29 Best World, History Books
World, History is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top World, History audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 World, History audiobooks below.
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Caesar and Christ
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 36 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.41(1404 ratings)
4.41(1404 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe third volume of Will Durant’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Caesar and Christ chronicles the history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to 325 AD. In this masterful work, listeners will learn about: –The third volume of Will Durant’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Caesar and Christ chronicles the history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to 325 AD. In this masterful work, listeners will learn about:
– the Etruscan civilization of ancient Italy – the birth of the Roman Republic and the beginnings of Roman law – the great reigns of Caesar and Antony – the people of Rome–the artisans, tradesmen, and scientists – the places of Rome’s great empire – the beginnings of Christianity and its growth – the rise of Constantine and the fall of the empire
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Games without Rules
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrator: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 14 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.37(1129 ratings)
4.37(1129 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDToday, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest between democracy and Islamist fanaticism. That war is real, but it sits atop an older struggle between Kabul and the countryside, between order and chaos, between a modernistToday, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest between democracy and Islamist fanaticism. That war is real, but it sits atop an older struggle between Kabul and the countryside, between order and chaos, between a modernist impulse to join the world and the pull of an older Afghanistan–a tribal universe of village republics permeated by Islam.
Now, Tamim Ansary draws on his Afghan background, Muslim roots, and Western and Afghan sources to explain history from the inside out and illuminate the long, internal struggle that the outside world has never fully understood. It is the story of a nation struggling to take form, a nation undermined by its own demons while, every forty to sixty years, a great power crashes in and disrupts whatever progress has been made. Told in conversational, storytelling style and focusing on key events and personalities, Games without Rules provides revelatory insight into a country at the center of political debate.
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The Reformation
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 50 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.35(832 ratings)
4.35(832 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDAn engrossing volume on the European Reformation by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant The sixth volume of Durant’s acclaimed Story of Civilization, The Reformation chronicles the history of European civilization from 1300 to 1564.An engrossing volume on the European Reformation by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant
The sixth volume of Durant’s acclaimed Story of Civilization, The Reformation chronicles the history of European civilization from 1300 to 1564. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter
the schism within the Roman Catholic Church and the formation of early Protestantism; the theology of Martin Luther and his societal impact; the rise of Humanism and the life of Desiderius Erasmus; the royal monarchies of England, France, Spain, and Italy; the imperial conquests of Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the Americas; the Bohemian revolution of Eastern Europe, the unification of Russia, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire; the teachings of John Calvin; andthe Counter-Reformation of the sixteenth century.
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The Book That Made Your World
- By: Vishal Mangalwadi
- Narrator: Peter Lawrence
- Length: 14 hours 15 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.35(757 ratings)
4.35(757 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDUnderstand where we came from. Whether you’re an avid student of the Bible or a skeptic of its relevance, The Book That Made Your World will transform your perception of its influence on virtually every facet of Western civilization. IndianUnderstand where we came from.
Whether you’re an avid student of the Bible or a skeptic of its relevance, The Book That Made Your World will transform your perception of its influence on virtually every facet of Western civilization.
Indian philosopher Vishal Mangalwadi reveals the personal motivation that fueled his own study of the Bible and systematically illustrates how its precepts became the framework for societal structure throughout the last millennium. From politics and science, to academia and technology, the Bible’s sacred copy became the key that unlocked the Western mind.
Through Mangalwadi’s wide-ranging and fascinating investigation, you’ll discover:
what triggered the West’s passion for scientific, medical, and technological advancement;how the biblical notion of human dignity informs the West’s social structure and how it intersects with other worldviews;how the Bible created a fertile ground for women to find social and economic empowerment;how the Bible has uniquely equipped the West to cultivate compassion, human rights, prosperity, and strong families;the role of the Bible in the transformation of education; andhow the modern literary notion of a hero has been shaped by the Bible’s archetypal protagonist.
Journey with Mangalwadi as he examines the origins of a civilization’s greatness and the misguided beliefs that threaten to unravel its progress. Learn how the Bible transformed the social, political, and religious institutions that have sustained Western culture for the past millennium, and discover how secular corruption endangers the stability and longevity of Western civilization.
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The Age of Louis XIV
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 36 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.31(652 ratings)
4.31(652 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe Age of Louis XIV is the biography of a period (1648-1715) that Spengler considered the apex of modern European civilization. “Some centuries hence,” Frederick the Great correctly predicted to Voltaire, “they will translate theThe Age of Louis XIV is the biography of a period (1648-1715) that Spengler considered the apex of modern European civilization. “Some centuries hence,” Frederick the Great correctly predicted to Voltaire, “they will translate the good authors of the age of Pericles and Augustus.” Those authors are lovingly treated here: Pascal, Racine, and Boileau, Madame de S+(r)vign+(r), Madame de la Fayette, and above all the philosopher-dramatist Moli+?re, who so memorably exposed the vices and hypocrisies of the age.
Central to the book is the “Sun King” himself, Louis XIV. Louis XIV ruled France for over seventy years, longer than almost any European ruler in history. He is the subject of a character study that runs through seven chapters, revealing the flesh and blood beneath the purple and the crown. He is seen at his worst in his struggle with Jansenists and Huguenots, at his best in his patronage of literature and art, and at his most human in his love affairs with Henrietta Anne of Orl+(r)ans, Louise de La Valli+?re, Madame de Montespan, and Madame de Maintenon.
From France the narrative passes to the Netherlands, and after pausing to examine the domestic idylls of Vermeer, shows the Dutch opening their dikes to save their land from Louis XIV and sending William of Orange to become king of England and a leader of the European alliance against Louis’ hegemony.
In England we contemplate the heyday of virtue under the Puritans and study the strange character of Cromwell. We see Milton’s passionate career as part of the vain effort to prevent the Stuart Restoration. We find Charles II, the “Merry Monarch,” with more manners than morals, attend boisterous Restoration plays; we skim the diaries of Evelyn and Pepys; and we follow Jonathan Swift from genius to insanity.
Crossing the North Sea we trace the tragic heroism of Charles XII of Sweden and the attempt of Peter the Great to lead Russia from barbarism to civilization. We accompany the noble Sobieski of Poland as he rescues Vienna from the Turks. We visit Italy and Spain. We see the Jews proscribed and impoverished in Europe but rising to riches in Amsterdam and following Sabbatai Zevi in a desperate hope of regaining Palestine and freedom.
All this forms the background for the “intellectual adventure” of the European mind in its passage from superstition, mythology, and intolerance to education, science, and philosophy, for this was the age when Newton and Leibniz gave simultaneous birth to calculus, when Newton bound the planets and the stars with a chain of universal gravitation. Toward the end of the volume the authors revert to their favorite subject, philosophy, and devote a full chapter, with love and care, to Spinoza.
The book ends with the sunset of Le Roi Soleil: Louis punished for his aggressions by a swarm of enemies gathering around him; fighting till his people are destitute and disillusioned, till his treasury and his heart are empty; dying defeated and repentant, begging his grandson and successor not to imitate his taste for splendor and war; and followed in his funeral by the insults of the crowd.
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The Second World War
- By: Martin Gilbert
- Narrator: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 43 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 1990
- Language: English
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4.26(1078 ratings)
4.26(1078 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDMartin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, here offers a complete history of World War II. It began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By the time it came to an end on V-J Day–August 14, 1945–itMartin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, here offers a complete history of World War II.
It began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. By the time it came to an end on V-J Day–August 14, 1945–it had involved every major power and become global in its reach. In the final accounting, it would turn out to be, in both human terms and material resources, the costliest war in history, taking the lives of forty-six million people.
With unparalleled scholarship and breadth of vision, Gilbert weaves together all of the war’s aspects–the political, the military, the diplomatic, and, not least, the civilian–charting an almost day-by-day account of the terrible progress of the war’s juggernaut of death and destruction. Through it all, his aim is to show what happened, not from the point of view of any one of the warring nations but from a global perspective. The result is the first total history of this global war, a work that is both a treasure trove of information and a gripping dramatic narrative.
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The Renaissance
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 37 hours 9 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.26(901 ratings)
4.26(901 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDAn engrossing volume on the Italian Renaissance by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant The fifth volume of Durant’s acclaimed Story of Civilization, The Renaissance chronicles the history of Italy from 1304 to 1576. In this masterfulAn engrossing volume on the Italian Renaissance by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Will Durant
The fifth volume of Durant’s acclaimed Story of Civilization, The Renaissance chronicles the history of Italy from 1304 to 1576. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter
the poets Petrarch and Boccaccio, the fathers of the Renaissance; the paintings, sculptures, and architecture of Milan, Florence, and Venice; the life and accomplishments of Leonardo Da Vinci; the Catholic church and the popes of Avignon and Rome; the politicians and philosophers of Italy, including the Borgia family, Julius II, and Machiavelli; the Italian Wars, the conflicts with France, and the country’s decline.
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The Dresden Manuscripts
- By: David Wilson
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.17(10 ratings)
4.17(10 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDA fascinating journey to rediscover the music of a composer who was lauded in his day yet forgotten soon after, The Dresden Manuscripts chronicles David Wilson’s thirty-year quest to locate, reconstruct, and perform the music of Johann AdolfA fascinating journey to rediscover the music of a composer who was lauded in his day yet forgotten soon after, The Dresden Manuscripts chronicles David Wilson’s thirty-year quest to locate, reconstruct, and perform the music of Johann Adolf Hasse, a composer who, along with his equally famous wife, mezzo-soprano Faustina Bordoni, had close personal associations with Bach, Handel, Mozart, Haydn, and Gluck.
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The Cold War’s Killing Fields
- By: Paul Thomas Chamberlin
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: July 03, 2018
- Language: English
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4.17(158 ratings)
4.17(158 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.99 USDA brilliant young historian offers a vital, comprehensive international military history of the Cold War in which he views the decade-long superpower struggles as one of the three great conflicts of the twentieth century alongside the two WorldA brilliant young historian offers a vital, comprehensive international military history of the Cold War in which he views the decade-long superpower struggles as one of the three great conflicts of the twentieth century alongside the two World Wars, and reveals how bloody the “Long Peace” actually was.
In this sweeping, deeply researched book, Paul Thomas Chamberlin boldly argues that the Cold War, long viewed as a mostly peaceful, if tense, diplomatic standoff between democracy and communism, was actually a part of a vast, deadly conflict that killed millions on battlegrounds across the postcolonial world. For half a century, as an uneasy peace hung over Europe, ferocious proxy wars raged in the Cold War’s killing fields, resulting in more than fourteen million dead–victims who remain largely forgotten and all but lost to history.
A superb work of scholarship, The Cold War’s Killing Fields is the first global military history of this superpower conflict and the first full accounting of its devastating impact. More than previous armed conflicts, the wars of the post-1945 era ravaged civilians across vast stretches of territory, from Korea and Vietnam to Bangladesh and Afghanistan to Iraq and Lebanon. Chamberlin provides an understanding of this sweeping history from the ground up and offers a moving portrait of human suffering, capturing the voices of those who experienced the brutal warfare.
Chamberlin reframes this era in global history and explores in detail the numerous battles fought to prevent nuclear war, bolster the strategic hegemony of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., and determine the fate of societies throughout the Third World.
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History of the World (Updated)
- By: J. M. Roberts
- Narrator: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 20 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2003
- Language: English
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4.12(114 ratings)
4.12(114 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDIn his monumental History of the World, J. M. Roberts delivered a powerful vision of human history as a story of change, a deliberate shaping of experience and environment. This revised and updated edition takes into account the great range ofIn his monumental History of the World, J. M. Roberts delivered a powerful vision of human history as a story of change, a deliberate shaping of experience and environment. This revised and updated edition takes into account the great range of events and discoveries that have altered our views on everything from early civilizations to post-Cold War globalism. Large portions of the text have been rewritten.
Roberts’ view of history is exceptional in its global and comprehensive nature as it shows the development of different civilizations through the ages, from our origins on the African savannah to the modern world in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks. Like no other book, this History of the World succeeds in conveying the staggering diversity of the human experience.
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Dynasty
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrator: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.12(1473 ratings)
4.12(1473 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDAuthor and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon–his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic–with Dynasty, a luridlyAuthor and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon–his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic–with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors.
Dynasty continues Rubicon‘s story, opening where that book ended: with the murder of Julius Caesar. This is the period of the first and perhaps greatest Roman emperors. It’s a colorful story of rule and ruination, from the rise of Augustus to the death of Nero. Holland’s expansive history also has distinct shades of I, Claudius, with five wonderfully vivid (and in three cases, thoroughly depraved) emperors–Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero–featured, along with numerous fascinating secondary characters. Intrigue, murder, naked ambition and treachery, greed, gluttony, lust, incest, pageantry, decadence–the tale of these five Caesars continues to cast a mesmerizing spell across the millennia.
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Venice
- By: Thomas F. Madden
- Narrator: Thomas F. Madden
- Length: 16 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: December 07, 2012
- Language: English
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4.11(781 ratings)
4.11(781 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDA distinguished professor and widely published author whose scholarship has been awarded the Otto Grundler Prize and Charles Homer Haskins Medal, Thomas F. Madden offers a “savory, tantalizing” (Publishers Weekly) depiction of Venice.A distinguished professor and widely published author whose scholarship has been awarded the Otto Grundler Prize and Charles Homer Haskins Medal, Thomas F. Madden offers a “savory, tantalizing” (Publishers Weekly) depiction of Venice. The first complete English-language portrait of the city in almost 30 years, Venicedetails La Serenissima’s unique history – including its role as the birthplace of capitalism – that is every bit as fascinating as its heralded art and architecture.
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrator: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.11(18042 ratings)
4.11(18042 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIn 1935, with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job, twenty-six-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, and Eine kurzeIn 1935, with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job, twenty-six-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser was published in Vienna to immediate success. It is now an international bestseller and available in almost thirty languages across the world.
In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the Stone Age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of mankind’s experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity’s achievements and an acute witness to its frailties. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history.
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The Lessons of History
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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4.09(10208 ratings)
4.09(10208 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDA concise survey of the culture and civilization of mankind, The Lessons of History is the result of a lifetime of research from Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel Durant. The authors devoted five decades to the study of world historyA concise survey of the culture and civilization of mankind, The Lessons of History is the result of a lifetime of research from Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel Durant.
The authors devoted five decades to the study of world history and philosophy, culminating in the masterful eleven-volume Story of Civilization. In this compact summation of their work, Will and Ariel Durant share the vital and profound lessons of our collective past. Their perspective, gained after a lifetime of thinking and writing about the history of humankind, is an invaluable resource for us today. The rare archival recordings of the Durants in conversation, made from 1957-1977, illuminate our present condition and offer insightful guidance for the future.
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The Last Voyage of Columbus
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrator: Simon Jones
- Length: 6 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: June 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.07(790 ratings)
4.07(790 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.98 USDThe Year is 1500. Christopher Columbus, stripped of his title Admiral of the Ocean Seas, waits in chains in a Caribbean prison built under his orders, looking out at the colony that he founded, nurtured, and ruled for eight years. Less than a decadeThe Year is 1500. Christopher Columbus, stripped of his title Admiral of the Ocean Seas, waits in chains in a Caribbean prison built under his orders, looking out at the colony that he founded, nurtured, and ruled for eight years. Less than a decade after discovering the New World, he has fallen into disgrace, accused by the royal court of being a liar, a secret Jew, and a foreigner who sought to steal the riches of the New World for himself.... Read moreThe tall, freckled explorer with the aquiline nose, whose flaming red hair long ago turned gray, passes his days in prayer and rumination, trying to ignore the waterfront gallows that are all too visible from his cell. And he plots for one great escape, one last voyage to the ends of the earth, one final chance to prove himself. What follows is one of history’s most epic — and forgotten — adventures. Columbus himself would later claim that his fourth voyage was his greatest. It was without doubt his most treacherous. Of the four ships he led into the unknown, none returned. Columbus would face the worst storms a European explorer had ever encountered. He would battle to survive amid mutiny, war, and a shipwreck that left him stranded on a desert isle for almost a year.
On his tail were his enemies, sent from Europe to track him down. In front of him: the unknown. Martin Dugard’s thrilling account of this final voyage brings Columbus to life as never before-adventurer, businessman, father, lover, tyrant, and hero.
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The Berlin Wall
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrator: Peter Noble
- Length: 21 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: August 25, 2020
- Language: English
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4.07(1164 ratings)
4.07(1164 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0042.99 USD“This vivid account of the Wall and all that it meant reminds us that symbolism can be double-edged, as a potent emblem of isolation and repression became, in its destruction, an even more powerful totem of freedom.” — The Atlantic“This vivid account of the Wall and all that it meant reminds us that symbolism can be double-edged, as a potent emblem of isolation and repression became, in its destruction, an even more powerful totem of freedom.” — The Atlantic Monthly
NOW WITH AN UPDATED EPILOGUE 30 YEARS AFTER THE FALL OF THE WALL
On the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: it became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by three hundred watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly thirty years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West on which rested the fate of all humanity.
In the definitive history on the subject, Frederick Taylor weaves together official history, archival materials, and personal accounts to tell the complete story of the Wall’s rise and fall.
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Slouching Towards Utopia
- By: J. Bradford DeLong
- Narrator: Allan Aquino
- Length: 18 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 06, 2022
- Language: English
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4.05(404 ratings)
4.05(404 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0044.99 USDFrom one of the world’s leading economists, a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population.From one of the world’s leading economists, a grand narrative of the century that made us richer than ever, yet left us unsatisfied
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Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly transforming the economy again and again. Our ancestors would have presumed we would have used such powers to build utopia. But it was not so. When 1870-2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming; economic depression, uncertainty, and inequality; and broad rejection of the status quo.
Economist Brad DeLong’s Slouching Towards Utopia tells the story of how this unprecedented explosion of material wealth occurred, how it transformed the globe, and why it failed to deliver us to utopia. Of remarkable breadth and ambition, it reveals the last century to have been less a march of progress than a slouch in the right direction. -
Escape from Rome
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Length: 21 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: October 15, 2019
- Language: English
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4.05(244 ratings)
4.05(244 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDThe gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world The fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues thatThe gripping story of how the end of the Roman Empire was the beginning of the modern world The fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues that Rome’s dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe’s economic rise and the creation of the modern age. Ranging across the entire premodern world, Escape from Rome offers new answers to some of the biggest questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? And, above all, why did Europeans come to dominate the world? In an absorbing narrative that begins with ancient Rome but stretches far beyond it, from Byzantium to China and from Genghis Khan to Napoleon, Scheidel shows how the demise of Rome and the enduring failure of empire-building on European soil ensured competitive fragmentation between and within states. This rich diversity encouraged political, economic, scientific, and technological breakthroughs that allowed Europe to surge ahead while other parts of the world lagged behind, burdened as they were by traditional empires and predatory regimes that lived by conquest. It wasn’t until Europe “escaped” from Rome that it launched an economic transformation that changed the continent and ultimately the world. What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away.
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The March of Folly
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 17 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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4.02(5133 ratings)
4.02(5133 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.95 USDIn The March of Folly, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Barbara Tuchman tackles the pervasive presence of folly in governments through the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests,In The March of Folly, two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Barbara Tuchman tackles the pervasive presence of folly in governments through the ages. Defining folly as the pursuit by governments of policies contrary to their own interests, despite the availability of feasible alternatives, Tuchman details four decisive turning points in history that illustrate the very heights of folly in government: the Trojan War, the breakup of the Holy See provoked by the Renaissance popes, the loss of the American colonies by Britain’s George III, and the United States’ persistent folly in Vietnam.
The March of Folly brings the people, places, and events of history magnificently alive for today’s reader.
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Pacific
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrator: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 27, 2015
- Language: English
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4.02(2624 ratings)
4.02(2624 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDOne of Library Journal‘s 10 Best Books of 2015 Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in theOne of Library Journal‘s 10 Best Books of 2015
Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature.
As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world, and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley.
Today, the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us–tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis–but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan’s sixteenth-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made.
In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, a trek across South Korea and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor.
Winchester’s personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.
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Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters
- By: Jared Knott
- Narrator: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 11 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.01(1314 ratings)
4.01(1314 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe small things that had great historical consequences … How often does a single tiny mistake cause an entire civilization to collapse? More often than you think! Listeners of Jared Knott’s book Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters will beThe small things that had great historical consequences …
How often does a single tiny mistake cause an entire civilization to collapse? More often than you think! Listeners of Jared Knott’s book Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters will be amazed at the little things that changed history in a big way. Here are a few examples:
A single document poorly designed by one single clerk in one single county changed the outcome of a presidential election and led directly to a major war.
A soldier accidentally kicked a helmet off of the top of a wall and caused an empire to collapse.
A small mechanical device several inches long failed to function, which changed the outcome of WWII and led to the deaths of millions of people.
A man failed to gather his army in time to defend against an attack because of the temptation of opium and a young slave woman.
And many more!
Hypnotic and addictive, these well-researched, factual stories will keep you listening far past your bedtime. Showing human weakness at its very worst in critical moments, this book is the “butterfly effect” in human history reviewed.
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On Every Tide
- By: Sean Connolly
- Narrator: Patrick Moy
- Length: 17 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 11, 2022
- Language: English
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3.98(28 ratings)
3.98(28 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0038.99 USDA sweeping history of Irish emigration, arguing that the Irish exodus helped make the modern worldWhen people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. ButA sweeping history of Irish emigration, arguing that the Irish exodus helped make the modern world
When people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. But the real history of the Irish diaspora is much longer, more complicated, and more global.
In On Every Tide, Sean Connolly tells the epic story of Irish migration, showing how emigrants became a force in world politics and religion. Starting in the eighteenth century, the Irish fled limited opportunity at home and fanned out across America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These emigrants helped settle new frontiers, industrialize the West, and spread Catholicism globally. As the Irish built vibrant communities abroad, they leveraged their newfound power–sometimes becoming oppressors themselves.
Deeply researched and vividly told, On Every Tide is essential reading for understanding how the people of Ireland shaped the world.
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Death of a Dissident
- By: Alex Goldfarb
- Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 5 hours 41 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
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3.97(344 ratings)
3.97(344 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.95 USDThe assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko in November 2006 — poisoned by the rare radioactive element polonium — caused an international sensation. Within a few short weeks, the fitThe assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko in November 2006 — poisoned by the rare radioactive element polonium — caused an international sensation. Within a few short weeks, the fit forty-three-year-old lay gaunt, bald, and dying in a hospital, the victim of a “tiny nuclear bomb.” Suspicions swirled around Russia’s FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the Putin regime. Traces of polonium radiation were found in Germany and on certain airplanes, suggesting a travel route from Russia for the carriers of the fatal poison. But what really happened? What did Litvinenko know? And why was he killed?
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The full story of Sasha Litvinenko’s life and death is one that the Kremlin does not want told. His closest friend, Alex Goldfarb, and his widow, Marina, are the only two people who can tell it all, from firsthand knowledge, with dramatic scenes from Moscow to London to Washington. Death of a Dissident reads like a political thriller, yet its story is more fantastic and frightening than any novel.
Ever since 1998, when Litvinenko denounced the FSB for ordering him to assassinate tycoon Boris Berezovsky, he had devoted his life to exposing the FSB’s darkest secrets. After a dramatic escape to London with Goldfarb’s assistance, he spent six years, often working with Goldfarb, investigating a widening series of scandals. Oligarchs and journalists have been assassinated. Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko was poisoned on the campaign trail. The war in Chechnya became unspeakably harsh on both sides. Sasha Litvinenko investigated all of it, and he denounced his former employers in no uncertain terms for their dirty deeds.
Death of a Dissident opens a window into the dark heart of the Putin Kremlin. With its strong-arm tactics, tight control over the media, and penetration of all levels of government, the old KGB is back with a vengeance. Sasha Litvinenko dedicated his life to exposing this truth. It took his diabolical murder for the world to listen. -
The Secret World
- By: Christopher Andrew
- Narrator: Clive Chafer
- Length: 37 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.95(416 ratings)
3.95(416 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe history of espionage is far older than any of today’s intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the most successful World War II intelligenceThe history of espionage is far older than any of today’s intelligence agencies, yet the long history of intelligence operations has been largely forgotten. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park, the most successful World War II intelligence agency, were completely unaware that their predecessors in earlier moments of national crisis had broken the codes of Napoleon during the Napoleonic wars and those of Spain before the Spanish Armada.
Those who do not understand past mistakes are likely to repeat them. Intelligence is a prime example. At the outbreak of World War I, the grasp of intelligence shown by US President Woodrow Wilson and British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was not in the same class as that of George Washington during the Revolutionary War and leading eighteenth-century British statesmen.
In this book, distinguished historian Christopher Andrew recovers much of the lost intelligence history of the past three millennia–and shows its relevance today.
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1956
- By: Simon Hall
- Narrator: Phil Thron
- Length: 13 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: April 28, 2020
- Language: English
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3.93(59 ratings)
3.93(59 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USD1956 was one of the most remarkable years of the twentieth century. All across the globe, ordinary people spoke out, filled the streets and city squares, and took up arms in an attempt to win their freedom. In this dramatic history, Simon Hall1956 was one of the most remarkable years of the twentieth century. All across the globe, ordinary people spoke out, filled the streets and city squares, and took up arms in an attempt to win their freedom.
In this dramatic history, Simon Hall takes the long view of the year’s events–putting them in their post-war context and looking toward their influence on the counterculture movements of the 1960s–to tell the story of the year’s epic, global struggles from the point of view of the freedom fighters, dissidents, and countless ordinary people who worked to overturn oppressive and authoritarian systems in order to build a brave new world. It was an epic contest.
1956 is the first narrative history of the year as a whole–and the first to frame its tumultuous events as part of an interconnected, global story of revolution.
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Heroes of History
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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3.92(663 ratings)
3.92(663 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDAt Will Durant’s death in 1981, his personal papers were dispersed among relatives, collectors, and archive houses. Twenty years later, scholar John Little discovered the previously unknown manuscript of Heroes of History in Durant’sAt Will Durant’s death in 1981, his personal papers were dispersed among relatives, collectors, and archive houses. Twenty years later, scholar John Little discovered the previously unknown manuscript of Heroes of History in Durant’s granddaughter’s garage. Written shortly before he died, these twenty-one essays serve as an abbreviated version of Durant’s bestselling, eleven-volume series, The Story of Civilization. Durant traces the lives and ideas of those who have helped to define civilization, from Confucius to Shakespeare, from the Roman Empire to the Reformation, spanning thousands of years of human history. A volume of life-enhancing wit and wisdom, Heroes of History draws upon Durant’s expansive knowledge and singular ability to translate distant events and complex ideas into easily accessible principles.
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The Gifts Of The Jews
- By: Thomas Cahill
- Narrator: Claire Bloom
- Length: 5 hours 15 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 1998
- Language: English
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3.87(3529 ratings)
3.87(3529 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.95 USDA Simon & Schuster audiobook. Simon & Schuster has a great book for every listener. -
Strange Rebels
- By: Christian Caryl
- Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 17 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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3.85(365 ratings)
3.85(365 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDFew moments in history have seen as many seismic transformations as 1979. That one year marked the emergence of revolutionary Islam as a political force on the world stage, the beginning of market revolutions in China and Britain that would fuelFew moments in history have seen as many seismic transformations as 1979. That one year marked the emergence of revolutionary Islam as a political force on the world stage, the beginning of market revolutions in China and Britain that would fuel globalization and radically alter the international economy, and the first stirrings of the resistance movements in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan that ultimately led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. More than any other year in the latter half of the twentieth century, 1979 heralded the economic, political, and religious realities that define the twenty-first.
In Strange Rebels, veteran journalist Christian Caryl shows how the world we live in today–and the problems that plague it–began to take shape in this pivotal year. 1979 saw a series of counterrevolutions against the progressive consensus that had dominated the postwar era. The year’s epic upheavals embodied a startling conservative challenge to communist and socialist systems around the globe, fundamentally transforming politics and economics worldwide. In China, 1979 marked the start of sweeping market-oriented reforms that have made the country the economic powerhouse it is today. 1979 was also the year that Pope John Paul II traveled to Poland, confronting communism in Eastern Europe by reigniting its people’s suppressed Catholic faith. In Iran, meanwhile, the Islamic Revolution transformed the nation into a theocracy almost overnight, overthrowing the shah’s modernizing monarchy. Farther west, Margaret Thatcher became prime minister of Britain, returning it to a purer form of free-market capitalism and opening the way for Ronald Reagan to do the same in the United States. And in Afghanistan, a Soviet invasion fueled an Islamic holy war with global consequences; the Afghan mujahedin presaged the rise of al-Qaeda and served as a key factor in the fall of communism.
Weaving the story of each of these counterrevolutions into a brisk, gripping narrative, Strange Rebels is a groundbreaking account of how these far-flung events and disparate actors and movements gave birth to our modern age.
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Rome 1960
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrator: David Maraniss
- Length: 5 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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3.83(1259 ratings)
3.83(1259 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.95 USDFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered, the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, seventeen days that helped define the modern world.Legendary athletes and stirring events are interwovenFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Clemente and When Pride Still Mattered, the blockbuster story of the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, seventeen days that helped define the modern world.
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Legendary athletes and stirring events are interwoven into a suspenseful narrative of sports and politics at the Rome games, where cold-war propaganda and spies, drugs and sex, money and television, civil rights and the rise of women superstars all converged to forever change the essence of the Olympics.
Using the meticulous research and sweeping narrative style that have become his trademark, maraniss reveals the rich palette of character, competition, and meaning that gave rome 1960 its singular essence.
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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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