-
The Target Committee
- Narrated by: Andrew Martin
- Length: 1 hr and 56 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Target Committee
Buy for $1.43
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Hiroshima Nagasaki
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice", American leaders claimed at the time - and still today most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians that began in Germany.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
While extraordinary, I can only give it 3 stars
- By Gillian on 12-17-14
By: Paul Ham
-
The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,008
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 893
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 891
The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,954
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,542
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,520
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,331
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,059
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,063
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
-
Citizens of London
- The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,192
Here is the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and a reluctant American public to support the British at a critical time.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If we are together nothing is impossible
- By Susan on 03-06-10
By: Lynne Olson
-
Churchill
- The Prophetic Statesman
- By: James C. Humes
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
James C. Humes reveals the astonishingly accurate predictions of Britain's most famous prime minister and how his critics' perceptions of them shaped his political career. Who could have foreseen the start of World War I twenty-five years before the assassination of a Serbian archduke plunged Europe into war? Who could have predicted the rise of al-Qaeda nearly eight decades before anyone had heard of Osama bin Laden? Winston Churchill did.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The voice in the wilderness--Are we listening yet?
- By Jean on 12-16-12
By: James C. Humes
-
Hiroshima Nagasaki
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice", American leaders claimed at the time - and still today most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians that began in Germany.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
While extraordinary, I can only give it 3 stars
- By Gillian on 12-17-14
By: Paul Ham
-
The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,008
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 893
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 891
The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,954
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,542
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,520
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Jean Edward Smith
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,331
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,059
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,063
Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
-
Citizens of London
- The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,574
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,184
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,192
Here is the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and a reluctant American public to support the British at a critical time.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
If we are together nothing is impossible
- By Susan on 03-06-10
By: Lynne Olson
-
Churchill
- The Prophetic Statesman
- By: James C. Humes
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
James C. Humes reveals the astonishingly accurate predictions of Britain's most famous prime minister and how his critics' perceptions of them shaped his political career. Who could have foreseen the start of World War I twenty-five years before the assassination of a Serbian archduke plunged Europe into war? Who could have predicted the rise of al-Qaeda nearly eight decades before anyone had heard of Osama bin Laden? Winston Churchill did.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The voice in the wilderness--Are we listening yet?
- By Jean on 12-16-12
By: James C. Humes
-
Darkest Hour
- How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink
- By: Anthony McCarten
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 964
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 847
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 844
May 1940. Britain is at war, Winston Churchill has unexpectedly been promoted to prime minister, and the horrors of Blitzkrieg witness one Western European democracy fall after another in rapid succession. Facing this horror, with pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, Churchill wonders what words could capture the public mood when the invasion of Britain seems mere hours away. It is this fascinating period that Anthony McCarten captures in this deeply researched and wonderfully written new book, The Darkest Hour.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gripping
- By Jean on 12-06-17
By: Anthony McCarten
-
The Dead Hand
- The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy
- By: David E. Hoffman
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 20 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,516
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,308
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,297
The Dead Hand is the suspense-filled story of the people who sought to brake the speeding locomotive of the arms race, then rushed to secure the nuclear and biological weapons left behind by the collapse of the Soviet Union—a dangerous legacy that haunts us even today.The Cold War was an epoch of massive overkill.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Eye opening
- By Brian on 11-16-10
By: David E. Hoffman
-
First War of Physics
- The Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-1949
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
An epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding: the monumental race to build the first atomic weapons.
Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. The book draws on declassified material, such as MI6's Farm Hall transcripts, coded Soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the Soviet archives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
For all atom bomb and physics nerds
- By Jodie Swafford on 11-30-18
By: Jim Baggott
-
Man of the Hour
- James B. Conant, Warrior Scientist
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 24 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 29
James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the 20th century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in WWI. As a controversial president of Harvard University, he was a champion of meritocracy and open admissions. As an advisor to FDR, he led the interventionist cause for US entrance in WWII.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The male American Athena
- By Craig W. on 03-01-23
By: Jennet Conant
-
A Man Called Intrepid
- The Incredible WWII Narrative of the Hero Whose Spy Network and Secret Diplomacy Changed the Course of History
- By: William Stevenson
- Narrated by: David McAlister
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 543
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 473
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 473
A Man Called Intrepid is the account of the world’s first integrated intelligence operation and of its master, William Stephenson. Codenamed INTREPID by Winston Churchill, Stephenson was charged with establishing and running a vast, worldwide intelligence network to challenge the terrifying force of Nazi Germany. Nothing less than the fate of Britain and the free world hung in the balance as INTREPID covertly set about stalling the Nazis by any means necessary.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
You have to wonder ...
- By Mike From Mesa on 04-15-14
-
Dark Sun
- The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 391
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 393
Richard Rhodes' landmark history of the atomic bomb won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in this majestic new masterpiece of history, science, and politics, he tells for the first time the secret story of how and why the hydrogen bomb was made, and traces the path by which this supreme artifact of 20th-century technology became the defining issue of the Cold War.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Abridged??
- By Delano on 04-17-13
By: Richard Rhodes
-
House of War
- The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
- By: James Carroll
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 26 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 48
This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. Carroll proves a controversial thesis: The Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A Biased Account
- By GoTravel1385a on 09-06-07
By: James Carroll
-
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War
- Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
- By: Neil Sheehan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history - and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Schriever rhymes with beaver.
- By John Gardner on 11-13-09
By: Neil Sheehan
-
Racing for the Bomb
- The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man Behind the Birth of the Atomic Age
- By: Robert S. Norris
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 23 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves' actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-22-15
By: Robert S. Norris
-
Churchill's Bomb
- How the United States Overtook Britain in the First Nuclear Arms Race
- By: Graham Farmelo
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill's Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country's lead and was slow to realize the bomb's strategic implications.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!! This was great.
- By MAC24211 on 09-08-21
By: Graham Farmelo
-
The General vs. the President
- MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 698
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 624
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 618
From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Vivid Dramatic Accounting
- By Jean on 11-11-16
By: H. W. Brands
-
Supreme Commander
- MacArthur's Triumph in Japan
- By: Seymour Morris
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
He is the most-decorated general in American history - and the only five-star general to receive the Medal of Honor. Yet Douglas MacArthur’s greatest victory was not in war but in peace. As the uniquely titled Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, he was charged with transforming a defeated, militarist empire into a beacon of peace and democracy - "the greatest gamble ever attempted", he called it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Compelling book in an pleasant voice
- By Pierke Bosschieter on 04-24-14
By: Seymour Morris
Publisher's summary
How did America choose the targets for the atomic bomb? What made Hiroshima preferable over Kyoto or Tokyo? Critical to the mission to destroy Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a series of meetings set up in mid-1945 and comprising America’s most powerful military, political and scientific chiefs. The committeemen would decide where and how the first nuclear weapons would be used in anger.
In this absorbing and provocative narrative, historian Paul Ham shines a torch on their arguments to reveal the thinking behind the atomic destruction of two cities - and how the Target Committee justified it at the time.
Paul Ham has spent the past 16 years writing 20th-century military, political and diplomatic history. He has written five critically acclaimed books: 1914: The Year The World Ended, Sandakan, Hiroshima Nagasaki, Kokoda and Vietnam: The Australian War.
Two have inspired ABC documentaries, which he cowrote and/or narrated. Ham is a former foreign correspondent for The London Sunday Times.
He has a master's degree in economic history from the London School of Economics and lives in Sydney and Paris.
More from the same
Narrator
Related to this topic
-
The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,008
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 893
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 891
The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
-
Hiroshima Nagasaki
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice", American leaders claimed at the time - and still today most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians that began in Germany.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
While extraordinary, I can only give it 3 stars
- By Gillian on 12-17-14
By: Paul Ham
-
First War of Physics
- The Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-1949
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
An epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding: the monumental race to build the first atomic weapons.
Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. The book draws on declassified material, such as MI6's Farm Hall transcripts, coded Soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the Soviet archives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
For all atom bomb and physics nerds
- By Jodie Swafford on 11-30-18
By: Jim Baggott
-
A Man Called Intrepid
- The Incredible WWII Narrative of the Hero Whose Spy Network and Secret Diplomacy Changed the Course of History
- By: William Stevenson
- Narrated by: David McAlister
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 543
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 473
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 473
A Man Called Intrepid is the account of the world’s first integrated intelligence operation and of its master, William Stephenson. Codenamed INTREPID by Winston Churchill, Stephenson was charged with establishing and running a vast, worldwide intelligence network to challenge the terrifying force of Nazi Germany. Nothing less than the fate of Britain and the free world hung in the balance as INTREPID covertly set about stalling the Nazis by any means necessary.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
You have to wonder ...
- By Mike From Mesa on 04-15-14
-
Dark Sun
- The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 391
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 393
Richard Rhodes' landmark history of the atomic bomb won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in this majestic new masterpiece of history, science, and politics, he tells for the first time the secret story of how and why the hydrogen bomb was made, and traces the path by which this supreme artifact of 20th-century technology became the defining issue of the Cold War.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Abridged??
- By Delano on 04-17-13
By: Richard Rhodes
-
House of War
- The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
- By: James Carroll
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 26 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 48
This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. Carroll proves a controversial thesis: The Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A Biased Account
- By GoTravel1385a on 09-06-07
By: James Carroll
-
The Doomsday Machine
- By: Daniel Ellsberg
- Narrated by: Steven Cooper
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,008
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 893
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 891
The Doomsday Machine is Ellsberg's hair-raising insider's account of the most dangerous arms buildup in the history of civilization, whose legacy - and renewal under the Obama administration - threatens the very survival of humanity. It is scarcely possible to estimate the true dangers of our present nuclear policies without penetrating the secret realities of the nuclear strategy of the late Eisenhower and early Kennedy years, when Ellsberg had high-level access to them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating Insider Story
- By Terry Masters on 12-07-17
By: Daniel Ellsberg
-
Hiroshima Nagasaki
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Robert Meldrum
- Length: 20 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed more than 100,000 instantly, mostly women, children, and the elderly. Many hundreds of thousands more succumbed to their horrific injuries later, or slowly perished of radiation-related sickness. Yet the bombs were "our least abhorrent choice", American leaders claimed at the time - and still today most people believe they ended the Pacific War and saved millions of American and Japanese lives. Ham challenges this view, arguing that the bombings, when Japan was on its knees, were the culmination of a strategic Allied air war on enemy civilians that began in Germany.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
While extraordinary, I can only give it 3 stars
- By Gillian on 12-17-14
By: Paul Ham
-
First War of Physics
- The Secret History of the Atom Bomb 1939-1949
- By: Jim Baggott
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 17 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
An epic story of science and technology at the very limits of human understanding: the monumental race to build the first atomic weapons.
Rich in personality, action, confrontation, and deception, The First War of Physics is the first fully realized popular account of the race to build humankind's most destructive weapon. The book draws on declassified material, such as MI6's Farm Hall transcripts, coded Soviet messages cracked by American cryptographers in the Venona project, and interpretations by Russian scholars of documents from the Soviet archives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
For all atom bomb and physics nerds
- By Jodie Swafford on 11-30-18
By: Jim Baggott
-
A Man Called Intrepid
- The Incredible WWII Narrative of the Hero Whose Spy Network and Secret Diplomacy Changed the Course of History
- By: William Stevenson
- Narrated by: David McAlister
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 543
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 473
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 473
A Man Called Intrepid is the account of the world’s first integrated intelligence operation and of its master, William Stephenson. Codenamed INTREPID by Winston Churchill, Stephenson was charged with establishing and running a vast, worldwide intelligence network to challenge the terrifying force of Nazi Germany. Nothing less than the fate of Britain and the free world hung in the balance as INTREPID covertly set about stalling the Nazis by any means necessary.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
You have to wonder ...
- By Mike From Mesa on 04-15-14
-
Dark Sun
- The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Richard Rhodes
- Length: 6 hrs
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 460
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 391
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 393
Richard Rhodes' landmark history of the atomic bomb won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Now, in this majestic new masterpiece of history, science, and politics, he tells for the first time the secret story of how and why the hydrogen bomb was made, and traces the path by which this supreme artifact of 20th-century technology became the defining issue of the Cold War.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Abridged??
- By Delano on 04-17-13
By: Richard Rhodes
-
House of War
- The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power
- By: James Carroll
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 26 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 104
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 48
This landmark, myth-shattering work chronicles the most powerful institution in America, the people who created it, and the pathologies it has spawned. Carroll proves a controversial thesis: The Pentagon has, since its founding, operated beyond the control of any force in government or society. It is the biggest, loosest cannon in American history, and no institution has changed this country more.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
A Biased Account
- By GoTravel1385a on 09-06-07
By: James Carroll
-
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War
- Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
- By: Neil Sheehan
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 114
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
From Neil Sheehan, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic A Bright Shining Lie, comes this long-awaited, magnificent epic. Here is the never-before-told story of the nuclear arms race that changed history - and of the visionary American Air Force officer Bernard Schriever, who led the high-stakes effort. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War is a masterly work about Schriever’s quests to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring nuclear superiority, to penetrate and exploit space for America, and to build the first weapons meant to deter an atomic holocaust.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Schriever rhymes with beaver.
- By John Gardner on 11-13-09
By: Neil Sheehan
-
Racing for the Bomb
- The True Story of General Leslie R. Groves, the Man Behind the Birth of the Atomic Age
- By: Robert S. Norris
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 23 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Revealed for the first time in Racing for the Bomb, Groves played a crucial and decisive role in the planning, timing, and targeting of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions. Norris offers new insights into the complex and controversial questions surrounding the decision to drop the bomb in Japan and Groves' actions during World War II, which had a lasting imprint on the nuclear age and the Cold War that followed.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Jean on 04-22-15
By: Robert S. Norris
-
Churchill's Bomb
- How the United States Overtook Britain in the First Nuclear Arms Race
- By: Graham Farmelo
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 91
As award-winning biographer and science writer Graham Farmelo describes in Churchill's Bomb, the British set out to investigate the possibility of building nuclear weapons before their American colleagues. But when scientists in Britain first discovered a way to build an atomic bomb, Prime Minister Winston Churchill did not make the most of his country's lead and was slow to realize the bomb's strategic implications.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!! This was great.
- By MAC24211 on 09-08-21
By: Graham Farmelo
-
The General vs. the President
- MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 698
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 624
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 618
From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Vivid Dramatic Accounting
- By Jean on 11-11-16
By: H. W. Brands
-
The Making of the Atomic Bomb
- 25th Anniversary Edition
- By: Richard Rhodes
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 37 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,954
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,542
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,520
Here for the first time, in rich human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly - or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the bright glare of Trinity, there was a span of hardly more than 25 years.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Beware limitations of the reader
- By JFanson on 01-01-19
By: Richard Rhodes
-
Supreme Commander
- MacArthur's Triumph in Japan
- By: Seymour Morris
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
He is the most-decorated general in American history - and the only five-star general to receive the Medal of Honor. Yet Douglas MacArthur’s greatest victory was not in war but in peace. As the uniquely titled Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, he was charged with transforming a defeated, militarist empire into a beacon of peace and democracy - "the greatest gamble ever attempted", he called it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Compelling book in an pleasant voice
- By Pierke Bosschieter on 04-24-14
By: Seymour Morris
-
The Mantle of Command
- FDR at War, 1941–1942
- By: Nigel Hamilton
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
-
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.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book, Terrible Narration
- By Ross Mackey on 04-11-22
By: Nigel Hamilton
-
Masters and Commanders
- How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 26 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
An epic joint biography, Masters and Commanders explores the degree to which the course of the Second World War turned on the relationships and temperaments of four of the strongest personalities of the 20th century: political masters Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt and the commanders of their armed forces, General Sir Alan Brooke and General George C. Marshall.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Holocaust?
- By binkabul on 09-21-20
By: Andrew Roberts
-
140 Days to Hiroshima
- The Story of Japan’s Last Chance to Avert Armageddon
- By: David Dean Barrett
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 135
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 105
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 104
On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki comes this heart-pounding account of the war-room drama inside the cabinets of the United States and Japan that led to Armageddon on August 6, 1945. Here are the secret strategy sessions, fierce debates, looming assassinations, and planned invasions that resulted in history’s first use of nuclear weapons in combat, and the ensuing chaotic days as the Japanese government struggled to respond to the reality of nuclear war.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Never Giving Up
- By Rick B on 07-11-20
-
JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated
- By: Douglas Horne
- Narrated by: Larry Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 69
Ever since researchers and commentators began questioning the conclusions of the Warren Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the response has been: Why would the US national-security establishment - that is, the military and the CIA - kill Kennedy? As Douglas P. Horne details in this audiobook, JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated, the answer is because Kennedy's ideas about foreign policy collided with those of the US national-security establishment during the height of the Cold War.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
FINALLY THE TRUTH!
- By Helen Williamson on 05-28-16
By: Douglas Horne
-
The Hawk and the Dove
- Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
- By: Nicholas Thompson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
Only two Americans held positions of great influence throughout the Cold War; ironically, they were the chief advocates for the opposing strategies for winning---and surviving---that harrowing conflict. Both men came to power during World War II, reached their professional peaks during the Cold War's most frightening moments, and fought epic political battles that spanned decades.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Two outstanding people in the US Government
- By Nina Donnard on 11-05-09
-
Eisenhower
- A Life
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Acclaimed historian Paul Johnson’s lively, succinct biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower explores how his legacy endures today In the rousing style he’s famous for, celebrated historian Paul Johnson offers a fascinating biography of Dwight D. Eisenhower, focusing particularly on his years as a five-star general and his two terms as president of the United States.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Quick and to the point!
- By Grant Wentworth on 04-02-15
By: Paul Johnson