Broken Icarus

"A really fascinating book." - Paul Lisnek WGN Radio

"Broken Icarus is more than a book about science, industry, and aviation. It captures the spirit of a time that is both a cautionary tale and an inspiration for us all." - Bertrand Piccard, chairman, Solar Impulse Foundation

"Broken Icarus weaves a seemingly incongruous story of Europe and America's aspirations for the future - on earth and in the heavens. For some this meant fascism, for others a democratic future powered by flying machines. Women's rights and lives were very much at the center of this search for equality on the ground as in the air. David Hanna shows us how aviation was one way women reached for the stars."- Lisa Greenwald, author of Daughters of 1968: Redefining French Feminism and the Women's Liberation Movement

"David Hanna brings the exceptional yet all-too-human stories of Balbo, Eckener, and the Piccard's vividly to life as they pursue their innovations and grapple with, avoid, or embrace the rise of fascism. The 1933 Chicago World's Fair (itself a fascinating story) provides the perfect international stage to demonstrate their visions of the future. Broken Icarus is a captivating story that features remarkable characters and gripping adventures during exceptionally challenging times." - Paul Glenshaw, co-director, co-writer, The Lafayette Escadrille

"David Hanna's historical study is lively, exciting, and a cautionary tale for our troubled times." --Carl Rosen (New York Magazine)

"David Hanna's splendid Broken Icarus is about a gleaming future that never happened. The World's Fair in Chicago in the fateful year of 1933 marked the zenith of the Golden Age of aeronautics, the moment when it seemed that soon sleek flying-boats would rule the air, silvery squadrons of airships would girdle the world, and mankind would venture into space. But all those hopes, and all those dreams, turned to ashes as that benighted decade forged a very different and more sinister world." - Alexander Rose, author of Empires of the Sky

"Hanna is a skillful storyteller.... a readable and well-researched book of interest to students of Chicago history and to anyone in search of a novel take on the inter-war years."

"Hanna's book terrifically complements Alexander Rose's Empires of the Sky"..."Like The Devil in the White City, David Hanna's Broken Icarus often reads like a novel, rich in memorable characters."-Chicago Review of Books

"The echoes of current life in Hanna's account are unavoidable--'Coverage of giant rallies, and an endless barrage of chauvinism, half-truths, and outright lies poured forth from cheap new mass-produced radios, ' he writes of Germany under the newly ascendant Hitler--but where our 21st century hangs helplessly between crisis and stasis, here the 1930s are self-consciously dynamic." --Tom Scocca (Air Mail)