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The Iraq War
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
John Keegan, whom the New York Review of Books calls "the best historian of our day", now brings his extraordinary expertise to bear on perhaps the most controversial war of our time. In exclusive interviews with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and General Tommy Franks, John Keegan has gathered information about the war that adds immeasurably to our grasp of its causes, complications, costs, and consequences.
Keegan probes the reasons for the invasion; he delineates the strategy of the American and British forces in capturing Baghdad; he examines the quick victory over the Republican Guard and the more tenacious and deadly opposition that has taken its place. He analyzes the intelligence information with which the Bush and Blair administrations convinced their respective governments of the need to go to war and which has since been strongly challenged in both countries. And he makes clear that despite the uncertainty about weapons of mass destruction, regime change, and the use and misuse of intelligence, the war in Iraq is an undeniably formidable display of American power.
The Iraq War is authoritative, timely, and vitally important to our understanding of a conflict whose ramifications are as yet unknown.
Critic reviews
"Essential reading for understanding the ongoing conflict." (Booklist)
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Military history more than history of intelligence
- By D. Littman on 01-10-04
By: John Keegan
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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 43 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through 34 nations and 60 years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative.
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Great book, but not terrific listening
- By History on 10-18-11
By: Tony Judt
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Palestine
- Peace Not Apartheid
- By: Jimmy Carter
- Narrated by: Jimmy Carter
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Following his #1 New York Times best seller Our Endangered Values, the former president, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, offers an assessment of what must be done to bring permanent peace to Israel, with dignity and justice for Palestine.
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A Story Not Told in the US
- By D. Cohron on 12-20-06
By: Jimmy Carter
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Bismarck's War
- The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe
- By: Rachel Chrastil
- Narrated by: Sarah Borges
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Among the conflicts that convulsed Europe during the nineteenth century, none was more startling and consequential than the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Deliberately engineered by Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the war succeeded in shattering French supremacy, deposing Napoleon III, and uniting a new German Empire. But it also produced brutal military innovations and a precarious new imbalance of power that together set the stage for the devastating world wars of the next century. In Bismarck’s War, historian Rachel Chrastil chronicles events on the battlefield in full.
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It's rare I don't finish a book...
- By Chris Corsini on 09-26-23
By: Rachel Chrastil
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The First World War
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the 20th century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society - and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment.
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Best Military History of First World War
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 06-13-19
By: John Keegan
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Iran
- A Modern History
- By: Abbas Amanat
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 41 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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This history of modern Iran is not a survey in the conventional sense but an ambitious exploration of the story of a nation. It offers a revealing look at how events, people, and institutions are shaped by currents that sometimes reach back hundreds of years. The book covers the complex history of the diverse societies and economies of Iran against the background of dynastic changes, revolutions, civil wars, foreign occupation, and the rise of the Islamic Republic.
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Extremely Opinionated.
- By Glaudrung on 02-13-19
By: Abbas Amanat
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Black Flags
- The Rise of ISIS
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In a thrilling dramatic narrative, awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Joby Warrick traces how the strain of militant Islam behind ISIS first arose in a remote Jordanian prison and spread with the unwitting aid of two American presidents.
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So much learned
- By mike flavin on 02-11-16
By: Joby Warrick
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The First World War
- A Complete History
- By: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare.
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Unbiased true facts of the first world war
- By troy a myers on 07-27-20
By: Martin Gilbert
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To Start a War
- How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Even now, after more than 15 years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few of them are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps it's that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, that explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully for the first time to Robert Draper.
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If you’ve grown weary of the current GOP administration’s incompetence...
- By Marynelle on 09-04-20
By: Robert Draper
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A History of Warfare
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Starting with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan probes the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war in different societies over the course of more than two thousand years. Following the progress of human aggression in its full historical sweep, from the strangely ritualistic combat of Stone Age peoples to the warfare of mass destruction in the present age, his illuminating and lively narrative gives us all the world's great warrior cultures.
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Not what I expected
- By Mark on 12-05-06
By: John Keegan
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The Achilles Trap
- Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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From bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll, the definitive story of the decades-long relationship between the United States and Saddam Hussein, and a deeply researched and news breaking investigation into how human error, cultural miscommunication, and hubris led to one of the costliest geopolitical conflicts of our time.
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From the Saddam’s Point of View.
- By philip on 03-08-24
By: Steve Coll
What listeners say about The Iraq War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-30-23
the truth comes through
a balanced, concise and intelligent review from one of the world's greatest living military historians of perhaps the most spectacularly successful military invasion of all time.
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Overall
- Dante
- 02-22-05
A full account
It is tough to confidently take a solid stance recent developments if you aren't certain of all the details. This book helped me fill in all the gaps in my learning of the events that lead us to where we are today, from the Ottoman Empire to Saddam Hussein. This is not an opinion book but one of facts; facts crucial in understanding current events.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Charles
- 12-08-04
A Solid, Quick Overview
This was a nice, brief overview of what has transpired so far in the Battle of Iraq. It starts with a general review of the middle-eastern region, not too detailed but a bit tedious nonetheless trying to follow who took over and was then killed by whom and so on and on; then it goes into a not too detailed personal history of the big dirtbag himself, Saddam Hussein (who revered Stalin), and his path of thuggery and murder, and ultimate grabbing of power. Then the battle itself is related, all the way into Baghdad, and how this campaign differed from the Gulf War of 1991. Schwarzkopf is compared to Franks.
A couple of events after that point are discussed, e.g. the British scientist-scholar who ultimately committed suicide after revealing that he had "sexed up" some intelligence reports.
Since you're probably wondering: Keegan makes it clear that he supports the war, though if I recall correctly, not until the end of the book, so the bulk of the book is not explicitly pro-war, it's just a chronological recounting of events.
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24 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Anonymous User
- 07-07-08
Very good
A great read of the Iraq War from a British perspective.
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