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Uranium
- War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
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Publisher's summary
Slave labor camps in Africa and Eastern Europe were built around mine shafts, and America would knowingly send more than 600 uranium miners to their graves in the name of national security. Fortunes have been made from this yellow dirt; massive energy grids have been run from it. Fear of it panicked the American people into supporting a questionable war with Iraq, and its specter threatens to create another conflict in Iran. Now, some are hoping it can help avoid a global warming catastrophe.
In Uranium, Tom Zoellner takes readers around the globe in this intriguing look at the mineral that can sustain life or destroy it.
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Tom Zoellner loves trains with a ferocious passion. In his new audiobook he chronicles the innovation and sociological impact of the railway technology that changed the world, and could very well change it again. From the frigid Trans-Siberian Railroad to the antiquated Indian Railways to the futuristic maglev trains, Zoellner offers a stirring story of man's relationship with trains. Zoellner examines both the mechanics of the rails and their engines and how they helped societies evolve. Not only do trains transport people and goods in an efficient manner, but they also reduce pollution and dependency upon oil.
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The world history of trains up to the present
- By matthew on 03-06-14
By: Tom Zoellner
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Chinese Rules
- Mao's Dog, Deng's Cat, and Five Timeless Lessons from the Front Lines in China
- By: Tim Clissold
- Narrated by: Stephen Critchlow
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Exploring key episodes in that nation's long political, military, and cultural history, Clissold outlines five Chinese Rules, which anyone can deploy in on-the-ground situations with modern Chinese counterparts. These Chinese rules will enable foreigners not only to cooperate with China but also to compete with it on its own terms.
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Two books in one, one excellent one boring
- By Ed Sander on 09-08-17
By: Tim Clissold
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Chasing Heisenberg
- The Race for the Atom Bomb
- By: Michael Joseloff
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 3 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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After a devastating run of German victories, Allied troops are beginning to halt Hitler’s advance. But far from the battlefields, Allied scientists are struggling. Intelligence reports put them a distant second behind the Germans in a competition that could determine the outcome of the war: the race to build the world’s first nuclear weapon. For the Allies’ top scientists, the race is deeply personal. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Samuel Goudsmit have known Hitler’s chief atomic scientist, Werner Heisenberg, for years.
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A Good Overview/Introduction to the Bomb Race
- By Ashlyn on 08-05-20
By: Michael Joseloff
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A Crack in the Edge of the World
- America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale.
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7 Hours and 45 minutes . . .
- By Tim on 12-09-05
By: Simon Winchester
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The Men Who United the States
- America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators. Introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
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Sarcastic
- By Cynthia Hartman on 06-16-16
By: Simon Winchester
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Rust
- The Longest War
- By: Jonathan Waldman
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In Rust journalist Jonathan Waldman travels from Key West, Florida, to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to meet the colorful and often reclusive people concerned with corrosion. He sneaks into an abandoned steelworks with a brave artist and nearly gets kicked out of Can School. Across the Arctic he follows a massive high-tech robot, hunting for rust in the Alaska pipeline.
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Almost too geeky for geeks
- By Norman B. Bernstein on 03-26-15
By: Jonathan Waldman
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109 East Palace
- Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
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They were told as little as possible. Their orders were to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report for work at a classified Manhattan Project site, a location so covert it was known to them only by the mysterious address: 109 East Palace.
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Great Listen
- By John H. Davis III on 10-22-05
By: Jennet Conant
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The Boom
- How Fracking Ignited the American Energy Revolution and Changed the World
- By: Russell Gold
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Russell Gold, a brilliant and dogged investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal, has spent more than a decade reporting on one of the biggest stories of our time: the spectacular, world-changing rise of "fracking". Recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award for his work, Gold has traveled along the pipelines and into the hubs of this country’s energy infrastructure; he has visited frack sites from Texas to North Dakota; and he has conducted thousands of interviews with engineers and wildcatters, CEOs and roughnecks, environmentalists and politicians.
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Somehow the author manages to stay balanced
- By Emily C on 05-28-14
By: Russell Gold
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Midnight in Chernobyl
- By: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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April 25, 1986 in Chernobyl was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.
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Midnight in Chernobyl is the book to listen to.
- By NH on 03-21-19
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The Big Truck That Went By
- How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster
- By: Jonathan M. Katz
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jonathan M. Katz
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 12, 2010, the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck the nation least prepared to handle one. Jonathan M. Katz, the only full-time American news correspondent in Haiti, was inside his house when it buckled along with hundreds of thousands of others. In this visceral first-hand account, Katz takes readers inside the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and through the monumental--yet misbegotten--rescue effort that followed.
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This story angered and cheered inside me
- By rifenbc on 03-01-19
By: Jonathan M. Katz
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What listeners say about Uranium
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Giles
- 04-07-09
The rage of power
This book makes blood diamond look like a smashed tomato on the hi way. It can show the creativity of man kinds search for the things that could help the human race, while others seek to distroy. This book just adds information to the murders of innocents in Heroshima and Nagasaki and now, probaly just as many Africans are dead to justify any means to succeed in a almost useless quest of who is right only to be proven wrong centuries later. I applaud the writer for his bravery to tell the truth. To combat a history clouded with deception and untruths. Maybe this book will stop the next hollacoust. This book gives me a broader understanding of the history of the nuclear age. This book only incourages me to educate others about our new age, the wonders that it has to offer, the precautions that we have to take in order to make the world a better place for all humans.
I really enjoyed the educational fact about the history of the discovery of this precious mineral. The information keeps me glued in attention to the book. cant wait for your next book. I also like the way thing are broken down to the layman that that is not a rocket scientist, In some cases this book is like the nuclear age for dummies. live long and prosper
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5 people found this helpful
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- Jeffrey
- 11-24-11
Great Subject, Tepid Narration
I'm of much the same opinion as others that the subject matter is immensely interesting and well written. The narrator needed to have not added his stupid accents, they detracted throughout.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Andy
- 06-02-09
solidly researched book
Zoellner pulled together some pretty solid research to convey a contemporary story about uranium. His no nonsense narrative takes the reader from deep in the mine up to the sky where the bomb is dropped. Narration is solid.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Roy
- 10-30-10
Great for What It Is
In what I would loosely call a postmodern way, Tom Zoeliner deconstructs Uranium. He deals with the mineral historically calling up characters from the past with vivid description. Prospectors, researchers, political figures, international intrigue, smuggling, --- its all here. If you are looking for science, per se, you'll not find it here. If you want a broader understanding of the basic science and the socio/political/economic context in which Uranium resides, then you are in luck. This is a journalistic rather than an academic tome. If you don't have a knowledge of Uranium AND you have even a passing interest in the subject OR you are willing to engage yourself in an unfamiliar toic, this book might just be for you. The writing is very good and Patrick Lawlor is a great narrator as well.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- B. Hongo
- 06-22-10
Probably have a reason to read this
I worked in militray and civilian nuclear power for 13 years and now live in Wyoming so this book was very interesting to me. My wife thinks I'm wierd but I throughly enjoyed it. Good history lessons.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Michael
- 07-14-09
We go boom?
This is basically the biography of Uranium. The history of how it was discovered and evolved to what it is today was a great listen, especially considering the time we're in with everyone trying to get the bomb.
This powerful quote from the book's introduction sums it all up, " From dust to dust, the Earth came seeded with the means of it's own destruction--a geological original sin."
The news is always talking about if terrorists ever got nuclear weapons how easy it would be to use them. After reading this book, I have become more fearful at the ease in which this could happen. If someone is determined to get uranium, I don't doubt that they will. There is little accounting of stuff by world governments and even some the inventory they know they are supposed to have goes missing.
It was scary to read about some boys finding some in a field (nobody knows how the ore they found got there) and hitting it with a hammer because it made nice sparks. Yikes! I never knew how precariously we are balanced on the nuclear precipice and now, unfortunately, have to believe it is only a matter of time until some nuclear terrorism occurs.
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- Jeffry Wood
- 02-06-19
excellent
very well done. very enjoyable. It connected so many things. everyone should understand this history.
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- David
- 10-12-09
Fascinating Element
For a "biography" about an element - this was a very good book. Its pace was consistent and covered numerous aspect of its history. Given uranium's impact on society, more people should understand its history and what it really is...
Patrick Lawlor did a great job of reading/performing.
I was surprised it did not cover more about the its first use in WWII but this has probably been covered by other authors many times over.
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Overall
- Mary
- 03-14-10
Good History but the Narrator is ludicrous
This is a decent book and worth it even though it meanders a bit. The narration is it's worst aspect. For some reason, the narrator tries to do any and all quotes in lame accents and drawls. His poor accents detract from the story all all run together. If he just used a normal voice, he would have been fine...in an audio book, the narrator really matters...that said I would probably get the book instead.
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- Lizzer
- 06-15-09
4-star book with 2-star narration
This book is informative and pretty well-written, but the narrator makes the baffling choice to read every quote (and there are several throughout the book) in a different voice, most of which sound absolutely ridiculous. Totally out of place in a serious non-fiction book, and I have no clue why somebody...the producer, for one...didn't stop him from narrating in this way.
Seriously. His accented voices are truly terrible...along the lines of "Vee haff veys to make you talk".
It's not quite bad enough to make me stop listening to the book (which is quite interesting), but it's enough to irritate me every single time he does it.
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11 people found this helpful