Lindbergh

Rating:
Summary: More than five stars, really
Review: This is a fabulous book that gives the reader a great lesson in 20th century history through the life of an interesting and controversial man. Berg's description of Lindy's flight to Paris was so gripping that it kept me up all night. His treatment of the anti-semetism issue was thoughtful and credible. This is just a fantastic biography.

Rating:
Summary: A dynamite revelation of,"Aviation's Superstar".
Review: Reading this book became one of the sheer pleasures I have had in all the years of aviation reading and there is only one other book which comes close which is, "I Could Never Be So Lucky Again" , a James Doolittle autobiography. I studied Lindberg a bit in writings before the purchase of the book, including "The Spirit Of St. Louis" and others which I found the titles of at the St. Louis Historical Society in St. Louis. I had visited the Lindberg grave site on the Southeast coast of Maui, Hawaii and said a few prayers. After seeing Scott Berg on an infomercial I purchased the book and was rivited to it until finished. I knew that most of the Lindberg info was tied up with his wife Ann and whoever accessed that info was going to write a revealing book. Berg's insight,style of writing,and investigative abilities really pulled it all together and showed The Man-Lindberg in reality. History and behind the scenes knowledge revealed the problems dealing with hero-worship and the real world. A great down to earth, reading adventure that belongs in our countrys literary archives for now and the future. I've made it a part of a three book package along with the infomerical, The Spirit and the audio collection. Maybe one day a grandchild could dive into the material as I did ,possibly as a school project. Great job award goes to Scott Berg allowing all to see through his writings.

Rating:
Summary: a great piece of history
Review: What history needs is great writers to make it exciting. Scott Berg does just that never letting the reader become bored with his subject. Terrific.

Rating:
Summary: Too much detail, short on meat
Review: It was difficult to plod through the relentless detail of this book, particularly because of the lack of reward to the reader for doing so. Most of us read biographies to learn what motivated and inspired the subject to achieve what he/she did. What can we as "mortal" readers do to accomplish even a fraction of what this famous person did? What made this person tick? I didn't learn much about Lindbergh that related to this kind of information. But I got lots of other detail that never really led anywhere. I wouldn't pay full price for this book -- try to borrow it from somebody or buy it used!

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, family approved biography
Review: The story of Lindbergh's unusual (strange) childhood and his courageous flight across the Atlantic were gripping. But overall Berg's biography of Lindbergh is a big BORE. So much nitty gritty detail....with no substance. Berg never gets to the heart of this man. In fact, Berg's portrayal of Lindbergh makes me wonder whether Lindbergh HAD a heart. He seemed oblivious to the horrors of Nazism and he appeared indifferent to his family. (So indifferent in fact that I now wonder whether Lindbergh could have been behind his son's disappearance and murder.)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent biography; lacks description of Lindy's character
Review: Lindbergh has been one of my heros for his determination and boundless courage in whatever task he undertook. This biography for the first time gives the reader a look into the personal life of Charles Lindbergh the man with the acquisition of the Lindbergh family's archives of diaries and journals. Many of Lindbergh's personal anecdotes are found in the biography, and it is definitely full of facts about his background and upbringing. The book is especially adequate in describing the several important achievements of Lindbergh in his lifetime, including a few that I was unaware of (his design of the perfusion pump with Dr. Carrel). However, I agree with most of the other reviewers on amazon.com in that the actual character of Lindbergh isn't really challenged. Only toward the very end of the book does the reader truly see how Charles Lindbergh acted and felt about things. This may be bad timing as well, because he is in old age, and he is described by his children as being excessively perfectionist and meticulous in his care and his burial. I wish that the author would have entered some comments from others on Lindbergh's reasons for making the choices that he did and why he would never rescind the comments he made about Jews before WWII. He never seemed to be able to admit that he was wrong.

Overall, this book was an excellent read. I have never found a biography to be a page-turner at all until reading "Lindbergh."

Rating:
Summary: Book fails to treat Lindbergh's Controversies head on.
Review: As a former curator of Charles A. Lindbergh collections, including substantial parts of his personal papers, I could not find anything new in this book. This is not a story that has never been told before. At least six other authors have had access to the Lindbergh collections, as well as Charles and Anne Lindbergh, who published more than 1,000 pages from them. Much of the cut and paste sections in this book can be traced directly to sections in their works. Throughout the book, the author studiously bobs and weaves around all of the controversial issues surrounding Charles Lindbergh. One example of this selective omission is Lindbergh and his wife's presence in Nazi Germany during Kristallnacht, the brutal war on the Jewish populations, including destruction of their homes, businesses, and killings of many Jews. The Lindberghs were in a Berlin hotel room during the first night of this brutal war, November 9, 1938, they had been househunting that day in the city. They both heard the great commotion out on the streets as the Nazi thugs trashed Jewish shops and the screams of their victims as they were killed. The next day both Lindberghs walked out on Berlin's streets, with Charles describing in great detail in a long-hand memoir the sounds of glass and other debris crunching under their feel. They looked into the shops and saw the destroyed building. A key point in this, however, is both Lindberghs' total lack of horror or expressed disgust. They never once repudiated the Nazi's actions, no records how they deplored such behavior. Professional biographers have to ask why their subject didn't comment, didn't express himself. Lindbergh apparently wasn't horrified, so he recorded nothing at all. This came to the fore more pronounced three years later, when the noted aviator cast a blind eye toward Germany in his anti-Jewish remarks delivered as part of the America First campaign. Of course, none of those remarks or his anti-Jewishness were ever recanted by Lindbergh. "What I have said, I said. You need to read the whole speech," was Charles Lindbergh's final reply in the early 1970s to one of his biographers. Studiously avoiding any such controversial issues is a real habit with this biography. Traveling the yellow brick road to the end, and never bothering to take a look behind the screen to question the wizard happens again and again in this book. A good biographer knows what he/she is supposed to be looking for, and what questions to ask of his/her historical subject.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully insightful biography casts off preconception.
Review: In an age where we have accepted history's titles for people without question, it is refreshingly wonderful to read a book that so completely tells a tale of an American legend without the hamperings of bias. This spellbinding book is informative, interesting, and tells a magnanimous story with delicacy, intrigue, and understanding. This made me want to read everything associated with Lindbergh, and helped me to form my own opinion of what the man's ideals actually were. A truly inspired work.

Rating:
Summary: An extraordinary biography -worthy of the Pulitzer Prize
Review: Scott Berg's Lindbergh is the best biography I have read in many years. His words bring the hero turned villian turned hero to life. Especially poignant is Berg's description of Lindbergh the family man, warts and all. Thoroughly researched and expertly written, this book is quite worthy of the Pulitzer Prize.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book of an interesting man in extraordinary times
Review: I feel that Lindbergh is a very important book. It taught me history through the life of a very public family. I am amazed at the documentation of their life ... the letters and journals of each family member. It is a lost art to record your life in the context of current events, and it is very important. I was mesmorized by the first and last third of the book reading longer and longer. The middle was a bit slow and "painful" because I grew to like Lindbergh and could not understand all of his beliefs. It made me search my own feelings about a variety of current events. As a reader, I took from the book. This is my "mark" of an excellent book.