{"product_id":"the-unsubstantial-air-paperback","title":"The Unsubstantial Air - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eSamuel Hynes\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe vivid story of the young Americans who fought and died in the aerial battles of World War I. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSamuel Hynes's\u003ci\u003e The Unsubstantial Air\u003c\/i\u003e is a chronicle of war that is more than a military history; it traces the lives and deaths of the young Americans who fought in the skies over Europe in World War I. Using letters, journals, and memoirs, it speaks in their voices and answers primal questions: What was it like to be there? What was it like to fly those planes, to fight, to kill? The volunteer fliers were often privileged young men--the sort of college athletes and Ivy League students who might appear in an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, and sometimes did. For them, a war in the air would be like a college reunion. Others were roughnecks from farms and ranches, for whom it would all be strange. Together they would make one Air Service and fight one bitter, costly war. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA wartime pilot himself, the memoirist and critic Samuel Hynes tells these young men's saga as the story of a generation. He shows how they dreamed of adventure and glory, and how they learned the realities of a pilot's life, the hardships and the danger, and how they came to know both the beauty of flight and the constant presence of death. They gasp in wonder at the world seen from a plane, struggle to keep their hands from freezing in open-air cockpits, party with actresses and aristocrats, and search for their friends' bodies on the battlefield. Their romantic war becomes more than that--it becomes a harsh but often thrilling new reality.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSamuel Hynes\u003c\/b\u003e is the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of a celebrated memoir of serving as a marine pilot in World War II, \u003ci\u003eFlights of Passage\u003c\/i\u003e. His book on soldiers' accounts of twentieth-century wars, \u003ci\u003eThe Soldiers' Tale\u003c\/i\u003e, won a Robert F. Kennedy Award. He was a featured commentator on Ken Burns's documentary \u003ci\u003eThe War\u003c\/i\u003e. He is also the author of several works of literary criticism, including \u003ci\u003eThe Auden Generation\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Edwardian Turn of Mind\u003c\/i\u003e, and a memoir, \u003ci\u003eThe Growing Seasons\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 336\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.9 x 8.1 x 5.4 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e October 13, 2015\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47278345158905,"sku":"9780374535582","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0789\/2782\/3097\/files\/Tk42U1FSb21CNmdIMDB6VmZ6Rmdvdz09.webp?v=1769007893","url":"https:\/\/bookscloud.io\/products\/the-unsubstantial-air-paperback","provider":"BooksCloud Book Dropshipping","version":"1.0","type":"link"}