Star Tribune: The airline that Minnesotans learned to love and hate

In NON-STOP, Jack El-Hai illuminates the characters who transformed Northwest into the huge airline that Minnesotans learned to love and hate.

El-Hai Non-Stop coverDetroit businessmen anted up the $300,000 that Col. Lewis Brittin needed to get Northwest Airlines off the ground in the Twin Cities, but for eight decades the airline and its employees were intricately woven into Minnesota’s fabric.

Northwest had a deep impact on Minnesota’s culture, business community, labor climate and social mores, and all of those elements are brought to life in Jack El-Hai’s “Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines.”

History and aviation buffs are a natural readership for this book, which traces the airline’s evolution from its early days of airmail flying to its eventual acquisition by Delta Air Lines. But it also provides absorbing tales for people who care about women’s roles in society, the battles of the labor movement and Minnesota’s connections to the world.

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Published in: Star Tribune
By: Liz Fedor