Swept wing stalls
PJ2, ttcse, others,
Not familiar with the referenced book, my experience comes from having an interest in the manner since I like aerobatics, working in the industry 30 years, and proprietary manufacturer data.
The tips of swept wing transports stall first due to induced flow upwash angles. You all know the leading edge produces negative pressures. Pick a wing station inboard. As the air passes next to that inboard station, but outboard from it, it senses that negative pressure and starts flowing upward. Therefore, that wing element sees a slightly higher local AOA. This follows for each chord wise strip, or tiny section of wing, and by the time you reach the tip, the induced upwash can be 2-4 degrees higher than the reference airplane AOA at cruise conditions. Wing twist is set by this for best efficiency. As you increase AOA in the clean configuration, the tip will stall, with an attendant nose up pitch break, and is a terrible stall characteristic. Good reason for not stalling a swept wing transport in the cruise configuration. True now as it was in the beginning.
Tip stall is mitigated by the use of flaps and slats for the T.O. and lndg configurations, and are used to tailor acceptable stall characteristics.
Flat spins are sensitive to cg position and power effects. The aerobatic single engine airplanes I've flown won't go flat without almost full power. This is due to prop wash increasing elevator power, forcing the tail down. Some of them are driven by prop centrifugal force and torque, like the Russian monster, the Yak-52. Some will recover very quickly just by chopping power and applying corrective controls. The Yak-52 wants a few more turns before it recovers once it's wound up.
You don't have a prop on an airliner, but there are underslung engines providing a nose up moment. Is it enough, maybe, nobody's ever done the math. One thing though, you don't want these big airplanes spinning. Boeing experience on the 707 taught everyone that. The 707 did a snap roll a couple of different times. They recovered the airplane due to the design requirements of the time. Think they certified under CAR 4a. Much more demanding than the current regs, so the 707 is a tough bird, still significantly damaged, but it returned the crew.
Not hard to envision current airliners tearing themselves apart in a spin. The engines would go, moving cg aft, maybe it goes flat. And/or the empennage would go, and/or the nose breaks lose. Who knows. The crew would be under tremendous g load in a fully developed spin. Due to inertia and mass, it would take a couple of turns to really wind up.
Hope this helps.