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The Light of Asia
- A History of Western Fascination with the East
- Narrated by: Christopher Harding
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
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The Light of Asia
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Publisher's summary
Brought to you by Penguin.
From the time of the ancient Greeks onwards the West's relationship with Asia consisted for the most part in outrageous tales of monsters and giants, of silk and spices trans-shipped over vast distances and an uneasy sense of unknowable empires fantastically far away. By the 20th century much of Asia may have come under Western rule after centuries of warfare, but its intellectual, artistic and spiritual influence was fighting back.
The Light of Asia is a wonderfully varied and entertaining history of this vexed, confused but centrally important relationship. From Marco Polo onwards Asia has been both a source of genuine fascination and equally genuine failures of comprehension. China, India and Japan were all acknowledged to be both great civilizations and in crude ways superseded by the West. Christopher Harding's captivating gallery of geniuses, adventurers and con-men celebrates Asia's impact on the West in all its variety.
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Working at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company chemical plant in Niagara Falls, New York, was considered a good job. It was the kind of industrial manufacturing job that allowed blue-collar workers to thrive in the latter half of the 20th century—that allowed them to buy their own home, and maybe a small boat for the lake. But it was also the kind of job that exposed you to toxic chemicals and offered little to no protection from them, either in the way of protective gear or adequate ventilation. Eventually, it was a job that gave you bladder cancer.
By: Jim Morris
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A Nasty Little War
- The Western Intervention into the Russian Civil War
- By: Anna Reid
- Narrated by: Anna Reid
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
Overlapping with and overshadowed by the First World War, the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War was one of the most ambitious military ventures of the twentieth century. Launched in the summer of 1918, it drew in 180,000 troops from fifteen different countries in theaters ranging from the Caspian Sea to the Arctic, and from Poland to the Pacific. Though little remembered today, its consequences stoked global political turmoil for decades to come. In A Nasty Little War, top Russia historian Anna Reid offers a sweeping and deeply researched account of the conflict.
By: Anna Reid
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Brothers in Arms
- Churchill's Special Forces During WWII's Darkest Hour
- By: Damien Lewis
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 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
In 1941, as World War Two raged, scores of men stepped forward to answer Winston Churchill's call for volunteers for Special Service, a high-risk opportunity to undertake the most hazardous, top-secret duties of war. Comprised of some of the finest fighting units in the entire British Army, these warriors longed to leave behind their mind-numbing garrison duties for battle. A rightfully proud regiment, they were disavowed as unruly by top brass, unyieldingly vaunted by Churchill, and courageously loyal to the clandestine "butcher and bolt" raids that made their sacrifices legendary.
By: Damien Lewis
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Bending Adversity
- Japan and the Art of Survival
- By: David Pilling
- Narrated by: Tim Andes Pabon
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
In Bending Adversity, Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, but terribly read
- By Kallan Resnick on 10-24-14
By: David Pilling
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The Gambling Century
- Commercial Gaming in Britain from Restoration to Regency
- By: John Eglin
- Narrated by: Dan Calley
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Gambling captures as nothing else the drama of the "long eighteenth century" between the age of religious wars and the age of revolutions. The society that was confronted with games of chance pursued as commercial ventures also came to grips with unprecedented social mobility, floated by new wealth from new sources created fortunes from trade in sugar, cotton, ivory, silk, tea, or enslaved human beings. The Gambling Century focuses like no previous work on those who enabled, facilitated, and profited from gambling, as well as on efforts to regulate or outlaw it.
By: John Eglin
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Empireworld
- How British Imperialism Shaped the Globe
- By: Sathnam Sanghera
- Narrated by: Homer Todiwala
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 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
2.6 billion people are inhabitants of former British colonies. The empire's influence upon the quarter of the planet it occupied, and its gravitational influence upon the world outside it, has been profound: from the spread of Christianity by missionaries to the shaping international law. Even today, 1 in 3 people drive on the left hand side of the road, an artifact of the British empire. Yet Britain's idea of its imperial history and the world's experience of it are two very different things. Empireworld explores the ways in which British Empire has come to shape the modern world.
By: Sathnam Sanghera
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The War Below
- Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives
- By: Ernest Scheyder
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 22
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story5 out of 5 stars 22
A new economic war for critical minerals has begun, and The War Below is an urgent dispatch from its front lines. To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. These tensions have sparked a worldwide reckoning over the sourcing of necessary materials, and no one understands the complexities of these issues better than Ernest Scheyder.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Stuck in Neutral - Environmentalists vs Green Energy Transition
- By Amazon Customer on 02-14-24
By: Ernest Scheyder
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Big Wonderful Thing
- By: Stephen Harrigan
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 28 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 81
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
The story of Texas is the story of struggle and triumph in a land of extremes. It is a story of drought and flood, invasion and war, boom and bust, and of the myriad peoples who, over centuries of conflict, gave rise to a place that has helped shape the identity of the United States and the destiny of the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Guidall is in top form with very good material
- By Elizabeth on 12-22-19
By: Stephen Harrigan
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Comic Book Nation
- The Transformation of Youth Culture in America
- By: Bradford W. Wright
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
Wright's lively study also focuses on the role comic books played in transforming children and adolescents into consumers; the efforts of parents, politicians, religious organizations, civic groups, and child psychologists to link juvenile delinquency to comic books and impose censorship; and the changing economics of comic book publishing over the course of the century. Comic Book Nation is at once a serious study of popular culture and an entertaining look at an enduring American art form.
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Putin and the Return of History
- How the Kremlin Rekindled the Cold War
- By: Martin Sixsmith, Daniel Sixsmith - contributor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2
Vladimir Putin is a paradox. In the early years of his presidency, he appeared to commit himself to friendship with the West, suggesting that Russia could join the European Union or even NATO. He said he supported free-market democracy and civil rights. But the Putin of those years is unrecognisable today. The Putin of the 2020s is an autocratic nationalist, dedicated to repression at home and anti-Western militarism abroad.
By: Martin Sixsmith, and others
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Pure Invention
- How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World
- By: Matt Alt
- Narrated by: Matt Alt
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 213
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 212
Japan is the forge of the world’s fantasies: karaoke and the Walkman, manga and anime, Pac-Man and Pokémon, online imageboards and emojis. But as Japan media veteran Matt Alt proves in this brilliant investigation, these novelties did more than entertain. They paved the way for our perplexing modern lives.
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3 out of 5 stars
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great book ruined by ending
- By Grant Holder on 06-07-22
By: Matt Alt
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Empireland
- How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain
- By: Sathnam Sanghera, Marlon James - foreword
- Narrated by: Homer Todiwala, Marlon James
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story5 out of 5 stars 17
A best-selling journalist’s illuminating tour through the hidden legacies and modern realities of British empire that exposes how much of the present-day United Kingdom is actually rooted in its colonial past. Empireland boldly and lucidly makes the case that in order to understand America, we must first understand British imperialism. Empire—whether British or otherwise—informs nearly everything we do.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Valuable Work and a Good Listen
- By Paul in Towson, MD on 05-16-23
By: Sathnam Sanghera, and others
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How the World Made the West
- A 4,000-Year History
- By: Josephine Quinn
- Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
In How the World Made the West, Josephine Quinn poses perhaps the most significant challenge ever to the “civilizational thinking” regarding the origins of Western culture—that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Rather, she locates the roots of the modern West in everything from the law codes of Babylon, Assyrian irrigation, and the Phoenician art of sail to Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking riders of the Steppe, to name just a few examples.
By: Josephine Quinn
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American Zion
- A New History of Mormonism
- By: Benjamin E. Park
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded by Joseph Smith in 1830 in the so-called "burned-over district" of upstate New York, which was producing seers and prophets daily. Most of the new creeds flamed out; Smith's would endure, becoming the most significant homegrown religion in American history. In American Zion Benjamin E. Park presents a fresh, sweeping account of the Latter-day Saints.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Lots of commentary and broad non-Mormon historical generalities, thin on detailed Mormon history.
- By anonymous on 02-13-24
By: Benjamin E. Park
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The Counterfeit Countess
- The Jewish Woman Who Rescued Thousands of Poles During the Holocaust
- By: Elizabeth B. White, Joanna Sliwa
- Narrated by: Gilli Messer
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 14
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 13
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Story5 out of 5 stars 13
The astonishing story of Dr. Josephine Janina Mehlberg—a Jewish mathematician who saved thousands of lives in Nazi-occupied Poland by masquerading as a Polish aristocrat—drawing on Mehlberg’s own unpublished memoir.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very different Holocaust story
- By Michell Rene on 03-29-24
By: Elizabeth B. White, and others
What listeners say about The Light of Asia
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
- Deep
- 01-28-24
Unputdownable and precious
Just finished listening to this mesmerizing and absolutely magnificent book. He is the only English narrator with authentic Japanese pronunciation, so this sounds perfectly natural. The author is getting better and better with each book. I hope his books are swiftly translated into Japanese and audiobooks are made available in the Japanese language, too. Then, they will be invaluable resources for people studying about Japan or the Japanese language. On the other hand, Japanese people may use them as resources for studying the English language. This book is well-researched and the narrative is fascinating. I was up all night listening to this on the day it was released. Thank you, Audible, for this great audiobook.
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