History Ebooks

Learn from the past with these diverse perspectives on History. These books strive to tell the true accounts of historical events, places, and people that have influenced our world, from ancient times to the 20th century. Popular authors include David Halberstam, Rob Chernow, Ibram X. Kendi and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Learn from the past with these diverse perspectives on History. These books strive to tell the true accounts of historical events, places, and people that have influenced our world, from ancient times to the 20th century. Popular authors include David Halberstam, Rob Chernow, Ibram X. Kendi and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

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His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine
His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine
His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine
His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine
Ebook

His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine

byS.C. Gwynne

From historian and bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon comes a “captivating, thoroughly researched” (The New York Times Book Review) tale of the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship—and the doomed love story between an ambitious British officer and a married Romanian princess at its heart. The tragic fate of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty’s Airship, S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong. Airships, those airborne leviathans that occupied center stage in the world in the first half of the 20th century, were a symbol of the future. R101 was not just the largest aircraft ever to have flown and the product of the world’s most advanced engineering—she was also the lynchpin of an imperial British scheme to link by air the far-flung areas of its empire, from Australia to India, South Africa, Canada, Egypt, and Singapore. No one had ever conceived of anything like this, and R101 captivated the world. There was just one problem: beyond the hype and technological wonders, these big, steel-framed, hydrogen-filled airships were a dangerously bad idea. Gwynne’s chronicle features a cast of remarkable—and tragically flawed—characters, including Lord Christopher Thomson, the man who dreamed up the Imperial Airship Scheme and then relentlessly pushed R101 to her destruction; Princess Marthe Bibesco, the celebrated writer and glamorous socialite with whom he had a long affair; and George Herbert Scott, a national hero who was the first person to cross the Atlantic twice in any aircraft, in 1919—eight years before Lindbergh’s famous flight—but who devolved into drink and ruin. These historical figures—and the ship they built, flew, and crashed—come together in “a Promethean tale of unlimited ambitions and technical limitations, airy dreams and explosive endings” (The Wall Street Journal).

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About History

With plentiful award-winning ebooks on history, it’s now easier than ever to lose yourself in the politics, realities, and intricacies of our collective past. If you’re looking for enthralling diversions from your 21st-century reality, there are incredible history ebooks to sweep us up into old worlds ranging from England’s Henry VII to America’s Civil War. The best reads are ones that manage to strike a balance between accurate information and captivating narrative. In other words, both educational and entertaining. We’ve wrangled together here for you that blend those beautifully and both hold your attention and boost your knowledge. The best history books teach us about the people, events and artifacts of the past and bridge the gap between the present and the past. They encourage you to imagine yourself as someone living in the past, during war, strife, riches, starvation, victories, and tragedies. They ask us to reflect on what those things might mean for the rest of us in our modern world. Written by history scholars, professors, journalists, and other gifted writers, the best history ebooks help modern readers better comprehend the dynamics of history and the issues faced by people in the past.

With plentiful award-winning ebooks on history, it’s now easier than ever to lose yourself in the politics, realities, and intricacies of our collective past. If you’re looking for enthralling diversions from your 21st-century reality, there are incredible history ebooks to sweep us up into old worlds ranging from England’s Henry VII to America’s Civil War. The best reads are ones that manage to strike a balance between accurate information and captivating narrative. In other words, both educational and entertaining. We’ve wrangled together here for you that blend those beautifully and both hold your attention and boost your knowledge. The best history books teach us about the people, events and artifacts of the past and bridge the gap between the present and the past. They encourage you to imagine yourself as someone living in the past, during war, strife, riches, starvation, victories, and tragedies. They ask us to reflect on what those things might mean for the rest of us in our modern world. Written by history scholars, professors, journalists, and other gifted writers, the best history ebooks help modern readers better comprehend the dynamics of history and the issues faced by people in the past.