Terror of History

This is a marvelous book, depicting an era where scientific work was far different than it is now. One did not need years of training or huge government investment to make a major discovery back then, but rather hard work and ingenuity. As an example, an amateur like William Hershel, a composer and instrument-maker could become the greatest astronomer of his generation.

Frank Luke, Jr. was an unlikely pilot. In the Great War, when fliers were still “knights of the air,” Luke was an ungallant loner—a kid from Arizona who collected tarantulas, shot buzzards, and boxed miners. But during two torrid weeks in September 1918, he was the deadliest man on the Western Front. In only ten missions, he destroyed fourteen heavily-defended German balloons and four airplanes, the second highest American tally in the entire war.

The use of poison gas — chlorine, phosgene, mustard — during World War I forever changed the face of modern warfare.