"For some years I have been afflicted with the belief that flight is possible to man. My disease has increased in severity and I feel that it will soon cost me an increased amount of money if not my life."
So wrote a quiet young Ohioan in 1900, one in an ancient line of men who had wanted to fly - wanted it passionately, fecklessly, hopelessly. But at the turn of the twentieth century, Wilbur Wright and a scattered handful of other adventurers conceived a conviction that the dream lay at last within reach, and in a headlong race across ten years and two continents, they competed to conquer the air. James Tobin, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography, has at last given this inspiring story its definitive telling.
For years Wright and his younger brother, Orville, experimented in utter obscurity. Meanwhile, the world watched as the imperious Samuel Langley, armed with a rich contract from the U. S. War Department and all the resources of the Smithsonian Institution, sought to create the first manned flying machine. While Langley became obsessed with flight as a problem of power, the Wrights grappled with it as a problem of balance. Thus their machines took two very different paths - one toward oblivion, the other toward the heavens.
To Conquer the Air is a hero's tale of overcoming obstacles within and without. It is the story of mankind's most wondrous technological achievement; and it is an account of the mystery of creativity and character. Years later, Orville Wright would remark to Charles Lindbergh: "No one quite understands the spirit and conditions of those times." In the centennial year of human flight. To Conquer the Air is itself a heroic achievement.
Stephen E. Ambrose
Narrated By : Stephen E. Ambrose
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Runtime : 6 hours
Categories : American World 20th Century 21st Century
Our Price : $32.00 $15.95
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Simon Schama
Narrated By : Timothy West
Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Runtime : 10 hours 55 minutes
Categories : British History Pre 1900 20th Century
Our Price : $39.25
Award-winning historian Simon Schama completes his monumental three-volume history of Britain, which accompanies the acclaimed television epic. See full description...
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Joanna Bourke
Narrated By : Tim Pigott-Smith
Publisher : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Runtime : 3 hours 30 minutes
Categories : 20th Century World Military
Our Price : $26.99
Authentic voices from the past illustrate this unique history of the Twentieth Century, written by Joanna Bourke and presented by Tim Pigott-Smith See full description...
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J. Campbell Bruce
Narrated By : Patrick Cullen
Publisher : Blackstone Audio Inc
Runtime : 8 hours 45 minutes
Categories : True Crime 20th Century American
Our Price : $32.95 $19.95
Mobster Al "Scarface" Capone, "Machine Gun" Kelly, Robert Stroud ada the Birdman: only the most violent, desperate criminals were sent to Alcatraz Island—"The Rock". Also referred to as "Hellcatraz... See full description...
Written By : Pete McCarthy
Narrated By : Pete McCarthy
Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks
Length : 2 hours
Type : Autobiography Biographical Travel
Price : $16.75
The audio of the million-selling book - Pete McCarthy's hilarious journey in search of his Irish roots.
McCarthy's tale of his hilarious trip around Ireland has gained thousands of fans all over the world.
Pete was born in Warrington to an Irish mother and an English father and spent happy summer holidays in Cork. Years later, reflecting on the many places he has visited as a travel broadcaster, Pete admits that he feels more at home in Ireland than anywhere. To find out whether this is due to rose-coloured spectacles or to a deeper tie with the country of his ancestors, Pete sets off on a trip around Ireland and discovers that it has changed in surprising ways.
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