did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

did-you-know? rent-now

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

We're the #1 textbook rental company. Let us show you why.

9781250033772

Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed

by
  • ISBN13:

    9781250033772

  • ISBN10:

    1250033772

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2014-05-13
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Note: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.

Purchase Benefits

List Price: $27.99 Save up to $14.50
  • Buy Used
    $20.99

    USUALLY SHIPS IN 2-4 BUSINESS DAYS

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

Summary

The sensational true story of Eddie Rickenbacker, America's greatest flying ace

At the turn of the twentieth century two new technologies—the car and airplane—took the nation's imagination by storm as they burst, like comets, into American life. The brave souls that leaped into these dangerous contraptions and pushed them to unexplored extremes became new American heroes: the race car driver and the flying ace.

No individual did more to create and intensify these raw new roles than the tall, gangly Eddie Rickenbacker, who defied death over and over with such courage and pluck that a generation of Americans came to know his face better than the president's. The son of poor, German-speaking Swiss immigrants in Columbus, Ohio, Rickenbacker overcame the specter of his father's violent death, a debilitating handicap, and, later, accusations of being a German spy, to become the American military ace of aces in World War I and a Medal of Honor recipient. He and his high-spirited, all-too-short-lived pilot comrades, created a new kind of aviation warfare, as they pushed their machines to the edge of destruction—and often over it—without parachutes, radios, or radar.

Enduring Courage is the electrifying story of the beginning of America's love affair with speed—and how one man above all the rest showed a nation the way forward. No simple daredevil, he was an innovator on the racetrack, a skilled aerial dualist and squadron commander, and founder of Eastern Air Lines. Decades after his heroics against the Red Baron's Flying Circus, he again showed a war-weary nation what it took to survive against nearly insurmountable odds when he and seven others endured a harrowing three-week ordeal adrift without food or water in the Pacific during World War II.

For the first time, Enduring Courage peels back the layers of hero to reveal the man himself. With impeccable research and a gripping narrative, John F. Ross tells the unforgettable story of a man who pushed the limits of speed, endurance and courage and emerged as an American legend.

Author Biography

JOHN F. ROSS, the Executive Editor of American Heritage and Invention & Technology magazines, and previously on the Board of Editors at Smithsonian magazine, won the Fort Ticonderoga Prize for Contributions to American History. His articles have been published in Reader’s Digest, Parade, the New York Times, Newsweek, and Washington Post, and he has appeared on more than fifty radio and television programs. He has worked closely with and edited more than two dozen Pulitzer-prize winning writers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: When a Man Faces Death

Book I: Racing

Chapter 1: Love at First Sight

Chapter 2: A Most Dangerous Job

Chapter 3: Death on the Track

Chapter 4: Aeroplane vs. Automobile

Chapter 5: New Order of Terrors

Book II: Flying

Chapter 6: Storm Clouds Overhead

Chapter 7: Flying Lessons

Chapter 8: A Steep Learning Curve

Chapter 9: Aircraft Morph into Deadly Weapons

Book III: Fighting

Chapter 10: First Blood

Chapter 11: When Giants Fall

Chapter 12: Race to Ace

Chapter 13: The Germans Strike Back

Chapter 14: A Secret Counteroffensive

Chapter 15: Squadron Command

Book IV: Immortality

Chapter 16: Plane Crash

Chapter 17: Triumph of Will

Epilogue

Endnotes

Readers Notes

Index

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program