A review by jfkaess
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

5.0

5 stars - I love history and i really love biography, and this book is both. Written by David McCullough, i expected it would be good and i was not disappointed. I listened to this as an audiobook and it is narrated by the author. This is usually, with very few exceptions, not a good thing. The best of the author/narrators us easily Neil Gaiman, but David McCullogh does an acceptable job. The book deals with many of the things you never learned in school. Things like how the US military rejected the Wright's flying plane as impractible and with no military use. The fact that until the Wrights went to France to demonstrate their flying machine, they were largely ignored in the US by both the media (newspapers) and the public. The epilogue deals with those who have attempted to usurp the Wright's claim to have been the first to achieve man controlled powered flight, including the Smithsonian, which is why the original Wright Flyer was displayed for many many years in France and not in the US. I highly recommend this book. It will hold your interest while teaching you new things.