The World Crisis, Vol. 1

1911-1914

By: Winston Churchill

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 21 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

The first in a five-volume set of essential listening that examines the causes of the Great War.

This, the first in Sir Winston Churchill's five-volume history examining the events and context leading up to the outbreak of World War I from a true insider's point of view, is unsurpassed as both a historical and personal account of the earth-shaking events leading up to The Great War.

Churchill's epic series begins in 1911, when Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty, and opens with a chilling description of the Agadir Crisis and an in-depth account of naval clashes in the Dardanelles - one of Churchill's major military failures. It takes listeners from the fierce bloodshed of the Gallipoli campaign to the tragic sinking of the Lusitania and the tide-turning battles of Jutland and Verdun - as well as the USA's entry into the combat theater.

Written in powerful prose by a great leader who would also go on to receive a Nobel Prize in Literature, and based on thousands of his own personal letters and memos, The World Crisis provides a perspective you won't find anywhere else: a dynamic insider's account of events that would shape the outcome of modern history.

Public Domain (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Great story, the wrong narrator

This book, split into three parts, is one of the great accounts of WW1.

This first part is let down by the choice of an American narrator. He is OK as a narrator in general, but completely wrong for a book written substantially in the first person by Winston Churchill!

Happily parts 2 and 3 are narrated by Christian Rodska who manages to capture the majesty and emotion of Churchill's prose by sounding very much like Churchill himself.

If anyone is put off by the narration of part 1, don't let that stop you listening to parts two and three: they are excellent!

This was an detailed book

I truly enjoyed this book until the naval fleet distribution parts when my eyes glazed over!

An education

In politics, statesmanship, naval & military preparedness & operations, and what produced the First World War. It was not just a nut job shooting the arch duke and his wife.

Timeless

Fantastic book, but understand what it is and is not. It is a first hand account, not a comprehensive (in global or universal perspective) account of the war.

The access to letters and memoranda of the decision makers is priceless in distilling the why. Overall this is an amazing body of work.

Disregard comments about the narrator being American. Idiotic argument and pointless. This is not a story time book being read to you by WSC himself. The information is authentic. The narrator is expert at his tradecraft. His meter and modulation, especially during the reading of letters is outstanding.

The people who think the narrator must have an accent that matches the author are goobers. Would they not read / listen to Tolstoy if they could not read Russian or listen to a Russian accented audio version? Actually, maybe they would not and that illustrates my point.

It’s nice when a narrator can do the accents and multiple characters, but in a book of history if that is your main criticism you are a fan of novels and just don’t know it.

Great book and narration; but, you will not regret it.

Churchill the author is always enjoyable

I find Churchill as author most enjoyable, particularly on those things that he knows about personally, this book might be the best I’ve listened to this far (having gone through his History of the English Speaking Peoples)

Final Word on the Great War (pre-WW2)

Many consider this series (The World Crisis) to be the best work of Winston Churchill and the best explanation for the First World War from the perspective of Inter-war writers. Remember to those living in 1919-1937 those were not “The INTERWAR Years” but rather “The POSTWAR Years”. This fact shapes every aspect of Great War writing and from this perspective this book series really is unique. Given this importance I’m happy to say that Audible has done a great job in recording this first title in the series with outstanding recording clarity with a master narrator.

I am thoroughly enjoying this volume and I look forward to buying the further volumes in this series when they become available.

OUTSTANDING! EXCELLENT!, Now where's the rest!

FANTASTIC PERFORMANCE OF CHURCHILL'S FIRST VOLUME OF WORLD WAR I! EXCELLENT! But Audible, where are the remaining volumes? Please, please, pretty please!?!

Magisterial. But where is Volume 2, 3, 4 etc??

Far beyond his works on World War II, this series of books, written before he was the Churchill of the wilderness years or the Battle of Britain, features his incredible intelligence, diligence, humanity and foresight on display. He writes beautifully on top of everything else, and he was as prescient about the looming Great War as he was about Hitler's rise two decades later.

And yet ... Volume One is the only one available. Even after the 100th anniversary shone new light on the Great War.

Get with it Audible. If you can't source the rest of this historically significant series, then commission it from someone (like me) who can do it justice.

Churchill is Always Interesting But Defensive

I love Churchill and enjoyed every listen to everything he has written, but given the criticisms of him regarding incidents during the early stages of the war, he is clearly defensive about them in the book. It is still enjoyable.

Waiting for volume 2

At first I also thought that a reader with American accent was not ideal. But then I thought that this book was written by a fairly young Churchill while most of the speeches we heard are from WW2. So this Churchill should sound different. And he does. The accent is pretty generic so it didn’t bother me. But when are the other volumes coming out ????