Instruct: Classify a review as either positive or negative.
Query: a coffee-table book for your library

I don't often praise big, handsome, expensive books that were so obviously designed for Christmas giving. But here's an exception. Chant is a British writer who's done lots of good aviation histories, for Osprey and such, so he knows what he's writing about. Batchelor is a marvelous artist, whether he's painting combat scenes or doing meticulous "x-ray" drawings of a plane's inner workings. What they've created here is a reference book for the aviation library--one that just happens to be a nice coffee-table display as well. It really is "a history of aviation," as the sub-title promises. Five stars! -- Dan Ford