The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh
by Candace Fleming
Middle School, High School    Schwartz & Wade/Random    364 pp.    g
2/20    978-0-525-64654-9    $18.99
Library ed.  978-0-525-64655-6    $21.99
e-book ed.  978-0-525-64656-3    $10.99

Stitching together important life events, insightful anecdotes, and primary sources, Fleming (Amelia Lost, rev. 3/11; The Family Romanov, rev. 7/14) creates a cohesive and comprehensive biography of a charismatic, flawed figure. Charles Lindbergh made history with his 1927 solo transatlantic flight from New York City to Paris, and the resulting fame kept him in the public eye for the rest of his life. Notoriously, Lindbergh and his wife were victims of the “Crime of the Century,” when their infant son was kidnapped and murdered. Fleming examines the forces that shaped Lindbergh, from his early childhood to his extraordinary work ethic to his keen appreciation of all things scientific and mechanical. But there was a dark side to Lindbergh, too. From an early age he considered himself a “superior specimen,” physically and genetically; chose friends out of expediency; lived a life ruled by exacting checklists. His marriage was marred by sexism, misogyny, narcissism, and adultery, while his political views were even worse: a Nazi sympathizer, he unapologetically espoused racism, xenophobia, and white supremacy. Fleming employs a deft hand here: she doesn’t draw contemporary parallels, but they will be easy enough for young readers to see (especially in the prologue, which describes a 1941 America First rally virtually indistinguishable from a Trump rally). It’s not easy to write the biography of a person who elicits, by turns, admiration, sympathy, and revulsion, but Fleming has accomplished this juggling act, and in doing so, she has created a historical narrative that couldn’t feel more contemporary. A bibliography, source notes, and an index are appended; a twenty-four-page section of black-and-white photographs is inserted in the center.

From the January/February 2020 Horn Book Magazine.