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The Men Who United the States
- America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
Simon Winchester, the acclaimed New York Times best-selling author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman, delivers his first book about America: a fascinating popular history that illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings.
How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, such as Lewis and Clark and the leaders of the Great Surveys; the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph and the powerful civil engineer behind the Interstate Highway System. He treks vast swaths of territory, from Pittsburgh to Portland, Rochester to San Francisco, Seattle to Anchorage, introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States.
Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. The Men Who United the States is a fresh look at the way in which the most powerful nation on Earth came together.
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What listeners say about The Men Who United the States
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cynthia Hartman
- 06-16-16
Sarcastic
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
I doubt it, the history of the story is lost by his opinionated commentary.
Would you ever listen to anything by Simon Winchester again?
Doubtful
Any additional comments?
HIs overarching criticism made the book more like being stuck in a college class with a very opinionated liberal professor
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41 people found this helpful
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- KathrynVB
- 10-16-14
Simon Winchester tells us the history of America
I could listen to Simon Winchester read his grocery list, so I'm predisposed to like this book. My husband and I listened to him read his story about Krakatoa several years ago and it was wonderful. This book begins with the man charged with the task of measuring out -- by metes and bounds -- the entire western portion of the United States. Even that small story is wonderful. Winchester goes on to tell about the trailblazers of American history, from the Erie Canal to the railroads, the telegraph to the radio, and even up to the internet of today. We read this while on summer driving trips and found we could leave it at any time and pick it up later without missing a beat. It is fascinating and quirky. Just like Mr. Winchester himself.
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38 people found this helpful
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- Gregory Maus
- 02-27-19
Regretful waste of money
The author does not seem to ever miss an opportunity to inject his politics and opinions amongst what should be a work of history. That’s how you find yourself listening to digressions on nuclear weapons among sections about Lewis and Clark, or the author’s opinions about certain contemporary radio hosts, or haphazard guesses about church impact on geology, or guesses about factory placement. The comments often feel somewhat out of place within the context of what he is discussing.
Then there is the almost worshipful repeated emphasis regarding big government programs, and suppositions about positive impacts from journalism that seem somewhat self-serving.
This is not really up to the standards of other works of history.
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29 people found this helpful
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- Patrick
- 01-30-15
Should be required reading for any American
What did you love best about The Men Who United the States?
Simon Winchester is a most eloquent writer and manages to fill in the gaps that connect our nation's history that are woefully overlooked in most collegiate courses. Not the first one of Simon's that I've read and have found each title to be brilliant and engaging. I've read fiction that had less compelling drama.
What other book might you compare The Men Who United the States to and why?
Any Simon Winchester book. He's in a class of his own.
Any additional comments?
Honestly, I wish this could be required reading in high school. I think kids (and adults) would be drawn to history and have a much better understanding of who we are as a nation. I cannot say enough good things about the content and delivery.
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25 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-05-19
Misleading title, somewhat scattered tale
While I appreciate the reader/author's enthusiasm for his work, and he did a very good job speaking, the book should be called "The biographies of dozens of random people and my personal travels to validate them." I love historical books but this jumps all over time, geography, politics, and opinions, and it became hard to follow. Just when there was a historical part I wanted to know more about he goes off on a tangent of a personal trip he took, filled with too many adjectives of what he did and saw. It has little to do with actual states, and more to do with how people moved west, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific, and how we traveled since.
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23 people found this helpful
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- christopher
- 11-14-14
Vintage Winchester
In the three years that I lived in Pittsburgh, no-one ever explained to me why the Brits found it necessary to build a fort there. Now I know. That is one of the many pieces of information that I gleaned from listening to "The Men". Simon Winchester has the command of the English language that you would expect from a first class story teller. He injects drama where he can, and comes at his suject matter from interesting angles. He explores the political, economic and social landscape. But above all, and this is his genius, he digs out the fascinating little-known stories and facts that enrich his presentation, at once giving credibility to his viewpoint and addressing his subject matter on a human scale. So, after listening to "The Men" I came away better informed, having filled in some gaping holes in my knowledge of American history, the result of a deprived childhood (I was educated in England). But I'm not sure I came away with a strong opinion for or against. This is because while Winchester makes no secret of his opinions, be they nostalgia for the past, concern for the environment or excitement for the future, there is no real consistent message coming out of this book. The title and the theme are an excuse for stringing together some fascinating insights and some really good stories, and a bit of travelog around the US. I enjoyed the book, as I knew I would because I alway enjoy his writing, but did I come away uplifted, on a new plane, ready to go out and spread the word ? Not so much.
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20 people found this helpful
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- sbwell
- 07-23-18
Far to political and personal
I am so grateful that Audible has a return/exchange policy! This book is filled with the author’s personal opinion and information. I don’t think most people choose to read a history book expecting to have tales about the author’s travels and who he met. His pondering about why Americans are so “American” was more than I could take.
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17 people found this helpful
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- JoAnn
- 11-03-13
Little pieces of history
An interest look at the history of the US and those who contributed in many different ways. I regularly enjoy Winchester's book. Interesting that he has decided to become an American citizen.
Note - if you are not a fan of NPR and, instead, like Rush Limbaugh and others of the same mind and/or if you are a hunter, you may not enjoy this book quite so much.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Andy
- 10-30-13
deserves seven stars
The combination of wonderful writing, author as narrator and a wide range of interesting stories is an unbeatable combination. Moreover, Winchester goes beyond the major historical stories we are all familiar with, and illuminates a wide range of other people and events that played a role in forming the United States.
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13 people found this helpful
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- The Lifelong Learner
- 01-26-14
An Interesting Amble through a Big Story
A little confused. I couldn't figure out his structure until the end. But he made a good story out of an enormous library of information. And he made it interesting, in bites you can follow. He colors some of his narrative with editorials parading as facts. This cheer leading got heavy handed and tiresome in the era and chapter on rural electrification and continued into the modern era and public television. Too bad. It detracts from an otherwise pleasant story. I've enjoyed two of this author's other books immensely. This one has its moments but is a little frustrating to read.
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
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Story
San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale.
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7 Hours and 45 minutes . . .
- By Tim on 12-09-05
By: Simon Winchester
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The Perfectionists
- How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The New York Times best-selling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement - precision - in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future.
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Somewhat less than perfect
- By enya keshet on 06-19-18
By: Simon Winchester
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Land
- How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Land - whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city - is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing - and have done - with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
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Audiobook Version is the Best!
- By semarla on 01-31-21
By: Simon Winchester
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The Man Who Loved China
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire.
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turn your watch back 70 years
- By Andy on 05-22-08
By: Simon Winchester
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Atlantic
- Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Atlantic is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues profoundly to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams. Spanning the ocean's story, from its geological origins to the age of exploration, from World War II battles to today's struggles with pollution and overfishing, Winchester's narrative is epic, intimate, and awe inspiring.
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Starts Better Than it Finishes
- By Ray on 12-18-10
By: Simon Winchester
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The Map That Changed the World
- William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1793 William Smith, a canal digger, made a startling discovery that was to turn the fledgling science of the history of the earth - and a central plank of established Christian religion - on its head. He noticed that the rocks he was excavating were arranged in layers; more important, he could see quite clearly that the fossils found in one layer were very different from those found in another. And out of that realization came an epiphany.
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Who knew rocks could be so deceptive?
- By Jody R. Nathan on 11-09-04
By: Simon Winchester
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A Crack in the Edge of the World
- America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale.
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7 Hours and 45 minutes . . .
- By Tim on 12-09-05
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Perfectionists
- How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement - precision - in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future.
-
-
Somewhat less than perfect
- By enya keshet on 06-19-18
By: Simon Winchester
-
Land
- How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Land - whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city - is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing - and have done - with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
-
-
Audiobook Version is the Best!
- By semarla on 01-31-21
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Man Who Loved China
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire.
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-
turn your watch back 70 years
- By Andy on 05-22-08
By: Simon Winchester
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The End of the River
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When it comes to climate-change-inspired threats, it is rising sea levels we hear most about. But if the oceans are, as Herman Melville put it, “the tide-beating heart of the Earth”, rivers are its circulatory system. In the United States, there is no river more storied, symbolic, and vital than the Mississippi, and none, to use Mark Twain’s word, more lawless. The struggle to control it has been going on nearly as long as there has been human civilization on its banks, and the attendant drama and dangers have been memorialized by many writers.
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Excellent
- By rattyaddy on 03-30-23
By: Simon Winchester
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Pacific
- Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Best-selling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature. Winchester's personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.
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Political Asides Have Become Bombastic Didactic
- By Mark Patterson on 12-25-15
By: Simon Winchester
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The Meaning of Everything
- The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary.
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A New Appreciation
- By Donald on 11-01-04
By: Simon Winchester
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Krakatoa
- The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa - the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster - was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly 40,000 people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light.
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Great subject, great writing, great voice
- By rwise on 01-26-04
By: Simon Winchester
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Knowing What We Know
- The Transmission of Knowledge: From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.