Showing results by narrator "Paul Aulridge" in All Categories

Over the course of just 200 years, the Ottoman Empire grew from a small, obscure Anatolian state into the most powerful Muslim nation in the world, controlling vast swathes of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North Africa. Within the empire, science, medicine, technology, and art flourished, and the Ottoman army became one of the most feared and efficient fighting forces in existence. Then came a period of gradual decline.

Spartacus has passed into legend as an enduring symbol of righteousness in his noble battle for the freedom of man. This transcendent icon did not appear from the aether and had plenty of inspiration from the brave and often forgotten figures that stood before him. The actions of Spartacus and his rebellion against the Roman Republic offer a unique look into the details of commercial slavery in Rome, and its long-lasting effects on the evolution of a nation.

Hollywood Murders and Scandals: Tinsel Town After Dark is a collection of some of the most famous murders, infamous scandals, and Hollywood crimes going right back to the beginnings of Hollywood itself.

The Spanish Civil War was much more than just an overture to World War II. It was a war born out of schisms in Spanish society between rich and poor, monarchists and Republicans, the right and the left, and between those who supported the church and those who saw it as an instrument of oppression. For all its brutality and horror, the Spanish Civil War was a conflict between ideals often fought by volunteers on each side who truly believed that they were helping to build a better world.

The Great Depression was one of the most trying eras in American history. All aspects of the US were affected. After the stock market crash of 1929, the nation was thrust into a decade of turmoil and change - in government, the economy, and culture. Many of the changes brought about by the Great Depression remain today.

After the Battle of Midway, the Japanese were forced into the position of trying to defend the territory they had previously taken; their dreams of expanding their acquisitions and becoming the dominant power in the Pacific were gone. The tide of war in the Pacific had shifted.

The Battle of Berlin was a monumental battle between two adversaries who despised one another. For the Russians who had endured the horrific suffering and loss of lives in defending their nation against the Nazi invasion, the opportunity for vengeance seemed as if fate was on their side.

He was known as the "Desert Fox", and outfox his enemies he often did, leaving whole armies confounded and demoralized in his wake, and yet, the one adversary that Erwin Rommel could not outfox was his own government. On that rather unlucky day of October 14, 1944, when the SS came knocking on Rommel’s door, even his legendary heroism couldn’t save him from the monstrous regime for which he had once fought so hard.

In 1812, Americans held two distinctly different visions of their country. These incompatible visions of America were held by two opposing political parties. The two halves of America also had incompatible views on the necessity of war that year.

This audiobook provides an introduction to one of the most intriguing wars of modern times - a war that saw several innovations, including the use of heliography and indirect fire, and caused the complete overhaul of the great Imperial British fighting machine in its aftermath. It also tells of the first example of the brilliant use of guerrilla warfare by the people who, to this day, have never been outclassed: the Boer commandos.

What do you think of when you consider the Middle Ages? Knights in armor and damsels in distress? Vikings plundering monasteries? Religious dissenters burning at the stake? The dead bodies piling up as war, famine, and plague devastated Europe? Think again. While all these are part of the tapestry of the medieval era, the threads of politics, personality and war, culture, religion, education and the arts are vastly more intricate and fascinating.

Doctor Horrible, Jayne Cobb, Oz, Fitz-Simmons, Echo, Pike, Saffron, Kaywinnet, the Groosalugg, Skip, Satsu, Dana Polk, Perfect Jheung, Icarus, the Siphon, Edna Giles, Dandelion Naizen, and especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With Whedon's superhero names, goddess names, flower names, saint's names, and dozens of British names, he's filling his world with references from Shakespeare to manga, delighting fans who look closer. Which names repeat the most? Which characters have secret links?

The British people had no sooner finished rescuing their trapped army from Dunkirk than they found themselves preparing for an attack from the Germans once again. But the heroism of the Royal Air Force and the fortitude of the British people turned Germany’s certain victory into defeat, forcing Hitler to abandon his plans to invade England. “We shall never surrender,” Churchill vowed, and his words rallied a nation, delivering a blow to the Nazi war machine that would, in the end, prove to be a turning point in World War II.

During 14 years, from 1955 to 1969, the Soviet Union and the United States of America were engaged in a dramatic race against each other to conquer space. This period encompassed dramatic victories, humbling defeats, and more than one tragedy. This is a story of human courage and ingenuity at its best and political maneuvering at its worst, of almost unbelievable technological progress undertaken with the object not just of advancing human knowledge but also of proving the superiority of one country over another.

World War I, or the Great War, was believed to be "the war to end all wars". Because of the incredible extent of destruction and the staggering number of wounded and dead, even those who lived through it could scarcely comprehend its horror. Beginning in 1914, alliances between powerful nations soon plunged the world into a global conflict. Fighting - including miserable trench warfare - broke out in practically every corner of Europe and spread around the world to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Bob Dylan is the prince of self-reinvention and deflection. Whether it's the folkies of Greenwich Village, the student movement of the 1960s and 1970s, born-again Christians, the Chabad Lubavitch community, or English department postmodernists, specific intellectual and sociopolitical groups have repeatedly claimed Bob Dylan as their spokesperson. But in the words of filmmaker Todd Haynes, "The minute you try to grab hold of Dylan, he's no longer where he was."

Just trying to define a man who had the qualities of a mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, inventor, and astrologer can prove difficult. But all of that can be ascribed to Johannes Kepler, one of the giants of his era who ushered in the Scientific Revolution and is often considered the first modern scientist.

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union lasted from the end of World War II until the end of the 1980s. Over the course of five decades, they never came to blows directly. Rather, these two world superpowers competed in other arenas that would touch almost every corner of the globe. This overview of the Cold War provides the story of how these two countries came to oppose one another and the impact it had on them and others around the world.

Every writer struggles with writer's block at some point. It is frustrating, and it prevents many writers from becoming professional authors. In this new guide you will learn how to destroy writer's block and unleash your creativity. Through a concise series of exercises you'll learn to never get "stuck" in your writing again. You will discover how to branch into new writing styles, surprise yourself, and unlock your inner genius.

Auschwitz is a monument to the barbaric inhumanity of the Nazi regime. It is the site where more than one million people were systematically tortured and killed in support of Adolf Hitler’s determination to eradicate entire populations that he viewed as racially impure.