The unsubstantial air : American fliers in the First World War / Samuel Hynes.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hynes, Samuel, 1924-2019.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

World War, 1914-1918--Aerial operations, American.

World War, 1914-1918.

Fighter pilots--United States--History--20th century.

Fighter pilots.

Fighter pilots--United States--Biography.

History.

United States.

World War, 1914-1918--Personal narratives, American.

Genre:

Biographies.

Personal narratives -- American.

Personal narratives.

Physical Description:

xii, 322 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

Summary:

"The vivid story of the young Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I. The Unsubstantial Air is a chronicle of war that is more than a military history; it traces the lives and deaths of the young Americans who fought in the skies over Europe in World War I. Using letters, journals, and memoirs, it speaks in their voices and answers primal questions: What was it like to be there? What was it like to fly those planes, to fight, to kill? The volunteer fliers were often privileged young men--the sort of college athletes and Ivy League students who might appear in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and sometimes did. For them, a war in the air would be like a college reunion. Others were roughnecks from farms and ranches, for whom it would all be strange. Together they would make one Air Service and fight one bitter, costly war. A wartime pilot himself, the memoirist and critic Samuel Hynes tells these young men's saga as the story of a generation. He shows how they dreamed of adventure and glory, and how they learned the realities of a pilot's life, the hardships and the danger, and how they came to know both the beauty of flight and the constant presence of death. 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, and search for their friends' bodies on the battlefield. Their romantic war becomes more than that--it becomes a harsh but often thrilling new reality"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue: A Fire Beyond the Horizon

An Occupation for Gentlemen

The Ivy League Air Force

Going

Abroad I : First Impressions

Driving the Machine

The Pleasurable Sensation of Flying

Waiting for the War

How to Fight

This Killing Business

Abroad II : Getting Acquainted

In Pursuit

Looking at the War

A Short History of Bombing

Summer : 1918

September : St. Mihiel

Abroad III : End Games

The Last Battle

November Eleventh

Afterwards.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-305) and index.

Local Notes:

Athenaeum copy: Hagen fund bookplate.

ISBN:

9780374278007

0374278008

OCLC:

884665059

Online:

Cover image