Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for The Unsubstantial Air by Samuel Hynes - Available

The Unsubstantial Air

American Fliers in the First World War

by Samuel Hynes
Sean Runnette
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
The Unsubstantial Air is the gripping story of the Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I. Much more than a traditional military history, it is an account of the excitement of becoming a pilot and flying in combat over the Western Front, told through the voices of the aviators themselves.

A World War II pilot himself, the memoirist and critic Samuel Hynes revives the adventurous young men who inspired his own generation to take to the sky. The volunteer fliers were often privileged—the sorts of college athletes and Ivy League students who might appear in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel. Hynes follows them from the flying clubs of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to training grounds in Europe and on to the front, where they learned how to fight a war in the air.

By drawing on letters sent home, diaries kept, and memoirs published in the years that followed, Hynes brings to life the emotions, anxieties, and triumphs of the young pilots. They gasp in wonder at the world seen from a plane, struggle to keep their hands from freezing in open air cockpits, party with actresses and aristocrats, rest at Voltaire's castle, and search for their friends' bodies on the battlefield. Their romantic war becomes more than that—a harsh but often thrilling reality.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 30, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781494528416
      • File size: 327292 KB
      • Duration: 11:21:51

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In the early days of WWI, training as a fighter pilot was a romantic notion for the young men who headed to Europe to earn their wings prior to the U.S. entry in the war. They wrote letters home and recorded their experiences in their diaries. Sean Runnette's voice, pacing, and timbre superbly match their stories--a poignant tone and pause following a death, an increase in pitch as the joy of flying catches hold, and an easy delivery of French terms. Runnette captures the excitement of the young men as they learn to fly, their drudgery waiting for deployment, and the reality of death as so many perish from accidents and combat as this nascent form of warfare develops. M.L.R. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      September 8, 2014
      Hynes (Flights of Passage), a Princeton University emeritus professor of literature and a WWII marine pilot, vividly recreates the experience of flying in WWI. Relying mostly on primary accounts written by the conflict’s pilots, Haynes succeeds in painting a portrait of the elite of American society, who flocked to the new aviation technology that promised to make the impersonal experience of modern warfare compatible with older ideals of honor and duty. Haynes takes the reader from flight instruction in French, to parties in Paris, and finally to the cold, open cockpits of the primitive wood and wire aircraft flying over the trenches. The reader quickly becomes aware of the acute danger pilots faced—the narratives Haynes utilizes to tell the story often end abruptly with a terse account of a death due to a training accident, mechanical failure, or combat. It is a must read for anyone interested in aviation history, military history, and the American experience in the Great War. Agent: Chris Calhoun, Chris Calhoun Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading