A review by stevenk
Birdmen: The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies by Lawrence Goldstone

4.0

This book weaves together the story of the Wright Brothers and their contemporaries working on heavier than air flight, with the conflict between the Wrights and others regarding who should reap the windfalls, and the stories the personalities that brought manned flight into peoples imaginations by flying these new machines. Using newspaper reports and correspondence of the people involved the author establishes the personalities of the men who pioneered early manned flight and sets up the conflicts that drove the course of aviation in America in those early years. Managing to make the patent fight interesting by mixing in stories of personality conflict, invention, feats of aviation and tragedy to put it into historic perspective the story of the early pioneers of flight was full of passion (although sometimes misplaced or spiteful), innovation, and daring. I received a free ARC of this book through Goodreads First Reads giveaways.