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The Great Halifax Explosion
- A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
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The Great Halifax Explosion
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Georgeanna “Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, DC, to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.
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Publisher's summary
From New York Times best-selling author John U. Bacon, a gripping narrative history of the largest manmade detonation prior to Hiroshima: In 1917, a ship laden with the most explosives ever packed on a vessel sailed out of Brooklyn's harbor for the battlegrounds of World War I; when it stopped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an extraordinary disaster awaited....
On Monday, December 3, 1917, the French freighter SS Mont-Blanc set sail from Brooklyn carrying the largest cache of explosives ever loaded onto a ship, including 2,300 tons of picric acid, an unstable, poisonous chemical more powerful than TNT. The US had just recently entered World War I, and the ordnance was bound for the battlefields of France to help the Allies break the grueling stalemate that had protracted the fighting for nearly four demoralizing years. The explosives were so dangerous that Captain Aimé Le Medec took unprecedented safety measures, including banning the crew from smoking, lighting matches, or even touching a drop of liquor.
Sailing north, the Mont-Blanc faced deadly danger, enduring a terrifying snowstorm off the coast of Maine and evading stealthy enemy U-boats hunting the waters of the Atlantic. But it was in Nova Scotia that an extraordinary disaster awaited. As the Mont-Blanc waited to dock in Halifax, it was struck by a Norwegian relief ship, the Imo, charging out of port. A small fire on the freighter's deck caused by the impact ignited the explosives below, resulting in a horrific blast that, in 1/15 of a second, leveled 325 acres of Halifax - killing more than 1,000 people and wounding 9,000 more.
In this definitive account, Bacon combines research and eyewitness accounts to re-create the tragedy and its aftermath, including the international effort to rebuild the devastated port city. As he brings to light one of the most dramatic incidents of the 20th century, Bacon explores the long shadow this first "weapon of mass destruction" would cast on the future of nuclear warfare - crucial insights and understanding relevant to us today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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From the author of The Ghost Ships of Archangel, one of the last unheralded heroic stories of World War II: The U-boat assault off the American coast against the men of the US Merchant Marine who were supplying the European war, and one community’s monumental contribution to that effort. Mathews County, Virginia, is a remote outpost on the Chesapeake Bay with little to offer except unspoiled scenery - but it sent an unusually large concentration of sea captains to fight in World War II.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 375
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3 out of 5 stars
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INTERESTING STORY - ABOUT 2x TOO LONG
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
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-
Story5 out of 5 stars 31
Their names were Bob Palmer, Gordy Cox, Tim McCoy, and Chuck Vervalin, and in 1941, when they joined the Navy, they were not trying to prove their patriotism - they were just looking for a job that would provide "three hots and a cot". But on April 22, 1943, the war took a terrible turn for them. Their submarine, the USS Grenadier, was torpedoed. Listed as lost in action and given up for dead, all four had in fact miraculously escaped, only to be captured by the Japanese.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Prisoner of War Tale
- By Lynn on 03-20-11
By: Larry Colton
-
All the Gallant Men
- An American Sailor's Firsthand Account of Pearl Harbor
- By: Donald Stratton, Ken Gire
- Narrated by: Mike Ortego
- Length: 5 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 466
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 432
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 433
An unforgettable and moving story of tragedy, heroism, resilience, and redemption that is sure to become an enduring document of American history, All the Brave Men is a sailor's moment-by-moment eyewitness account of the Japanese surprise attack that decimated the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and his inspiring return to active duty to carry on the Allied fight in the Pacific.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Absolutely wonderful book!
- By Cris Conerty on 01-15-17
By: Donald Stratton, and others
-
The Mathews Men
- Seven Brothers and the War Against Hitler's U-boats
- By: William Geroux
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 280
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 255
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 252
From the author of The Ghost Ships of Archangel, one of the last unheralded heroic stories of World War II: The U-boat assault off the American coast against the men of the US Merchant Marine who were supplying the European war, and one community’s monumental contribution to that effort. Mathews County, Virginia, is a remote outpost on the Chesapeake Bay with little to offer except unspoiled scenery - but it sent an unusually large concentration of sea captains to fight in World War II.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Engaging Read Not About Brothers, but Men
- By Gillian on 04-22-16
By: William Geroux
-
Ship Ablaze
- The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum
- By: Edward T. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
There were few experienced swimmers among over 1,300 Lower East Side residents who boarded the General Slocum on June 15, 1904. It shouldn't have mattered since the steamship was only chartered for a languid excursion from Manhattan to Long Island Sound. But a fire erupted minutes into the trip, forcing hundreds of terrified passengers into the water. By the time the captain found a safe shore for landing, 1,021 had perished. It was New York's deadliest tragedy prior to September 11, 2001.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
I love learning the “rest of the story”
- By Mark Mears on 07-17-18
-
The Storm of the Century
- Tragedy, Heroism, Survival, and the Epic True Story of America's Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900
- By: Al Roker, William Hogeland
- Narrated by: Byron Wagner
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 179
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 164
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 164
On the afternoon of September 8, 1900, 200-mile-per-hour winds and 15-foot waves slammed into Galveston, the prosperous and growing port city on Texas' Gulf Coast. By dawn the next day, when the storm had passed, the city that had existed just hours before was gone. Shattered, grief-stricken survivors emerged to witness a level of destruction never before seen: 8,000 corpses littered the streets and were buried under the massive wreckage.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Review of "The Storm of the Century "
- By S. Noe on 09-04-15
By: Al Roker, and others
-
Dark Tide
- The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919
- By: Stephen Puleo
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 375
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 326
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 326
Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters were playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like, "a roaring surf," one of them said later. Like, "a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence," said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window - "Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
INTERESTING STORY - ABOUT 2x TOO LONG
- By The Louligan on 09-07-14
By: Stephen Puleo
-
No Ordinary Joes
- The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life
- By: Larry Colton
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 31
Their names were Bob Palmer, Gordy Cox, Tim McCoy, and Chuck Vervalin, and in 1941, when they joined the Navy, they were not trying to prove their patriotism - they were just looking for a job that would provide "three hots and a cot". But on April 22, 1943, the war took a terrible turn for them. Their submarine, the USS Grenadier, was torpedoed. Listed as lost in action and given up for dead, all four had in fact miraculously escaped, only to be captured by the Japanese.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Prisoner of War Tale
- By Lynn on 03-20-11
By: Larry Colton
-
Wreck of the Carl D.
- A True Story of Loss, Survival, and Rescue at Sea
- By: Michael Schumacher
- Narrated by: Gary D. MacFadden
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
On November 18, 1958, a 623-foot limestone carrier - caught in one of the most violent storms in Lake Michigan history - broke in two and sank in less than five minutes. Four of the 35-person crew escaped to a small raft, to which they clung in total darkness, braving 30-foot waves and frigid temperatures. As the storm raged on, a search-and-rescue mission hunted for survivors, while the frantic citizens of nearby Rogers City, Michigan, anxiously awaited word of their loved ones' fates.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A harrowing story of survival and loss
- By Ron T on 03-25-16
-
Midnight in Broad Daylight
- A Japanese American Family Caught Between Two Worlds
- By: Pamela Rotner Sakamoto
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 182
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
After their father's death, Harry, Frank, and Pierce Fukuhara - all born and raised in the Pacific Northwest - moved to Hiroshima, their mother's ancestral home. Eager to go back to his own land - America - Harry returned in the late 1930s. Then came Pearl Harbor. Despite being sent to an internment camp, Harry dutifully volunteered to serve his country. Back in Hiroshima, his brothers, Frank and Pierce, became soldiers in the Japanese Imperial Army.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A must listen
- By Jon on 02-01-16
-
Black Snow
- Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb
- By: James M. Scott
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 120
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 98
Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: "If we lose the war, we'll be tried as war criminals."
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Top notch!
- By anonymous on 10-24-22
By: James M. Scott
-
Dead Wake
- The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 13,969
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 12,412
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12,389
On May 1, 1915, with WWI entering its tenth month, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were surprisingly at ease, even though Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone. For months, German U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Naivety VS Barbarians Of War
- By Sara on 03-05-16
By: Erik Larson
-
The Storm on Our Shores
- One Island, Two Soldiers, and the Forgotten Battle of World War II
- By: Mark Obmascik
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 187
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 166
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 165
The heart-wrenching but ultimately redemptive story of two World War II soldiers - a Japanese surgeon and an American sergeant - during a brutal Alaskan battle in which the sergeant discovers the medic's revelatory and fascinating diary that changed our war-torn society’s perceptions of Japan.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Finished in Two Days
- By Tim on 04-12-19
By: Mark Obmascik
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Target Tokyo
- Jimmy Doolittle and the Raid That Avenged Pearl Harbor
- By: James M. Scott
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,142
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,038
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,030
The dramatic account of one of America's most celebrated - and controversial - military campaigns: the Doolittle Raid. In December 1941, as American forces tallied the dead at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt gathered with his senior military counselors to plan an ambitious counterstrike against the heart of the Japanese Empire: Tokyo.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vengence is Mine, Thus Sayeth Doolittle
- By Jonathan Love on 06-13-16
By: James M. Scott
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The Long Way Home
- An American Journey from Ellis Island to the Great War
- By: David Laskin
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
The United States has always been a nation of immigrants---never more so than in 1917 when the nation entered the First World War. Of the 2.5 million soldiers who fought with U.S. armed forces in the trenches of France and Belgium, some half a million---nearly one out of every five men---were immigrants. In The Long Way Home, David Laskin, author of the prizewinning history The Children's Blizzard, tells the stories of 12 of these immigrant heroes.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible story of immigration and war
- By Daryl on 01-06-14
By: David Laskin
-
An Album of Memories
- Personal Histories from the Greatest Generation
- By: Tom Brokaw
- Narrated by: Tom Brokaw, a full cast
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
In this beautiful American family album of stories from the Greatest Generation, the history of life as it was lived during the Depression and World War II comes alive and is preserved in people’s own words.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A heart touching story
- By Randall on 07-03-16
By: Tom Brokaw
-
First into Nagasaki
- By: George Weller
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
On September 6, 1945, less than a month after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, George Weller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, became the first free Westerner to enter the devastated city. Going into the hospitals and consulting the doctors of the bomb's victims, Weller was the first to document its unprecedented long-range medical effects. He also became the first to enter the nearby Allied POW camps, which rivaled those of the Nazis for cruelty and bested them for death count.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
First Into Nagasaki
- By Harold on 02-15-07
By: George Weller
-
Dutch Girl
- Audrey Hepburn and World War II
- By: Robert Matzen, Luca Dotti - foreword
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,607
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,297
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,284
Twenty-five years after her passing, Audrey Hepburn remains the most beloved of all Hollywood stars, known as much for her role as UNICEF ambassador as for films like Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's. Several biographies have chronicled her stardom, but none has covered her intense experiences through five years of Nazi occupation in the Netherlands. According to her son, Luca Dotti, "The war made my mother who she was."
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Good story, poor narration
- By sas on 07-09-19
By: Robert Matzen, and others
-
Brilliant Beacons
- A History of the American Lighthouse
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
Set against the backdrop of an expanding nation, Brilliant Beacons traces the evolution of America's lighthouse system, highlighting the political, military, and technological battles fought to illuminate the nation's hardscrabble coastlines.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book about Lighthouses
- By Anastasia on 04-25-21
By: Eric Jay Dolin
-
Disaster!
- A History of Earthquakes, Floods, Plagues, and Other Catastrophes
- By: John Withington
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history. If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. But such catastrophic events - as terrible and frightening as they are - have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth.... and even before. From ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's mass killings in the 20th century, humanity's continued existence has always seemed perilous.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic account of disasters!
- By Gardenstate Reader on 12-30-19
By: John Withington
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- A Story of Courage and Survival in the Blizzard of 1952
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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For many, the past few years have been defined by climate disaster. Stories about once-in-a-lifetime hurricanes, floods, fires, droughts, and even snowstorms are now commonplace. But dramatic weather events are not new and Northeaster, Cathie Pelletier's breathtaking account of the 1952 snowstorm that blanketed New England, offers a valuable reminder about nature's capacity for destruction as well as insight into the human instinct for preservation.
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“AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL.” At 7:58 a.m. on December 7, 1941, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center frantically typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the American navy stationed in Hawaii. In a little over two hours, the Japanese killed more than 2,400 Americans and propelled the US’s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the story of the mission to avenge that devastating strike.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Half Soap Opera, target audience 20 something male
- By Donald L. Hogan on 03-20-21
By: Dick Lehr
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Into Siberia
- George Kennan's Epic Journey Through the Brutal, Frozen Heart of Russia
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19
In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent. Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear.
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5 out of 5 stars
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History and Adventure
- By David on 03-15-24
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The Cold War's Killing Fields
- Rethinking the Long Peace
- By: Paul Thomas Chamberlin
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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In this sweeping, deeply researched book, Paul Thomas Chamberlin boldly argues that the Cold War, long viewed as a mostly peaceful, if tense, diplomatic standoff between democracy and communism, was actually a part of a vast, deadly conflict that killed millions on battlegrounds across the postcolonial world. For half a century, as an uneasy peace hung over Europe, ferocious proxy wars raged in the Cold War’s killing fields, resulting in more than 14 million dead - victims who remain largely forgotten and all but lost to history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but Biased
- By Jonathan W Schneider on 08-13-18
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1917
- Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 317
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 275
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 271
In this incisive, fast-paced history, New York Times best-selling author Arthur Herman brilliantly reveals how Lenin and Wilson rewrote the rules of modern geopolitics. Through the end of World War I, countries marched into war only to increase or protect their national interests. After World War I, countries began going to war over ideas. Together, Lenin and Wilson unleashed the disruptive ideologies that would sweep the world, from nationalism and globalism to Communism and terrorism, and that continue to shape our world today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another book you wish was part of every university world history curriculum
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By: Arthur Herman
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Operation Chastise
- The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II
- By: Max Hastings
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 96
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The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Wish He Had Stuck to the Core Story
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Northeaster
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“AIR RAID, PEARL HARBOR. THIS IS NOT DRILL.” At 7:58 a.m. on December 7, 1941, an officer at the Ford Island Command Center frantically typed what would become one of the most famous radio dispatches in history as the Japanese navy launched a surprise aerial assault on the American navy stationed in Hawaii. In a little over two hours, the Japanese killed more than 2,400 Americans and propelled the US’s entry into World War II. Dead Reckoning is the story of the mission to avenge that devastating strike.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Half Soap Opera, target audience 20 something male
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Into Siberia
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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In the late nineteenth century, close diplomatic relations existed between the United States and Russia. All that changed when George Kennan went to Siberia in 1885 to investigate the exile system and his eyes were opened to the brutality Russia was wielding to suppress dissent. Over ten months Kennan traveled eight thousand miles, mostly in horse-drawn carriages, sleighs, or on horseback. He endured suffocating sandstorms in the summer and blizzards in the winter. His interviews with convicts and political exiles revealed how Russia ran on the fuel of inflicted pain and fear.
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In this incisive, fast-paced history, New York Times best-selling author Arthur Herman brilliantly reveals how Lenin and Wilson rewrote the rules of modern geopolitics. Through the end of World War I, countries marched into war only to increase or protect their national interests. After World War I, countries began going to war over ideas. Together, Lenin and Wilson unleashed the disruptive ideologies that would sweep the world, from nationalism and globalism to Communism and terrorism, and that continue to shape our world today.
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The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Wish He Had Stuck to the Core Story
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No Shadows in the Desert
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- By: Samuel M. Katz
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 132
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 120
No Shadows in the Desert reveals the untold story of the behind-the-scenes fight against ISIS - one coordinated by heads of state and ultimately fought in the alleyways and open deserts of the Middle Eastern battlefield by spies and soldiers. Samuel M. Katz draws upon his sources within the global intelligence and counterterrorism community, as well as the international special operations and espionage fraternity, to tell the story of the covert campaign against ISIS by the operatives who ventured deeply and secretly into enemy territory.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Simply Anti- Trump writer
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Three Days at the Brink
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 610
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 529
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 525
From the number-one best-selling author of Three Days in Moscow and anchor of Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier, a gripping history of the secret meeting that set the stage for victory in World War II - the now-forgotten 1943 Tehran Conference, where Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin plotted the war's endgame, including the D-Day invasion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A history lesson and SO much more
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To Rule the Waves
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- By: Bruce Jones
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 98
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 86
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 85
For centuries, oceans were the chessboard on which empires battled for supremacy. But in the nuclear age, air power and missile systems dominated our worries about security, and for the United States, the economy was largely driven by domestic production, with trucking and railways that crisscrossed the continent serving as the primary modes of commercial transit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eye opener of how the seas impact today
- By Thomas VandeVanter on 03-11-23
By: Bruce Jones
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George V
- Never a Dull Moment
- By: Jane Ridley
- Narrated by: Joanna David
- Length: 22 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 169
The grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, King George V reigned over the British Empire from 1910 to 1936, a period of unprecedented international turbulence. Yet no one could deny that as a young man, George seemed uninspired. As his biographer Harold Nicolson famously put it, "he did nothing at all but kill animals and stick in stamps.” The contrast between him and his flamboyant, hedonistic, playboy father Edward VII could hardly have been greater.
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4 out of 5 stars
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great but long listen
- By aleks r on 02-23-22
By: Jane Ridley
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Africatown
- America's Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created
- By: Nick Tabor
- Narrated by: Chris Butler
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
In 1860, a ship called the Clotilda was smuggled through the Alabama Gulf Coast, carrying the last group of enslaved people ever brought to the US from West Africa. Five years later, the shipmates were emancipated, but they had no way of getting back home. Instead they created their own community outside the city of Mobile, where they spoke Yoruba and appointed their own leaders.
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5 out of 5 stars
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So interesting!!!
- By Jamie McCoy on 07-03-23
By: Nick Tabor
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The House of Government
- A Saga of the Russian Revolution
- By: Yuri Slezkine, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 45 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 174
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 153
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 152
On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction. The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inside saga of the leaders of Bolshevism & the USSR
- By Edward V. Blanchard on 11-05-17
By: Yuri Slezkine, and others
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Beyond
- The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space
- By: Stephen Walker
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 236
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 199
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Story5 out of 5 stars 198
Travelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour - 10 times faster than a rifle bullet - Yuri Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows, he sees the Earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing, he has become a world celebrity - the first human to leave the planet. Beyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its 60th anniversary.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A remarkable story on many levels
- By Dipam on 03-22-22
By: Stephen Walker
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East West Street
- On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity"
- By: Philippe Sands
- Narrated by: David Rintoul, Philippe Sands
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 297
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 262
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Story5 out of 5 stars 259
When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding!
- By lori on 05-07-18
By: Philippe Sands
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Unstoppable
- Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend
- By: Joshua M. Greene
- Narrated by: Michael Orenstein
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 292
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 261
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 259
Unstoppable is the ultimate immigrant story and an epic David-and-Goliath adventure. While American teens were socializing in ice cream parlors, Siggi was suffering beatings by Nazi hoodlums for being a Jew and was soon deported along with his family to the darkest place the world has ever known: Auschwitz. Siggi used his wits to stay alive, pretending to have trade skills the Nazis could exploit to run the camp. After two death marches and near starvation, he was liberated from camp Mauthausen and went to work for the US Army hunting Nazis.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible!
- By levin87 on 05-16-21
By: Joshua M. Greene
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This Land Is Their Land
- The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving
- By: David J. Silverman
- Narrated by: William Roberts
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
In March 1621, when Plymouth’s survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief), Ousamequin (Massasoit), and Plymouth’s governor, John Carver, declared their people’s friendship for each other and a commitment to mutual defense. Later that autumn, the English gathered their first successful harvest and lifted the specter of starvation. Ousamequin and 90 of his men then visited Plymouth for the 'First Thanksgiving'. The treaty remained operative until King Philip’s War in 1675, when 50 years of uneasy peace between the two parties would come to an end.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This factual presentation is lasting
- By marwalk on 04-10-20
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Out of the Mountains
- The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla
- By: David Kilcullen
- Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 221
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 219
When Americans think of modern warfare, what comes to mind is the US army skirmishing with terrorists and insurgents in the mountains of Afghanistan. But the face of global conflict is ever-changing. In Out of the Mountains, David Kilcullen, one of the world's leading experts on current and future conflict, offers a groundbreaking look at what may happen after today's wars end.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Insightful analysis
- By Anon on 11-06-19
By: David Kilcullen
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When Time Stopped
- A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains
- By: Ariana Neumann
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 491
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 435
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 434
In this remarkably moving memoir Ariana Neumann dives into the secrets of her father’s past: years spent hiding in plain sight in war-torn Berlin, the annihilation of dozens of family members in the Holocaust, and the courageous choice to build anew.
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5 out of 5 stars
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yesterday as fresh as today
- By reader mother on 02-17-20
By: Ariana Neumann
What listeners say about The Great Halifax Explosion
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
- Johnedoorbell
- 03-27-19
A tragic but also very hopeful book
Excellent research. Riveting Writing/Performance Opens with the foibles and blindness to possible tragedy that all humanity suffers from. Describes in detail how real people dealt with the biggest human made explosion in history up to that point in time. Describes how when everything is gone humans are basically good, caring and wanting to help others. Left me feeling that we still have hope to return to less hateful, polarized times. I'm just praying it doesn't take a terrible tragic event to get us there
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3 people found this helpful
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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
- Amazon Customer
- 07-05-19
tragedy that brought the US & Canada together
We all learn about the war of 1812 but not what ended the hostility between the US & Canada.
great story
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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
- Kindle Customer 9999
- 06-06-24
A well told horrifying story
Like Erik Larsen, the author here captures as best as possible a complex web of causes, effects. and the people caught between them.
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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
- Amazon Customer
- 06-15-24
Best Audible book I have listened to.
I never had heard of this explosion. It was well written and the performance was excellent. I binge listened to it over 3 days time. I wish I had known about this before I went to Halifax about 20 years ago!
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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
- Sherri Godsey
- 03-06-24
Touching and Memorable
I had never heard about Halifax. I just listened to another book about how disasters can bring together a “survivalist” community that brings out the best in people and helps them overcome such disasters, and Halifax was mentioned. It peaked my curiosity and I purchased this book. At first I thought it was way too slow, and couldn’t understand why the writer spent so many chapters on Halifax history before ever getting to the explosion incident. However, that background buildup made the event far more poignant and many attitudes more understandable. This ended up being a heartfelt and memorable telling of a terrible tragedy that I feel bad for not having known about. Well worth the listen.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Pamela L.
- 09-21-20
Informative and interesting
Having visited Halifax a couple of times I found this book to be very informative and appreciated the fine citizens of Canada. Their heroism is to this day very much appreciated.
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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
- Ella_AZ
- 08-15-19
Unsung heros unearthed amidst overlooked history
Loved this retelling of an all too often forgotten chapter of history that's had ripple effects up to the modern day. This true story uncovered everyday heros who emerged n the middle of one of North America's greatest (and mostly unknown) tragedies.
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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
- BoyMomx3
- 06-16-24
Fascinating Piece of History
I truly enjoyed this audiobook. Like “The Jamestown Flood” and “Under a Flaming Sky”, this book gives a full picture leading up to the event and afterwards. I found the events and characters described fascinating and thought the author’s perspective thought provoking. I would definitely recommend to anyone who loves true history or investigative stories.
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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
- Samuel Shurtleff
- 12-11-18
Wow! What a story!
Excellent research and an exquisitely told story of tragedy and triumph. The narration is perfect. The story is not well known now, but should be. I give this book and recording my highest recommendation.
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4 people found this helpful
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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
- Tania Roy
- 06-10-19
Breathtaking
Stunning story, not for the faint hearted! Well written and narrated. A forgot piece of history a must listen/read for all Americans and Canadians alike. 10 stars!!
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