1939
A People's History of the Coming of the Second World War
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
1939
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Chris MacDonnell
-
By:
-
Frederick Taylor
About this listen
A best-selling historian's chronicle of the dramatic months from the Munich Agreement to Hitler's invasion of Poland and the beginning of World War II.
In the autumn of 1938, Europe believed in the promise of peace. But only a year later, the fateful decisions of just a few men had again led Europe to a massive world war. Drawing on contemporary diaries, memoirs, and newspapers, as well as recorded interviews, 1939 is a narrative account of what the coming of the Second World War felt like to those who lived through it.
Frederick Taylor, author of renowned histories of the Berlin Wall and the bombing of Dresden, highlights the day-to-day experiences of ordinary citizens as well as those who were at the height of power in Germany and Britain. Their voices lend an intimate flavor to this often-surprising account of the period and reveal a marked disconnect between government and people, for few people in either country wanted war.
1939 is a vivid and richly peopled narrative of Europe's slide into the horrors of war and a powerful warning for our own time.
©2019 Frederick Taylor (P)2020 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Downfall of Money
- Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
A hundred years ago, many theorists believed - just as they did at the beginning of our 21st century - that the world had reached a state of economic perfection, a never-before-seen human interdependence that would lead to universal growth and prosperity. Then, as now, the German mark was one of the most trusted currencies in the world. Yet the early years of the Weimar Republic in Germany witnessed the most calamitous meltdown of a developed economy in modern times.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Highly recommended story of German hyperinflation
- By Lance on 09-21-15
By: Frederick Taylor
-
The Napoleonic Wars
- By: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 400
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 324
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
No description of battles
- By John Gaston on 01-15-21
-
Blood and Iron
- The Rise and Fall of the German Empire; 1871-1918
- By: Katja Hoyer
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
Before 1871, Germany was not yet a nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring 39 individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France - all without destroying itself in the process?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Misleading title/subtitle
- By Ethan Brown on 12-15-21
By: Katja Hoyer
-
The Berlin Wall
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 155
The appearance of a hastily constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL
- By Simone on 05-23-13
By: Frederick Taylor
-
The Sea and Civilization
- A Maritime History of the World
- By: Lincoln Paine
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 29 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 134
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 136
A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Comprehensive
- By Than on 12-29-19
By: Lincoln Paine
-
When Money Dies
- The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany
- By: Adam Fergusson
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 600
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 478
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 474
When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nations currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt....
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Useless details, missing the big points
- By Jean Le Lupi on 07-04-12
By: Adam Fergusson
-
The Downfall of Money
- Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 151
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
A hundred years ago, many theorists believed - just as they did at the beginning of our 21st century - that the world had reached a state of economic perfection, a never-before-seen human interdependence that would lead to universal growth and prosperity. Then, as now, the German mark was one of the most trusted currencies in the world. Yet the early years of the Weimar Republic in Germany witnessed the most calamitous meltdown of a developed economy in modern times.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Highly recommended story of German hyperinflation
- By Lance on 09-21-15
By: Frederick Taylor
-
The Napoleonic Wars
- By: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 400
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 324
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
No description of battles
- By John Gaston on 01-15-21
-
Blood and Iron
- The Rise and Fall of the German Empire; 1871-1918
- By: Katja Hoyer
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 161
Before 1871, Germany was not yet a nation but simply an idea. Its founder, Otto von Bismarck, had a formidable task at hand. How would he bring 39 individual states under the yoke of a single Kaiser? How would he convince proud Prussians, Bavarians, and Rhinelanders to become Germans? Once united, could the young European nation wield enough power to rival the empires of Britain and France - all without destroying itself in the process?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Misleading title/subtitle
- By Ethan Brown on 12-15-21
By: Katja Hoyer
-
The Berlin Wall
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 155
The appearance of a hastily constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL
- By Simone on 05-23-13
By: Frederick Taylor
-
The Sea and Civilization
- A Maritime History of the World
- By: Lincoln Paine
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 29 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 161
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 134
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 136
A monumental retelling of world history through the lens of maritime enterprise, revealing in breathtaking depth how people first came into contact with one another by ocean and river, lake and stream, and how goods, languages, religions, and entire cultures spread across and along the world's waterways, bringing together civilizations and defining what makes us most human.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Comprehensive
- By Than on 12-29-19
By: Lincoln Paine
-
When Money Dies
- The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany
- By: Adam Fergusson
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 600
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 478
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 474
When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nations currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt....
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Useless details, missing the big points
- By Jean Le Lupi on 07-04-12
By: Adam Fergusson
-
The Vanquished
- Why the First World War Failed to End
- By: Robert Gerwarth
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 240
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 212
In The Vanquished, a highly original and gripping work of history, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War. In large part it was not the fighting on the Western Front that proved so ruinous to Europe's future but the devastating aftermath, as countries on both sides of the original conflict were savaged by revolutions, pogroms, mass expulsions, and further major military clashes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
little-known period following WWI is illuminated
- By John on 02-16-17
By: Robert Gerwarth
-
The Thirty-Year Genocide
- Turkey's Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894-1924
- By: Benny Morris, Dror Ze'evi, Claire Bloom
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Between 1894 and 1924, three waves of violence swept across Anatolia, targeting the region's Christian minorities, who had previously accounted for 20 percent of the population. By 1924 the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks had been reduced to two percent. Most historians have treated these waves as distinct, isolated events, and successive Turkish governments presented them as an unfortunate sequence of accidents. This is the first account to show that the three were actually part of a single, continuing, and intentional effort to wipe out Anatolia's Christian population.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Pay Close Attention to This Stunning Achievement
- By J.Brock on 06-25-20
By: Benny Morris, and others
-
American Midnight
- The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 387
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 331
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 331
From legendary historian Adam Hochschild, a groundbreaking reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threated by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Disturbing yet Reassuring
- By Sams95 on 11-18-22
By: Adam Hochschild
-
The Battle for Spain
- The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 586
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 515
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 513
Antony Beevor has written a completely updated and revised account of one of the most bitter and hard-fought wars of the 20th century. With new material gleaned from Russian archives and numerous other sources, this brisk and accessible audiobook (Spain's number-one best seller for 12 weeks) provides a balanced and penetrating perspective, explaining the tensions that led to this terrible overture to World War II and affording new insights into the war - its causes, course, and consequences.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Not an Accurate History Book
- By Jose on 10-16-19
By: Antony Beevor
-
The Sleepwalkers
- How Europe Went to War in 1914
- By: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 883
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 771
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 773
The Sleepwalkers is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very interesting take on a complex problem
- By Steve on 01-24-15
-
The First World War
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 690
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 577
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 573
The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unprecedented ferocity, it abruptly ended the relative peace and prosperity of the Victorian era, unleashing such demons of the 20th century as mechanized warfare and mass death. It also helped to usher in the ideas that have shaped our times - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, radical thoughts about economics and society - and in so doing shattered the faith in rationalism and liberalism that had prevailed in Europe since the Enlightenment.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Best Military History of First World War
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 06-13-19
By: John Keegan
-
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 17,871
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 15,422
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 15,354
Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
-
Hitler's True Believers
- How Ordinary People Became Nazis
- By: Robert Gellately
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 39
Understanding Adolf Hitler's ideology provides insights into the mental world of an extremist politics that, over the course of the Third Reich, developed explosive energies culminating in the Second World War and the Holocaust. Too often the theories underlying National Socialism or Nazism are dismissed as an irrational hodgepodge of ideas. Yet that ideology drove Hitler's quest for power in 1933, colored everything in the Third Reich, and transformed him, however briefly, into the most powerful leader in the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating listen
- By Amy Neff on 12-15-22
By: Robert Gellately
-
When Titans Clashed
- How the Red Army Stopped Hitler
- By: David M. Glantz, Jonathan M. House
- Narrated by: James Romick
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 76
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 76
Revised and updated to reflect recent Russian and Western scholarship on the subject, this new edition maintains the 1995 original's distinction as a crucial volume in the history of World War II and of the Soviet Union and the most informed and compelling perspective on one of the greatest military confrontations of all time.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The largest conflict in human history
- By Eddie on 05-15-22
By: David M. Glantz, and others
-
The Collapse of the Third Republic
- An Inquiry into the Fall of France in 1940
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 48 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 679
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 579
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 577
As an international war correspondent and radio commentator, William L. Shirer didn't just research the fall of France. He was there. In just six weeks, he watched the Third Reich topple one of the world's oldest military powers - and institute a rule of terror and paranoia. Based on in-person conversation with the leaders, diplomats, generals, and ordinary citizens who both shaped the events of this time and lived through them on a daily basis, Shirer shapes a compelling account of historical events - without losing sight of the personal experience.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
So much information
- By Daniel L Carmony on 05-14-19
-
Collapse
- The Fall of the Soviet Union
- By: Vladislav M. Zubok
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 423
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 364
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 362
In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Hopefully Not Prescient
- By Joshua on 01-29-22
-
Crucible
- The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924
- By: Charles Emmerson
- Narrated by: Charles Emmerson
- Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
In Petrograd, a fire is lit. The Tsar is packed off to Siberia. A rancorous Russian exile returns to proclaim a workers' revolution. In America, black soldiers who have served their country in Europe demand their rights at home. An Austrian war veteran trained by the German army to give rousing speeches against the Bolshevik peril begins to rail against the Jews. A solar eclipse turns a former patent clerk into a celebrity. An American reporter living the high life in Paris searches out a new literary style.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Splendid in all respects
- By Paul Custer on 02-11-20
By: Charles Emmerson
Related to this topic
-
Crucible
- The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924
- By: Charles Emmerson
- Narrated by: Charles Emmerson
- Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
In Petrograd, a fire is lit. The Tsar is packed off to Siberia. A rancorous Russian exile returns to proclaim a workers' revolution. In America, black soldiers who have served their country in Europe demand their rights at home. An Austrian war veteran trained by the German army to give rousing speeches against the Bolshevik peril begins to rail against the Jews. A solar eclipse turns a former patent clerk into a celebrity. An American reporter living the high life in Paris searches out a new literary style.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Splendid in all respects
- By Paul Custer on 02-11-20
By: Charles Emmerson
-
The Berlin Wall
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 155
The appearance of a hastily constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL
- By Simone on 05-23-13
By: Frederick Taylor
-
The Start
- 1904-1930
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 132
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
William L. Shirer was a CBS foreign correspondent and renowned author of New York Times best-selling nonfiction about World War II, and this is the first part of his three-part autobiography. A renowned journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer chronicles his own life story in a personal history that parallels the greater historical events for which he served as a witness.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Clouds gathering on the horizon in Europe
- By Nancy on 08-12-20
-
Hitler's First Hundred Days
- When Germans Embraced the Third Reich
- By: Peter Fritzsche
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 78
Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both left and right. Then, in the spring of 1933, Germany turned itself inside out, from a deeply divided republic into a one-party dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, award-winning historian Peter Fritzsche offers a probing account of the pivotal moments when the majority of Germans seemed, all at once, to join the Nazis to construct the Third Reich.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Whoa! This Is Too Tense To Be A Horror Novel!
- By Ted on 07-02-20
By: Peter Fritzsche
-
Appeasement
- Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War
- By: Tim Bouverie
- Narrated by: John Sessions
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 115
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 115
On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off an airplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, "peace for our time." Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. Appeasement is a groundbreaking history of the disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy, and parliamentary infighting that enabled Hitler's domination of Europe.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I cannot tolerate the narrator
- By DrBCFR on 06-05-19
By: Tim Bouverie
-
Oblivion or Glory
- 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill
- By: David Stafford
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
This is an engaging and original account of 1921, a pivotal year for Winston Churchill that had a lasting impact on his political and personal legacy. After the tragic consequences of his involvement in the catastrophic Dardanelles Campaign of World War I, Churchill’s political career seemed over. He was widely regarded as little more than a bombastic and unpredictable buccaneer until, in 1921, an unexpected inheritance heralded a series of events that laid the foundations for his future success.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great explanation if this great m Chirchill’s an
- By David Hitchins on 10-25-20
By: David Stafford
-
Crucible
- The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924
- By: Charles Emmerson
- Narrated by: Charles Emmerson
- Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
In Petrograd, a fire is lit. The Tsar is packed off to Siberia. A rancorous Russian exile returns to proclaim a workers' revolution. In America, black soldiers who have served their country in Europe demand their rights at home. An Austrian war veteran trained by the German army to give rousing speeches against the Bolshevik peril begins to rail against the Jews. A solar eclipse turns a former patent clerk into a celebrity. An American reporter living the high life in Paris searches out a new literary style.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Splendid in all respects
- By Paul Custer on 02-11-20
By: Charles Emmerson
-
The Berlin Wall
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 171
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 152
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 155
The appearance of a hastily constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
TEAR. DOWN. THIS. WALL
- By Simone on 05-23-13
By: Frederick Taylor
-
The Start
- 1904-1930
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 153
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 132
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 131
William L. Shirer was a CBS foreign correspondent and renowned author of New York Times best-selling nonfiction about World War II, and this is the first part of his three-part autobiography. A renowned journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer chronicles his own life story in a personal history that parallels the greater historical events for which he served as a witness.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Clouds gathering on the horizon in Europe
- By Nancy on 08-12-20
-
Hitler's First Hundred Days
- When Germans Embraced the Third Reich
- By: Peter Fritzsche
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 14 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 78
Amid the ravages of economic depression, Germans in the early 1930s were pulled to political extremes both left and right. Then, in the spring of 1933, Germany turned itself inside out, from a deeply divided republic into a one-party dictatorship. In Hitler's First Hundred Days, award-winning historian Peter Fritzsche offers a probing account of the pivotal moments when the majority of Germans seemed, all at once, to join the Nazis to construct the Third Reich.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Whoa! This Is Too Tense To Be A Horror Novel!
- By Ted on 07-02-20
By: Peter Fritzsche
-
Appeasement
- Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War
- By: Tim Bouverie
- Narrated by: John Sessions
- Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 115
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 115
On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stepped off an airplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, "peace for our time." Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. Appeasement is a groundbreaking history of the disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy, and parliamentary infighting that enabled Hitler's domination of Europe.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
I cannot tolerate the narrator
- By DrBCFR on 06-05-19
By: Tim Bouverie
-
Oblivion or Glory
- 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill
- By: David Stafford
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 158
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
This is an engaging and original account of 1921, a pivotal year for Winston Churchill that had a lasting impact on his political and personal legacy. After the tragic consequences of his involvement in the catastrophic Dardanelles Campaign of World War I, Churchill’s political career seemed over. He was widely regarded as little more than a bombastic and unpredictable buccaneer until, in 1921, an unexpected inheritance heralded a series of events that laid the foundations for his future success.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great explanation if this great m Chirchill’s an
- By David Hitchins on 10-25-20
By: David Stafford
-
The Correspondents
- Six Women Writers on the Front Lines of World War II
- By: Judith Mackrell
- Narrated by: Julie Teal
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
On the front lines of the Second World War, a contingent of female journalists were bravely waging their own battle. Barred from combat zones and faced with entrenched prejudice and bureaucratic restrictions, these women were forced to fight for the right to work on equal terms with men.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Narration was nails on a chalkboard
- By aunt deb on 12-20-21
By: Judith Mackrell
-
Erdogan Rising
- The Battle for the Soul of Turkey
- By: Hannah Lucinda Smith
- Narrated by: Hannah Lucinda Smith
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
Everyone has heard of Erdogan: Turkey’s bullish, mercurial president is the original postmodern populist. Around the world, other strongmen are now following the path that he has blazed. For the first time, Erdogan Rising tells the inside story of how a democracy on the fringe of Europe has succumbed to dictatorship. Hannah Lucinda Smith, Turkey correspondent with The Times of London, has witnessed all that has befallen Turkey and the wider region since the onset of the Arab Spring.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Overall fascinating profile of Erdogan’s Turkey
- By Saul M on 09-18-20
-
Goering
- The Rise and Fall of the Notorious Nazi Leader
- By: Roger Manvell, Heinrich Fraenkel
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 103
In Goering, Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel use firsthand testimonies and a variety of historical documents to tell the story of a monster lurking in Hitler's shadows. After rising through the ranks of the German army, Hermann Goering became Hitler's right hand man and was hand-picked to head the Luftwaffe, one of history's most feared fighting forces. As he rose in power, though, Goering became disillusioned and was eventually shunned from Hitler's inner circle.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
From Fighter Pilot Ace to Cartoon Villain
- By aaron on 03-27-21
By: Roger Manvell, and others
-
Che Guevara
- A Revolutionary Life
- By: Jon Lee Anderson
- Narrated by: Armando Durán
- Length: 36 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,088
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 802
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 806
Che Guevara was a dashing rebel whose epic dream was to end poverty and injustice in Latin America and the developing world through armed revolution. Jon Lee Anderson traces Che's extraordinary life from his comfortable Argentine upbringing to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from the halls of power in Castro's government to his failed campaign in the Congo and his assassination in the Bolivian jungle.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Encompassing and Fair Look at an Historical Man
- By Matt on 08-10-11
By: Jon Lee Anderson
-
The Ambassador
- Joseph P. Kennedy at the Court of St. James's 1938-1940
- By: Susan Ronald
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 81
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
Acclaimed biographer Susan Ronald reveals the truth about Joseph P. Kennedy's shockingly controversial tenure as ambassador to Great Britain on the eve of World War II.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Needs a bit of editing
- By Mike From Mesa on 09-02-21
By: Susan Ronald
-
Churchill: A Life, Part 2 (1918-1965)
- By: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Christian Rodska
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 230
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 209
Churchill: A Life follows Winston Churchill from his earliest days to his moments of triumph. Here, the drama and excitement of his story are ever-present. Martin Gilbert gives us a vivid portrait, using Churchill's most personal letters and the recollections of his contemporaries, both friends and enemies, to go behind the scenes of some of the stormiest and most fascinating political events of our time.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sir Martin Gilbert At His Best, Perfected By Christian Rodska
- By History For History’s Sake on 09-15-16
By: Martin Gilbert
-
Eight Days in May
- The Final Collapse of the Third Reich
- By: Volker Ullrich, Jefferson Chase - translator
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 116
On April 30, 1945, in a bunker deep beneath the Old Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler and his newly wedded wife, Eva Braun, killed themselves. But Nazi Germany lived on, however briefly. The subsequent eight days were among the most turbulent in history, witnessing not only the final battles of World War II and the collapse of the Wehrmacht, but the near-total disintegration of the once-mighty Third Reich.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting history incompetently read
- By Oralabor Bondurant on 01-26-22
By: Volker Ullrich, and others
-
The Nazis
- A Warning from History
- By: Laurence Rees
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
Following the success of Rees's best-selling Auschwitz, this substantially revised and updated edition of The Nazis - A Warning from History tells the powerfully gripping story of the rise and fall of the Third Reich. During a 16-year period, acclaimed author and documentary-maker Laurence Rees met and interviewed a large number of former Nazis, and his unique insights into the Nazi psyche and World War II received enormous praise.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
HOW TO STEAL A COUNTRY
- By Bowen Florsheim on 09-14-21
By: Laurence Rees
-
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
- A History of Nazi Germany
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 57 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 17,871
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 15,422
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 15,354
Since its publication in 1960, William L. Shirer’s monumental study of Hitler’s German empire has been widely acclaimed as the definitive record of the 20th century’s blackest hours. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich offers an unparalleled and thrillingly told examination of how Adolf Hitler nearly succeeded in conquering the world. With millions of copies in print around the globe, it has attained the status of a vital and enduring classic.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Held my interest for 57 hours and 13 minutes
- By Jonnie on 11-08-10
-
Those Who Forget
- By: Geraldine Schwarz
- Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
During World War II, Géraldine Schwarz’s German grandparents were neither heroes nor villains; they were merely Mitlaüfer - those who followed the current. Decades later, while delving through filing cabinets in the basement of their apartment building in Mannheim, Schwarz discovers that in 1938, her grandfather took advantage of Nazi policies to buy a business from a Jewish family for a low price. Weaving together the threads of three generations of her family story with Europe’s process of post-war reckoning, Schwarz explores how millions were seduced by ideology.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Not what it purports to be
- By DPM on 10-10-20
-
The Unfathomable Ascent
- How Hitler Came to Power
- By: Peter Ross Range
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
On the night of January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler leaned out of a spotlit window of the Reich chancellery in Berlin, bursting with joy. The moment seemed unbelievable, even to Hitler. After an improbable political journey that came close to faltering on many occasions, his march to power had finally succeeded. While the path of Hitler's rise has been told in books covering larger portions of his life, no previous work has focused solely on his eight-year climb to rule: 1925-1933.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The best account of Hitler’s rise to power.
- By Deal W. Hudson on 08-26-20
By: Peter Ross Range
-
The Nazi Menace
- Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War
- By: Benjamin Carter Hett
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 24
Berlin, November 1937. Adolf Hitler meets with his military commanders to impress upon them the urgent necessity for a war of aggression in Eastern Europe. Some generals are unnerved by the Führer’s grandiose plan, but these dissenters are silenced one by one, setting in motion events that will culminate in the most calamitous war in history.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Bad Melodramatic Reading
- By Tess on 08-18-20