Walter R. Borneman
All Books By Walter R. Borneman
American Spring
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrator: Tom Taylorson
- Length: 13 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 06, 2014
- Language: English
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3.96(389 ratings)
When we reflect on our nation’s history, the American Revolution can feel almost like a foregone conclusion. In reality, the first weeks and months of 1775 were very tenuous, and a fractured and ragtag group of colonial militias had to coalesce rapidly to have even the slimmest chance of toppling the mighty British Army.
American Spring follows a fledgling nation from Paul Revere’s little-known ride of December 1774 and the first shots fired on Lexington Green through the catastrophic Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating with a Virginian named George Washington taking command of colonial forces on July 3, 1775.
Focusing on the colorful heroes John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry, and the ordinary Americans caught up in the revolution, Walter R. Borneman uses newly available sources and research to tell the story of how a decade of discontent erupted into an armed rebellion that forged our nation.
Brothers Down
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrator: David Baker
- Length: 7 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 14, 2019
- Language: English
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4.3(159 ratings)
The surprise attack at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 remains one of the most traumatic events in American history. America’s battleship fleet was crippled, thousands of lives were lost, and the United States was propelled into a world war. Few realize that aboard the iconic, ill-fated USS Arizona were an incredible seventy-nine blood relatives. Tragically, in an era when family members serving together was an accepted, even encouraged, practice, sixty-three of the Arizona’s 1,177 dead turned out to be brothers.
In Brothers Down, acclaimed historian Walter R. Borneman returns to that critical week of December, masterfully guiding us on an unforgettable journey of sacrifice and heroism, all told through the lives of these brothers and their fateful experience on the Arizona. Weaving in the heartbreaking stories of the parents, wives, and sweethearts who wrote to and worried about these men, Borneman draws from a treasure trove of unpublished source material to bring to vivid life the minor decisions that became a matter of life or death when the bombs began to fall. More than just an account of familial bonds and national heartbreak, what emerges promises to define a turning point in American military history.
MacArthur at War
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrator: David Baker
- Length: 19 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 10, 2016
- Language: English
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4.3(132 ratings)
World War II changed the course of history. Douglas MacArthur changed the course of World War II. Macarthur at War will go deeper into this transformative period of his life than previous biographies, drilling into the military strategy that Walter R. Borneman is so skilled at conveying, and exploring how personality and ego translate into military successes and failures.
Architect of stunning triumphs and inexplicable defeats, General MacArthur is the most intriguing military leader of the twentieth century. There was never any middle ground with MacArthur. This in-depth study of the most critical period of his career shows how his influence spread far beyond the war-torn Pacific.
A Finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History at the New York Historical Society
Polk
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrator: Walter R. Borneman
- Length: 13 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: May 09, 2008
- Language: English
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3.82(8373 ratings)
Tennessee Democrat James K. Polk is generally ranked among the nation’s most effective chief executives. In this straightforward, unnuanced biography, Borneman (1812: The War That Forged a Nation) relates why. Coming into office determined to annex Texas, gain the Oregon Territory from Britain, lower the tariff and reform the national banking system, Polk achieved all four aims in his single term in office (1845-1849). But Borneman overlooks that in more or less completing the nation’s lower continental territory, Polk bequeathed a fateful legacy to the nation-not so much transforming the U.S. (as the subtitle overstates) as setting it on the road to civil war. With the annexation of Texas came war with Mexico, which stripped that nation of half its lands while gaining the U.S. the southwest and California. It also unloosed the mad genie of slavery’s possible further spread westward. Polk left the nation larger but politically crippled and morally weakened. But Borneman sticks to the narrative and doesn’t place his subject in a larger historical context. ‘Tis a pity, for Polk’s administration ought to be a lesson to all candidates and all presidents at all times
... Read moreRival Rails
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Length: 15 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish date: September 22, 2010
- Language: English
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3.31(200 ratings)
The driving of the golden spike at Promontory Summit, which marked the completion of the country’s first transcontinental railroad, was only the beginning of the race for railroad dominance. In the aftermath of this building feat, dozens of railroads, each with aggressive empire builders at their helms, raced one another for the ultimate prize of a southern transcontinental route that was generally free of snow, shorter in distance, and gentler in gradients.
More than just a means of transportation, the railroads were a powerful mold, and the presence of a rail line had the power to make-or break-the fledgling towns and cities across the newborn American West. While much has been written about the building of the first transcontinental railroad, the bulk of the history of the railroads in the United States has been largely ignored. With a meticulous, loving eye, Walter Borneman picks up where most other histories leave off.
The Admirals
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrator: Brian Troxell
- Length: 17 hours 9 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.3(2900 ratings)
Only four men in American history have been promoted to the five-star rank of Admiral of the Fleet: William Leahy, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, and William Halsey. These four men were the best and the brightest the navy produced, and together they led the U.S. navy to victory in World War II, establishing the United States as the world’s greatest fleet.
In The Admirals, award-winning historian Walter R. Borneman tells their story in full detail for the first time. Drawing upon journals, ship logs, and other primary sources, he brings an incredible historical moment to life, showing us how the four admirals revolutionized naval warfare forever with submarines and aircraft carriers, and how these men — who were both friends and rivals — worked together to ensure that the Axis fleets lay destroyed on the ocean floor at the end of World War II.