In the 1930s, the airship was viewed as the future of transatlantic travel and a brave new era of global connectedness. Germany's safe, fast and efficient airships brought it back into the international fold after its humiliation in World War I. But on May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg airship caught fire in the sky over New Jersey in a blaze that shocked the world and presaged another era of senseless violence.





In Shadow Before the Flame, acclaimed historian Catherine Grace Katz uncovers fresh research that unveils the Hindenburg disaster at a pivotal moment in time, coming as it does at the crossroads of the rising tension between fascist Germany and the United States. Katz traces the experiences of a captivating cast of characters: an heiress, a world-renowned acrobat, a German Jew working to save his family from the clutches of Nazism, a young cabin boy on his first voyage with the crew. Meanwhile, on the ground were two intrepid journalists whose reporting on the Hindenburg would invent breaking news as we now know it.





In a gripping, ticking-clock narrative, Shadow Before the Flame is a story that begins with the promise of a future made bright by technological innovation and ends with caskets draped in swastikas in New York City.



Catherine Grace Katz is a writer and historian and author of The Daughters of Yalta. She graduated from Harvard with a BA in History and received her MPhil in Modern European History from Christ's College, University of Cambridge. Catherine worked in finance in New York City before a very fortuitous visit to the book store in the lobby of her office in Manhattan led her to return to history and writing. She received her JD from Harvard Law School in May 2023.



A vivid portrait of one of history's great international summits through the eyes of three young women, each a daughter of a key participant. We get the inside story, and learn the compelling details that bring history to life



Yet more proof that behind every great man is an army of exceptional women. We need their stories told; so three cheers for Catherine Katz



This entertaining history is packed with vivid personalities, jockeying aides and insider observations about a pivotal moment in history



Making superb use of unpublished diaries and letters, Katz demonstrates how illness, clandestine romance and fraying political relationships ran alongside the tortured negotiations that would shape the post-conflict world ... The women's keyhole perspective of these momentous negotiations humanises the Yalta summit as never before,shedding new insight on the minute-by-minute tensions of international diplomacy at a time when the future of millions depended on the outcome



A stirring account of one momentous week that would unleash fifty years of tyranny for half of Europe and plunge the world into the Cold War ... A marvellous and extraordinary work that reveals the human experience of the conference, with all its tragedy, love, betrayal, and even humour