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"Few Americans remember today that, between World War I and World War II, air-racing was the country's most popular form of public entertainment . . . this is more than the tale of those magnificent men and their flying machines. For contemporary readers, it is also a fable of how new technologies are introduced and spread."
-Rinker Buck, New York Times best-selling author of Life on the Mississippi"In
The Great Air Race, John Lancaster unearths a forgotten and seminal saga in American aviation history . . . [and] vividly evokes the turbulent history of early competition among audacious men determined to fly round-trip cross-country at all costs."
-Cherie Burns, author of? The Great Hurricane
"Combining a journalist's storytelling skill with his own expertise as a pilot, John Lancaster puts you in the cockpit of this dangerous contest to prove the potential of airpower.
-Douglas Waller, author of A Question of Loyalty"A virtually forgotten yet historically important air race at the dawn of commercial aviation is grippingly brought to life by John Lancaster."
-Eric Jay Dolin, best-selling author of Rebels at Sea"In narrating the story of the great 1919 air race, John Lancaster is also describing the birth of arguably the single most enduring technological breakthrough of the twentieth century, one that still wields enormous power over our daily lives and the fate of the world."
-Glenn Frankel, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Shooting Midnight Cowboy
About the author
John Lancaster is a journalist who spent most of his career at the
Washington Post, including eight years as a foreign correspondent. His writing has also appeared in
National Geographic and the
New Republic, among other publications. He lives in Washington, DC.
