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The Age of Gold
- The California Gold Rush and the New American Dream
- Narrated by: Brian Mancinelli
- Length: 6 hrs
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The Age of Gold
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1 out of 5 stars
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The number one New York Times best seller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that's "as resonant today as ever" (The Wall Street Journal) - the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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i would prefer david reading it
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By: David McCullough
Publisher's Summary
H.W. Brands explores the far-reaching implications of this pivotal point in U.S. history, weaving the politics of the times with gripping stories of both the ordinary and the famous in a colorful, intricate tapestry displaying both the best and the worst of the American character. He recounts the great fortunes won - and lost. And most of all, he reveals the profound effect the Gold Rush had on the way Americans on both coasts viewed their destinies, as the notion of getting rich quickly transformed the traditional Puritan ethic of hard work and the gradual accumulation of wealth. In the aftermath of the Gold Rush, a new American dream was born - the enduring conviction that sudden wealth was within everyone's grasp.
A stunning re-creation of one of the most exciting periods of America's past, The Age of Gold is narrative history on a grand scale.
Critic Reviews
"A fine, robust telling of one of the greatest adventure stories in history." (David McCullough, author of John Adams)
"Fascinating stories that transcend the mundane and take us to new levels of the human experience." (Stephen E. Ambrose, author of Band of Brothers)
"Magnificent in its sweep, and not to be missed by fans of American history." (Amazon.com)
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What listeners say about The Age of Gold
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- PerryS
- 10-27-20
informative read
Good condensed take on the influence of the California Gold Rush on US(and world) economics, government and culture. Some historians may not agree with the weights placed on the various players importance, but I think it properly captures the important shifts in economic culture and technological advancement.
1 person found this helpful
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-
4 out of 5 stars
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Parallels
- By Bruce McClenahan on 01-25-19
By: John F. Ross
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A Splendid Savage
- The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham
- By: Steve Kemper
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 131
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 114
Frederick Russell Burnham's amazing story resembles a newsreel fused with a Saturday matinee thriller. One of the few people who could turn his garrulous friend Theodore Roosevelt into a listener, Burnham was once world famous as "the American scout". His expertise in woodcraft, learned from frontiersmen and Indians, helped inspire another friend, Robert Baden-Powell, to found the Boy Scouts. His adventures encompassed Apache wars and range feuds and death-defying military feats that brought him renown and high honors.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent historical-adventure biography
- By Brandon on 04-18-17
By: Steve Kemper
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Undaunted Courage
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,608
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,427
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,411
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River, across the forbidding Rockies, and - by way of the Snake and the Columbia rivers - down to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and his partner, Captain William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights. With great perseverance, they worked their way into an unexplored West. When they returned two years later, they had long since been given up for dead.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Narration kills a great book
- By Kindle Customer on 02-10-08
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West Like Lightning
- The Brief, Legendary Ride of the Pony Express
- By: Jim DeFelice
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 61
The thrilling narrative history of one of the most enduring icons of the American West, the Pony Express, from the number-one New York Times bestselling co-author of American Sniper - an exciting tale of daring young men pushing limits to the extremes across the vast, rugged, and unsettled American West.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Picture of Wild West Life and the Pony
- By Pierre C. on 08-07-18
By: Jim DeFelice
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Pathfinder: John Charles Fremont and the Course of American Empire
- By: Tom Chaffin
- Narrated by: Douglas R Pratt
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Story5 out of 5 stars 23
The career of John Charles Frémont (1813-90) ties together the full breadth of American expansionism from its 18th-century origins through its culmination in the Gilded Age. Tom Chaffin's biography demonstrates Frémont's vital importance to the history of American empire and illuminates his role in shattering long-held myths about the ecology and habitability of the American West.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great story, terrible narrator
- By brian johnson on 11-02-20
By: Tom Chaffin
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A Little History of the World
- By: E. H. Gombrich
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,741
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,124
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,109
E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.
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5 out of 5 stars
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an enlightening book; very well read
- By A.B.Oxford on 06-03-06
By: E. H. Gombrich
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The Pioneers
- The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 4,904
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,242
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4,214
The number one New York Times best seller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that's "as resonant today as ever" (The Wall Street Journal) - the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.
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5 out of 5 stars
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i would prefer david reading it
- By hooterwah on 05-07-19
By: David McCullough
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Bound for Canaan
- The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement
- By: Fergus Bordewich
- Narrated by: Peter J. Fernandez
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
The Civil War brought to a climax the country's bitter division. But the beginnings of slavery's denouement can be traced to a courageous band of ordinary Americans, black and white, slave and free, who joined forces to create what would come to be known as the Underground Railroad, a movement that occupies as romantic a place in the nation's imagination as the Lewis and Clark expedition.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Heroic Missing Piece
- By Paul Frandano on 03-03-17
By: Fergus Bordewich
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Into Africa
- The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,250
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,689
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,681
"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" So goes the signature introduction of New York Herald star journalist Henry Morton Stanley to renowned explorer Dr. David Livingstone, who had been missing for six years in the wilds of Africa. Into Africa ushers us into the meeting of these remarkable men. In 1866, when Livingstone journeyed into the heart of the African continent in search of the Nile's source, the land was rough, unknown to Europeans, and inhabited by man-eating tribes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Riveting
- By Gene on 04-01-04
By: Martin Dugard
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King and Queen of Malibu
- The True Story of the Battle for Paradise
- By: David K. Randall
- Narrated by: Eric Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
Over a half century, Malibu went from an untamed ranch in the middle of nowhere to a paradise seeded with movie stars. Behind its transformation is the love story of Frederick and May Rindge. He was a Harvard-trained confidant of presidents; she grew up on a hardscrabble Midwestern farm; yet their unlikely bond would shape history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating story!
- By Mike R Morgan on 03-23-23
By: David K. Randall
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American Legend
- The Real-Life Adventures of David Crockett
- By: Buddy Levy
- Narrated by: Chris Abernathy
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story5 out of 5 stars 37
David Crockett was an adventurer, a pioneer, and a media-savvy national celebrity. In his short-but-distinguished lifetime, this charismatic frontiersman won three terms as a US congressman and a presidential nomination. His 1834 memoir enjoyed frenzied sales and prompted the first-ever "official" book tour for its enormously popular author. Down-to-earth, heroic, and independent to a fault, the real Crockett became lost in his own hype, and he's been overshadowed by a larger-than-life, pop-culture character in a coonskin cap.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Buddy Levy delivers again.
- By Tyler on 03-14-22
By: Buddy Levy
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David Crockett: The Lion of the West
- By: Michael Wallis
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 141
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Story4 out of 5 stars 143
His name was David Crockett. He never signed his name any other way, but popular culture transformed his memory into "Davy Crockett", and Hollywood gave him a raccoon hat he hardly ever wore. Best-selling historian Michael Wallis casts a fresh look at the frontiersman, storyteller, and politician behind these legendary stories.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Author is very bias.
- By Michael on 05-31-12
By: Michael Wallis
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Old Man River
- The Mississippi River in North American History
- By: Paul Schneider
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 13 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 39
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4 out of 5 stars 34
In Old Man River, Paul Schneider tells the story of the river at the center of America's rich history - the Mississippi. Some fifteen thousand years ago, the majestic river provided Paleolithic humans with the routes by which early man began to explore the continent's interior. Since then, the river has been the site of historical significance, from the arrival of Spanish and French explorers in the 16th century to the Civil War. George Washington fought his first battle near the river, and Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman both came to President Lincoln's attention after their spectacular victories on the lower Mississippi.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing, inspiring and informative
- By Rodney Curlee on 04-27-23
By: Paul Schneider
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The Bonanza King
- By: Gregory Crouch
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 23 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 159
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
Born in 1831, John W. Mackay was a penniless Irish immigrant who came of age in New York City, went to California during the Gold Rush, and mined without much luck for eight years. When he heard of riches found on the other side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1859, Mackay abandoned his claim and walked a hundred miles to the Comstock Lode in Nevada. Over the course of the next dozen years, Mackay worked his way up from nothing, thwarting the pernicious “Bank Ring” monopoly to seize control of the most concentrated cache of precious metals ever found on earth, the legendary “Big Bonanza”.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Stellar narration, biography exemplar!
- By MP on 06-25-18
By: Gregory Crouch
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Nothing Like It in the World
- The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Jeffrey DeMunn
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,056
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 751
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 751
Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise comes to life. The U.S. government pitted two companies - the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads - against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. As its peak the work force approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as 15,000 workers on each line. The surveyors, the men who picked the route, lived off buffalo, deer, and antelope.
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1 out of 5 stars
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A tragic waste
- By Joshua Tretakoff on 04-11-03
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Fur, Fortune, and Empire
- The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 504
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 410
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 410
From the bestselling author of Leviathan comes this sweeping narrative of one of America’s most historically rich industries. Beginning his epic history in the early 1600s, Eric Jay Dolin traces the dramatic rise and fall of the American fur trade industry, from the first Dutch encounters with the Indians to the rise of the conservation movement in the late nineteenth century.
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2 out of 5 stars
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a compilation of trivia
- By D. Littman on 07-18-10
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Thunder in the Mountains
- Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War
- By: Daniel Sharfstein
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 163
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 162
Oliver Otis Howard thought he was a man of destiny. Chosen to lead the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War, the Union Army general was entrusted with the era's most crucial task: helping millions of former slaves claim the rights of citizens. He was energized by the belief that abolition and Reconstruction, the country's great struggles for liberty and equality, were God's plan for himself and the nation.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but lenghty.
- By Tristan on 05-10-18