Lindbergh

Rating:
Summary: Insightful look into a great but deeply flawed man
Review: Just reading the other reviews of Lindbergh gives a bit of insight into the incredible controversy that followed him throughout his life--something that Berg does a masterful job of examining. This is an outstanding book that nearly brought me to tears during the narrative of his historic flight but that also left me bewildered at times by Lindbergh's amazing naivete and ignorance. Clearly there will be people who can't get past the myth of his anti-semitism (Did he totally fooled his close friend Henry Guggenheim for his entire adult life), or the need to create a conspiracy around the kidnap and murder of his first child (should we be amazed that his other 5 children survived into adulthood with nary a tale of abuse?). This is an outstanding profile of a man who was as great as he was flawed and human and Berg tells the story well.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Great book. I saw a plaque dedicated to him in a children's hospital near Miami earlier this year and wondered why it was there. Now I know the answer - and it surprised me. Lindberg was truly a brilliant man who achieved greatness in many ways.

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable and Inspiring
Review: What an amazing man Lindbergh was and what an impressive piece of work this is. It's a breathtaking achievement, and its status as a bestseller is entirely deserved. Berg has restored a great American to his proper place.

Rating:
Summary: Untold story
Review: The most interesting thing about this book was the revelations it gave on the Anne Morrow - Charles Lindbergh marriage. It wasn't storybook. It wasn't quite romance. Above all, it captures the essence of the most courageous person in the book-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Rating:
Summary: If you believe this you will believe anything!
Review: According to the author of this muddled and misleading book a man who was an absolute perfectionist about being on time, a man who poured cold water on bunkmates when they slept a minute longer than they were supposed to, came home late one evening and just happened to "forget" to attend an important dinner where 2,000 people were awaiting his arrival on the very night that his only child would mysteriously disappear. The author also expects readers to believe that the same father rejected offers of bloodhounds and search chains of Princeton students because he didn't want "amateurs " to mess up the crime scene! He himself was responsible for messing up every bit of crime scene evidence that could have been possible. Since the father of the missing baby immediately took charge of the entire investigation (who in the world was going to argue with the Lone Eagle?) it was also under his orders that the help of FBI agents was rejected along with the bloodhounds and students. Nor did this daddy want to investigate the backgrounds of his household help and refused to allow anyone - even the cops - to open a white, sealed envelope, (he claimed it was a ransom note though how he knew such a thing is remarkable) for several hours because it needed to be scoured for fingerprints first! Was this man really searching for his son? The baby could have been in Canada by the time they opened that envelope. Or, did he already know his child was dead? If you think this kind of behavior is suspicious and makes no sense you are right. But, the author doesn't know when to stop in this absolutely preposterous book. He also wants us to "understand" that the great hero did not want to be victimized twice by the same crime. That is why the aviator takes his wife flying for several months after the death of the first, and the birth of the second, son. Leaving baby Jon with a nursemaid to protect him from more supposed death threats, mommy and daddy fly around the world and come back months later and move to a nice new apartment - on East 86th St in Manhattan - Yorkville - or, better known as Germantown! The first baby was supposed to have been kidnapped and killed by a German person and now they move to Yorkville. Berg cannot make sense of any of this strange behavior so he continually plummets the depths of pseudo-psychiatry to help us understand better this "misunderstood" person. This is a family-authorized story , and no doubt the author feels privileged to have been given such a rare opportunity, but for whom did he write this bio? I am deeply suspicious about the movie that will be made from this misleading account of a secretive person who lived a life as a loner and vagabond. If Scott Berg thinks "he" has found that person in a bunch of boxes at Yale he ought to read his own book sometime.

Rating:
Summary: Lindbergh: Unfulfilled promise
Review: A. Scott Berg has created a compelling work which fully explores the complex mind of Charles A. Lindbergh. In using the writings and personal diaries of Lindbergh wife, Anne Morrow, Berg creates a foil which enables the reader to place a very public life in context. After finishing Berg's work, it is impossible to either celebrate the achievements of Lindbergh or condemn his misguided and overt actions to place responsibility for America's participation in an impending war on what he viewed as groups who did not necessarily hold American interests at heart. Quite striking is his projection for the aftermath of WWII: a significantly weakened Europe, the rise of Soviet power, and the on going role of the US as a reluctant world police force. Unfortunatly, we still have today the legacy of the results of this war. Throughout the book, Berg successfully develops Lindbergh's increasingly self obsessive personality. It becomes even more pronounced perhaps as a reaction to the overly excessive interest America placed on an inherently unprepared and reluctant popular hero. To what extent were we in part to blame for who Lindbergh became in his adult life? Berg's ability to draw the reader into this debate is skilled even if at times he provides rather execssive amounts of detail. Yet in sum, Berg has created a timeless piece which leaves a haunting sadness at its end. This is perhaps the lesson to be learned for Lindbergh's life, one full of promise yet so unfilled at its end.

Rating:
Summary: the most in-depth book written about Lindbergh
Review: Scott's biography focuses on events and experiences shaping the Lindbergh personality. The flight in 1927 is dealt with in perspective for it's contribution to the Lindbergh persona that evolved from the previous twenty-five years in Lindberg's life. This is an excellent book!

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Ignore the reviewers below who apparently are so obsessed with determining whether or not Lindbergh was an anti-semite that they ignored the rest of his life and story, and the depth of Berg's research. Amazing how some people will obsess on something to the point that they can't appreciate great writing, thorough research and a fascinating and in the initial first third of the book, utterly inspirational life story. I just wonder how Steven Spielberg will be able to condense this into a film, but if there is one man who can handle this biography and balance all aspects of Lindbergh's life, it's Spielberg. Buy this book, you won't be disappointed. It's a textbook example of how a biography should be written.

Rating:
Summary: A very good book, if a bit redundant in places
Review: A very fine book on Lindbergh. I have read many books on him and his wife down through the years, and have remained an avid reader of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's diaries and letters plus her other books. I find it disturbing that so many reviewers here think Lindbergh had something to do with Charles Jr.'s death simply on the basis of another book written recently for the sole purpose of making a buck. I will never believe that Lindbergh had anything to do with his first child's death, and I find it shameful that some authors will go to such lengths just to turn a profit. The best part of this new biography, for me, was in learning more about the Lindberghs' marriage after WWII -- that part was very different from what I had imagined, and very enlightening about two unique individuals.

Rating:
Summary: Impressed with the book, but not the online comments.....
Review: As an aviatator and avid believer in the "America First" movement I found the book to be very enjoyable, easy to read and compelling! What C.A.L. accomplished in his life far exceeds what all his critic's have done in their live's - put altogether! The timing for this subject matter is apropos, for today in these United States if you do not agree with the socialist doctrine, you are labelled anti-semite. Mr. Berg presents a story of a man woven by family heritage and a man of his conviction's. The book should be read by any man or woman looking for the meaning of freedom and independence.I would also recommend this to those individual's who never had the chance!