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Falling Upwards: How We Took To The Air (2013)

by Richard Holmes(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0307379663 (ISBN13: 9780307379665)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Pantheon

review 1: I didn't enjoy this book as much as Age of Wonder but I still liked it. Holmes tends to get mired in detail so when he began discussing the more technical aspects of ballooning, I began to skim. However what makes Holmes such a gifted writer is that he can tie together disparate subjects so as he talks about technical ballooning he can artfully segue into a discussion of Jules Verne and science fiction writing. This book is unputdownable when he talks about the aeronauts themselves or the balloons out of Paris. This is a worthwhile read for those interested in aeronautics or ballooning.
review 2: "Falling Upwards" is an engaging history -- or at least an essay about history -- of an obscure subject. Holmes' narrative describes the early years of ballooning in... more Europe and comments on ballooning's relationship to broad social and cultural trends. There's a cast of eccentrics, shady sideshow promoters, bold patriots, and sober scientists engaged in adventures worthy of the best novelists. Holmes' witty and wry writing turns seemingly trivial details, including early balloonists' tendency to booze aloft, into starting places for digressions into the cultural history of early aviation. Some of these digressions reflect on ballooning as a metaphor, giving the book an occasionally shallow metaphiysical quality. less

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