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Grand Improvisation
- America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945-1957
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 20 hrs and 45 mins
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Grand Improvisation
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Publisher's summary
A new understanding of the post-World War II era, showing what occurred when the British Empire wouldn't step aside for the rising American superpower - with global insights for today.
An enduring myth of the 20th century is that the US rapidly became a superpower in the years after World War II, when the British Empire - the greatest in history - was too wounded to maintain a global presence. In fact, Derek Leebaert argues in Grand Improvisation, the idea that a traditionally insular US suddenly transformed itself into the leader of the free world is illusory, as is the notion that the British colossus was compelled to retreat. The US and the UK had a dozen abrasive years until Washington issued a "declaration of independence" from British influence. Only then did America explicitly assume leadership of the world order just taking shape.
Understanding all of this properly is vital to understanding the rise and fall of superpowers, why we're now skeptical of commitments overseas, how the Middle East plunged into disorder, why Europe is fracturing, what China intends - and the ongoing perils to the US world role.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,557
John Foster Dulles was secretary of state while his brother, Allen Dulles, was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. In this book, Stephen Kinzer places their extraordinary lives against the backdrop ofAmerican culture and history. He uses the framework of biography to ask: Why does the United States behave as it does in the world?
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4 out of 5 stars
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A duel biography
- By Jean on 09-26-14
By: Stephen Kinzer
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The War State
- The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite, 1945-1963
- By: Michael Swanson
- Narrated by: Larry Wayne
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 159
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Today when you factor in the interest on the national debt from past wars and total defense expenditures the United States spends almost 40% of its federal budget on the military. It accounts for over 46% of total world arms spending. Before World War II it spent almost nothing on defense and hardly anyone paid any income taxes. You can't have big wars without big government. Such big expenditures are now threatening to harm the national economy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Surprisingly Good
- By ohmie on 04-22-14
By: Michael Swanson
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A World of Trouble
- The White House and the Middle East
- By: Patrick Tyler
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 27 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
The Middle East is the beginning and the end of U.S. foreign policy: events there influence our alliances, make or break presidencies, govern the price of oil, and draw us into war. But it was not always so - and as Patrick Tyler shows in this thrilling chronicle of American misadventures in the region, the story of American presidents' dealings there is one of mixed motives, skulduggery, deceit, and outright foolishness, as well as of policymaking and diplomacy.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Does't deliver
- By Matthew on 02-10-09
By: Patrick Tyler
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The China Mission
- By: Daniel Kurtz-Phelan
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 412
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 366
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 363
As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission - this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Across the Pacific, conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Previously Untold Story of a Failed Mission
- By Jonathan Love on 05-29-18
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Road to Disaster
- A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam
- By: Brian VanDeMark
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 23 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story5 out of 5 stars 55
Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite many words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent and previously successful men stumbled so badly. That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vietnam Veteran
- By Jim Rollins on 04-02-19
By: Brian VanDeMark
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The Oil Kings
- How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East
- By: Andrew Scott Cooper
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 19 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 380
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 320
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 331
Struggling with a recession... European nations at risk of defaulting on their loans... A possible global financial crisis. It happened before, in the 1970s. The Oil Kings is the story of how oil came to dominate U.S. domestic and international affairs. Brilliantly reported and filled with astonishing details about some of the key figures of the time, this is the history of an era that we thought we knew, an era whose momentous reverberations still influence events at home and abroad today.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great story, but ignores the economic side
- By Walter on 04-15-12
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Asia's Reckoning
- China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century
- By: Richard Mcgregor
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 137
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
Richard McGregor's Asia's Reckoning is a compelling account of the widening geopolitical cracks in a region that has flourished under an American security umbrella for more than half a century. The toxic rivalry between China and Japan, two Asian giants consumed with endless history wars and ruled by entrenched political dynasties, is threatening to upend the peace underwritten by Pax Americana since World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good info to learn, but...
- By Neal on 02-24-18
By: Richard Mcgregor
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Japan 1941
- Countdown to Infamy
- By: Eri Hotta
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 289
When Japan attacked the United States in 1941, argues Eri Hotta, its leaders, in large part, understood they were entering a conflict they were bound to lose. Availing herself of rarely consulted material, Hotta poses essential questions overlooked by historians in the seventy years since: Why did these men - military men, civilian politicians, diplomats, the emperor - put their country and its citizens in harm's way? Why did they make a decision that was doomed from the start?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Japanese viewpoint
- By Jean on 01-01-14
By: Eri Hotta
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A Force So Swift
- Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949
- By: Kevin Peraino
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
In the opening months of 1949, US President Harry S. Truman found himself faced with a looming diplomatic catastrophe - "perhaps the greatest that this country has ever suffered", as the journalist Walter Lippmann put it. Throughout the spring and summer, Mao Zedong's Communist armies fanned out across mainland China, annihilating the rival troops of America's onetime ally Chiang Kai-shek and taking control of Beijing, Shanghai, and other major cities.
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5 out of 5 stars
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360-Degrees of China, Very Good History Book
- By Jose on 06-19-18
By: Kevin Peraino
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The Mantle of Command
- FDR at War, 1941–1942
- By: Nigel Hamilton
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4
Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDR’s masterful - and underappreciated - command of the Allied war effort. Hamilton takes listeners inside FDR’s White House Oval Study - his personal command center - and into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great Book, Terrible Narration
- By Ross Mackey on 04-11-22
By: Nigel Hamilton
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The China Mirage
- The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia
- By: James Bradley
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 253
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 220
In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America's engagement in Asia. Now comes his most engrossing work yet. Beginning in the 1850s, Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans who made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As they - good Christians all - profitably addicted millions, American missionaries arrived, promising salvation for those who adopted Western ways.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Gross Negligence!
- By Donald Hill on 05-31-18
By: James Bradley
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When the World Seemed New
- George H. W. Bush and the End of the Cold War
- By: Jeffrey A. Engel
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 20 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
The end of the Cold War was the greatest shock to international affairs since World War II. In that perilous moment, Saddam Hussein chose to invade Kuwait, China cracked down on its own pro-democracy protesters, and regimes throughout Eastern Europe teetered between democratic change and new authoritarians. Not since FDR in 1945 had a US president faced such opportunities and challenges. As the presidential historian Jeffrey Engel reveals in this hard-to-pause history, behind closed doors, George H. W. Bush rose to the occasion brilliantly.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Right Man at the Right Time in the Right Job
- By A. M. on 09-12-18
By: Jeffrey A. Engel
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Hitler's American Gamble
- Pearl Harbor and Germany's March to Global War
- By: Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 127
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 126
By early December 1941, war had changed much of the world beyond recognition. Nazi Germany occupied most of the European continent, while in Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned China into a battleground. But these conflicts were not yet inextricably linked - and the United States remained at peace. Hitler’s American Gamble recounts the five days that upended everything: December 7 to 11.
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1 out of 5 stars
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A waste of time based on a flawed premise
- By Grant on 11-30-21
By: Brendan Simms, and others
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Known and Unknown
- A Memoir
- By: Donald Rumsfeld
- Narrated by: Donald Rumsfeld
- Length: 30 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 602
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 401
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 402
A powerful memoir from the late former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with previously undisclosed details and insights about the Bush administration, 9/11, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also features Rumsfeld's unique and often surprising observations on eight decades of history. Both a fascinating narrative and an unprecedented glimpse into history, Known and Unknown captures the legacy of one of the most influential men in public service.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inside view of five decades in politics
- By Brooks on 02-19-11
By: Donald Rumsfeld
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Berlin 1961
- Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
- By: Frederick Kempe
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 20 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 347
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 303
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 301
A former Wall Street Journal editor and the current president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, Frederick Kempe draws on recently released documents and personal interviews to re-create the powder keg that was 1961 Berlin. In Cold War Berlin, the United States and the Soviet Union stand nose to nose, with the possibility of nuclear war just one misstep away.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I am scared in retrospect
- By theenglishmajor on 06-26-11
By: Frederick Kempe
What listeners say about Grand Improvisation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Edward
- 02-12-20
Well Researched but Mediocre Writing (and oh so smug)
An interesting point of view solidly supported. The book could have been great with a more cohesive telling of the story and numbers to explain the economics. What brings it down to a “3” is the incessant self congratulation for telling a “story never told before.” The author puts up strawman after strawman to prove his brilliant originality. The continual attacks on anything George Keenan ever did are tiresome and a distraction.
I may be underrating the performance. The smug delivery did seem to reflect the writing!
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
- Colin Thompson
- 07-24-21
Terrible audible version of a good book
Don't buy this for audible. Only first chapter would play for me in my audible library. Actual book is excellent.
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