Zeppelin!

"In Zeppelin! Guillaume de Syon offers a captivating history of this technological wonder, from development and production to its impact on German culture and society. De Syon chronicles the various ways in which the airships were used - transport, war, exploration, and propaganda - and details the attempts by successive German governments - autocratic, democratic, fascist - to co-opt Count Zeppelin's invention. Between 1900 and 1939, Germans saw the Zeppelin as a symbol of national progress, and de Syon uses the airship to better understand the dynamics of German society and the place of technology within it. Though few people actually flew in any of the 119 Zeppelins ever built, the rigid airship captivated universal attention: for Germans, it was the wonder of the age. Six decades later, a mystique continues to surround these technological leviathons, one that Zeppelin! addresses with insight and wit."--BOOK JACKET.