Empires of the Sky Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World

[An] exhilarating history of the dawn of modern air travel. Publishers Weekly

To say that [Alexander] Rose s new book, Empires of the Sky, is about the Hindenburg is to diminish the genius of the narrative Rose has crafted here. Keith O Brien, The New York Times

An obsessive, decades-long struggle between two equally matched people is always fascinating, and especially when the prize they are fighting for is nothing less than the future of flight. We take the airplane s defeat of the Zeppelin for granted, but in the Roaring Twenties and Dark Thirties it was anything but, and now, in a world aiming for carbon neutrality, we might even regret who won. Alex Rose is a historian with a scintillating prose style and an eye for the insightful, and often amusing, detail. Whereas dirigibles were heavy, ponderous, and full of gas, this book is the precise opposite. Andrew Roberts, author of Leadership in War