-
On the Natural History of Destruction
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 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.
On the Natural History of Destruction
Buy for $13.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Bright Book of Life
- Novels to Read and Reread
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 22 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
In this valedictory volume, Yale professor Harold Bloom — who for more than half a century was regarded as America's most daringly original and controversial literary critic — gives us his only book devoted entirely to the art of the novel. With his hallmark percipience, remarkable scholarship, and extraordinary devotion to sublimity, Bloom offers meditations on 48 essential works spanning the Western canon.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Classic Bloom, but a curious reading of him
- By J. J. Kuzma on 09-10-21
By: Harold Bloom
-
Chaucer's People
- Everyday Lives in Medieval England
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Chaucer wrote about everyday people outside the walls of the English court-men and women who spent days at the pedal of a loom, or maintaining the ledgers of an estate, or on the high seas. In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard transforms The Canterbury Tales into a masterful guide for a gloriously detailed tour of medieval England, from the mills and farms of a manor house to the lending houses and Inns of Court in London. In Chaucer's People, we meet, again, the motley crew of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A delight
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Liza Picard
-
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 136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 105
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
-
On Desperate Ground
- The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,842
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,653
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,647
Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash in the Korean War relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
typical armchair critic armed with hign site
- By Brent on 10-03-18
By: Hampton Sides
-
The Order of Time
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,893
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,273
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,232
In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most listeners, this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it appears. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where, at the most fundamental level, time disappears.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Rovelli is a Genius
- By Mike on 05-11-18
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
Fifty-Two Stories
- 1883-1898
- By: Anton Chekhov, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
From the celebrated, award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and War and Peace: a lavish, masterfully rendered volume of stories by one of the most influential short fiction writers of all time.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Annoying narrator
- By Mida on 07-01-20
By: Anton Chekhov, and others
-
The Bright Book of Life
- Novels to Read and Reread
- By: Harold Bloom
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 22 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 23
In this valedictory volume, Yale professor Harold Bloom — who for more than half a century was regarded as America's most daringly original and controversial literary critic — gives us his only book devoted entirely to the art of the novel. With his hallmark percipience, remarkable scholarship, and extraordinary devotion to sublimity, Bloom offers meditations on 48 essential works spanning the Western canon.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Classic Bloom, but a curious reading of him
- By J. J. Kuzma on 09-10-21
By: Harold Bloom
-
Chaucer's People
- Everyday Lives in Medieval England
- By: Liza Picard
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Chaucer wrote about everyday people outside the walls of the English court-men and women who spent days at the pedal of a loom, or maintaining the ledgers of an estate, or on the high seas. In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard transforms The Canterbury Tales into a masterful guide for a gloriously detailed tour of medieval England, from the mills and farms of a manor house to the lending houses and Inns of Court in London. In Chaucer's People, we meet, again, the motley crew of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A delight
- By Tad Davis on 05-10-19
By: Liza Picard
-
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 136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 105
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
-
On Desperate Ground
- The Marines at the Reservoir, the Korean War's Greatest Battle
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: David Pittu
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,842
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,653
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,647
Hampton Sides' superb account of this epic clash in the Korean War relies on years of archival research, unpublished letters, declassified documents, and interviews with scores of marines and Koreans who survived the siege. While expertly detailing the follies of the American leaders, On Desperate Ground is an immediate, grunt's-eye view of history, enthralling in its narrative pace and powerful in its portrayal of what ordinary men are capable of in the most extreme circumstances.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
typical armchair critic armed with hign site
- By Brent on 10-03-18
By: Hampton Sides
-
The Order of Time
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,893
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,273
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,232
In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most listeners, this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it appears. We think of it as uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where, at the most fundamental level, time disappears.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Rovelli is a Genius
- By Mike on 05-11-18
By: Carlo Rovelli
-
Fifty-Two Stories
- 1883-1898
- By: Anton Chekhov, Richard Pevear - translator, Larissa Volokhonsky - translator
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
From the celebrated, award-winning translators of Anna Karenina and War and Peace: a lavish, masterfully rendered volume of stories by one of the most influential short fiction writers of all time.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Annoying narrator
- By Mida on 07-01-20
By: Anton Chekhov, and others
-
Hell's Half Acre
- The Untold Story of the Benders, a Serial Killer Family on the American Frontier
- By: Susan Jonusas
- Narrated by: Lee Osorio
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 174
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 158
In 1873 the people of Labette County, Kansas made a grisly discovery. Buried by a trailside cabin beneath an orchard of young apple trees were the remains of countless bodies. Below the cabin itself was a cellar stained with blood. The Benders, the family of four who once resided on the property were nowhere to be found. The discovery sent the local community and national newspapers into a frenzy that continued for decades, sparking an epic manhunt for the Benders.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Historical FICTION
- By Schmulie on 03-26-22
By: Susan Jonusas
-
Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants
- Frequently Asked Questions About the Ancient Greeks and Romans
- By: Garrett Ryan
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 318
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 256
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 256
Why didn't the ancient Greeks or Romans wear pants? How did they shave? How likely were they to drink fine wine, use birth control, or survive surgery? In a series of short and humorous essays, Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants explores some of the questions about the Greeks and Romans that ancient historian Garrett Ryan has answered in the classroom and online. Unlike most books on the classical world, the focus is not on famous figures or events, but on the fascinating details of daily life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Garret Ryan delivers an accessible and thoroughly entertaining deep dive
- By Rafael on 11-03-21
By: Garrett Ryan
-
Weavers, Scribes, and Kings
- A New History of the Ancient Near East
- By: Amanda H. Podany
- Narrated by: Amanda H. Podany
- Length: 18 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 52
In this sweeping history of the ancient Near East, Amanda Podany takes listeners on a gripping journey from the creation of the world's first cities to the conquests of Alexander the Great. The book is built around the life stories of many ancient men and women, from kings, priestesses, and merchants to brickmakers, musicians, and weavers. Their habits of daily life, beliefs, triumphs, and crises, and the changes that people faced over time are explored through their own written words and the buildings, cities, and empires in which they lived.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
word of advice
- By Jim Davis on 08-04-23
By: Amanda H. Podany
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 621
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 529
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 526
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
Wings of War
- The World War II Fighter Plane That Saved the Allies and the Believers Who Made It Fly
- By: David Fairbank White, Margaret Stanback White
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Wings of War is the incredible true story of the P-51 Mustang fighter and the unlikely crew of designers, engineers, test pilots, and army officers who brought it from the drafting table to the skies over World War II. This is hardly a straightforward tale of building an airplane—for years, the team was stymied by corruption within the defense industry and stonewalled by the Army Air Forces, who failed to understand the Mustang’s potential.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Disappointed
- By David Kocol on 06-22-23
By: David Fairbank White, and others
-
The Emigrants
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The four long narratives in The Emigrants appear at first to be the straightforward biographies of four Germans in exile. Sebald reconstructs the lives of a painter, a doctor, an elementary-school teacher, and Great Uncle Ambrose. Following (literally) in their footsteps, the narrator retraces routes of exile which lead from Lithuania to London, from Munich to Manchester, from the South German provinces to Switzerland, France, New York, Constantinople, and Jerusalem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece
- By B. Dowdy on 04-02-18
By: W. G. Sebald
-
Austerlitz
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 170
Austerlitz, the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by "one of the most gripping writers imaginable" ( The New York Review of Books), is the story of a man's search for the answer to his life's central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, one Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
To each their own
- By Sebastian Romero on 04-23-20
By: W. G. Sebald
-
The World of Yesterday
- Memoirs of a European
- By: Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell - translator
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 656
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 576
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 577
Stefan Zweig's memoir, The World of Yesterday, recalls the golden age of prewar Europe - its seeming permanence, its promise and its devastating fall with the onset of two world wars. Zweig's passionate, evocative prose paints a stunning portrait of an era that danced brilliantly on the brink of extinction. It is an unusually humane account of Europe from the closing years of the 19th century through to World War II, seen through the eyes of one of the most famous writers of his era.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Lucidity whilst Civilization reverts to barbarism
- By none on 06-25-17
By: Stefan Zweig, and others
-
Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 333
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 270
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 268
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,951
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,668
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,661
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 820
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 731
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 721
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
-
Every Drop of Blood
- Hatred and Healing at Lincoln's Second Inauguration
- By: Edward Achorn
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 225
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 185
By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors - every drop of blood spilled - might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
New and fascinating
- By Clark Booth on 07-19-20
By: Edward Achorn
Publisher's summary
W.G. Sebald's military classic, On the Natural History of Destruction, will now be available for the first time in audio!
On the Natural History of Destruction is W.G. Sebald's harrowing and precise investigation of one of the least examined "silences" of our time. In it, the acclaimed novelist examines the devastation of German cities by Allied bombardment, and the reasons for the astonishing absence of this unprecedented trauma from German history and culture.
This void in history is in part a repression of things - such as the death by fire of the city of Hamburg at the hands of the RAF - too terrible to bear. But rather than record the crises about them, writers sought to retrospectively justify their actions under the Nazis. For Sebald, this is an example of deliberate cultural amnesia; his analysis of its effects in and outside Germany has already provoked angry and painful debate.
Sebald's incomparable novels are rooted in meticulous observation; his essays are novelistic. They include his childhood recollections of the war that spurred his horror at the collective amnesia around him. There are moments of black humour and, throughout, the unmatched sensitivity of Sebald's intelligence. This book is a vital study of suffering and forgetting, of the morality hidden in artistic decisions, and of both compromised and genuine heroics.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
At the Existentialist Café
- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,048
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 922
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 916
Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Consistent look at incoherent philosophy
- By Gary on 06-19-16
By: Sarah Bakewell
-
Rites of Spring
- The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
- By: Modris Eksteins
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Dazzling in its originality, Rites of Spring probes the origins, impact, and aftermath of World War I from the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945. "The Great War", as Modris Eksteins writes, "was the psychological turning point...for modernism as a whole. The urge to create and the urge to destroy had changed places."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 11-17-17
By: Modris Eksteins
-
Practicing History
- Selected Essays
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Master historian Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. This accessible introduction to the subject of history offers striking insights into America's past and present, trenchant observations on the international scene, and thoughtful pieces on the historian's role. Here is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent "practicing history".
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Barbara Tuchman fan faced with reality
- By J. Whittle on 09-27-18
-
Wasteland
- The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror
- By: W. Scott Poole
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 295
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 261
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 260
In the early 20th century, World War I was the most devastating event humanity had yet experienced. New machines of war left tens of millions killed or wounded in the most grotesque of ways. The Great War remade the world's map, created new global powers, and brought forth some of the biggest problems still facing us today. But it also birthed a new art form: the horror film, made from the fears of a generation ruined by war. From Nosferatu to Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
An interesting take
- By CN on 07-30-19
By: W. Scott Poole
-
Aftermath
- Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955
- By: Harald Jähner, Shaun Whiteside - translator
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 321
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 272
How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust - and features over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Where are the photos?
- By Cassandra on 01-17-22
By: Harald Jähner, and others
-
Cultural Amnesia
- Notes in the Margin of My Time
- By: Clive James
- Narrated by: Clive James
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 102
From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
-
At the Existentialist Café
- Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
- By: Sarah Bakewell
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,048
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 922
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 916
Paris, 1933: Three contemporaries meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are the young Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and longtime friend Raymond Aron, a fellow philosopher who raves to them about a new conceptual framework from Berlin called phenomenology. "You see," he says, "if you are a phenomenologist, you can talk about this cocktail and make philosophy out of it!"
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Consistent look at incoherent philosophy
- By Gary on 06-19-16
By: Sarah Bakewell
-
Rites of Spring
- The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age
- By: Modris Eksteins
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Dazzling in its originality, Rites of Spring probes the origins, impact, and aftermath of World War I from the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet "The Rite of Spring" in 1913 to the death of Hitler in 1945. "The Great War", as Modris Eksteins writes, "was the psychological turning point...for modernism as a whole. The urge to create and the urge to destroy had changed places."
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 11-17-17
By: Modris Eksteins
-
Practicing History
- Selected Essays
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Master historian Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. This accessible introduction to the subject of history offers striking insights into America's past and present, trenchant observations on the international scene, and thoughtful pieces on the historian's role. Here is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent "practicing history".
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Barbara Tuchman fan faced with reality
- By J. Whittle on 09-27-18
-
Wasteland
- The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror
- By: W. Scott Poole
- Narrated by: Andrew Eiden
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 295
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 261
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 260
In the early 20th century, World War I was the most devastating event humanity had yet experienced. New machines of war left tens of millions killed or wounded in the most grotesque of ways. The Great War remade the world's map, created new global powers, and brought forth some of the biggest problems still facing us today. But it also birthed a new art form: the horror film, made from the fears of a generation ruined by war. From Nosferatu to Frankenstein's monster and the Wolf Man, the touchstones of horror can all trace their roots to the bloodshed of the First World War.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
An interesting take
- By CN on 07-30-19
By: W. Scott Poole
-
Aftermath
- Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955
- By: Harald Jähner, Shaun Whiteside - translator
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 321
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 272
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 272
How does a nation recover from fascism and turn toward a free society once more? This internationally acclaimed revelatory history of the transformational decade that followed World War II illustrates how Germany raised itself out of the ashes of defeat and reckoned with the corruption of its soul and the horrors of the Holocaust - and features over 40 eye-opening black-and-white photographs and posters from the period.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Where are the photos?
- By Cassandra on 01-17-22
By: Harald Jähner, and others
-
Cultural Amnesia
- Notes in the Margin of My Time
- By: Clive James
- Narrated by: Clive James
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 103
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 102
From Anna Akhmatova to Stefan Zweig, via Charles de Gaulle, Hitler, Thomas Mann and Charlie Chaplin, this varied and unfailingly absorbing book is both story and history, both public memoir and personal record - and provides an essential field-guide to the vast movements of taste, intellect, politics and delusion that helped to prepare the times we live in now.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very enjoyable and well narrated
- By Larbi on 05-18-08
By: Clive James
-
Fracture
- Life and Culture in the West, 1918-1938
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 17 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
When the Great War ended in 1918, the West was broken. Religious faith, patriotism, and the belief in human progress had all been called into question by the mass carnage experienced by both sides. Shell-shocked and traumatized, the West faced a world it no longer recognized: The old order had collapsed, replaced by an age of machines. The world hurtled forward on gears and crankshafts, and terrifying new ideologies arose from the wreckage of past belief.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Lots of good trivia information
- By Jean on 07-23-15
By: Philipp Blom
-
I Am Dynamite!
- A Life of Nietzsche
- By: Sue Prideaux
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 329
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 286
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 284
Nietzsche wrote that all philosophy is autobiographical, and in this vividly compelling, myth-shattering biography, Sue Prideaux brings listeners into the world of this brilliant, eccentric, and deeply troubled man, illuminating the events and people that shaped his life and work. I Am Dynamite! is the essential biography for anyone seeking to understand history's most misunderstood philosopher.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating; tragic
- By Cineaste21 on 12-30-18
By: Sue Prideaux
-
Known and Strange Things
- Essays
- By: Teju Cole
- Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
With this collection of more than 50 pieces on politics, photography, travel, history, and literature, Teju Cole solidifies his place as one of today's most powerful and original voices. Minute after minute, deploying prose dense with beauty and ideas, he finds fresh and potent ways to interpret art, people, and historical moments, taking in subjects from Virginia Woolf, Shakespeare, and W. G. Sebald to Instagram, Barack Obama, and Boko Haram.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Book that Teaches and Shares
- By Carolyn J. on 10-08-17
By: Teju Cole
-
Judgment Before Nuremberg
- The Holocaust in the Ukraine and the First Nazi War Crimes Trial
- By: Greg Dawson
- Narrated by: Gary Dikeos
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 183
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 170
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
When people think of the Holocaust, they think of Auschwitz, of Dachau; and when they think of justice for this terrible chapter in history, they think of Nuremberg. Not of Russia or the Ukraine, and certainly not a town called Kharkov. But in reality, the first war-crimes trial against the Nazis was in this idyllic, peaceful Ukrainian city, which is fitting, because it is also where the Holocaust actually began.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Don’t Insult Your Audience
- By Michael Richards on 01-21-22
By: Greg Dawson
-
Notes of a Native Son
- By: James Baldwin
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,308
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,129
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,125
Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of Black life and Black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Masterful Essayist
- By Andre on 09-30-16
By: James Baldwin
-
William Blake vs the World
- By: John Higgs
- Narrated by: John Higgs
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
A wild and unexpected journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the mercurial genius of William Blake.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best book ever
- By idamae on 11-04-22
By: John Higgs
-
Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century
- By: Alexandra Popoff
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
If Vasily Grossman's 1961 masterpiece, Life and Fate, had been published during his lifetime, it would have reached the world together with Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago and before Solzhenitsyn's Gulag. But Life and Fate was seized by the Russian KGB. When it emerged posthumously, decades later, it was recognized as the War and Peace of the 20th century.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What? Nazism = communism?
- By James Messelbeck on 06-25-19
By: Alexandra Popoff
-
The Man Who Invented Fiction
- How Cervantes Ushered in the Modern World
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
In the early 17th century, a crippled, graying, almost toothless veteran of Spain's wars against the Ottoman Empire published a novel. It was the story of a poor nobleman, his brain addled from studying too many novels of chivalry, who deludes himself that he is a knight errant and sets off on hilarious adventures. That story, Don Quixote, went on to sell more copies than any other book beside the Bible, making its author, Miguel de Cervantes, the single most-read author in human history.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Interesting and Informative, but Poorly Read
- By LCorSMT on 06-21-23
By: William Egginton
-
Nothing Ever Dies
- Vietnam and the Memory of War
- By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
Nothing Ever Dies, Viet Thanh Nguyen writes. All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. From the author of the best-selling novel The Sympathizer comes a searching exploration of a conflict that lives on in the collective memory of both the Americans and the Vietnamese.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good, probably should be read and not listened to via audible for the best experience.
- By Tanya on 10-24-16
-
Pogrom
- Kishinev and the Tilt of History
- By: Steven J. Zipperstein
- Narrated by: Barry Abrams
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
So shattering were the aftereffects of Kishinev, the rampage that broke out in late-Tsarist Russia in April 1903, that one historian remarked that it was "nothing less than a prototype for the Holocaust itself." In three days of violence, 49 Jews were killed and 600 raped or wounded, while more than 1,000 Jewish-owned houses and stores were ransacked and destroyed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
good analysis of the 1903 event
- By John Newquist on 08-10-19
-
Existentialism and Excess
- The Life and Times of Jean-Paul Sartre
- By: Gary Cox
- Narrated by: Matt Addis
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
Jean-Paul Sartre is one of the undisputed giants of 20th-century philosophy. His intellectual writings popularizing existentialism, combined with his creative and artistic flair, have made him a legend of French thought. His tumultuous personal life - so inextricably bound up with his philosophical thinking - is a fascinating tale of love and lust, drug abuse, high-profile fallings-out and political and cultural rebellion.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
a capitalista biography of Sartre
- By Anonymous User on 01-24-20
By: Gary Cox
-
Metaphysical Animals
- How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
- By: Clare Mac Cumhaill, Rachae Wiseman
- Narrated by: Alex Dunmore
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 27
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
The history of European philosophy is usually constructed from the work of men. In Metaphysical Animals, a pioneering group biography, Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman offer a compelling alternative. In the mid-twentieth century Elizabeth Anscombe, Mary Midgley, Philippa Foot, and Iris Murdoch were philosophy students at Oxford when most male undergraduates and many tutors were conscripted away to fight in the Second World War. Together, these young women, all friends, developed a philosophy that could respond to the war’s darkest revelations.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Book about nothing
- By Gerardo Naranjo Gonzalez on 06-14-22
By: Clare Mac Cumhaill, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Austerlitz
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 170
Austerlitz, the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by "one of the most gripping writers imaginable" ( The New York Review of Books), is the story of a man's search for the answer to his life's central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, one Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
To each their own
- By Sebastian Romero on 04-23-20
By: W. G. Sebald
-
The Emigrants
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The four long narratives in The Emigrants appear at first to be the straightforward biographies of four Germans in exile. Sebald reconstructs the lives of a painter, a doctor, an elementary-school teacher, and Great Uncle Ambrose. Following (literally) in their footsteps, the narrator retraces routes of exile which lead from Lithuania to London, from Munich to Manchester, from the South German provinces to Switzerland, France, New York, Constantinople, and Jerusalem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece
- By B. Dowdy on 04-02-18
By: W. G. Sebald
-
Thalia Book Club: W. G. Sebald's Rings of Saturn
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Dinaw Mengestu, Rick Moody, Hari Kunzru, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 12
Rick Moody ( The Ice Storm), Dinaw Mengestu ( All Our Names), and Hari Kunzru ( Gods Without Men) lead a spirited conversation about Sebald's classic.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
No Saturn Rings here
- By Jennifer Butler on 03-09-24
By: W. G. Sebald
-
Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 333
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 270
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 268
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
-
When We Cease to Understand the World
- By: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 756
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 621
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 615
When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
the true heir w.g. sebald
- By Thomas on 12-23-21
By: Benjamin Labatut, and others
-
Magnificent Rebels
- The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
- By: Andrea Wulf
- Narrated by: Julie Teal
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, how can I be free? It all began in the 1790s in a quiet university town in Germany when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, writing, and their lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
fascinating overall, too much drama
- By soup cook on 11-27-22
By: Andrea Wulf
-
Austerlitz
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 170
Austerlitz, the internationally acclaimed masterpiece by "one of the most gripping writers imaginable" ( The New York Review of Books), is the story of a man's search for the answer to his life's central riddle. A small child when he comes to England on a Kindertransport in the summer of 1939, one Jacques Austerlitz is told nothing of his real family by the Welsh Methodist minister and his wife who raise him.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
To each their own
- By Sebastian Romero on 04-23-20
By: W. G. Sebald
-
The Emigrants
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
The four long narratives in The Emigrants appear at first to be the straightforward biographies of four Germans in exile. Sebald reconstructs the lives of a painter, a doctor, an elementary-school teacher, and Great Uncle Ambrose. Following (literally) in their footsteps, the narrator retraces routes of exile which lead from Lithuania to London, from Munich to Manchester, from the South German provinces to Switzerland, France, New York, Constantinople, and Jerusalem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Masterpiece
- By B. Dowdy on 04-02-18
By: W. G. Sebald
-
Thalia Book Club: W. G. Sebald's Rings of Saturn
- By: W. G. Sebald
- Narrated by: Dinaw Mengestu, Rick Moody, Hari Kunzru, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 14
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 12
-
Story3.5 out of 5 stars 12
Rick Moody ( The Ice Storm), Dinaw Mengestu ( All Our Names), and Hari Kunzru ( Gods Without Men) lead a spirited conversation about Sebald's classic.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
No Saturn Rings here
- By Jennifer Butler on 03-09-24
By: W. G. Sebald
-
Four Lost Cities
- A Secret History of the Urban Age
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 333
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 270
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 268
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes listeners on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a sophisticated civilization: the Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in Central Turkey, the Roman vacation town of Pompeii in Italy, the medieval megacity of Angkor in Cambodia, and the indigenous metropolis Cahokia, which stood beside the Mississippi River where East St. Louis is today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
What really happened to four "lost" cities
- By Elisabeth Carey on 04-12-21
By: Annalee Newitz
-
When We Cease to Understand the World
- By: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 756
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 621
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 615
When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
the true heir w.g. sebald
- By Thomas on 12-23-21
By: Benjamin Labatut, and others
-
Magnificent Rebels
- The First Romantics and the Invention of the Self
- By: Andrea Wulf
- Narrated by: Julie Teal
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 90
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
When did we begin to be as self-centered as we are today? At what point did we expect to have the right to determine our own lives? When did we first ask the question, how can I be free? It all began in the 1790s in a quiet university town in Germany when a group of playwrights, poets, and writers put the self at center stage in their thinking, writing, and their lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
fascinating overall, too much drama
- By soup cook on 11-27-22
By: Andrea Wulf