The Wright Brothers
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Narrated by:
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David McCullough
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By:
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David McCullough
About this listen
Two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize David McCullough tells the dramatic story behind the story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright's Wright Flyer became the first powered, heavier-than-air machine to achieve controlled, sustained flight with a pilot aboard. The Age of Flight had begun. How did they do it? And why? David McCullough tells the extraordinary and truly American story of the two brothers who changed the world.
Sons of an itinerant preacher and a mother who died young, Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up on a small sidestreet in Dayton, Ohio, in a house that lacked indoor plumbing and electricity but was filled with books and a love of learning. The brothers ran a bicycle shop that allowed them to earn enough money to pursue their mission in life: flight. In the 1890s flying was beginning to advance beyond the glider stage, but there were major technical challenges the Wrights were determined to solve. They traveled to North Carolina's remote Outer Banks to test their plane because there they found three indispensable conditions: constant winds, soft surfaces for landings, and privacy.
Flying was exceedingly dangerous; the Wrights risked their lives every time they flew in the years that followed. Orville nearly died in a crash in 1908 but was nursed back to health by his sister, Katharine - an unsung and important part of the brothers' success and of McCullough's book. Despite their achievement the Wrights could not convince the US government to take an interest in their plane until after they demonstrated its success in France, where the government instantly understood the importance of their achievement. Now, in this revelatory book, master historian David McCullough draws on nearly 1,000 letters of family correspondence plus diaries, notebooks, and family scrapbooks in the Library of Congress to tell the full story of the Wright brothers and their heroic achievement.
©2015 David McCullough (P)2015 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"David McCullough's reading of his new biography of the Wright Brothers is a stellar production on every count, and a supremely satisfying listening experience. McCullough's calm, avuncular voice, familiar to millions from his PBS productions, is for many of us the voice of history itself." (AudioFile)
Editorial Review
While I was raised in Arizona, southern Virginia is where I was born. Every summer when I was a kid, my family would take trips down the coast of North Carolina to the Outer Banks and spend a week relaxing on the beach. The best part of the trip was always when we’d finally pass Kitty Hawk, and my father—an amateur pilot in his own right—would remind me how the first manned flight occurred right there on the beach. December 13, 2018 marked the 115th anniversary of that historic first piloted flight by the Wright Brothers, and there’s no one better to tell the tale than two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough. —Kyle S., Audible Editor
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His father conceived of the Brooklyn Bridge, but after John Roebling's sudden death, Washington Roebling built what has become one of American's most iconic structures - as much a part of New York as the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building. Yet, as recognizable as the bridge is, its builder is too often forgotten - and his life is of interest far beyond his chosen field. It is the story of immigrants, of the frontier, of the greatest crisis in American history, and of the making of the modern world.
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Monumental
- By charles mueller on 07-09-19
By: Erica Wagner
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Birdmen
- The Wright Brothers, Glenn Curtiss, and the Battle to Control the Skies
- By: Lawrence Goldstone
- Narrated by: Jonathan Fried
- Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Wilbur and Orville Wright are two of the greatest innovators in history, and together they solved the centuries-old riddle of powered, heavier-than-air flight. Glenn Hammond Curtiss was the most talented machinist of his day; he first became the fastest man alive when he perfected the motorcycle, then turned his eyes toward the skies to become the fastest man aloft. But between the Wrights and Curtiss bloomed a poisonous rivalry and a patent war so powerful that it shaped aviation in its early years and drove one of the three men to his grave.
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Exceptional
- By Ken on 05-16-15
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Thunderstruck
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Bob Balaban
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In Thunderstruck, Erik Larson tells the interwoven stories of two men: Hawley Crippen, a very unlikely murderer, and Guglielmo Marconi, the obsessive creator of a seemingly supernatural means of communication. Their lives intersect during one of the greatest criminal chases of all time.
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Reader cannot read
- By Bob on 12-08-07
By: Erik Larson
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The Path Between the Seas
- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.
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No Stone Unturned
- By Tim on 06-25-13
By: David McCullough
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Race to Hawaii
- By: Jason Ryan
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Almost a century ago, the first flights to Hawaii required a nerve-racking and uncertain 26-hour journey to isolated and elusive islands located in the middle of the world's largest ocean. Pilots prayed they would encounter land after flying a full day and night across 2,400 miles of the open Pacific. Race to Hawaii chronicles the thrilling first flights to Hawaii in the 1920s, during the Golden Age of Aviation.
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Calm winds and Clear Skies
- By Anonymous User on 04-05-22
By: Jason Ryan
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The Race Underground
- Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway
- By: Doug Most
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late nineteenth century, as cities like Boston and New York grew larger, the streets became increasingly clogged with horse-drawn carts. When the great blizzard of 1888 brought New York City to a halt, a solution had to be found. Two brothers - Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York City - pursued the dream of his city being the first American metropolis to have a subway and the great race was on.
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Informative Cobbled Telling of an Important Story
- By Lynn on 05-21-14
By: Doug Most
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Eighty Days
- Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World
- By: Matthew Goodman
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
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On November 14, 1889, Nellie Bly, the crusading young female reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s World newspaper, left New York City by steamship on a quest to break the record for the fastest trip around the world. Also departing from New York that day—and heading in the opposite direction by train—was a young journalist from The Cosmopolitan magazine, Elizabeth Bisland.
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Who knew?
- By Susan Gardner Bowers on 03-18-13
By: Matthew Goodman
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Eiffel's Tower
- And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris
- By: Dr. Jill Jonnes
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Reminiscent of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, this fascinating account from acclaimed author Jill Jonnes recaptures the 1889 Paris World's Fair. Casting vehement criticism aside, Gustave Eiffel built his tower to be the fair's centerpiece. Perched at the top all summer, he hosted a string of dignitaries.
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Just read the first half
- By Julie W. Capell on 11-08-09
By: Dr. Jill Jonnes
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The Lost Pilots
- The Spectacular Rise and Scandalous Fall of Aviation's Golden Couple
- By: Corey Mead
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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During the height of the roaring '20s, Jessie Miller longs for adventure. Fleeing a passionless marriage in the backwaters of Australia, 23-year-old Jessie arrives in London and promptly falls in with the Bright Young Things, those gin-soaked boho-chic intellectuals draped in suits, flapper dresses, and pearls. At a party Jessie meets Captain William Lancaster, married himself and fresh from the Royal Air Force, with a scheme in his head to become as famous as Charles Lindbergh, who has just crossed the Atlantic. Lancaster will do Lindy one better: fly from London to Melbourne, and in Jessie Miller he’s found the perfect co-pilot.
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Boring narrative
- By M. Hoyt on 07-31-18
By: Corey Mead
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Essays of E. B. White
- By: E. B. White
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Legendary author and essayist E. B. White writes, "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Covering a large number of subjects, this classic collection features 31 of White's most memorable essays.
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E.B. White writes honestly, fearlessly and clearly
- By Bonny on 09-03-17
By: E. B. White
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The Three-Year Swim Club
- The Untold Story of Maui's Sugar Ditch Kids and Their Quest for Olympic Glory
- By: Julie Checkoway
- Narrated by: Alex Chadwick
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1937, a schoolteacher on the island of Maui challenged a group of poverty-stricken sugar plantation kids to swim upstream against the current of their circumstance. The goal? To become Olympians. They faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The children were Japanese-American, were malnourished and barefoot, and had no pool; they trained in the filthy irrigation ditches that snaked down from the mountains into the sugarcane fields.
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Great story but the Hawaiian words get slaughtered
- By Arabella on 01-26-16
By: Julie Checkoway
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i would prefer david reading it
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That Mousy Little Man From Missouri Revisited
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To Conquer the Air is a hero's tale of overcoming obstacles within and without that plumbs the depths of creativity and character. With a historian's accuracy and a novelist's eye, Tobin has captured the interplay of remarkable personalities at an extraordinary moment in our history. In the centennial year of human flight, To Conquer the Air is itself a heroic achievement.
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A great story
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Too much a hagiography
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Nikola Tesla was a major figure in the world in which he lived. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, it was Tesla who would contribute to some of the world's most amazing inventions. It was Tesla's theories, patents, and experiments that would pave the way for the digital, wireless world we are so familiar with today. Tesla didn't enjoy the high honors bestowed on so many of his contemporaries, yet he enjoyed the power of knowing that it was his inventions that were powering the world, literally.
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Wilbur and Orville Wright are two of the greatest innovators in history, and together they solved the centuries-old riddle of powered, heavier-than-air flight. Glenn Hammond Curtiss was the most talented machinist of his day; he first became the fastest man alive when he perfected the motorcycle, then turned his eyes toward the skies to become the fastest man aloft. But between the Wrights and Curtiss bloomed a poisonous rivalry and a patent war so powerful that it shaped aviation in its early years and drove one of the three men to his grave.
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Exceptional
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The Path Between the Seas
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Winner of the National Book Award for history, The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Applying his remarkable gift for writing lucid, lively exposition, McCullough weaves the many strands of the momentous event into a comprehensive and captivating tale.
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The Path Between The Seas
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What listeners say about The Wright Brothers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ken M.
- 05-06-15
Lost Opportunity for Audible and Amazon
Is there anything you would change about this book?
No Whispersync? Amazon and Audible blew a great opportunity to showcase that technology... McCullough received national exposure on the CBS Sunday Morning show to pre-sale.
I'm only 20% into the book and I love it so far!!!
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12 people found this helpful
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- John A. Tucker
- 06-19-15
McCullough Does it Again
Would you consider the audio edition of The Wright Brothers to be better than the print version?
Both are equally satisfying. Of course the book has pictures which helps give additional depth to the story, but the audio is read by the author which is a special treat.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Orville - he was so mercurial and different than his brother Wilbur.
What about David McCullough’s performance did you like?
He is the voice of American History - a national treasure. Perfect.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Soaring on the wings of a dream.
Any additional comments?
I am always amazed at how Mr. McCullough can bring such life, emotion and depth to our nation's historical events and characters. In this instance he gives "wings" to the story of the Wright Brothers and for the first time in a long time gives them them the credit and attention they are due. As he has said "history is the story of people" and in this instance he demonstrates that by bringing the Wright Brothers to life for a whole new generation, many of whom likely know little if anything about these two amazing, daring and creative men. Mr. McCullough's writing is in my opinion unparalleled in the historical narrative genre - its clear, concise and most importantly holds your attention. This book is, as are all of his books, a must read, and it is especially nice to have it available as an audio book read in his familiar and comfortable voice. If such a position existed, Mr. McCullough should be named our nation's Historian Laureate. Bravo!
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8 people found this helpful
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- Isabel
- 05-26-15
McCullough does it again!
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, my friends are well-read and intelligent.
What did you like best about this story?
It a marvelous and patriotic tale. I love the new, interesting facts that I learned as well as McCullough's crafting history into a great drama.
Did David McCullough do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?
Excellent. I felt as if I knew the Wright's family members.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
Why bother when it won't be as good as the book?
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mike
- 05-12-15
As an aeronautical engineer...
Any additional comments?
...what an awesome book! As an aeronautical engineer, we are taught to adore heros who are academics - Prandtl, von Karman, Helmholtz. Of course I was familiar with the Wright Brothers, but not to this level, and what a disservice to not have known until now. McCullough sets out to illustrate the hard work and dedication of the brothers, and this he accomplishes nicely. Even though I knew the story, I still felt intense suspense as they neared the first manned, powered, controlled flight! And don't mind the reviews that say McCullough is no great reader - he's perfect for this story. Should be required reading for every aero engineer, and American!
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4 people found this helpful
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- R Key
- 05-25-15
American self reliance ..Wright brothers
Another example of America excellence that our president doesn't seem to think as exceptional. American Individual self reliance was the key.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Maxim
- 05-18-15
Exceptional story of extraordinary people...
Another hit for the author...detailed and riveting. As a pilot and native of Dayton this fills the void in the mystery of the challenges the Wright Family had to meet to bring the world powered flight. Amazing.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 05-09-15
McCullough does it again!!!
I throughly enjoyed listening to Mr. McCullough read his latest work. He has a wonderful way of telling the story and including the secondary and tertiary characters that really give dimension to these moments in history. Wonderfully done. I felt like I was right there with Wilbur, Orville and Charlie. So good.
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- Damien
- 06-08-15
Bravo!!!
very charming story of what appears to be Quaker till the end Americans legends!!! great story.
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- STEPHEN
- 05-27-15
A very interesting story of flight
Found this to be a really interesting story of the Wright Brothers.
It's a lot fun to listen to and a lot of motivation.
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- Carolyn
- 12-06-15
Great history...but not narrator
Any additional comments?
Narrator's voice was a weak monotone and occasionally seemed like it might fade out. I greatly enjoyed the book and had to try to overlook narrator's voice which just did not do service to the magnificent story of the Wright brothers and their achievement.
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