Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War

Shadow Before the Flame: The Hindenburg Disaster and the Prelude to War

Katz, Catherine Grace

Hardcover

Aviation20th Century United States HistoryGeneral Sociology

Publisher Price: $38.00

PREORDER - Expected ship date September 22, 2026

ISBN10: 0593832183
ISBN13: 9780593832189
Publisher: Viking
Published: Sep 22 2026
Pages: 496
Weight: 1.25
Language: English
The gripping, definitive history of the Hindenburg disaster, the rise of the Nazis, and the road to World War II as never before told

On the evening of May 6, 1937, the majestic German zeppelin Hindenburg arrived before cheering crowds in Lakehurst, New Jersey, when suddenly, a titanic inferno lit up the sky. Thirty-four seconds later, the greatest airship ever to take flight was gone, destroyed in a ferocious blaze and eternally seared into historical memory.

Acclaimed historian Catherine Grace Katz unites groundbreaking research with thrilling narrative that situates this famous disaster squarely on the collision course between the decade's two prevailing currents. The Hindenburg began as a symbol of hope and progress, a gleaming technological marvel in the nascent age of aviation. But soon, the airship of dreams became a propaganda tool powering the rising Nazi regime. In this sweeping drama, Katz illustrates the story of the Hindenburg through the captivating passengers and crew caught in the grip of fate: an adventurous heiress, a renowned vaudeville star, a Chicago industrialist with German Jewish roots, an esteemed zeppelin captain, and a young cabin boy on his first voyage to the United States. Meanwhile, on the ground, two intrepid journalists' reporting on the Hindenburg fundamentally changed breaking news, paving the way for modern media.

In this rigorously researched, ticking-clock account, Shadow Before the Flame offers a portrait of an era when illusions of peace, fueled by the hubris of invention, hovered in suspended time as the clouds of an inevitable war loomed on the horizon. Above all, it is a story of humanity and of lives forever changed by a moment that served as a harbinger for the global conflagration yet to come.

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