Wright Brothers (McCullough) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[McCullough] takes the Wrights’ story aloft.... Concise, exciting, and fact-packed... Mr. McCullough presents all this with dignified panache, and with detail so granular you may wonder how it was all collected.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


A story of timeless importance, told with uncommon empathy and fluency.... A story, well told, about what might be the most astonishing feat mankind has ever accomplished.... The Wright Brothers soars.
Daniel Okrent - New York Times Book Review


David McCullough has etched a brisk, admiring portrait of the modest, hardworking Ohioans who designed an airplane in their bicycle shop and solved the mystery of flight on the sands of Kitty Hawk, N.C. He captures the marvel of what the Wrights accomplished and, just as important, the wonder felt by their contemporaries.... Mr. McCullough is in his element writing about seemingly ordinary folk steeped in the cardinal American virtues—self-reliance and can-do resourcefulness.
Roger Lowenstein - Wall Street Journal


The nitty-gritty of exactly how [the Wrights] succeeded is told in fascinating detail.
Buzzy Jackson - Boston Globe


Few historians have captured the essence of America—its rise from an agrarian nation to the world's dominant power—like David McCullough.... McCullough has defined American icons and revealed new dimensions to stories that long seemed exhausted.... An elegant, sweeping look at the two Americans who went where no others had gone before and whose work helped create a national excellence in aviation that continues today.
Ray Locker - USA Today


McCullough’s magical account of [the Wright Brothers'] early adventures—enhanced by volumes of family correspondence, written records, and his own deep understanding of the country and the era—shows as never before how two Ohio boys from a remarkable family taught the world to fly.
Reeve Lindbergh - Washington Post


McCullough vividly re-creates the failures and disappointments as the Wright brothers puzzle out the science of bird- and insect-wing design.... [McCullough] continues to deliver high-quality material with familiar facility and grace.
Larry Lebowitz - Miami Herald


We all know what they did and where they did it—Kitty Hawk, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But McCullough digs deeply to find out how they did it, and why they did it, and what happened to them in the years that followed.
Harry Levins - St. Louis Post-Dispatch


A compelling, upbeat story that underscores the importance of industriousness, creative intelligence and indomitable patience.
Doug Childers - Richmond Times-Dispatch


Pleasurable to read.... McCullough has a gift for finding the best in his subjects without losing perspective on their flaws.
Margaret Quamme - Columbus Dispatch


A master storyteller.... The brothers’ story unfolds and develops with grace and insight in a style at which McCullough is simply the best.
David Hendricks - San Antonio Express-News


[McCullough's] evident admiration for the Wrights leads him to soft-pedal their crasser side, like their epic patent lawsuits, which stymied American aviation for years. Still, McCullough's usual warm, evocative prose makes for an absorbing narrative; he conveys both the drama of the birth of flight and the homespun genius of America's golden age of innovation.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) [I]mpeccable writing with historical rigor and strong character definition.... [The Wright brothers] had limited formal education, with the author instead attributing his subjects' success to industry, imagination, and persistence.... A signal contribution to Wright historiography.  —John Carver Edwards, formerly with Univ. of Georgia Libs.
Library Journal


A charmingly pared-down life of the "boys" that grounds their dream of flight in decent character and work ethic. There is a quiet, stoical awe to the accomplishments of these two unprepossessing Ohio brothers in this fluently rendered, skillfully focused study.... An educational and inspiring biography of seminal American innovators.
Kirkus Reviews