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Last Trains
- Dr Beeching and the Death of Rural England
- Narrated by: Michael Fenton Stevens
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
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During the course of the 1950s, England lost confidence in its rulers and convinced itself to modernise. The bankrupt steam-powered railway, run by a retired general, symbolised everything that was wrong with the country; the future lay in motorways and high speed electric - or even atomic - express trains.
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"This book tells the full story behind the Beeching cuts." (Your Family Tree)
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Great Performance, Biased with out a warning!
- By dell992 on 06-21-16
By: Daniel Todman
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Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
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Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
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Lisbon
- War in the Shadows of the City of Light, 1939–1945
- By: Neill Lochery
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout the Second World War, Lisbon was at the very center of the world’s attention and was the only European city in which both the Allies and the Axis powers openly operated. Portugal was frantically trying to hold on to its self-proclaimed wartime neutrality but in reality was increasingly caught in the middle of the economic, and naval, wars between the Allies and the Nazis. The story is not, however, a conventional tale of World War II in that barely a shot was fired or a bomb dropped. Instead, it is a gripping tale of intrigue, betrayal, opportunism, and double-dealing....
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Expostiion of Little Known Story
- By Lynn on 06-16-12
By: Neill Lochery
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Why Intelligence Fails
- Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq War (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs Series)
- By: Robert L. Jervis
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The U.S. government spends enormous resources each year on the gathering and analysis of intelligence, yet the history of American foreign policy is littered with missteps and misunderstandings that have resulted from intelligence failures. In Why Intelligence Fails, Robert Jervis examines the politics and psychology of two of the more spectacular intelligence failures in recent memory: the belief that the Shah in Iran was secure and stable in 1978, and the claim that Iraq had active WMD programs in 2002.
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It’s complicated
- By "btomaz" on 12-15-22
By: Robert L. Jervis
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Private Empire
- ExxonMobil and American Power
- By: Steve Coll
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Steve Coll investigates the largest and most powerful private corporation in the United States, revealing the true extent of its power. ExxonMobil’s annual revenues are larger than the economic activity in the great majority of countries. In many of the countries where it conducts business, ExxonMobil’s sway over politics and security is greater than that of the United States embassy. In Washington, ExxonMobil spends more money lobbying Congress and the White House than almost any other corporation. Yet despite its outsized influence, it is a black box.
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Please no more accents!
- By Zak on 07-24-12
By: Steve Coll
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The End of the Cold War 1985-1991
- By: Robert Service
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 21 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new archival research, Robert Service's gripping new investigation of the final years of the Cold War - the first to give equal attention to the internal deliberations from both sides of the Iron Curtain - opens a window onto the dramatic years that would irrevocably alter the world's geopolitical landscape and the men at their fore.
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Behind the scenes look at a pivotal period of time
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-20-16
By: Robert Service
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The Pity of War
- Explaining World War I
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 21 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.
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Ferguson wouldn’t know history if it hit him in the head
- By Schen on 10-07-20
By: Niall Ferguson
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The Economic Consequences of the Peace
- By: John Maynard Keynes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919) was one of the most important documents to come out of World War I – specifically the period of the Armistice and the subsequent settlement negotiations. And, a century on, it remains of particular relevance to our times – an uncompromising and forthright analysis of how international diplomacy can be suffused by personalities, prejudices, personal ambition and outright, uncontrolled feelings of revenge.
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Work of Genius
- By philip on 12-24-20
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Merchants in the Temple
- Inside Pope Francis's Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican
- By: Gianluigi Nuzzi
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From a best-selling author with unprecedented access to Pope Francis, an investigative look at the recent financial scandals at the highest levels of the Vatican. A veritable war is waging in the church: On one side there is Pope Francis' strong message for one church of the poor and all; on the other there is the old Curia, with its endless enemies, and the old and new lobbies struggling to preserve their not-so-Christian privileges.
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the history lesson
- By Dimitri H. on 05-30-24
By: Gianluigi Nuzzi
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How the Post Office Created America
- A History
- By: Winifred Gallagher
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The founders established the Post Office before they had even signed the Declaration of Independence, and for a very long time it was the US government's largest and most important endeavor - indeed, it was the government for most citizens. This was no conventional mail network but the central nervous system of the new body politic, designed to bind 13 quarrelsome colonies into the United States by delivering news about public affairs to every citizen - a radical idea that appalled Europe's great powers.
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Super interesting. I'm so disappointed.
- By william kearns on 07-21-16
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Dealing with China
- An Insider Unmasks the New Economic Superpower
- By: Henry M. Paulson
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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When Hu Jintao, China's then vice president, came to visit the New York Stock Exchange and Ground Zero in 2002, he asked Hank Paulson to be his guide. It was a testament to the pivotal role that Goldman Sachs played in helping China experiment with private enterprise. In Dealing with China, the best-selling author of On the Brink draws on his unprecedented access to both the political and business leaders of modern China to answer several key questions.
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A Valuable Book on China
- By Michael Moore on 09-04-15
By: Henry M. Paulson
What listeners say about Last Trains
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- Andrew
- 03-22-15
Heavy going.
While a very thorough and well argued review of post-war transport policy in general, and railway policies in particular, this academic thesis was truly heavy going.
I am left with the two questions: how was this book selected as an audiobook; why wasn't it abridged?
While the reader was very competent he has an annoying way of emphasizing the letter "t" by almost spitting it. It became a distraction .
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