The Hindenburg [Hardcover]

Michael Macdonald Mooney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1972

Hindenburg, The by Mooney, Michael Macdonald

Product Details

• Hardcover: 278 pages
• Publisher: Dodd, Mead; 1st edition (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0396065023
• ISBN-13: 978-0396065029
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,544,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In-Depth Look at Famous Disaster, March 18, 2001

By 

Severin Olson (Hyattsville, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Hindenburg (Hardcover)

Ah, back to the Hindenburg, the disaster that claimed few lives but played out so spectacularly it burned its image into our minds. Mooney's book looks at the event, giving us a brief history of the airship followed by a comprehensive account of the ship's last flight to New York. No airship enthusiast will be bored by this book. It is well written, despite the author's annoying tendency to start each chapter commenting on the sun's indifference to the human clock or calender. My only problem with the book was its contention that the explosion was an act of sabotage by one of the riggers. This idea is not new, and could of course be true, but I believe the evidence suggests a natural cause. Why do so many feel that arson and sabotage are necessary ingredients to a good disaster story? But this detracts little from the work. I recommend it to Hindenburg junkies and aviation historians.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing look at the Hindenburg disaster, August 23, 2004

By 

Nelson Aspen "Author/Journalist" (Los Angeles & NYC, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hindenburg (Hardcover)

There are much better books on the subject of the Hindenburg disaster and the role it played in American/German history & pop culture. This speculative work takes a long time to get going and then, when it finally reaches the climax of the airship's demise, it is regrattably short on storytelling.

Hindenburg enthusiasts will enjoy it, but should not be considered a definitive textbook.

4.0 out of 5 stars Sabotage, August 18, 2010

By 

Ron Braithwaite "Hummingbird God" (El Indio, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Hindenburg (Paperback)

From the beginning there have been various theories to explain the sudden destruction of the Hindenburg. The official version--German and American--was that the airship was the victim of static electricity stored up in the docking tower. A present day popular theory is a variation on this theme i.e. The Hindenburg was coated with an Aluminum based paint that was flammable and could have been ignited by a spark of static electricity.

Mooney believes otherwise. Nazi Germany had a strong Communist 'Second Column'. Mooney believes that one of the crewmen on the airship was a Communist-inspired saboteur who set a time bomb. The bomb was timed to go off AFTER the Hindenburg docked giving the passengers--and particularly the saboteur--time to get off safely. Unfortunately there were strong headwinds and the Hindenburg burst into flames before achieving a secure docking. Mooney claims that the Americans located parts of the time bomb shortly after the disaster but, because of American embarrassment and German propaganda, a fictitious story was promoted.

Personally, I don't know but it makes more sense than the 'aluminum' story. Probably the most remarkable aspect of the disaster was that there were so many survivors. Anyone watching newsreels of the explosion would believe that almost everyone died. Some who had the ship literally burn down around them were only scortched. Amazing.