A World on Edge
The End of the Great War and the Dawn of a New Age
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A World on Edge
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Narrated by:
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Gerard Doyle
About this listen
A World on Edge is the story of the aftermath of World War I, a transformative time when a new world seemed possible - told from the vantage of people, famous and ordinary, who lived through the turmoil.
November 1918. The Great War has left Europe in ruins, but with the end of hostilities, a radical new start seems not only possible, but essential, even unavoidable. Unorthodox ideas light up the age: new politics, new societies, new art and culture, new thinking. The struggle to determine the future has begun.
Sculptor Käthe Kollwitz, whose son died in the war, is translating sorrow and loss into art. Captain Harry Truman is running a men’s haberdashery in Kansas City, hardly expecting he will soon go bankrupt - and then become president of the US. Moina Michael is about to invent the “remembrance poppy”, a symbol of sacrifice that will stand for generations to come. Meanwhile, Virginia Woolf is questioning whether that sacrifice was worth it, and George Grosz is so revolted by the violence on the streets of Berlin that he decides everything is meaningless.
For rulers and revolutionaries, a world of power and privilege is dying - while for others, a dream of overthrowing democracy is being born.
With novelistic virtuosity, Daniel Schönpflug describes this watershed time as it was experienced on the ground - open-ended, unfathomable, its outcome unclear. Combining a multitude of acutely observed details, Schönpflug shows listeners a world suspended between enthusiasm and disappointment, in which the window of opportunity was suddenly open, only to quickly close shut again.
©2017; 2018 Text copyright S. Fischer Verlag GmbH; Translation copyright Jefferson Chase (P)2018 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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3 out of 5 stars
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Lenin totally took an extra piece of that cake.
- By John Gathly on 05-14-19
By: Victor Sebestyen
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To End All Wars
- A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 464
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 382
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 376
World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain's leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A story of personalities
- By Tad Davis on 06-09-11
By: Adam Hochschild
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Children of the Night
- The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania
- By: Paul Kenyon
- Narrated by: Paul Kenyon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story5 out of 5 stars 70
The country that gave us Vlad Dracula, and whose citizens consider themselves descendants of ancient Rome, has traditionally preferred the status of enigmatic outsider. But this beautiful and unexplored land has experienced some of the most disastrous leaderships of the last century. After a relatively benign period led by a dutiful king and his vivacious, British-born queen, the country oscillated wildly.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A haunting look at Romanian history
- By Steve Adams on 07-19-24
By: Paul Kenyon
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Indian Summer
- The Secret History of the End of an Empire
- By: Alex von Tunzelmann
- Narrated by: Nicola Barber
- Length: 15 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 201
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 169
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 170
At the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the British Empire withdrew from India, igniting the exhilaration and turmoil of a newly free society. In this vivid, atmospheric popular history, Alex von Tunzelmann chronicles these times through the most prominent figures.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Such an interesting piece of History made easy
- By Diego on 01-23-12
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Prague Winter
- A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948
- By: Madeleine Albright
- Narrated by: Madeleine Albright
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 435
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 384
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 382
Before Madeleine Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia—the country where she was born—the Battle of Britain, the near total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War. Albright's experiences, and those of her family, provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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History from a Personal Perspective
- By Jeanette Finan on 02-22-13
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Spain in Our Hearts
- Americans in the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 582
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 523
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 523
For three crucial years in the 1930s, the Spanish Civil War dominated headlines in America and around the world as volunteers flooded to Spain to help its democratic government fight off a fascist uprising led by Francisco Franco and aided by Hitler and Mussolini. Today we're accustomed to remembering the war through Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls and Robert Capa's photographs. But Adam Hochschild has discovered some less familiar yet far more compelling characters who reveal the full tragedy and importance of the war.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book very well written and narrated
- By James750 on 05-12-16
By: Adam Hochschild
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Caught in the Revolution
- Petrograd, Russia, 1917 - a World on the Edge
- By: Helen Rappaport
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 115
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Romanov Sisters, Caught in the Revolution is Helen Rappaport's masterful telling of the outbreak of the Russian Revolution through eyewitness accounts left by foreign nationals who saw the drama unfold.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Ordinary People; Chaotic Times
- By David on 03-18-17
By: Helen Rappaport
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Stalin
- The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives
- By: Edvard Radzinsky
- Narrated by: David McCallum
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 230
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
The Kremlin intrigues, the private worlds of the Soviet Empire's ruling class, Radzinsky thrillingly brings them to life. And the riddle of that most cold-blooded of leaders, a man for whom nothing was sacred in his pursuit of absolute might, and perhaps the greatest mass murderer in Western history, is solved.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great Book About a Great Tyrant
- By Moon Man on 05-01-05
By: Edvard Radzinsky
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HHhH
- By: Laurent Binet
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 224
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 196
HHhH: "Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich," or "Himmler's brain is called Heydrich." The most dangerous man in Hitler's cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the "Butcher of Prague." He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible-until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service-killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Himlers Hirn heisst Heydrich
- By Darwin8u on 02-02-13
By: Laurent Binet
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The President and the Assassin
- McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 337
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 294
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 293
In 1901, as America tallied its gains from a period of unprecedented imperial expansion, an assassin's bullet shattered the nation's confidence. The shocking murder of President William McKinley threw into stark relief the emerging new world order of what would come to be known as the American Century.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Ideal History Book for the Audio Format
- By Nelson Alexander on 09-30-11
By: Scott Miller
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The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Volume I: Visions of Glory 1874-1932
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 41 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,653
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,151
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Story5 out of 5 stars 2,145
Winston Churchill is perhaps the most important political figure of the 20th century. His great oratory and leadership during the Second World War were only part of his huge breadth of experience and achievement. Studying his life is a fascinating way to imbibe the history of his era and gain insight into key events that have shaped our time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb - Review of Both Volume I & Volume II
- By Wolfpacker on 01-23-09
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Thirteen Days in September
- Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall, Lawrence Wright
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 323
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 292
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 292
A gripping day-by-day account of the 1978 Camp David conference, when President Jimmy Carter persuaded Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the first peace treaty in the modern Middle East, one which endures to this day.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Lessons in Negotiation
- By David on 06-18-15
By: Lawrence Wright
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Lenin on the Train
- By: Catherine Merridale
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 52
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
In April 1917, as Tsar Nicholas II's abdication sent shockwaves across war-torn Europe, the future leader of the Bolshevik revolution, Vladimir Lenin, was far away, exiled in Zurich. To lead the revolt, Lenin needed to return to Petrograd immediately. But to get there, he would have to cross Germany, which meant accepting help from the deadliest of Russia's adversaries and betraying his homeland.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Deteriorates into Unhinged Lenin-Bashing
- By Ike Nahem on 03-18-19
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Symphony for the City of the Dead
- Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad
- By: M. T. Anderson
- Narrated by: M. T. Anderson
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 572
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 524
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 523
In September 1941, Adolf Hitler's Wehrmacht surrounded Leningrad in what was to become one of the longest and most destructive sieges in Western history - almost three years of bombardment and starvation that culminated in the harsh winter of 1943 - 1944. Trapped between the Nazi invading force and the Soviet government itself was composer Dmitri Shostakovich, who would write a symphony that roused, rallied, eulogized, and commemorated his fellow citizens - the Leningrad Symphony.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An Eye-Opening, Emotional Tale
- By A.L.R. on 02-05-16
By: M. T. Anderson
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Swansong 1945
- A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich
- By: Walter Kempowski, Shaun Whiteside - translator
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove, Christine Williams
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4 out of 5 stars 54
Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe through hundreds of letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts covering four days that fateful spring: Hitler's birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler's suicide on April 30, and finally the German surrender on May 8.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Important, Tragic, Poignant...
- By Amazon Customer on 07-31-15
By: Walter Kempowski, and others
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The Last Palace
- Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House
- By: Norman Eisen
- Narrated by: Jeff Goldblum
- Length: 15 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 233
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 206
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 203
When Norman Eisen moved into the US ambassador’s residence in Prague, returning to the land his mother had fled after the Holocaust, he was startled to discover swastikas hidden beneath the furniture in his new home. These symbols of Nazi Germany were remnants of the residence’s forgotten history, and evidence that we never live far from the past. From that discovery unspooled the twisting, captivating tale of four of the remarkable people who had called this palace home. Their story is Europe’s....
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3 out of 5 stars
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Great book despite goldblum’s narration
- By Fernando Ferrante on 01-19-19
By: Norman Eisen