Defending Heaven
China's Mongol Wars, 1209-1370
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Defending Heaven
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Narrated by:
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Derek Perkins
About this listen
Defending Heaven brings together, for the first time in one volume, a complete history of the Jin, Song, and Ming dynasties' wars fought against the Mongols. Lasting nearly two centuries, these wars, fought to defend Chinese civilization against a brutal and unrelenting foe, pitted personal heroics against the inexorable Mongol war machine and involved every part of the Chinese state.
The resistance of the Chinese dynasties to the Khans is a complex and rich story of shifting alliances and political scheming, vast armies and navies, bloody battles and an astonishing technological revolution. The great events of China's Mongol war are described and analyzed, detailing their immediate and later implications for Chinese history.
In this excellent new book, James Waterson tackles this fascinating subject with characteristic verve and skill. Setting the Mongol war in the wider context of China's ancient and almost perpetual conflict with the northern nomads, it sheds light on the evolution of China's military society and the management, command and control of the army by the Chinese state.
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The War of the Three Gods is a military history of the Near and Middle East in the seventh century - with its chief focus on the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius (AD 610-641) - a pivotal and dramatic time in world history. The Eastern Roman Empire was brought to the very brink of extinction by the Sassanid Persians before Heraclius managed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Sassanids with a desperate, final gambit.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Filled in some blanks
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By: Peter Crawford
-
The Punic Wars
- A Captivating Guide to the First, Second, and Third Punic Wars Between Rome and Carthage, Including the Rise and Fall of Hannibal Barca
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 21
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 17
The Punic Wars between 264 BCE and 146 BCE were a series of wars fought between the armies of ancient Carthage and Rome. In the years before the battles broke out, Carthage had risen from a small port community to the Mediterranean region's richest and most powerful city. Carthage had a powerful navy, a mercenary army, and ample resources to act as an authority in trade and politics. As such, Carthage prohibited Roman trade in the Western Mediterranean through an agreement with what was then just a small city called Rome. Rome didn’t stay small and insignificant for long.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good job
- By Elvira Castillo on 05-14-20
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Carnage and Culture
- Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 278
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 277
Examining nine landmark battles from ancient to modern times - from Salamis, where outnumbered Greeks devastated the slave army of Xerxes, to Cortes' conquest of Mexico to the Tet offensive - Victor Davis Hanson explains why the armies of the West have been the most lethal and effective of any fighting forces in the world. Looking beyond popular explanations such as geography or superior technology, Hanson argues that it is in fact Western culture and values which have consistently produced superior arms and soldiers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow! This truly is a great book. A rarity!
- By GEJ on 11-12-19
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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.
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2 out of 5 stars
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No description of battles
- By John Gaston on 01-15-21
-
God's Shadow
- Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Alan Mikhail
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 227
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 190
Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. Yet, despite its towering influence and centrality to the rise of our modern world, the Ottoman Empire's history has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and even suppressed in the West. Now Alan Mikhail presents a vitally needed recasting of Ottoman history, retelling the story of the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520).
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1 out of 5 stars
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Entertaining narrative, but poor scholarship
- By Yosemite on 09-15-20
By: Alan Mikhail
-
The Savior Generals
- How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - From Ancient Greece to Iraq
- By: Victor Davis Hanson
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 344
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 307
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 306
Prominent military historian Victor Davis Hanson explores the nature of leadership with his usual depth and vivid prose in The Savior Generals, a set of brilliantly executed pocket biographies of five generals (Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway, and David Petraeus) who single-handedly saved their nations from defeat in war. War is rarely a predictable enterprise - it is a mess of luck, chance, and incalculable variables. Today's sure winner can easily become tomorrow's doomed loser.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
A good history book tells about human nature.
- By Doruk Denkel on 03-03-20
-
A History of Warfare
- By: John Keegan
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 19 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 343
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 216
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 212
Starting with the premise that all civilizations owe their origins to warmaking, Keegan probes the meanings, motivations, and methods underlying war in different societies over the course of more than two thousand years. Following the progress of human aggression in its full historical sweep, from the strangely ritualistic combat of Stone Age peoples to the warfare of mass destruction in the present age, his illuminating and lively narrative gives us all the world's great warrior cultures.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Not what I expected
- By Mark on 12-05-06
By: John Keegan
-
History's Greatest Generals
- 10 Commanders Who Conquered Empires, Revolutionized Warfare, and Changed History Forever
- By: Michael Rank
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 5 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 49
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 49
Whether it is Hannibal of Carthage marching elephants across the Alps and attacking the heart of Rome, Khalid ibn al-Walid boasting an undefeated military career and destroying the Persian Empire while subduing the Byzantines, or Russian General Alexander Suvurov and his elevation of the bayonet to a work of art that could cut down any European army, great military leaders have exerted tremendous influence on society. This book will look at the lives of the 10 greatest military commanders in history.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great Book
- By MICHAEL H on 01-27-14
By: Michael Rank
-
The Fall of the Roman Empire
- A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
- By: Peter Heather
- Narrated by: Allan Robertson
- Length: 21 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 484
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 433
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 431
The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors Rome called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling an Empire that had dominated their lives for so long. A leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians, Heather relates the extraordinary story of how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled the empire apart.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
A New HIstory but not a better history
- By Mario on 03-28-14
By: Peter Heather
-
Philip and Alexander
- Kings and Conquerors
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Neil Dickson
- Length: 20 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 457
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 394
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 393
This definitive biography of one of history's most influential father-son duos tells the story of two rulers who gripped the world - and their rise and fall from power.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Horrible narrator
- By Anonymous User on 01-05-21
-
The Great Commanders
- Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Horatio Nelson, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ulysses S. Grant, Georgi Zhukov
- By: Phil Grabsky
- Narrated by: Phil Grabsky
- Length: 5 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 124
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 110
The Great Commanders is a masterly portrait of six men - Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Horatio Nelson, Napoleon Bonaparte, Ulysses S. Grant and Georgi Zhukov - whose military genius changed the course of world history.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Broad, and High Level History
- By Mark on 11-20-14
By: Phil Grabsky
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The Crusades
- The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land
- By: Thomas Asbridge
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 25 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,965
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,522
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 3,500
The Crusades is an authoritative, accessible single-volume history of the brutal struggle for the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. Thomas Asbridge - a renowned historian who writes with "maximum vividness" (Joan Acocella, The New Yorker) - covers the years 1095 to 1291 in this big, ambitious, listenable account of one of the most fascinating periods in history.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Comprehensive
- By Tad Davis on 10-04-16
By: Thomas Asbridge
-
The Anarchy
- The Relentless Rise of the East India Company
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: Sid Sagar
- Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,164
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 968
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 963
The Anarchy tells the remarkable story of how one of the world’s most magnificent empires disintegrated and came to be replaced by a dangerously unregulated private company, based thousands of miles overseas in one small office, five windows wide, and answerable only to its distant shareholders. In his most ambitious and riveting audiobook to date, William Dalrymple tells the story of the East India Company as it has never been told before, unfolding a timely cautionary tale of the first global corporate power.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent book but awkward narration
- By TexasVC on 02-25-20
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Carthage Must Be Destroyed
- The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization
- By: Richard Miles
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 670
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 580
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 577
An epic history of a doomed civilization and a lost empire. The devastating struggle to the death between the Carthaginians and the Romans was one of the defining dramas of the ancient world. In an epic series of land and sea battles, both sides came close to victory before the Carthaginians finally succumbed and their capital city, history, and culture were almost utterly erased.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding! This is THE book on Carthage.
- By Haakon B. Dahl on 01-21-13
By: Richard Miles
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Sparta's Second Attic War
- The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta, 446-418 BC
- By: Paul A. Rahe
- Narrated by: Paul A. Rahe
- Length: 15 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
In a continuation of his multivolume series on ancient Sparta, Paul Rahe narrates the second stage in the six decades long, epic struggle between Sparta and Athens that first erupted some 17 years after their joint victory in the Persian Wars. Rahe explores how and why open warfare between these two erstwhile allies broke out a second time, after they had negotiated an extended truce.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Thorough and intriguing.
- By Kindle Customer on 05-23-22
By: Paul A. Rahe
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The Horde
- How the Mongols Changed the World
- By: Marie Favereau
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
Favereau takes us inside one of the most powerful sources of cross-border integration in world history. The Horde was the central node in the Eurasian commercial boom of the 13th and 14th centuries and was a conduit for exchanges across thousands of miles. Its unique political regime - a complex power-sharing arrangement among the khan and the nobility - rewarded skillful administrators and diplomats and fostered an economic order that was mobile, organized, and innovative.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Golden Horde complete history, well done
- By Amazon Customer on 03-10-22
By: Marie Favereau
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What listeners say about Defending Heaven
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 06-28-20
Good book, but confusing
Liked the book, but the flurry of names and places with the bad pronunciation confused me.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Stef
- 04-04-24
I struggled to keep track of all the names, but I
This could easily be a dry history, but it is instead fascinating and informative, although it does start with list of events and their dates, helpful for putting things in context but dull as a brick to listen to. Once the story gets started the book gets good. Derek Perkins, the narrator of the audiobook is excellent and James Waterson, the writer, is superb, vibrant and personable.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Adam
- 06-25-20
Good history book
I love Chinese history books the history is so extensive there's thousands of years to draw from this bill covers about 200 of them and its detailed and easy to understand with just basic knowledge of Chinese or Mongol history
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-26-21
Mongols didn't invent china
this is enjoyable I guess, but for me sits in the gap between a fun story history book and an actual analysis. the analysis is very shallow, the storytelling is ok.
like favorably comparing Homer's Iliad to the Song court's record keeping and biased court reporting was just not something anyone thought through, I feel
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