The Spectacle of Flight Aviation and the Western Imagination 1920-1950 Robert Wohl

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. 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 aviation in this era with a fresh account of Charles Lindbergh's dramatic New York-Paris flight in 1927, then goes on to discuss how Mussolini identified his fascist regime with the modernist cachet of aviation. Wohl shows how the Hollywood film industry - aided by such director-flyers as William Wellman, Howard Hawks, and Howard Hughes - created the aviation film; how writers such as Antoine de St-Exupery 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, this book offers a gripping account of aviation and its hold on the popular imagination during the first half of the twentieth century.

'The story Wohl traces in never less than enthralling... [He] deserves our respect and praise, but gratitude also has to be extended to his publisher. Both volumes are beautifully designed.' - Geoff Dyer, The Daily Telegraph

'...those looking for a little instant nostalgia should open Wohl's lavishly illustrated book, smell the reek of old flying leathers and feel the past rush like slipstream of its pages.' - The Guardian

'...with its evocative illustrations and well-researched text so much comes back to us from another time...I was rivited.' - The Birmingham Post

'Robert Wohl charts in fascinating detail the manifold reverberations of flight, literary, political, artistic, intellectual. Much more than a plane-spotter's feast, this is a thoughtful, wide-ranging, meticulous (as befits a history professor) analysis of arguably the most salient new fact of the time.' - The Spectator

'[Wohl's] chosen areas of focus are carefully selected, powerfully written and absorbing...' - Julian Freeman, The Art Book

'Engagingly written and lavishly illustrated...this highly accessible cultural history stands out as much for its skilful use of pictorial and textual sources. Wohl deserves a wide readership for uncovering the destructive as well as the creative impulses that have contributed to the making of a technology that present-day society could not function without.' - Bernhard Rieger, History Today