Spirit of Charles Lindbergh: Another Dimension

This unreservedly admiring biography focuses on Charles Lindbergh's (1902-1974) spiritual development, presuming the reader's familiarity with the aeronautical achievements, personal tragedies and political controversies that brought Lindbergh notoriety. According to Hunter, Lindbergh developed a dedicated concern with moral and spiritual issues under the influence of Alexis Carrel, the surgeon and Nobel laureate with whom he invented the heart perfusion pump in 1935. The author met Lindbergh through a close mutual friend in the Oxford Group/ Moral Re-Armament program, and he makes no pretense of objectivity: he describes Lindbergh as one of ``the two greatest heroes of the twentieth century'' (Will Rogers is the other). Hunter's affection, however, leads to clumsy apologetics on the subject of Lindbergh's attitudes toward Nazi Germany. He fails to substantiate certain claims (e.g., that Lindbergh's acceptance of a medal from Hermann Goering was related to an American strategy to help Jews), and elsewhere contradicts himself (he argues that Lindbergh was disabused of his respect for Germany by Kristallnacht, then quotes Lindbergh praising the German character shortly after that brutal 1939 episode). (Apr.)