Charles Lindbergh
An American Life

About this book:

He was the "Lone Eagle" who conquered the Atlantic and became the most famous man on earth—yet the triumph of 1927 was only the first act of a life that mirrored the tumult of the twentieth century. *Charles Lindbergh: An American Life* sweeps past the icon to reveal the man in full: the barnstormer who honed his nerve on the edge of disaster, the grieving father shattered by the "Crime of the Century," the isolationist whose convictions shattered his hero status, and the secret wartime pilot who flew combat missions in the Pacific. From the meticulous engineering of the *Spirit of St. Louis* to the corridors of the America First Committee, this biography navigates the dizzying altitudes and dark valleys of a singular American trajectory.

But the story refuses to end in controversy. In a stunning second act, Lindbergh transformed himself into a visionary conservationist, fighting to save endangered species and vanishing cultures long before the world caught up. Drawing on the full arc of his journey—from the Minnesota woods to the halls of power, from the jungles of the Pacific to the remote islands where he spent his final years—this book delivers a portrait as complex, contradictory, and compelling as the century he helped define. Here is the definitive account of an American original whose feet of clay were as fascinating as his flights into the heavens.