Lindbergh

Rating:
Summary: Gracefully written and superlatively researched
Review: I have read Berg's biographies of Maxwell Perkins and Samuel Goldwyn and enjoyed them thoroughly. Berg's output is quite small (roughly one biography per decade) due to his painstaking and prodigious research. The Lindbergh biography is no exception. What impresses me the most about Berg's work is the elegant writing and lack of extraneous detail; many authors who go to such lengths in researching their subject tend to throw every fact they uncovered at the reader. Berg avoids this trap. A superlative biography of an elusive and enigmatic man, and I look forward to Berg's next book, although it will probably be a long wait.

Rating:
Summary: Was Lindbergh a hero?
Review: For a well researched look at the dark side of Charles Lindbergh, read "Crime of the Century: The Lindbergh Kidnapping Hoax" by Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen R. Monier. The conclusions presented in that book will blow your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Author enamored of subject and loses objectivity.
Review: Just like he did with his Max Perkins book, Berg has once again become enamored with his subject and loses his objectivity. Berg dances around Lindbergh's outrageous anti-Semitism and love for Hitler by claiming that his private writings don't support the fact that he despised Jews. Berg never stops to think that Lindbergh edited his own private writings, knowing that it would someday be read by a biographer.

Berg has shown this naivete before in his book on Max Perkins where he tries to portray notorious anti-Semite Thomas Wolfe as a cuddly character.

Rating:
Summary: WHAT A BORE !!!!
Review: I want my money back. This grossly over-hyped book was the most excruciatingly dull book I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: This one is very well researched and offers a vivid account of the life and times of the Lindberghs from the 1920's forward. How remarkable a life has been for them...and us

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating introduction into an amazing life
Review: Prior to reading this, I had little more than a high school history (and Roth's recent "Plot Against America") understanding of Charles Lindbergh. This biography was very easy to get through, and it did a very fair job of equally dividing attention to three main phases in Lindbergh's life: 1. the 1927 flight across the Atlantic 2. the kidnapping and murder of his first son 3. the political involvement in WWII/questions of Anti-Semitism/and the aftermath

I was drawn to this book after I finished Roth's Plot Against America (also highly recommended). Now I have more questions than answers...but this biography was excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Most even-handed account of Lindbergh I have seen
Review: The celebrities that we are familiar with now are stars in the movies, music, sports, politics or some combination. However, the biggest celebrity of the twentieth century was Charles A. Lindbergh. He was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic and it was an event that catapulted him into an international hero. It started before he even landed at the airport in Paris. As was reported in this book, there were so many car headlights around the airport that at first he couldn't recognize it from the air. Once he landed, the only way he was able to escape the crush of the media was to have his aviator cap placed on another person, who acted as a decoy while Lindbergh slipped away.
Since those tragic days when his infant son was kidnapped and died during the crime, many additional crimes have been dubbed "the crime of the century." However, that is nonsense, the kidnapping of Lindbergh's son was without question the greatest crime of the twentieth century. It seems that the question of whether Hauptmann actually did it or whether the baby really died never seems to be truly settled. That is astonishing, for although Hauptmann denied it, the amount of evidence against him was overwhelming.
Lindbergh also suffered from the affliction that all major celebrities suffer from, that the public always takes their every statement beyond what it is actually worth or what was meant. As an aviation expert, in the thirties, Lindbergh was asked by the U. S. military to go to Germany and report on what he saw concerning the growing power of the Luftwaffe. His statements about the rising power of the Nazi air force have been soundly criticized and used to argue that he was pro-Nazi. That is nonsensical, his reports, as was later obvious from the efficiency of the Lufwaffe in World War II, were honest and accurate. As only military historians seem to know, the German air force was the best in the world when World War II started. Lindbergh was right about that and had the allied political leadership paid more attention to him, they may have been better prepared for the German attacks.
I was not aware that Lindbergh actually flew combat missions in the Pacific theatre in World War II. Since I knew that he was no longer in the military at that time, I had assumed that he was not involved in combat. He flew "observational" and "test" missions, and the military commanders said that if he was to choose to engage in some "target practice" while flying, no one would object. His "target practice" even included shooting down a Japanese fighter. I also knew that Lindbergh and Franklin Roosevelt had a mutual dislike for each other, but I had no idea that Roosevelt hated Lindbergh so much. Part of it was due to Lindbergh's involvement in the American First committee, which was so strongly opposed to Roosevelt's pushing the U. S. into involvement in the wars in Asia and Europe. However, some of it was probably due to Roosevelt's realization that he should have paid more attention to Lindbergh earlier. Roosevelt accomplished much while he was president, and he richly deserves the credit for having won World War II. The often forgotten reality is that he was also a ruthless politician when he had to be, and he only reluctantly backed off from hounding someone he perceived as an enemy.
I was also unaware of how talented Lindbergh and his wife Anne were as writers. Quite naturally, their books would make a mark due to their celebrity status, but that would only take them so far. The rest was due to their writing talents, which were considerable. Both Charles and Anne were subjected to a great deal of praise and vituperation during their lives. So bad that years after their child was kidnapped, they regularly received letters threatening to kidnap and even kill their remaining children. Which shows us how little the consequences of being a celebrity have changed over the last seventy years.
This is an excellent biography of how a boy from rural Minnesota became the greatest hero of the twentieth century. On the whole, he handled his celebrity status very well, even after it cost him his son. There is also an honest appraisal of Lindbergh's contact with the Nazi government, he was never as pro Nazi as his critics have charged. Lindbergh has also been accused of being anti-semitic over his remarks concerning the desires of Jews. Yes, he said that Jews were trying to push the United States into war with Germany, but he also said that he understood why. Nevertheless, his point was that the persecution in Europe was not enough to justify the United States going to war. When you consider that Lindbergh's statement has been official U. S. policy for decades after World War II, then it is clear that he was merely expressing the opinion held by most Americans concerning the justification for war. Since that time, we have seen persecution and slaughter in many areas around the world and the U. S. has yet to consider it a reason to go to war on any significant scale.
This book is the most even-handed appraisal of the life of Lindbergh, what he did, what he really believed and all of his many accomplishments after the Spirit of St. Louis landed at the airfield outside Paris.


Rating:
Summary: One of the best biographies I've ever read.
Review: This book has truly got it all. The definitive biography on Lindbergh, it begins with a fascinating subject in Charles Lindbergh himself. The man was a true enigma, a private person who became the most famous human up to his time. Lindbergh spent his life seeking something that he never quite seemed to find. The story also benefits by capturing an era when so much of life was in flux for so many.

A great story about a fascinating character, well-written and well-constructed. A must-read for biography and history buffs or for anyone interested in knowing more about Lindbergh.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent biography
Review: Berg has put together a fascinating account of a man both of great popularity and later of great resentment. Pages turn quickly and it becomes harder and harder to put it down.

My expertise is specific to the kidnapping of Lindbergh's son, so I can only critique the historical accuracy of that portion of his book. Because the book only deals briefly with the subject as Lindbergh had a long and very interesting life, most of the references are not highly detailed. However, I could find no major errors or discrepancies.

In all, a worthy publication.

Rating:
Summary: Well balanced, well written, author treads lightly...
Review: Great book and I encourage those interested to read the book. However, Berg does tread lightly on the America First issue. Though he is direct in printing Lindbergh's previously unpublished diary entries. All in all the book is very well rounded, and extremely well-written. I finished most of it in an evening (not to say it is short, just very easy to get through). It was very enjoyable, if not a tad hero-worshipy. Lindbergh was a man of contradictions and this book illustrates his contradictions. The book does a good job of portraying Lindbergh as a convicted (if not aloof) man. Interesting character in American history. Please do read it.