Germany

A History

By: Francis Russell

Narrated by: A. T. Chandler

Here, from New York Times best-selling historian Francis Russell, is the dramatic story of Germany - from the rise of Charlemagne to the age of Martin Luther, from the 30 Years' War to the iron rule of Otto von Bismarck, and from the formation of the Weimar Republic to the fighting of two world wars.

©2016 American Heritage (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Solid Summary

The voice is perfect and soothing. A good voice for history!

While the book only goes into detail occasionally, I would say it is a nice book for those just getting into German history or want a better overview of it’s roughly last 2,000 years of history.

good introduction to German history.

narration was fine, good.job with German names and pronunciation. my issue with the book was rather it raced through in chronological order. the earlier chapters are harder to follow because of the series of kings counts rivals etc. the book also lacked an.analysis of broader themes, social and cultural history. it is rather focused on Kings wars and empire. a good book.for.first time students of german history as a broad survey. for outsiders looking in at germany, with more of an introduction to culture geography and comparative history, I recommend the book Germania.

A timeline of kings and wars.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The headline says it perfectly - A Timeline of kings and wars. That's all you'll get from this book. Delving more into the motives and life stories of the individuals discussed would have been a great improvement. I also would have appreciated some description of the social customs, beliefs, and lifestyles of the people living in these time periods.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Something by the Great Courses - most of those have been outstanding.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of A. T. Chandler?

For reading from what sounds like a boring text book, he did o.k. Perhaps a little more variance in his tone, but really it was the substance of what he was reading that was the problem.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

If you're interested in a long list of kings and a brief description of the wars they engaged in, then this is the book for you.