The Forge of Christendom
The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West
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The Forge of Christendom
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Narrated by:
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James A. Gillies
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By:
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Tom Holland
About this listen
At the approach of the first millennium, the Christians of Europe did not seem likely candidates for future greatness. Weak, fractured, and hemmed in by hostile nations, they saw no future beyond the widely anticipated Second Coming of Christ.
But when the world did not end, the peoples of Western Europe suddenly found themselves with no choice but to begin the heroic task of building a Jerusalem on Earth.
In The Forge of Christendom, Tom Holland masterfully describes this remarkable new age, a time of caliphs and Viking sea kings, the spread of castles, and the invention of knighthood. It was one of the most significant departure points in history: the emergence of Western Europe as a distinctive and expansionist power.
©2008 Tom Holland (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
The Trojan War is ancient history. The gods of Olympus are silent and have not appeared to mortals for generations. In the city-state of Sparta, young Gorgo’s mother gives a warning with her dying breath: the Persians are coming. The princess Gorgo, weaned on her nurse’s stories of gods and shapeshifters, never forgets her mother’s last words. When at last the drums of war begin to sound, she is swept up in a dangerous game of politics, treachery, and vengeance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Perfect Marriage of History and Fantasy
- By Jonathan Baron on 02-13-25
By: Tom Holland
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Dynasty
- The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,645
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,481
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,468
Author and historian Tom Holland returns to his roots in Roman history and the audience he cultivated with Rubicon—his masterful, witty, brilliantly researched popular history of the fall of the Roman republic—with Dynasty, a luridly fascinating history of the reign of the first five Roman emperors. Dynasty continues Rubicon's story, opening where that book ended: with the murder of Julius Caesar. This is the period of the first and perhaps greatest Roman emperors. It's a colorful story of rule and ruination, from the rise of Augustus to the death of Nero.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Accessible, enjoyable history
- By Mary on 01-28-16
By: Tom Holland
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Rubicon
- The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story5 out of 5 stars 122
The Roman Republic was the most remarkable state in history. What began as a small community of peasants camped among marshes and hills ended up ruling the known world. Rubicon paints a vivid portrait of the Republic at the climax of its greatness—the same greatness which would herald the catastrophe of its fall.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Story of the Fall of the republic told in a very lively manner.
- By Marteinn Úlfur on 12-16-24
By: Tom Holland
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Dominion
- How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland, Mark Meadows
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,351
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,178
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,171
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion - an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus - was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Only the forward is narrated by Holland.
- By Honora on 06-16-20
By: Tom Holland
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The Rest Is History
- From Ancient Rome to Ronald Reagan—History's Most Curious Questions, Answered
- By: Goalhanger Podcasts Ltd
- Narrated by: Tom Holland, Dominic Sandbrook
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
This entertaining companion to the massively popular history podcast tackles everything from Alexander the Great to Agatha Christie, the Wars of the Roses to Watergate—with a unique blend of wit, wisdom, and good old-fashioned banter. Featuring an introduction from podcast hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, this book cleverly demonstrates that the past—from modern to ancient and every time in between—is both closer to us than we might realize and bafflingly strange, all at once.
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5 out of 5 stars
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History is fun!
- By Brent Orrell on 03-10-24
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Empire of the Black Sea
- The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World
- By: Duane W. Roller
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
What is commonly called the kingdom of Pontos flourished for over 200 years in the coastal regions of the Black Sea. At its peak in the early first century BC, it included much of the southern, eastern, and northern littoral, becoming one of the most important Hellenistic dynasties not founded by a successor of Alexander the Great. Previous histories of Pontos have focused almost exclusively on the career of its last ruler. Setting that famous reign in its wide historical context, Empire of the Black Sea is an engaging account of a powerful yet little-known ancient dynasty.
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3 out of 5 stars
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More of an academic journal than a book.
- By Amazon Customer on 07-05-23
By: Duane W. Roller
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Millennium
- Re, predoni, cavalieri e la nascita della cristianità
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Mimmo Strati
- Length: 17 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1
Di tutte le civiltà che esistevano nell'anno Mille, quella dell'Europa occidentale sembrava la peggior candidata per un futuro radioso. Paragonati agli imperi scintillanti di Bisanzio o dell'Islam, i regni frammentati affacciati sull'Atlantico sembravano poveri, impauriti e poco sviluppati. Ma l'anarchia di quegli anni non era il presagio per la fine del mondo, ma la fucina di un ordine radicalmente diverso.
By: Tom Holland
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Pax
- War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 253
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 238
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Story5 out of 5 stars 238
The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 159
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 132
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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Babylon
- Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization
- By: Paul Kriwaczek
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 781
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 668
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 664
Civilization was born 8,000 years ago, between the floodplains of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, when migrants from the surrounding mountains and deserts began to create increasingly sophisticated urban societies. In the cities that they built, half of human history took place. In Babylon, Paul Kriwaczek tells the story of Mesopotamia from the earliest settlements seven thousand years ago to the eclipse of Babylon in the sixth century BCE. Bringing the people of this land to life in vibrant detail, the author chronicles the rise and fall of power during this period.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Solid overview 3000 years of history
- By Alsor2000 on 07-19-20
By: Paul Kriwaczek
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Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame
- Penguin Monarchs, Book 2
- By: John Guy
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story4 out of 5 stars 7
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Henry VIII: The Quest for Fame by John Guy, read by John Banks. Henry VIII's reign transformed the physical and spiritual landscape of England. Magnificent, tyrannical, a strong ruler, a 'pillager of the commonwealth', this most notorious of kings remains a figure of extreme contradictions: a devout traditionalist who oversaw a cataclysmic rupture with the church in Rome, a talented, charismatic, imposing figure who nevertheless could not bear to meet people's eyes when he talked to them.
By: John Guy
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Medieval Christianity
- A New History
- By: Kevin Madigan
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign - a miraculous, brutal, and irrational time of superstition and strange relics. The pursuit of heretics, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the domination of the "Holy Land" come to mind.
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4 out of 5 stars
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New Standard Text for This Period
- By Bill Martin on 10-22-16
By: Kevin Madigan
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The First Thousand Years
- A Global History of Christianity
- By: Robert Louis Wilken
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Beginning with the life of Jesus, Robert Louis Wilken narrates the dramatic spread and development of Christianity over the first thousand years of its history. Moving through the formation of early institutions, practices, and beliefs to the transformations of the Roman world after the conversion of Constantine, he sheds new light on the subsequent stories of Christianity in the Latin West, the Byzantine and Slavic East, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent: Best Early Church History book I’ve read
- By Amazon Customer on 02-09-23
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Two Houses, Two Kingdoms
- A History of France and England, 1100-1300
- By: Catherine Hanley
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were a time of personal monarchy, when the close friendship or petty feuding between kings and queens could determine the course of history. The Capetians of France and the Angevins of England waged war, made peace, and intermarried. In this lively history, Catherine Hanley traces the great clashes, and occasional friendships, of the two dynasties. Along the way, she emphasizes the fascinating and influential women of the houses—including Eleanor of Aquitaine—and shows how personalities and familial bonds shaped the fate of two countries.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great book with a bit of slant
- By Ky on 12-20-22
By: Catherine Hanley
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Charlemagne
- By: Johannes Fried, Peter Lewis
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 30 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 258
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 223
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Story4 out of 5 stars 220
When the legendary Frankish king and emperor Charlemagne died in 814 he left behind a dominion and a legacy unlike anything seen in Western Europe since the fall of Rome. Johannes Fried paints a compelling portrait of a devout ruler, a violent time, and a unified kingdom that deepens our understanding of the man often called the father of Europe.
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1 out of 5 stars
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I really wanted to enjoy this -
- By Doris on 01-19-18
By: Johannes Fried, and others
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Lord of the Dead the Secret History of Byron
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Richard E. Grant
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 42
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Story4 out of 5 stars 41
From the Levant to London's society salons to the canals of Venice, famed poet Lord Byron embarks on a life of adventure as the world's most notable vampire, following a dark trail of long-hidden secrets, ancient black arts, and the depths of evil.
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3 out of 5 stars
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abridged version
- By MEESHA on 10-11-15
By: Tom Holland
A mile wide and an inch deep
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Epic history with brilliant Narration
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Great academics, great story
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Riveting and wonderfully narrated
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Probably better read than listened to
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then many months went by and in my boredom I thought maybe I'll try this book again and I'm so glad I did the writing is like nothing I've ever experienced history comes alive in this incredibly detailed and well-atched monument to the history of Europe
I would give the performance a million stars
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Tom Holland does it again.
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Great history of midevil Europe
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Quick and comprehensive
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Not his best work IMHO# To much phoney dramatizat
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