoxical subject. After reading this book, I remembered what someone said about Frank Sinatra after he passed away. The remark was, "He was not cheated in life, he lived enough life for several people." Although you would never mistake Frank Sinatra for Charles Lindbergh, there are many similarities to their lives if you think about it. That said, Charles Lindbergh was a major figure in the 20th century. His flight and his efforts afterwards in promoting aviation were huge parts of how the world developed. The kidnapping of his son and the trial of the kidnapper were huge events, showing how celebrity would be in the 20th century. Then his controversial efforts on America First made him a pariah to many. Finally, he became a leading conservationist. That could be enough for 4 or 5 lives, Charles Lindbergh lived them all. And the reader will soon see that he was a successful eccentric. Berg does a wonderful job in going through all this in his book. He had unparalleled access to the papers of Lindbergh and his family. There are so many contradictions to Lindbergh, if he was such a private man why did he court publicity in so many ways? Was he an anti-semite, he said he wasn't, but he is contradicted by his writings and speeches. Berg notes that Lindbergh edited a lot of the bigotry out of his papers, but never denied that he believed that he saw the US as a Christian nation. This is not an idol-worshipping book. Berg is critical of Lindbergh is many ways, he is also quite critical of Anne Morrow as well. When writing about such a controversial figure, some writers would choose to psychoanalyze the subject and state why the subject acted the way he did. Berg chose not to, he prefers to state the facts and let the reader do the analysis on their own.
Rating:  Summary: Terrific Biography of the Whole Man Review: Charles Lindbergh went from obscurity to immortality within the space of several days. His name ranks alongside Columbus and Neil Armstrong to name but two. Yet, his famous flight was but a small part of a fascinating life, whose climax was realized in the early chapters. For the rest of his life, Lindbergh seemed to be searching for his own depth of meaning. Mr. Berg provides a deft portrait of the man, his virtues and vices, his strengths and shortcomings, in an engaging prose that reads like a finely crafted novel. I read (and still re-read portions of) Lindbergh's own "Spirit of St. Louis" which is a marvelous book in its own right. As a biography, Mr. Berg's book, fleshes out Lindbergh's life, especially his later years, with remarkable insight and clarity. I recommend it highly.
Rating:  Summary: "Lindbergh" by A. Scott Berg Review: I have less than twenty pages left of this superb biography, and I want to share with prosepctive readers why they should buy this book: exquisite writing, meticulous research, and a subject matter that is larger than life. Charles Lindbergh was the first recipient of 20th century celebrity cult status; an unassuming man, shy and modest he had a dream of flying solo, non-stop to Paris,and a cash parize of $25,000.00. The prize money was not the main incentive for the run. Here was a man with a dream, fueled by the desire to explore. Blessed with movie star good looks, his landing on May 22, 1927, in Paris, began a mass media hysteria. In the aftermath, he,and later his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, were desparate to lead lives of intellectual creativity. The fact that the flight that allowed them access to pursue their interests also wreaked havoc on their family life(e.g. the kidnapping and death of their firstborn son) is a sad and bitter irony. Berg's deft and subtle hand, his superb sense of time and place, are almost novellic; but firmly grounded in careful scholarship. He reveals Lindbergh to be a man of great abilities, imagination, and perserverance; but also a man who ruled his family with such authorative zeal, that they each suffered under the strain; a man who was jusitfably proud of his wife's literary ability, but yet who never really allowed her the freedom to truly develop her literary voice; and a political neophyte, whose ambitions to keep America out of World War II,caused him to be branded a traitor, an anti-semitic,and worse. This book will remain one of the pillars of modern biography, ranking alongside of such classics, as Robert K. Massie's 1967 dual biography of "Nicholas and Alexandra." Sadly - quallity writing, like Berg's, are not always seen; so do yourself a favor, buy the book, put on a pot of coffee, and enter the life of America's "Lone Eagle", Charles Augustus Lindbergh. You won't regret it.
Rating:  Summary: Fascinating Account of a Frightening Personality Review: In one sense, Charles Lindbergh was a flash-in-the-pan. Had he not flown solo from New York to Paris in 1927, chances are no one would have heard of him. Lindbergh is also living proof that society must take care not to elevate "heroes" to a position beyond that which they deserve or have earned by merit. Take away the New York to Paris flight, and we are left with a college dropout with anti-Semitic views and dangerous theories of racial superiority. I attribute these attitudes more to ignorance and naivete than evil design, but still, Lindbergh failed to grasp the need for the United States to react against German and Japanese aggression and lacked the intelligence to project an unquestionable patriotic image during the Second World War. Now, for my really radical theory about this book: who is Scott Berg? Isn't coincidental that Lindberg had a son named "Scott Lindbergh"? A. Scott Berg / Scott Lindbergh. Is it the same person?
Rating:  Summary: Fascinating, Cautionary Tale Of The Price Of Fame & Fortune! Review: From the moment his wheels touched ground at Orly Airport in Paris in May of 1927, Charles Lindbergh's life started on an incredible second journey over which he often seemed to have little guidance or control, a whirlwind life spent in the suffocating death-grasp of public attention. In this wonderful biography by A. Scott Berg, we are invited to take this momentous ride alongside "Lucky Lindy" from his birth and early beginnings to his efforts to gain fame and recognition by becoming the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic. Yet in a way totally unanticipated by the enigmatic and somewhat naïve Lindbergh, this was only the beginning of an incredible life. For in accomplishing this spellbinding feat, to this brilliantly enterprising young man's amazement, the fame and fortune he had so eagerly sought to achieve soon took control over the direction and destiny of his life. This is a book full of surprising twists and turns, and the reader is led on an entertaining and exotic excursion unto the interior of a marvelously complicated man's life, as well as into the realities of the story-book romance with his beautiful young wife, the former Anne Morrow, an ambassador's daughter. Their courtship and marriage fueled the public's imagination, and they became figures that loomed larger than life in the tabloid journalism of the early 1930s. Lindbergh found himself fashioned into the first modern day media superstar, a person so celebrated and famous it sometimes seems he spent the balance of his life's energy trying to escape such attention. As a result of his own personal qualities and frailties, and his uneasy and sometimes uncomprehending place in American spotlight, he was both deified and demonized in the public press again and again. Each event in his all-too public personal odyssey is examined here, from the trip into fame and fortune aboard the "Spirit of Saint Louis" to his romance and marriage to Anne Morrow, from their life in the spotlight to the incredible ordeal of the kidnapping and death of their infant son, which resulted in the most celebrated and controversial trials and subsequent executions in modern American history. Berg examines the evidence of the kidnapping, which eventually led to the Lindberghs fleeing for their sanity sake on an odyssey taking them to England, an island off the coast of France, and to Nazi Germany, where Lindbergh's fascination with Hitler's regime and technical prowess led him to eventual political adventurism of his own with the "America First" movement. In unsuccessfully challenging Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lindbergh lost both his public credibility and cache, becoming vilified in the press for his questionable political views and dubious patriotism. When war came Lindbergh was flatly refused any active role, but eventually found himself a way into the fracas first as a commercial test pilot, and later as an unofficial pilot in the South Pacific, where he performed brilliantly as a combat pilot with over fifty missions to his credit. After the war he became involved in a number of environmental, humanitarian, and medical issues, and devoted himself to anonymous public service, purposefully hidden from popular scrutiny and public view. In his strange and eclectic odyssey, he had caught public imagination, but had kept his own complexities and personal demons hidden from view. Lindbergh is in many ways a tragic figure, a person tripped by fate into being believed as a figure bigger than life, when in fact he was unequal to the task. He was, after all, only human, and tragically so at that. This is a fascinating and entertaining book about one of the most enigmatic and puzzling figures in 20th century history. I highly recommend it.
Rating:  Summary: Unsure Review: I have mixed feelings about this book. On the positive side, it provides a very thorough and detailed account of Lindbergh's life, and is in no way boring like some biographies. However, I am not sure whether to trust this author's objectivity. Berg drew heavily from the Lindbergh family itself for his sources, and although a viable source, he relied to heavily on it. This gives the book the tendency to be slightly and in some case grossly biased towards its view of Lindbergh's actions. Although his exploits in flying were in every way brave, his actions and words regarding American involvement in the 2nd World War and his view of Nazi Germany reflect very porrly on his judgment. He also seemed somewhat indifferent to attrocities committed by the Axis nations. Read the book, but keep an open mind to the subject.
Rating:  Summary: Straightforward Account of a Compelling Life Review: It is not just Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic in The Spirit of St Louis, or the infamous kidnapping/murder of his first child, or his frontline position as a crusader for the isolationists before WW2 that makes this book so fascinating to read; it is also the details of his life that one rarely thinks about: his work on an artificial heart pump, his environmental work, his interest in the world's tribes and their way of life. Lindbergh's range of interests and his energy in pursuing them drive this biography. This book seems as if it was written using the "point the camera and shoot" philosophy. Berg does a creditable job laying out Lindbergh's life, but there's nothing flashy about his book. The prose is solid and workmanlike. Tangents into other issues of Lindbergh's times are kept to a minimum. Berg sometimes gets bogged down in less interesting areas of Lindbergh's life such as mundane family matters, but he maintains enough momentum to push through without too much damage to the narrative. Lindbergh, however, doesn't need a brilliant biographer; he brought enough energy to his life and fulfilled enough of his great ambitions to capture any reader's interest. This is a very good book and worthy of much of the praise it has received here, but that has more to do with the subject of the book than with its author.
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