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Blood and Iron
- The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
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Blood and Iron
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In a unique study of five decades that changed the course of modern history, Katja Hoyer tells the story of the German Empire from its violent beginnings to its calamitous defeat in the First World War.
Before 1871, Germany was not a nation but an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring thirty-nine individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser, convincing proud Prussians, Bavarians and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France—all without destroying itself in the process?
Critic reviews
"The best biography of the Second Reich in years.... It will undoubtedly become the essential account of this vitally important part of European history." (Andrew Roberts)
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 867
From the best-selling and award-winning author of Paris 1919 comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, a fascinating portrait of Europe from 1900 up to the outbreak of World War I.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Detailed review of 1882 to 1914
- By smarmer on 04-06-14
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1913
- The Eve of War
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Christopher Oxford
- Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 179
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 179
Christmas 1913: In Britain, people are debating a new dance called ‘the tango’. In Germany, they are fascinated by the wedding of the Kaiser’s daughter to the Duke of Brunswick. Little did they know that their world was on ‘The Eve of War’, a catastrophe that was to engulf the continent, cost millions of lives, and change the course of the century. And yet behind the scenes, the Great Powers were marching towards what they thought was an inevitable conflict.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This is What Wasn't Taught in School.
- By upfrontboi on 04-26-18
By: Paul Ham
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A Concise History of Italy
- By: Christopher Duggan
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Since its formation in 1861, Italy has struggled to develop an effective political system and a secure sense of national identity. Christopher Duggan's acclaimed introduction charts the country's history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the present day, and surveys the difficulties Italy has faced during the last two centuries in creating a unified country. Duggan successfully weaves together political, economic, social and cultural history, and stresses the alternation between materialist and idealist programs for forging a nation-state.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Concise indeed
- By nikex on 03-22-21
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Modern Times
- The World from the Twenties to the Nineties
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 37 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 428
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 302
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 300
Beginning with May 29, 1919, when photographs of the solar eclipse confirmed the truth of Einstein's theory of relativity, Johnson goes on to describe Freudianism, the establishment of the first Marxist state, the chaos of "Old Europe", the Arcadian 20s, and the new forces in China and Japan. Also discussed are Karl Marx, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Roosevelt, Gandhi, Castro, Kennedy, Nixon, the '29 crash, the Great Depression, Roosevelt's New Deal, and the massive conflict of World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Anti-Howard Zinn
- By Pork C. Fish on 05-22-12
By: Paul Johnson
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The Coming of the Third Reich
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 21 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,654
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,654
There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling and depressing
- By Tad Davis on 06-30-10
By: Richard J. Evans
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Victorious Century
- The United Kingdom, 1800-1906
- By: David Cannadine
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 24 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
To live in 19th-century Britain was to experience an astonishing series of changes, of a kind for which there was simply no precedent. There were revolutions in transport, communication and work; cities grew vast; and scientific ideas made the intellectual landscape unrecognisable. This was an exhilarating time but also a horrifying one. In his new book, David Cannadine has created a bold, fascinating new interpretation of the British 19th century in all its energy and dynamism, darkness and vice.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Blandly toeing the line between macro and micro
- By Max Shafer-landau on 10-17-17
By: David Cannadine
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Russia in Revolution
- An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928
- By: S. A. Smith
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
The Russian Revolution of 1917 transformed the face of the Russian empire, politically, economically, socially, and culturally and also profoundly affected the course of world history for the rest of the 20th century. Historian S. A. Smith presents a panoramic account of the history of the Russian empire, from the last years of the 19th century, through the First World War and the revolutions of 1917 and the establishment of the Bolshevik regime, to the end of the 1920s.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent centenary look at the complete revolutio
- By Privet on 09-13-18
By: S. A. Smith
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The End of Tsarist Russia
- The March to World War I and Revolution
- By: Dominic Lieven
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 130
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4 out of 5 stars 114
World War I and the Russian Revolution together shaped the 20th century in profound ways. In The End of Tsarist Russia, acclaimed scholar Dominic Lieven connects for the first time the two events, providing both a history of the First World War's origins from a Russian perspective and an international history of why the revolution happened.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A good book done in by bad narration.
- By James on 05-25-16
By: Dominic Lieven
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1848
- Year of Revolution
- By: Mike Rapport
- Narrated by: Hugh Kermode
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
In 1848, a violent storm of revolutions ripped through Europe. The torrent all but swept away the conservative order that had kept peace on the continent since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 - but which in many countries had also suppressed dreams of national freedom. Political events so dramatic had not been seen in Europe since the French Revolution, and they would not be witnessed again until 1989, with the revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe.
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4 out of 5 stars
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1848 by Mike Rapport
- By Aria Amirbahman on 02-07-22
By: Mike Rapport
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 141
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4 out of 5 stars 114
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris
- By: Ian Kershaw
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 28 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 574
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 514
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 510
Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the character of the bizarre misfit in his thirty-year ascent from a Viennese shelter for the indigent to uncontested rule over the German nation that had tried and rejected democracy in the crippling aftermath of World War I.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The heart of evil
- By Mike From Mesa on 01-20-14
By: Ian Kershaw
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The Russian Revolution: History in an Hour
- By: Rupert Colley
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 266
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 224
History for busy people. Listen to a concise history of the Siege of Leningrad in just one hour. In 1917 the world changed forever. One of the most influential and contentious events in recent history, the Russian Revolution unleashed the greatest political experiment ever conducted, one which continues to influence both Eastern and Western politics today.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Must read
- By ATM on 08-15-12
By: Rupert Colley
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The Red Flag
- A History of Communism
- By: David Priestland
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 28 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 284
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 249
In The Red Flag, Oxford professor David Priestland tells the epic story of a movement that has taken root in dozens of countries across 200 years, from its birth after the French Revolution to its ideological maturity in 19th-century Germany to its rise to dominance (and subsequent fall) in the 20th century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best History of Communism I Have Seen
- By David on 06-11-15
By: David Priestland
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The Long Shadow
- The Legacies of the Great War in the Twentieth Century
- By: David Reynolds
- Narrated by: John FitzGibbon
- Length: 19 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 80
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Story4 out of 5 stars 81
One of the most violent conflicts in the history of civilization, World War I has been strangely forgotten in American culture. It has become a ghostly war fought in a haze of memory, often seen merely as a distant preamble to World War II. In The Long Shadow critically-acclaimed historian David Reynolds seeks to broaden our vision by assessing the impact of the Great War across the twentieth century. He shows how events in that turbulent century—particularly World War II, the Cold War, and the collapse of Communism—shaped and reshaped attitudes to 1914–18.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The World According to David Reynolds (feat. WWI)
- By Steve on 02-26-15
By: David Reynolds