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Podcast: New Books in Technology
Episode: JĆ¼rgen P. Melzer, "Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation" (Harvard UP, 2020)
Description: JĆ¼rgen MelzerāsĀ Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese AviationĀ (Harvard UP, 2020) traces the history of Japanese aviation from its origins with hot-air balloons in the 1870s until the end of the Pacific War in 1945. Melzerās narrative centers around three themes: transnational technology transfer and Japanās efforts to attain technological independence, domestic efforts to mobilize public enthusiasm for aviation development (what Melzer calls āair-mindednessā), and the complicated interplay of aviation with military and diplomatic history.Ā The first chapters take us to the end of World War I, which was a turning point...