21 Best Civilization Books
Civilization is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Civilization audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 21 Civilization audiobooks below.
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The Gene
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 19 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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4.35(37506 ratings)
4.35(37506 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USD2017 Audie Award Finalist for Non-FictionThe #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies–a fascinating history of2017 Audie Award Finalist for Non-Fiction
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The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies–a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle).
“Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” –Ken Burns
“Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices.
“Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family–with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness–reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation–from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome.
“A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are–and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY). -
First Steps
- By: Jeremy DeSilva
- Narrator: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 9 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 06, 2021
- Language: English
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4.34(393 ratings)
4.34(393 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDBlending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than fourBlending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging evolutionary story exploring how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet’s dominant species.
Humans are the only mammals to walk on two, rather than four legs–a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, honor those who stand tall and proud, and take a stand against injustices. We follow in each other’s footsteps and celebrate a child’s beginning to walk. But why, and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous; our running speed is much slower than other animals; and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to sinus problems.
In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly ordinary ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the human lineage, First Steps shows how upright walking was a gateway to many of the other attributes that make us human–from our technological abilities, our thirst for exploration, our use of language-and may have laid the foundation for our species’ traits of compassion, empathy, and altruism. Moving from developmental psychology labs to ancient fossil sites throughout Africa and Eurasia, DeSilva brings to life our adventure walking on two legs.
Delving deeply into the story of our past and the new discoveries rewriting our understanding of human evolution, First Steps examines how walking upright helped us rise above all over species on this planet.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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The Emperor of All Maladies
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrator: Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.32(82560 ratings)
4.32(82560 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDWinner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)–a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer–fromWinner of the Pulitzer Prize and a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)–a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer–from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.
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Physician, researcher, and award-winning science writer, Siddhartha Mukherjee examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is an astonishingly lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with–and perished from–for more than five thousand years.
The story of cancer is a story of human ingenuity, resilience, and perseverance, but also of hubris, paternalism, and misperception. Mukherjee recounts centuries of discoveries, setbacks, victories, and deaths, told through the eyes of his predecessors and peers, training their wits against an infinitely resourceful adversary that, just three decades ago, was thought to be easily vanquished in an all-out “war against cancer.” The book reads like a literary thriller with cancer as the protagonist.
Riveting, urgent, and surprising, The Emperor of All Maladies provides a fascinating glimpse into the future of cancer treatments. It is an illuminating book that provides hope and clarity to those seeking to demystify cancer. -
Homo Deus
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrator: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 21, 2017
- Language: English
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4.22(182717 ratings)
4.22(182717 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.006.99 USDYuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our questYuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.
Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style–thorough, yet riveting–famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.
What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century–from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.
With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.
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Over the Edge of the World
- By: Laurence Bergreen
- Narrator: Laurence Bergreen
- Length: 6 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: January 27, 2004
- Language: English
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4.15(13270 ratings)
4.15(13270 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USDA majestic tale of discovery thatchanged many long-held views about the world In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-afterA majestic tale of discovery thatchanged many long-held views about the world
In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities — cloves, pepper, and nutmeg — flourished. Three years later, a handful of survivors returned with an abundance of spices from their intended destination, but with just one ship carrying eighteen emaciated men. During their remarkable voyage around the world the crew endured starvation, disease, mutiny, and torture. Many men died, including Magellan, who was violently killed in a fierce battle.
This is the first full account in nearly half a century of this voyage into history: a tour of the world emerging from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance; a startling anthropological account of tribes, languages, and customs unknown to Europeans; and a chronicle of a desperate grab for commercial and political power.
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Jungle of Stone
- By: William Carlsen
- Narrator: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 16 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: April 26, 2016
- Language: English
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4.08(1298 ratings)
4.08(1298 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.007.99 USDThe acclaimed, New York Times-bestselling chronicle of the discovery of the legendary lost civilization of the Maya In 1839, rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of theThe acclaimed, New York Times-bestselling chronicle of the discovery of the legendary lost civilization of the Maya
In 1839, rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world’s most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood–both already celebrated for their adventures in Egypt, the Holy Land, Greece, and Rome–sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. What they found would upend the West’s understanding of human history.
In the tradition of Lost City of Z and In the Kingdom of Ice, former San Francisco Chronicle journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist William Carlsen reveals the remarkable story of the discovery of the ancient Maya. Enduring disease, war, and the torments of nature and terrain, Stephens and Catherwood meticulously uncovered and documented the remains of an astonishing civilization that had flourished in the Americas at the same time as classic Greece and Rome–and had been its rival in art, architecture, and power. Their masterful book about the experience, written by Stephens and illustrated by Catherwood, became a sensation, hailed by Edgar Allan Poe as “perhaps the most interesting book of travel ever published” and recognized today as the birth of American archaeology. Most important, Stephens and Catherwood were the first to grasp the significance of the Maya remains, understanding that their antiquity and sophistication overturned the West’s assumptions about the development of civilization.
By the time of the flowering of classical Greece (400 b.c.), the Maya were already constructing pyramids and temples around central plazas. Within a few hundred years the structures took on a monumental scale that required millions of man-hours of labor, and technical and organizational expertise. Over the next millennium, dozens of city-states evolved, each governed by powerful lords, some with populations larger than any city in Europe at the time, and connected by road-like causeways of crushed stone. The Maya developed a cohesive, unified cosmology, an array of common gods, a creation story, and a shared artistic and architectural vision. They created stucco and stone monuments and bas reliefs, sculpting figures and hieroglyphs with refined artistic skill. At their peak, an estimated ten million people occupied the Maya’s heartland on the Yucatan Peninsula, a region where only half a million now live. And yet by the time the Spanish reached the “New World,” the Maya had all but disappeared; they would remain a mystery for the next three hundred years.
Today, the tables are turned: the Maya are justly famous, if sometimes misunderstood, while Stephens and Catherwood have been nearly forgotten. Based on Carlsen’s rigorous research and his own 1,500-mile journey throughout the Yucatan and Central America, Jungle of Stone is equally a thrilling adventure narrative and a revelatory work of history that corrects our understanding of Stephens, Catherwood, and the Maya themselves.
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Making History
- By: Richard Cohen
- Narrator: Richard Cohen
- Length: 26 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.04(163 ratings)
4.04(163 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0034.99 USDA “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s history–from Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burns–and how their biases influence our understanding about the past.A “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world’s history–from Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burns–and how their biases influence our understanding about the past.
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There are many stories we can spin about previous ages, but which accounts get told? And by whom? Is there even such a thing as “objective” history? In this “witty, wise, and elegant” (The Spectator), book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses, such as the writers of the Bible, novelists, and political propagandists, influence what becomes the accepted record. Cohen argues, for example, that some historians are practitioners of “Bad History” and twist reality to glorify themselves or their country.
“Scholarly, lively, quotable, up-to-date, and fun” (Hilary Mantel, author of the bestselling Thomas Cromwell trilogy), Making History investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest chroniclers to discover the agendas that informed their–and our–views of the world. From the origins of history writing, when such an activity itself seemed revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, Cohen brings captivating figures to vivid light, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, Winston Churchill and Henry Louis Gates. Rich in complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a revealing exploration of both the aims and art of history-making, one that will lead us to rethink how we learn about our past and about ourselves. -
A Brief Natural History of Civilization
- By: Mark Bertness
- Narrator: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 9 hours 9 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4(17 ratings)
4(17 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDA compelling evolutionary narrative that reveals how human civilization follows the same ecological rules that shape all life on Earth Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, noted ecologist MarkA compelling evolutionary narrative that reveals how human civilization follows the same ecological rules that shape all life on Earth
Offering a bold new understanding of who we are, where we came from, and where we are going, noted ecologist Mark Bertness argues that human beings and their civilization are the products of the same self-organization, evolutionary adaptation, and natural selection processes that have created all other life on Earth. Bertness follows the evolutionary process from the primordial soup of two billion years ago through today, exploring the ways opposing forces of competition and cooperation have led to current assemblages of people, animals, and plants.
Bertness’s thoughtful examination of human history from the perspective of natural history provides new insights about why and how civilization developed as it has and explores how humans, as a species, might have to consciously overrule our evolutionary drivers to survive future challenges.
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Persians
- By: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Narrator: Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
- Length: 18 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 12, 2022
- Language: English
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3.99(266 ratings)
3.99(266 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0038.99 USDA stunning portrait of the magnificent splendor and enduring legacy of ancient Persia The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. From theA stunning portrait of the magnificent splendor and enduring legacy of ancient Persia
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The Achaemenid Persian kings ruled over the largest empire of antiquity, stretching from Libya to the steppes of Asia and from Ethiopia to Pakistan. From the palace-city of Persepolis, Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes, and their heirs reigned supreme for centuries until the conquests of Alexander of Macedon brought the empire to a swift and unexpected end in the late 330s BCE.
In Persians, historian Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones tells the epic story of this dynasty and the world it ruled. Drawing on Iranian inscriptions, cuneiform tablets, art, and archaeology, he shows how the Achaemenid Persian Empire was the world’s first superpower–one built, despite its imperial ambition, on cooperation and tolerance. This is the definitive history of the Achaemenid dynasty and its legacies in modern-day Iran, a book that completely reshapes our understanding of the ancient world. -
Practicing History
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrator: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Length: 9 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: December 28, 2011
- Language: English
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3.96(566 ratings)
3.96(566 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDThe critically-acclaimed historian’s insights, sense of humor, and sharp pen take on everything from Vietnam, Israel, and the Great War to writing history and its meaning. Includes these essays: Why Policy-Makers Do Not Listen; When DoesThe critically-acclaimed historian’s insights, sense of humor, and sharp pen take on everything from Vietnam, Israel, and the Great War to writing history and its meaning. Includes these essays: Why Policy-Makers Do Not Listen; When Does History Happen?; Is History a Guide to the Future?; America as an Idea; How We Entered World War I; and more
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Upheaval
- By: Jared Diamond
- Length: 18 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: May 07, 2019
- Language: English
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3.9(6811 ratings)
3.9(6811 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDA brilliant new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don’t, by the author of the landmark bestsellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. In his earlier bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, JaredA brilliant new theory of how and why some nations recover from trauma and others don’t, by the author of the landmark bestsellers Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. In his earlier bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in the final book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis through selective change — a coping mechanism more commonly associated with personal trauma. In a dazzling comparative study, Diamond shows us how seven countries have survived defining upheavals in the recent past — from US Commodore Perry’s arrival in Japan to the Soviet invasion of Finland to Pinochet’s regime in Chile — through a process of painful self-appraisal and adaptation, and he identifies patterns in the way that these distinct nations recovered from calamity. Looking ahead to the future, he investigates whether the United States, and the world, are squandering their natural advantages, on a path towards political conflict and decline. Or can we still learn from the lessons of the past? Adding a psychological dimension to the awe-inspiring grasp of history, geography, economics, and anthropology that marks all Diamond’s work, Upheaval reveals how both nations and individuals can become more resilient. The result is a book that is epic, urgent, and groundbreaking.
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The Library
- By: Andrew Pettegree
- Narrator: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 09, 2021
- Language: English
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3.84(617 ratings)
3.84(617 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDPerfect for book lovers, this is a fascinating exploration of the history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age. Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up overPerfect for book lovers, this is a fascinating exploration of the history of libraries and the people who built them, from the ancient world to the digital age.
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Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings–the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident. In The Library, historians Andrew Pettegree and Arthur der Weduwen introduce us to the antiquarians and philanthropists who shaped the world’s great collections, trace the rise and fall of literary tastes, and reveal the high crimes and misdemeanors committed in pursuit of rare manuscripts. In doing so, they reveal that while collections themselves are fragile, often falling into ruin within a few decades, the idea of the library has been remarkably resilient as each generation makes–and remakes–the institution anew.
Beautifully written and deeply researched, The Library is essential reading for booklovers, collectors, and anyone who has ever gotten blissfully lost in the stacks. -
The Story Paradox
- By: Jonathan Gottschall
- Narrator: Joshua Kane
- Length: 7 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 23, 2021
- Language: English
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3.79(155 ratings)
3.79(155 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDStorytelling, a tradition that built human civilization, may soon destroy itHumans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of... Read moreStorytelling, a tradition that built human civilization, may soon destroy it
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an expert on the science of stories, argues that there is a dark side to storytelling we can no longer ignore. Storytelling, the very tradition that built human civilization, may be the thing that destroys it.
In The Story Paradox, Gottschall explores how a broad consortium of psychologists, communications specialists, neuroscientists, and literary quants are using the scientific method to study how stories affect our brains. The results challenge the idea that storytelling is an obvious force for good in human life. Yes, storytelling can bind groups together, but it is also the main force dragging people apart. And it’s the best method we’ve ever devised for manipulating each other by circumventing rational thought. Behind all civilization’s greatest ills–environmental destruction, runaway demagogues, warfare–you will always find the same master factor: a mind-disordering story.
Gottschall argues that societies succeed or fail depending on how they manage these tensions. And it has only become harder, as new technologies that amplify the effects of disinformation campaigns, conspiracy theories, and fake news make separating fact from fiction nearly impossible.
With clarity and conviction, Gottschall reveals why our biggest asset has become our greatest threat, and what, if anything, can be done. It is a call to stop asking, “How we can change the world through stories?” and start asking, “How can we save the world from stories?”
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The Next Apocalypse
- By: Chris Begley
- Narrator: Chris Begley
- Length: 8 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 16, 2021
- Language: English
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3.69(89 ratings)
3.69(89 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDIn this insightful book, an underwater archaeologist and survival coach shows how understanding the collapse of civilizations can help us prepare for a troubled future.Pandemic, climate change, or war: our era is ripe with the odor of doomsday. InIn this insightful book, an underwater archaeologist and survival coach shows how understanding the collapse of civilizations can help us prepare for a troubled future.
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Pandemic, climate change, or war: our era is ripe with the odor of doomsday. In movies, books, and more, our imaginations run wild with visions of dreadful, abandoned cities and returning to the land in a desperate attempt at survival.
In The Next Apocalypse, archaeologist Chris Begley argues that we completely misunderstand how disaster works. Examining past collapses of civilizations, such as the Maya and Rome, he argues that these breakdowns are actually less about cataclysmic destruction than they are about long processes of change. In short: it’s what happens after the initial uproar that matters. Some people abandon their homes and neighbors; others band together to start anew. As we anticipate our own fate, Begley tells us that it was communities, not lone heroes, who survived past apocalypses–and who will survive the next.
Fusing archaeology, survivalism, and social criticism, The Next Apocalypse is an essential read for anxious times. -
The Third Horseman
- By: William Rosen
- Narrator: William Hughes
- Length: 10 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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3.58(664 ratings)
3.58(664 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDHow a seven-year cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history In May 1315 it started to rain. It didn’t stop anywhere in north Europe until August. Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium.How a seven-year cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history
In May 1315 it started to rain. It didn’t stop anywhere in north Europe until August. Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium. Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe’s livestock. Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the Holy Roman Empire destroyed all remaining farmland. After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives–one eighth of Europe’s total population.
William Rosen draws on a wide array of disciplines, from military history to feudal law to agricultural economics and climatology, to trace the succession of traumas that caused the Great Famine. With dramatic appearances by Scotland’s William Wallace, the luckless Edward II, and his treacherous Queen Isabella, history’s best-documented episode of catastrophic climate change comes alive, with powerful implications for future calamities.
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Thebes
- By: Paul Cartledge
- Narrator: David Timson
- Length: 11 hours 27 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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3.47(307 ratings)
3.47(307 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe riveting, definitive account of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, by the acclaimed author of The Spartans. Among the extensive writing available about the history of ancient Greece, there is precious little about the city-state of Thebes. At oneThe riveting, definitive account of the ancient Greek city of Thebes, by the acclaimed author of The Spartans.
Among the extensive writing available about the history of ancient Greece, there is precious little about the city-state of Thebes. At one point the most powerful city in ancient Greece, Thebes has been long overshadowed by its better-known rivals, Athens and Sparta. In Thebes: The Forgotten City of Ancient Greece, acclaimed classicist and historian Paul Cartledge brings the city vividly to life and argues that it is central to our understanding of the ancient Greeks’ achievements–whether politically or culturally–and thus to the wider politico-cultural traditions of western Europe, the Americas, and indeed the world.
From its role as an ancient political power, to its destruction at the hands of Alexander the Great as punishment for a failed revolt, to its eventual restoration by Alexander’s successor, Cartledge deftly chronicles the rise and fall of the ancient city. He recounts the history with deep clarity and mastery for the subject and makes clear both the differences and the interconnections between the Thebes of myth and the Thebes of history. Written in clear prose and illustrated with images in two color inserts, Thebes is a gripping read for students of ancient history and those looking to experience the real city behind the myths of Cadmus, Hercules, and Oedipus.
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Sapiens
- By: Yuval Noah Harari
- Narrator: Derek Perkins
- Length: 15 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 15, 2017
- Language: English
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3.17(24 ratings)
- NYT Best Sellers
3.17(24 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDNew York Times Bestseller A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution–a #1 internationalNew York Times Bestseller
A Summer Reading Pick for President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution–a #1 international bestseller–that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.”
One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one–homo sapiens. What happened to the others? And what may happen to us?
Most books about the history of humanity pursue either a historical or a biological approach, but Dr. Yuval Noah Harari breaks the mold with this highly original book that begins about 70,000 years ago with the appearance of modern cognition. From examining the role evolving humans have played in the global ecosystem to charting the rise of empires, Sapiens integrates history and science to reconsider accepted narratives, connect past developments with contemporary concerns, and examine specific events within the context of larger ideas.
Dr. Harari also compels us to look ahead, because over the last few decades humans have begun to bend laws of natural selection that have governed life for the past four billion years. We are acquiring the ability to design not only the world around us, but also ourselves. Where is this leading us, and what do we want to become?
Featuring 27 photographs, 6 maps, and 25 illustrations/diagrams, this provocative and insightful work is sure to spark debate and is essential reading for aficionados of Jared Diamond, James Gleick, Matt Ridley, Robert Wright, and Sharon Moalem.
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Unexplained History
- By: Caroline Winterer
- Narrator: Caroline Winterer
- Length: 1 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: June 01, 2021
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds ofOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. Despite what the song “Wonderful World” says, there’s a lot we know about history. But there are still some pretty big gaps in our knowledge, for the simple reason that a lot of information about the past gets lost over time. Wars, fires, floods, deliberate destruction, or just plain carelessness–all of these factors and more contribute to some pretty fascinating historical mysteries. Together, we’ll discuss the latest reliable evidence and theories for some major events, people, and buildings that fascinate all of us. Who were the first Americans, and when–and how–did they arrive? How on earth did Stonehenge get built? What did Cleopatra look like? What caused the Salem witchcraft outbreak of 1692? All of these, and more, will be examined during this fun and fascinating talk. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization
- By: Anthony M. Esolen
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 11 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDChristianity, Judaism, dead white males, old-fashioned morality, the traditional family, tradition itself–everything the liberals hate can be summed up in two words: Western civilization. Here is the ultimate Politically Incorrect Guide: aChristianity, Judaism, dead white males, old-fashioned morality, the traditional family, tradition itself–everything the liberals hate can be summed up in two words: Western civilization. Here is the ultimate Politically Incorrect Guide: a sprightly, informative summary of the original source of all things politically incorrect from Moses, Caesar, and Christ, to Dante, Thomas More, and the Founding Fathers.
Western civilization is under attack. At universities and in the media, professors and pundits decry Western civilization as exploitative, destructive, and without value. But fear not: coming to its defense is Professor Anthony Esolen’s The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization. This PI Guide will knock down the relativist arguments and show how the West laid the cornerstones for all of modern civilization, including historical, artistic, and intellectual achievements. Using historical evidence and compelling arguments, Esolen proves why we not only owe it to history but also to ourselves to set the record straight and respectfully acknowledge Western civilization’s vital role in shaping our values and our world.
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The Four Greatest Strategic Military Thinkers in History
- By: Dr. Andrew R. Wilson
- Narrator: Dr. Andrew R. Wilson
- Length: 51 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: May 25, 2021
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds ofOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. Military strategy and tactic matters. Civilizations with the greatest strategist, as well as the greatest resources, have had a powerful edge over competing civilizations. From Napoleon’s revolutionary campaigns to the way terrorism and nuclear weaponry have defined the nature of warfare in the 21st century, the results of military strategy have changed the course of history. This class gives you an inside look at the historical context of the world’s greatest war strategists. Taught by Professor Andrew R. Wilson, who serves on the faculty of the elite U.S. Naval War College, this lecture will transform you into a military thinker and will change the way you read newspaper headlines by instilling in you a new appreciation for the subtleties and complexities of strategy. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.
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Learning From the Roman Empire
- By: Caroline Winterer
- Narrator: Caroline Winterer
- Length: 1 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: August 03, 2021
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds ofOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. The rise and fall of ancient Rome is one of the greatest stories in the history of the world. From a group of settlements huddled along the Tiber in Italy, Rome rose to conquer much of the Mediterranean world and Europe. At the height of the Roman Empire, one in every five people in the world lived within its territory. For Americans, Rome’s unlikely ascent, spectacular ambitions, and gruesome decline have provided endless fuel for our national self-examination. Is the United States an empire? Are empires good or bad? What makes great civilizations decline and fall, and how can America avoid that fate? This talk will explore the great American question “Are We Rome?” and show why this ancient empire continues to fascinate our very modern nation. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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