The Millionaires Unit, Marc Wortman
The Millionaires Unit, Marc Wortman
5 Rating(s)
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The Millionaires' Unit
The Aristocratic Flyboys Who Fought the Great War and Invented American Air Power

Author: Marc Wortman

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

Unabridged: 13 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/19/2006


Synopsis

The Millionaires' Unit is the story of a gilded generation of young men from the zenith of privilege: a Rockerfeller, the son of the head of the Union Pacific Railroad, several who counted friends and relatives among presidents and statesmen of the day. They had it all and, remarkably by modern standards, they were prepared to risk it all to fight a distant war in France. Driven by the belief that their membership in the American elite required certain sacrifice, schooled in heroism and the nature of leadership, they determined to be first into the conflict, leading the way ahead of America's declaration that it would join the war. At the heart of the group was the Yale flying club, six of whom are the heroes of this book. They would share rivalries over girlfriends, jealousies over membership in Skull and Bones, and fierce ambition to be the most daring young man over the battlefields of France, where the casualties among flyers were chillingly high.

One of the six would go on to become the principal architect of the American Air Force's first strategic bomber force. Others would bring home decorations and tales of high life experiences in Paris. Some would not return, having made the greatest sacrifice of all in perhaps the last noble war. For readers of Flyboys, The Greatest Generation, or Flags of Our Fathers, this patriotic, romantic, absorbing book is narrative military history of the best kind.


About Marc Wortman

Marc Wortman is an award-winning freelance writer whose work has appeared in numerous national magazines. He was a senior editor of the Yale Alumni Magazine. He also taught literature and writing at Princeton University and in a college program for inmates at Rahway State Prison in New Jersey. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with his wife and daughter.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brian

Shows the ways in which the culture of the elites has changed from a notion of obligation and sacrifice, but it does so while showing the kids involved as real, maturing humans.......more

Goodreads review by Kamrud

An interesting look into a time when wealth and power were concentrated in an exclusive semi-aristocratic class but were also seen as carrying an innate responsibility to contribute something back to your country. The contributions of rich young men who not only risked their own lives but used their......more

Goodreads review by Richard

This is an excellent read. If you endeavor to learn about early US Naval Aviation. Its hard to imagine a group of well-to-do Yale students wanting to be prepared to defend their country. I can't see that happening today. But this is in fact what happened. And when they first approached the Navy rega......more

Goodreads review by Louis

My first reading disappointment of the year, this book takes an exciting, dramatic subject and makes it dull. This reverse alchemy concerns itself with the Yale Flying Club from the 1910s. A collection of aristocratic early aviators grew out of the first years of World War I. Sharing dreams of flyin......more

Goodreads review by Audrey

I bought this book about 10years ago and have been sitting on it. Once I started, I wasn't able to put it down. I was initially put off by the idea of a bunch of white, male, privileged Elis funding their way into an expensive service and avoiding trench warfare. I shifted my viewpoint somewhat duri......more