Empires of the Sky, Alexander Rose
Empires of the Sky, Alexander Rose
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Empires of the Sky
Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World

Author: Alexander Rose

Narrator: Jason Culp

Unabridged: 22 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/28/2020


Synopsis

The Golden Age of Aviation is brought to life in this story of the giant Zeppelin airships that once roamed the sky—a story that ended with the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg.

“Genius . . . a definitive tale of an incredible time when mere mortals learned to fly.”—Keith O’Brien, The New York Times

At the dawn of the twentieth century, when human flight was still considered an impossibility, Germany’s Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin vied with the Wright Brothers to build the world’s first successful flying machine. As the Wrights labored to invent the airplane, Zeppelin fathered the remarkable airship, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two types of aircraft and their innovators that would last for decades, in the quest to control one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements.

And it was the airship—not the airplane—that led the way. In the glittery 1920s, the count’s brilliant protégé, Hugo Eckener, achieved undreamed-of feats of daring and skill, including the extraordinary Round-the-World voyage of the Graf Zeppelin.  At a time when America’s airplanes—rickety deathtraps held together by glue, screws, and luck—could barely make it from New York to Washington, D.C., Eckener’s airships serenely traversed oceans without a single crash, fatality, or injury. What Charles Lindbergh almost died doing—crossing the Atlantic in 1927—Eckener had effortlessly accomplished three years before the Spirit of St. Louis even took off.

Even as the Nazis sought to exploit Zeppelins for their own nefarious purposes, Eckener built his masterwork, the behemoth Hindenburg—a marvel of design and engineering. Determined to forge an airline empire under the new flagship, Eckener met his match in Juan Trippe, the ruthlessly ambitious king of Pan American Airways, who believed his fleet of next-generation planes would vanquish Eckener’s coming airship armada.

It was a fight only one man—and one technology—could win. Countering each other’s moves on the global chessboard, each seeking to wrest the advantage from his rival, the struggle for mastery of the air was a clash not only of technologies but of business, diplomacy, politics, personalities, and the two men’s vastly different dreams of the future.

Empires of the Sky is the sweeping, untold tale of the duel that transfixed the world and helped create our modern age.

About Alexander Rose

Alexander Rose is the author of Washington’s Spies (the basis for the AMC drama series, Turn), Empires of the Sky, Men of War, and several other nonfiction books. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2020 and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He writes the Spionage newsletter at Substack.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mona on March 28, 2022

This was, for me, a rare foray into nonfiction. While I often read short nonfiction articles, I rarely read nonfiction books. I really prefer fiction. Picture of A Zeppelin Crusing over New York However after reading Matt's excellent review, I felt moved to read this. (Here's Matt's review: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Nate on November 30, 2023

The airplane is so omnipresent in our lives that most of us have no idea that for decades airships were the main mode of air travel. While aviation pioneers like the wright brothers, Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh are fondly remembered we’ve forgotten Count VonZeppelin and Hugo Eckener who wer......more

Goodreads review by Biblio on February 02, 2020

In his acknowledgments, Alexander Rose refers to Empires of the Sky as an "airship-sized book," and at 500 pages not including notes, bibliography, and index, it is certainly hefty. It doesn't drag though, and I finished the book thinking I wouldn't mind reading some more about the subject. For read......more

Goodreads review by Stephan on August 07, 2024

Empires of the Sky is chock full of little gems — fascinating facts and historical nuggets — but I can't say it delivered on the overarching compelling narrative about "two men's epic duel to rule the world." The author tries to pit Hugo Eckener, the brilliant and complex mastermind behind Germany's......more

Goodreads review by Ben on March 13, 2022

Quite fascinating. From the development of the Zeppelin technology to its use in war and its competition with airplanes for mail and passenger service, so much here was completely new to me. > They had recently found that wind speeds at ground level differ significantly from those at higher altitude......more


Quotes

“[An] exhilarating history of the dawn of modern air travel.”Publishers Weekly

“To say that [Alexander] Rose’s new book, Empires of the Sky, is about the Hindenburg is to diminish the genius of the narrative Rose has crafted here.”—Keith O’Brien, The New York Times

“An obsessive, decades-long struggle between two equally matched people is always fascinating, and especially when the prize they are fighting for is nothing less than the future of flight. We take the airplane’s defeat of the Zeppelin for granted, but in the Roaring Twenties and Dark Thirties it was anything but, and now, in a world aiming for carbon neutrality, we might even regret who won. Alex Rose is a historian with a scintillating prose style and an eye for the insightful, and often amusing, detail. Whereas dirigibles were heavy, ponderous, and full of gas, this book is the precise opposite.”—Andrew Roberts, author of Leadership in War