The Immortalists by David M. Friedman
December 3rd, 2008Title: The Immortalists
Author: David M. Friedman
Publisher: Ecco (2007)
Everyone knows who Charles Lindbergh is right? Quick…what are the two things he is famous for? I’ll give you some time.
Come on…you know this.
Yeah, you probably knew right away. Lindbergh was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Also, his son (The Lindbergh Baby) was kidnapped and murdered. You know what else he did? A lot, actually. Unfortunately, most of what he accomplished was done with extreme anti-semitism and racism in mind. As it ends up… Lindbergh wasn’t really a very good guy.
Jennifer over at The Literate Housewife gave me this book to review. The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever by David M. Friedman is about Charles Lindbergh’s unlikely friendship/partnership with Dr. Alexis Carrel. Carrel was a Nobel Prize winning surgeon who did revolutionary work in battlefield surgery. He also was heavily into eugenics, which can be interpreted in many ways. Since Carrel’s main goal in life was to find a way to live forever (and then give the secret to other smart, white, Christian people), we can easily see that he agreed with Lindbergh in areas of race.
Charles Lindbergh was an amazing mechanic and was able to design some spectacular things in his (and Carrel’s) attempt to live forever. His famous perfusion pump allowed organs to live outside of the body, which paved the way for modern organ transplants and open heart surgery. While cool…it isn’t what made this book interesting to me. I was just baffled that someone who is generally considered an American Hero had the beliefs he did.
Lindbergh was very outspoken of his admiration for the Nazi party and was a staunch opponent of military action against Germany. He firmly believed (as did other psychos) that if the world leaders let Germany occupy Czechoslovakia, then Hitler would be satisfied and everyone would go on happy (Except the Czech’s I suppose). Naturally, once the occupation took place…and the next one…and the next one…most people realized there was a problem. But not Lindbergh! He went on a nationwide tour in opposition to military action. To the credit of most Americans…they did not fall for that and soon turned on him.
This book was pretty interesting, although it got a little slow as the book started to wind down. It wasn’t the greatest book I have ever read and if you are interested in Lindbergh’s life, it would probably make more sense to read a regular biography. If you are interested in Alexis Carrel too…then this is your book!
Rating: 3 out of 5
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December 3rd, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Yes, he was brilliant in a number of areas but brilliance should not be confused with ethics nor postive scientific achievement with morality. Margaret Sanger, who started Planned Parenthood, was a racist equal to Hitler and Planned Parenthood is carrying on her legacy as she would have hoped. But the American media ignores her history just as they have Lindbergh, because Planned Parenthood is accomplishing something the vast media moguls also want.