Storming the Heavens
African Americans and the Early Fight for the Right to Fly
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Narrated by:
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Bill Andrew Quinn
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By:
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Gerald Horne
About this listen
The recent Hollywood film Hidden Figures presents a portrait of how African American women shaped the US effort in aerospace during the height of Jim Crow. In Storming the Heavens, Gerald Horne presents the necessary back story to this account and goes further to detail the earlier struggle of African Americans to gain the right to fly.
This struggle involved pioneers like Bessie Coleman, who traveled to World War I-era Paris in order to gain piloting skills that she was denied in her US homeland; and John Robinson from Chicago via Mississippi, who traveled to 1930s Ethiopia and became the leading pilot for this beleaguered African nation as it withstood an invasion from fascist Italy, eventually becoming the personal pilot of His Imperial Majesty, Haile Selassie, and a founder of Ethiopian Airways. Additionally, Horne adds nuance to the oft-told tale of the Tuskegee Airmen and goes further to discuss the role of US pilots during the Korean war in the early 1950s. He also tells the story of how and why US airlines were fought when they began to fly into South Africa - and how planes from this land of apartheid were protested when they landed at US airports.
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- By: Susan Williams
- Narrated by: Chanté McCormick
- Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the covert operations pursued by the CIA from Ghana to the Congo to the UN in an effort to frustrate and deny Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders. This dramatically upends the conventional belief that the African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in.
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A very good read.
- By Amazon Customer on 11-20-22
By: Susan Williams
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Chasing the Moon
- The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America into the Space Age
- By: Robert Stone, Alan Andres
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed the nation spend $20 billion to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. Based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material, Chasing the Moon reveals the unknown stories of the fascinating individuals whose imaginative work across decades culminated in America’s momentous achievement. More than a story of engineers and astronauts, the moon landing - now celebrating its 50th anniversary - grew out of the dreams of science fiction writers, filmmakers, military geniuses, and rule-breaking scientists.
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Fifty years ago...
- By GraceAgnes on 06-14-19
By: Robert Stone, and others
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Pearl Harbor
- A Captivating Guide to the Surprise Military Strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service That Caused the United States of America’s Formal Entry into World War II
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The attack of the US Pearl Harbor Naval Base changed the entire progress of World War II, and as a result, it was a very formative event both for the United States and Japan. Though the two nations seemed unlikely enemies at the onset of the Second Great War, bloodshed between them would be greater than anyone could have imagined. The future of the world at large was changed on December 7, 1941, when the Empire of Japan chose to make a preemptive strike on its most feared Pacific neighbor, the United States of America.
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Don’t waste your credit
- By Amazon Customer on 05-17-20
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The Sorrows of Empire
- Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.
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A must read.
- By Thomas on 02-07-15
By: Chalmers Johnson
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Cuba Libre
- A 500-Year Quest for Independence
- By: Philip Brenner, Peter Eisner
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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This timely book provides a balanced, deeply knowledgeable introduction to Cuba since 1492. Tracing the island's history over 500 years, the authors provide an incisive overview for anyone interested in exploring beyond the enduring stereotypes.
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Lost Opportunity (and time)
- By Alexander Piquer on 05-04-18
By: Philip Brenner, and others
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Stealth
- The Secret Contest to Invent Invisible Aircraft
- By: Peter Westwick
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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On a moonless night in January 1991, a dozen US aircraft appeared in the skies over Baghdad. To the Iraqi air defenses, the planes seemed to come from nowhere. Each aircraft was more than 60 feet in length and with a wingspan of 40 feet, yet its radar footprint was the size of a ball bearing. Here was the first extensive combat application of Stealth technology. And it was devastating.
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Good Overview of the original development
- By Amazon Customer on 08-01-22
By: Peter Westwick
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A Fiery Peace in a Cold War
- Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
- By: Neil Sheehan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history - and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust.
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Schriever rhymes with beaver.
- By John Gardner on 11-13-09
By: Neil Sheehan
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Underdogs
- The Making of the Modern Marine Corps
- By: Aaron B. O'Connell
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The Marine Corps has always considered itself a breed apart. Since 1775, America's smallest armed service has been suspicious of outsiders and deeply loyal to its traditions. Marines believe in nothing more strongly than the Corps' uniqueness and superiority, and this undying faith in its own exceptionalism is what has made the Marines one of the sharpest, swiftest tools of American military power. Along with unapologetic self-promotion, a strong sense of identity has enabled the Corps to exert a powerful influence on American politics and culture.
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The making of the Marine Corps
- By Jean on 04-17-13
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The Year of Peril
- America in 1942
- By: Tracy Campbell
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 14 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The Second World War exists in the American historical imagination as a time of unity and optimism. In 1942, however, after a series of defeats in the Pacific and the struggle to establish a beachhead on the European front, America seemed to be on the brink of defeat and was beginning to splinter from within. Exploring this precarious moment, Campbell paints a portrait of the deep social, economic, and political fault lines that pitted factions of citizens against each other in the post-Pearl Harbor era....
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Disappointing
- By David S. on 06-08-20
By: Tracy Campbell
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The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941
- The Forgotten Story of How America Forged a Powerful Army Before Pearl Harbor
- By: Paul Dickson
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of America's astounding industrial mobilization during World War II has been told. But what has never been chronicled before Paul Dickson's The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is the extraordinary transformation of America's military from a disparate collection of camps with dilapidated equipment into a well-trained and spirited army 10 times its prior size in little more than 18 months.
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Impact of Leadership
- By Amazon Customer on 11-06-20
By: Paul Dickson
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The Women with Silver Wings
- The Inspiring True Story of the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II
- By: Katherine Sharp Landdeck
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Cornelia Fort was already in the air. At 22, Fort had escaped Nashville’s debutante scene for a fresh start as a flight instructor in Hawaii. She and her student were in the middle of a lesson when the bombs began to fall, and they barely made it back to ground. Still, when the US Army Air Forces put out a call for women pilots to aid the war effort, Fort was one of the first to respond. She became one of just over 1,100 women from across the nation to make it through the Army’s rigorous selection process and earn her silver wings.
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To Remember
- By erica skipton on 05-11-20
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Start-Up Nation
- The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle
- By: Dan Senor, Saul Singer
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion dollar question: How is it that Israel - a country of 7.1 million, only 60 years old, surrounded by enemies, in a constant state of war since its founding, with no natural resources - produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK?
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Interesting and worth the time
- By Nili on 12-10-09
By: Dan Senor, and others
What listeners say about Storming the Heavens
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jean
- 01-07-19
Edifying
This is a topic I had not thought about before. I was aware of the Tuskegee Airmen but I thought it was just the United States Army that would not let black men fly military planes. I was surprised to learn that in the early days of flight black people were prohibited the right to fly. These black men and women had to go to Europe or Africa to learn to fly and be employed as pilots.
The author tells the story of the early black aviators such as Bessie Coleman who went to France during WWI to learn to fly. Home also tells in detail the story of John Robinson who left Mississippi and traveled to Ethiopia in the 1930 to learn to fly. He fought against Italy when they attacked Ethiopia. He was the pilot for Emperor Halle Selassie and then went on to found the Ethiopian Airways which still exist today. Home also tells of the battles black pilots had to fight to be employed as pilots in the United States. The author also briefly reviewed the list of black aviation inventors and their contribution to aviation. It is yet another shameful story of our country.
The book is six hours and thirty-eight minutes. Bill Andrew Quinn does a good job narrating the book. Quinn is a voice-over artist and well-known audiobook narrator.
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