English History Made Brief, Irreverent, and Pleasurable
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English History Made Brief, Irreverent, and Pleasurable
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Narrated by:
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Peter Noble
About this listen
Here at last is a history of England that is designed to entertain as well as inform and that will delight the armchair traveler, the tourist, or just about anyone interested in history.
No people have engendered quite so much acclaim or earned so much censure as the English: extolled as the Athenians of modern times, yet hammered for their self-satisfaction and hypocrisy. But their history has been a spectacular one.
The guiding principle of this book's heretical approach is that "history is not everything that happened but what is worth remembering about the past". Thus its chapters deal mainly with "Memorable History" in blocks of time over the centuries. The final chapter, "The Royal Soap Opera", recounts the achievements, personalities, and idiocies of the royal family since the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066. English History will be a welcome and amusing tour of a land that has always fascinated Anglophiles and Anglophobes alike.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,162
The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
-
The Shortest History of Germany
- From Julius Caesar to Angela Merkel: A Retelling for Our Times
- By: James Hawes
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
A country both admired and feared, Germany has been the epicenter of world events time and again: the Reformation, both World Wars, the fall of the Berlin Wall. It did not emerge as a modern nation until 1871 - yet today, Germany is the world's fourth-largest economy and a standard-bearer of liberal democracy.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The narrator can’t pronounce German
- By Vauras Ilmari on 03-22-19
By: James Hawes
-
Sicily
- An Island at the Crossroads of History
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 165
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 163
"Sicily," said Goethe, "is the key to everything." It is the largest island in the Mediterranean, the stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the link between the Latin West and the Greek East. Sicily's strategic location has tempted Roman emperors, French princes, and Spanish kings. The subsequent struggles to conquer and keep it have played crucial roles in the rise and fall of the world's most powerful dynasties.
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3 out of 5 stars
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DISAPPOINTING
- By SRdto on 11-22-16
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Fire and Blood
- A History of Mexico
- By: T. R. Fehrenbach
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 35 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 176
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 157
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 156
T. R. Fehrenbach brilliantly delineates the contrasts and conflicts between the many Mexicos, unraveling the history while weaving a fascinating tapestry of beauty and brutality: the Amerindians, who wrought from the vulnerable land a great indigenous Meso-American civilization by the first millennium BC; the successive reigns of Olmec, Maya, Toltec, and Mexic masters, who ruled through an admirably efficient bureaucracy and the power of the priests, propitiating the capricious gods with human sacrifices; the Spanish conquistadors, and much more.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book bad narration
- By M. A. Chris Raine on 03-23-19
By: T. R. Fehrenbach
-
Crown & Sceptre
- A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II
- By: Tracy Borman
- Narrated by: Tracy Borman
- Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 152
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 135
Since William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, crossed the English Channel in 1066 to defeat King Harold II and unite England’s various kingdoms, 41 kings and queens have sat on Britain’s throne. “Shining examples of royal power and majesty alongside a rogue’s gallery of weak, lazy, or evil monarchs,” as Tracy Borman describes them in her sparkling chronicle, Crown & Sceptre.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great book for those new to the monarchy
- By Chris Corsini on 04-05-22
By: Tracy Borman
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The French Revolution: A Captivating Guide to the Ten-Year Revolution in France and the Impact Made by Napoleon Bonaparte
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Few historical events are as greatly revered and entirely misunderstood as the French Revolution that began in 1789. The memory of this complicated and lengthy political, violent uprising has been generally painted in broad - and oversimplified - strokes. While the French Revolution was certainly centered around two lavish monarchs and an enlightened common class, there was so much more going on behind the scenes.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good, but in a Non-chronological Format.
- By Christian on 05-13-19
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The Tudors
- The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty
- By: G. J. Meyer
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 24 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 805
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 662
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 665
For the first time in decades, here, in a single volume, is a fresh look at the fabled Tudor dynasty, comprising some of the most enigmatic figures ever to rule a country. Acclaimed historian G. J. Meyer reveals the flesh-and-bone reality in all its wild excess.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
OUTSTANDING!
- By The Louligan on 03-15-10
By: G. J. Meyer
-
Destiny Disrupted
- A History of the World through Islamic Eyes
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,964
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,650
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,642
Until about 1800, the West and the Islamic realm were like two adjacent, parallel universes, each assuming itself to be the center of the world while ignoring the other. As Europeans colonized the globe, the two world histories intersected and the Western narrative drove the other one under. The West hardly noticed, but the Islamic world found the encounter profoundly disrupting.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A history of the world before the West mattered
- By David on 05-05-14
By: Tamim Ansary
-
Magna Carta
- The Birth of Liberty
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 665
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 585
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 577
The Magna Carta is revered around the world as the founding document of Western liberty. Its principles - even its language - can be found in our Bill of Rights and in the Constitution. But what was this strange document and how did it gain such legendary status? Dan Jones takes us back to the turbulent year of 1215, when, beset by foreign crises and cornered by a growing domestic rebellion, King John reluctantly agreed to fix his seal to a document that would change the course of history.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Complicated period of history made accessible
- By NH on 12-09-15
By: Dan Jones
-
Titans of History
- The Giants Who Made Our World
- By: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
In this inspiring, horrifying, and accessible collection of short, entertaining, and vivid life stories, Simon Sebag Montefiore - one of our preeminent historians and a prizewinning writer - presents the giant characters who have changed the course of world history.
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Party line history
- By Narada on 11-24-18
-
Our First Revolution
- The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers (Unabr.)
- By: Michael Barone
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 111
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 51
The ideals of freedom and individual rights that inspired America's Founding Fathers did not spring from a vacuum. Along with many other defining principles of our national character, they can be traced directly back to one of the most pivotal events in British history: the late-17th-century uprising known as the Glorious Revolution.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent Recap of a Forgotten Event
- By rollcall40 on 01-02-08
By: Michael Barone
-
The Shortest History of China
- From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower: A Retelling for Our Times
- By: Linda Jaivin
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics, and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is nothing if not messy. Heroes are also villains; prosperity mingles with violence; cultural vibrancy coexists with censorship and repression. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse, an icon of urbanization, a propaganda state, and an aggressive superpower seeking world domination.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!
- By Emma on 10-23-24
By: Linda Jaivin
-
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
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Chaucer wrote about everyday people outside the walls of the English court-men and women who spent days at the pedal of a loom, or maintaining the ledgers of an estate, or on the high seas. In Chaucer's People, Liza Picard transforms The Canterbury Tales into a masterful guide for a gloriously detailed tour of medieval England, from the mills and farms of a manor house to the lending houses and Inns of Court in London. In Chaucer's People, we meet, again, the motley crew of pilgrims on the road to Canterbury.
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The most famous date in history is 1066, and with good reason, since no battle in medieval history had such a devastating effect on its losers as the Battle of Hastings, which altered the entire course of English history.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Extremely condescending.
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Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler
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In Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler, acclaimed historian Robert Gellately focuses on the dominant powers of the time, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, but also analyzes the catastrophe of those years in an effort to uncover its political and ideological nature.
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Incredible research as important now as then
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The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
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Despite suffering at the hands of invading Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and Normans, and tyrannical kings and queens, Britons have been renowned since Queen Boudicca for their fierce commitment to the liberty of the individual. Britain's 700-year-old parliamentary democracy has developed from a passion for fairness and the rule of law. In an atmospheric and vivid narrative, Rebecca Fraser takes listeners through key events in the nation's history.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Love the content hate the voice.
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The Hundred Years War
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From 1337 to 1453 England repeatedly invaded France on the pretext that her kings had a right to the French throne. Though it was a small, poor country, England for most of those "100 years" won the battles, sacked the towns and castles, and dominated the war. Desmond Seward's critically acclaimed account of the Hundred Years War brings to life all of the intrigue, beauty, and royal to-the-death-fighting of that legendary century-long conflict.
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Superb narrator and fascintating history
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Saxons, Vikings, and Celts
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WASPs finally get their due in this stimulating history by one of the world's leading geneticists. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts is the most illuminating book yet to be written about the genetic history of Britain and Ireland. Through a systematic, ten-year DNA survey of more than 10,000 volunteers, Bryan Sykes has traced the true genetic makeup of British Islanders and their descendants.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Thesaurus taxing mind numbing travelog
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The Sea Wolves
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In AD 793 Norse warriors struck the English isle of Lindisfarne and laid waste to it. Wave after wave of Norse "sea wolves" followed in search of plunder, land, or a glorious death in battle. Much of the British Isles fell before their swords, and the continental capitals of Paris and Aachen were sacked in turn. Turning east, they swept down the uncharted rivers of central Europe, captured Kiev, and clashed with mighty Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A little dry but very interesting
- By Angela on 08-30-15
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The Second Book of General Ignorance
- Everything You Think You Know Is (Still) Wrong
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Just when you thought that it was safe to start showing off again, John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are back with another busload of mistakes and misunderstandings. Here is a new collection of simple, perfectly obvious questions you'll be quite certain you know the answers to. Whether it's history, science, sports, geography, literature, language, medicine, the classics, or common wisdom, you'll be astonished to discover that everything you thought you knew is still hopelessly wrong.
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5 out of 5 stars
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It's all stuff from QI
- By Bonnie Kennedy on 04-07-21
By: John Lloyd, and others
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Foundation
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In Foundation the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1509. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past - a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The Most Annoying Narrator EVER
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The Celtic World
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Following the surge of interest and pride in Celtic identity since the 19th century, much of what we thought we knew about the Celts has been radically transformed. In The Celtic World, discover the incredible story of the Celtic-speaking peoples, whose art, language, and culture once spread from Ireland to Austria. This series of 24 enlightening lectures explains the traditional historical view of who the Celts were, then contrasts it with brand-new evidence from DNA analysis and archeology that totally changes our perspective on where the Celts came from.
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4 out of 5 stars
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I wish this had a different title
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The Modern Scholar
- Six Months That Changed the World: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919
- By: Dr. Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Dr. Margaret MacMillan
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 401
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 275
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 269
The world will never see another peace conference like the one which took place in Paris in 1919. For six months, the world's major leaders - including Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States, David Lloyd George, prime minister of Great Britain, and Georges Clemenceau, prime minister of France - met to discuss the peace settlements which were to end World War One.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best Audible Title Yet
- By Jon on 04-05-10
What listeners say about English History Made Brief, Irreverent, and Pleasurable
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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
- Roger March
- 07-16-19
Easy and fun ...
Very consumable and, as titled, pleasurable. There are lots of interesting tidbits that I had never come across before too.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lydia W.
- 06-24-22
well done
There is a lot in this book. Sometimes I got lost, but only because of my lack of British history.
This is a "heavy" fun read.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-14-18
WOW! exactly what the title says!
A must read for anglophiles, history bluffs & royal watches! I definitely recommend this book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Vicki Patterson
- 11-29-20
Funny and Interesting
Fantastic book! Exactly what's on the tin. However an update would do this book wonders. Totally worth a listen, though.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- gerald congdon
- 03-26-22
English History is Dry
The author makes it incredibly interesting to listen to. I enjoyed it. Great job bud!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Suzee Gee
- 09-01-22
the Book Title speaks the truth!
I am a history nerd and this has been a delightful read! The narrator's droll voice and immensely specific spacing of words and phrases left me gasping in giggles on more than one occasion. I'm about to listen to it a second time just for the joy of snickering.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Juli Crly
- 11-01-22
British history summarized well!
I like the narrator, who has a lot of history to condense in a few hours. Great read!
Author is spot on with facts and I have reread several times.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Fairygreen
- 08-30-18
Wonderful!
I loved this book. Nicely read. it gives the highlights of every period of English history in a most entertaining way. It will also be enjoyable to listen to again and again.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- abe palaz
- 10-13-18
enjoyable funny and objective
i throughly enjoyed listening English History. Author clearly has a command of every detail and its impact on greater things. i learned a great deal about English history but I took great personal lessons from the success a d failures and causes and effects of kings and queens. wonderfully written book i highly recommend anyone any age
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JK
- 09-07-18
Worth listening to!!
I love history. Am very familiar with the history of Great Britain. In order to fully enjoy this book and follow it, I recommend that you are familiar with history. I absolutely recommend this book. The narrator was excellent.
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