A Passion for Wings: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1908-1918 - Hardcover

Wohl, Professor Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300057784 ISBN 13: 9780300057782

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1994

Synopsis

This elegantly written, copiously illustrated book presents the first cultural history of the pioneering phase of aviation. Robert Wohl`s fascinating story describes Wilbur Wright and other colorful early aeronauts, aces such as Baron von Richthofen, and the enthusiastic responses to the implications of aviation by such writers and artists as H. G. Wells, Franz Kafka, Kazimir Malevich, Robert Delaunay, Gabriele D`Annunzio, and Emile Driant.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert Wohl is Distinguished Professor of History, University of California at Los Angeles.

From Publishers Weekly:

Wohl, a history professor at UCLA, has written the first cultural history of early aviation, bringing into sharp focus its impact on Western culture during the decade 1908-18. Illustrated with 300 rare photos, paintings, drawings and posters, including more than 100 in color, this large-format book reveals the powerful effect of aviation imagery on the popular imagination, the mythologizing of the "flying aces" of the Great War and the far-reaching implications for the new century's artistic and moral sensibility. Examples show how the invention of the flying machine inspired a generation of artists and writers including H.G. Wells, Franz Kafka, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Edmond Rostand, Kazimir Malevich, Robert Delaunay and many others. Wohl (The Generation of 1914) emphasizes the centrality of France in pre-1918 aviation; the first aviation competition, flight training school and major manufacturing plant for planes were located there. Exhilarating to read and pleasing to the eye.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0300057784
• ISBN 13: 9780300057782
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328