The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950

By Robert Wohl

Book Overview

In the decades following the First World War, when aviation was still a revelation, flight was perceived as a spectacle to delight the eyes and stimulate the imagination. Historian Robert Wohl takes us back to this time, recapturing the achievements of pioneering aviators and exploring flight as a source of cultural inspiration in the United States and Europe.

Wohl begins the story of flight in this era with a fresh account of the impact of Charles Lindbergh's dramatic New York-Paris flight, then goes on to explain how Mussolini identified his Fascist regime with the modernist cachet of aviation. Wohl shows how the Hollywood film industry--drawing on the talents of such director-flyers as William Wellman and Howard Hawks and the eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes--created the aviation film; how writers such as Antoine de Saint-Exup ry helped foster France's self-image as the "winged nation"; and how the spectacle of flight reached its tragic apotheosis during the bombing campaigns of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Generously illustrated with rare photographs, paintings, and posters and elegantly written, this book offers a gripping account of aviation and its hold on the popular imagination during the years between 1920 and 1950.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300122659
• ISBN13: 9780300122657
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 2.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 8.0" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Essential

With this, the second volume of an intended trilogy devoted to the subject of "Aviation and the Western Imagination," historian Robert Wohl has established huimself as the nation's leading expert on the cultural history of American and European aviation. Covering the period of the "golden age of flight," 1920-1950 this wonderfully illustrated volume begins with Charles Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 and concludes with an overview of the "new civilization" represented by mature (i.e. post-WWII) aviation. In between, fascinating chapters on flying & fascism, American aviation movies, the cult of the aviator, and strategic bombing, round out a book that is essential reading for aviation buffs and people interested in the way technology and culture have crossed paths in history. Aside from a few to many typographical errors, this is a volume both beautiful to look at and read.

Assessing a Golden Age

The second volume of an intended trilogy, this is an important as well as readable survey of aviation's development and impact. While we have countless books on specific aircraft, fliers and battles (especially the latter), here the view is a far wider one, assessing the art and role of flying over three vital decades when technical progress was dramatic. Wohl uses a case study approach to provide some depth to his analysis. While a chapter covers Lindbergh's seminal role, most interesting to me is the today all-but-forgotten saga of Italo Balbo, the far-ranging flier whose exploits helped to promote Mussolini's Italy. Among other achievements, he led a mass flight of Italian flying boats from Italy to Chicago in 1933. The illustrations ---many of them in color---are a wonderful supplement to the insight-filled text as they include many period posters and not just pictures of aircraft. This book and its predecessor (A PASSION FOR WINGS) published a decade ago, offer fine aviation history.