The Glory and the Dream

A Narrative History of America, 1932 - 1972

By: William Manchester

Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach

Length: 57 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the lively arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti...everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.

The Glory and the Dream chronicles the progress of life in the United States, from the time William Manchester and his generation reached the beginning of awareness in the desperate summer of '32 to President Nixon's Second Inaugural Address and the opening scenes of Watergate. Masterfully compressing four crowded decades of our history, Manchester relives the epic, significant, or just memorable events that befell the generation of Americans whose lives pivoted between the America before and the America after the Second World War.

©1974 William Manchester (P)1994 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Pronunciations like you've never heard before!

I wish I had made a list of the many inexplicable mis-pronunciations in this book.

Mr. Riggenbach does a fine job narrating, but adds his own imaginative twist on the English language. You might think you have missed something in your education when you hear a word spoken as you've never heard it before.

You may think: No, it can't possible be said like that-- can it? You are not wrong. Mr. Riggenbach reads certain words as if he is encountering them for the first time, and doing a yeoman's job of coming up with something that sounds plausible. But in the cases I have checked, his versions do not appear even in the dictionary's secondary preferences, let alone the primary pronunciations.

I suggest that you view these departures as a game, like bird-watching, and look forward to the next odd bird that wings your way.

Dupicated

Some if the reading is duplicated. I heard the exact same thing in different charters.

Quite the Tour D Force!

I loved the book; born in the 80's, I gained great insight into my parents' and grandparents' lives, their struggles and joys. I feel like I understand them much better, especially my reserved grandparents.

it took me months to finish the book, in the meantime I finished many other books (including Moby Dick). For me, it was a great book to go while on a long jog or in the garden. It doesn't require 100% of your attention, making it a great activity book. I highly recommend.

Boomers will absolutely love this!

If you were born after WWII or even in the decade before that, this book will bring back a flood if memories from your childhood and young adulthood. But equally important, it could very well reveal what your parents and grandparents experienced in the years leading up to WWII, including the Great Depression, and why they were the kind of parents they were. Particularly if you’re into American History, Politics, and Culture, the hundreds of names mentioned in the book will have significance, perhaps more than when they were in the headlines. Brilliantly researched and narrated, one will have to forgive the narrator for a few mispronounciations here and there for names of people and places which were well known to those of us who lived through these “interesting times.”

So glad I pulled through this

This was a really enjoyable read throughout the entire book. Although the author clearly leans to the left, it was still overall a fact based history of 42 years in America, and the amount of history I learned from this 1 book is immense.
The narrator, while dry and to the point, was none the less fantastic, and I want to purchase more books that he reads.

Manchester is a great writer

This is an excellent book by a great history writer. William Manchester loved the English language and it shows in his writing. In this social history he spent a paragraph during each era covered and he would write out a scenario using only the slang of the era. It was a fun thing to hear.

In this overly long book, the author’s notation not mine, William Manchester covers everything that impacted American culture or at least tries to. This book is a great survey history of this era. The covering of this particular 40 years can be seen as a history of the growth and height of the liberal movement. With Franklin D. Roosevelt as the beginning, and Richard M. Nixon as the beginning of the end for it.

Manchester’s work is a great history by a writer who clearly had fun writing. The phrasing and transition sentences show a sheer pleasure in finding a right way that was entertaining to the author and therefore the reader. This large book is worth the reading for any history student especially for the heart of the twentieth Century.

LONG but a must-read

No matter where you live in the world, understanding American history and politics can be useful, and if you're an American it should be a must. this book does an amazing job at condensing the most relevant aspects of politics, culture, and war from the 30s through the 1970s. so many gaps in my knowledge have been filled thanks to this book and new doors opened for me to explore.

Great overview of re ent US history

As always Manchester writes well. Great blend of politics culture and foreign affairs! I'm not sure there is a good way to get such an overview so quickly. ,,,;). If you can call 55 hours quick.

Amateur production of a masterpiece.

This book deserves to be redone by Audible. The author, William Manchester, gave us a masterpiece work. The book stands on its own despite the weak narration and unforgivable recording errors. This is the worst production I have heard in my 20 years of listening Audible recordings. But despite the very tedious narration and amateur production I still give it five stars. No regrets.

G&D

If it were possible I would have listened to the whole book NON-STOP. How the book was written it's self is excellent and then only made better by the way it was read. Actually a 5+ in my book. The occassional insertion of interesting asides really added to how it was read.