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Justinian's Flea
- Plague, Empire, and the Birth of Europe
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
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Publisher's summary
In Justinian's Flea, William Rosen tells the story of history's first pandemic - a plague seven centuries before the Black Death that killed tens of millions, devastated the empires of Persia and Rome, left a path of victims from Ireland to Iraq, and opened the way for the armies of Islam. Weaving together evolutionary microbiology, economics, military strategy, ecology, and ancient and modern medicine, Rosen offers a sweeping narrative of one of the great hinge moments in history, one that will appeal to readers of John Kelly's The Great Mortality, John Barry's The Great Influenza, and Jared Diamond's Collapse.
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- By: Michael Haag
- Narrated by: Guy Bethell
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Arguably one of the most provocative, puzzling, and misunderstood organizations of medieval times, the legendary Knights Templar have always been shrouded in a veil of mystery, while inspiring popular culture from Indiana Jones to Dan Brown. In The Templars, author Michael Haag offers a definitive history of these loyal Christian soldiers of the Crusades - sworn to defend the Holy Land and Jerusalem, but ultimately damned and destroyed by the Pope and his church.
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Narrator ruined it
- By Amazon Customer on 10-19-17
By: Michael Haag
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Marathon
- The Battle That Changed Western Civilization
- By: Richard A. Billows
- Narrated by: Jeremy Gage
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
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Published to coincide with Marathon's 2500th anniversary, a riveting history of the historic battle. The Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. is not only understood as the most decisive event in the struggle between the Greeks and the Persians, but can also be seen as perhaps the most significant moment in our collective history. 10,000 Athenian citizens faced a Persian military force of more than 25,000.
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Effectively evokes the world of ancient greece
- By Aaron on 11-02-10
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The Mental Floss History of the World
- An Irreverent Romp Through Civilization's Best Bits
- By: Steve Wiegand, Erik Sass
- Narrated by: Johny Heller
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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About 60,000 years ago, the first Homo sapiens were just beginning their move across the grasslands and up the ladder of civilization. Everything since then, as they say, is history. Just in case you were sleeping in class that day, the geniuses at mental_floss magazine have put together a hilarious (and historically accurate) primer on everything you need to know---and that means the good stuff.
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Brilliant and Funny. What more could you want?
- By Septimus MacGhilleglas on 01-22-09
By: Steve Wiegand, and others
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The Race for Paradise
- An Islamic History of the Crusades
- By: Paul M. Cobb
- Narrated by: Paul M. Cobb
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
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In The Race for Paradise, Paul M. Cobb offers a new history of the confrontations between Muslims and Franks we now call the "Crusades", one that emphasizes the diversity of Muslim experiences of the European holy war. There is more to the story than Jerusalem, the Templars, Saladin, and the Assassins. Cobb considers the Arab perspective on all shores of the Muslim Mediterranean, from Spain to Syria.
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A heady piece of history and a romp.
- By Meeno on 05-28-15
By: Paul M. Cobb
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In Search of the Dark Ages
- By: Michael Wood
- Narrated by: Marston York
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
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In Search of the Dark Ages is an unrivalled exploration of the origins of English identity, and the best-selling book that established Michael Wood as one of Britain's leading historians. Now, on the book's 40th anniversary, this fully revised and expanded edition illuminates further the fascinating and mysterious centuries between the Romans and the Norman Conquest.
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Brilliant!
- By Dee Goulet on 08-31-22
By: Michael Wood
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When Montezuma Met Cortés
- The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History
- By: Matthew Restall
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
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In 1519, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortés first met Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, at the entrance to the capital city of Tenochtitlan. This introduction - the prelude to the Spanish seizure of Mexico City and to European colonization of the mainland of the Americas - has long been the symbol of Cortés' bold and brilliant military genius. Montezuma, on the other hand, is remembered as a coward who gave away a vast empire and touched off a wave of colonial invasions across the hemisphere. But is this really what happened?
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Flawed, but worth it for those interested.
- By Aggressive Joe on 02-16-18
By: Matthew Restall
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Walls
- A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick
- By: David Frye
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
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With Frye as our raconteur-guide, we journey back to a time before barriers of brick and stone even existed - to an era in which nomadic tribes vied for scarce resources, and each man was bred to a life of struggle. Ultimately, those same men would create edifices of mud, brick, and stone and with them effectively divide humanity: On one side were those the walls protected; on the other, those the walls kept out. The stars of this narrative are the walls themselves - rising up in places as ancient and exotic as Mesopotamia, Babylon, Greece, China, Rome, Mongolia, Afghanistan, the lower Mississippi, and even Central America....
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The code for history
- By veronica d on 03-14-23
By: David Frye
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The Sea Wolves
- A History of the Vikings
- By: Lars Brownworth
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In AD 793 Norse warriors struck the English isle of Lindisfarne and laid waste to it. Wave after wave of Norse "sea wolves" followed in search of plunder, land, or a glorious death in battle. Much of the British Isles fell before their swords, and the continental capitals of Paris and Aachen were sacked in turn. Turning east, they swept down the uncharted rivers of central Europe, captured Kiev, and clashed with mighty Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
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A little dry but very interesting
- By Angela on 08-30-15
By: Lars Brownworth
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You wake up and feel a tickle in your throat. Your head hurts. You’re mildly annoyed as you get the kids ready for school and dress for work yourself. Meanwhile, an epic war is being fought, just below your skin. Millions are fighting and dying for you to be able to complain as you head out the door. So what, exactly, is your immune system? In Immune, Philipp Dettmer, the brains behind the most popular science channel on YouTube, takes listeners on a journey through the fortress of the human body and its defenses.
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What listeners say about Justinian's Flea
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Arden
- 04-13-20
The First Pandemic
This is the story of the eastern Roman empire, how Justinian tried to reunite the empire, and how the plague ended this campaign. Heavy on history including speculation about the origin of the bubonic plague. My greatest learning was how close in time the Justinian plague was to the birth of Islam
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- Cthulhu's slobber
- 12-14-19
Great story horrible narrator
Story is interesting but the narrator is so monotonous it is nearly unbearable. Still worth a listen.
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- JB
- 11-14-19
Please re-title this book
Amazing amazing job on the eastern Roman empire, history, wars, intrigue, and finally… The plague. Only about 15% of this book is about the plague, so if you are looking for a book on the plague… Do not buy this book. However, if you are interested in early Christendom, early European formation, palace intrigue, and in general every day life of those who lived in the 6th century, This is the book for you. This book should not be named Justinian’s flea, but should be named something that reflects the true story line.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-20-19
you will need a cast of characters
Reader was monotone, made listening to the minutiae difficult. Great premise, I learned a lot, but not for the novice.
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- Robert B. Golson
- 09-19-18
Dense
The book reminded me of Barzan's "From Dawn to Decadence ". It requires the listener to be fairly conversant with a considerable amount of diverse history. This is not a casual listen, and in fact should probably be read instead. That being said , I found the story interesting and the conclusions to be provocative.
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- John Benko
- 08-24-18
The title is borderline clickbait
I bought this audiobook thinking I'd be getting an interesting look into how a plague contributed to the decline of the Eastern Roman Empire. What I got was a meandering 12 hour waste of time. The first 6 hours just summarize the political history of Rome with no mention of earlier epidemics and how they affected the empire (as well as an entire chapter talking about the construction of the Hagia Sophia). Once the author actually gets to the bacteria, he doesn't really talk about the epidemic so much as he just rambles about how epic and dangerous germs are. It's another hour before the Pandemic section and despite what that section's title says, it's just more political history of Rome and the Sassanid Empire. Don't buy this book if you want to learn about the plague that hit Rome during Justinian's reign. You're just gonna wind up fast-forwarding through chapters and chapters of the author rambling about politics.
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- Mohad Cheridi
- 08-07-17
well done...
I'm at a loss to understand why some find that the narrator didn't do justice to the book... When i first read some of the negative reviews about this narrator i listened to the sample and wasn't quite sure about him...But after finishing the book i have no hesitation in my judgement : 5 stars...
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- Mark
- 02-22-16
A portrait of Justinian's empire
Rosen goes to extreme lengths to prove that the plague has dramatic impact on the fall of Rome and the subsequent rise of European nation states. I enjoyed the read; however, in classic Rosen fashion, his overall thesis and argument is lost throughout his tangents.
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- Loren
- 10-25-14
Good Story, Bad Narration
Would you try another book from William Rosen and/or Barrett Whitener?
The story itself is great and Rosen seems to have written a very complete narrative about the reign of Justinian and the effects of the plague on Rome. Whitener is so absolutely boring and monotone that he makes listening to a good story difficult to say the least.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Barrett Whitener?
Anyone else
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- Ken
- 10-07-14
If you want to know...
If you could sum up Justinian's Flea in three words, what would they be?
Linear Historical Briefing
What other book might you compare Justinian's Flea to and why?
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Outline of History - The Fabric of the Cosmos,because it provides a living, breathing story of Goths, Huns, Romans in a linear story with the precision of a Physicist peeling the mystery of the Universe - from string to that other unseen, a Multiverse.
What about Barrett Whitener’s performance did you like?
He knew the story, spoke the language, gave the feel of excitement of a scale of battle we rarely if ever have known, intrigue, and human suffering living in bacterium in the gut of a flea riding the rat from Egypt to every boat, barn and castle across the Roman Empire.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
No... maybe respect. Lots of respect and a well done with the weaving of a great unseeable disaster into a story that should teach us what to expect - when we least expect - and to wake up to what we are; as Richard Dawkins wrote, 'self replicating molecules that accumulated survival machines and were emancipated by language... and now we realize we are vulnerable to other self replicating machines... Asimov said it best; We are matter contemplating itself.
Any additional comments?
Good story, well told, worth the time to listen and learn from that parallel universe we call The Roman Empire; they were us in another time.
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