Good Read . . . But . . .

http://thehistoryhacker.com/2013/11/08/the-civil-war-a-lecture-part-two/?replytocom=2479 Soaring to Glory

buy ivermectin online uk A Tuskegee Airman’s Firsthand Account of World War II

By Philip Handleman with Lt. Col. Harry T. Stewart Jr.

Regnery Publishing, 2019. 264 pages. $29.99.

The odyssey of Tuskegee airman Harry T. Stewart Jr. is one that should be known. His travails, starting in early childhood, and his perseverance to achieve goals put out of his reach by racism, make his story a near epic.

While Philip Handleman does relate that story—often in a very heavy-handed preaching manner—it belies the book’s title. Barely 20 percent of the book concerns World War II, and even less is about Colonel Stewart’s participation. Perhaps as much as half the book is not focused on the colonel or the war at all.

Frankly, based on the title, I was expecting Barrett Tillman. It didn’t take long to realize that Handleman is no Barrett Tillman. Colonel Stewart was credited with shooting down three German aircraft on just one mission. That is indeed an interesting story, but where are the reports of missions before and after? There is little history here of Colonel Stewart during this significant period of the book title’s topic.

The author, obviously, knows aviation, but all too often there are digressions that are far afield from his subject matter. For instance, a side trip of two pages about Alexander de Seversky, Tsar Nicholas II, the P-35, and Alexander Kartveli, is a distraction from his theme. It is an education for the unknowing, but it is minutiae that adds little to the work. It is peripheral detail only required of someone learning about aviation for the first time. Based on the title of the book, that is not the target audience.

Overall, this book reads like a primer for a study of racism in aviation. At that, it is good. The author provides significant background information about important, although virtually unrecognized aviators of color, which is very informative. And it does provide a structure to Colonel Stewart’s story. But at times, it seems to be a reach too far to make links that most likely aren’t there.

The book is a quick, easy read. But it is not for someone expecting to read about the Tuskegee airmen in World War II. In that, it is a disappointment because it does not deliver on the promise of its title. That said, the book has significant merit in delineating the history—at least in part—of black aviators in the 20th century.