Shatter the Nations
ISIS and the War for the Caliphate
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Shatter the Nations
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Narrated by:
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Robert Fass
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By:
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Mike Giglio
About this listen
Unflinching dispatches of an embedded war reporter covering ISIS and the unlikely alliance of forces who came together to defeat it.
The battle to defeat ISIS was an unremittingly brutal and dystopian struggle, a multi-sided war of gritty local commandos and militias. Mike Giglio takes listeners to the heart of this shifting, uncertain conflict, capturing the essence of a modern war.
At its peak, ISIS controlled a self-styled "caliphate" the size of Great Britain, with a population cast into servitude that numbered in the millions. Its territory spread across Iraq and Syria as its influence stretched throughout the wider world.
Giglio tells the story of the rise of the caliphate and the ramshackle coalition - aided by secretive Western troops and American airstrikes - that was assembled to break it down village by village, district by district. The story moves from the smugglers, traffickers, and jihadis working on the ISIS side to the victims of its zealous persecution and the local soldiers who died by the thousands to defeat it. Amid the battlefield drama, culminating in a climactic showdown in Mosul, is a dazzlingly human portrait of the destructive power of extremism, and of the tenacity and astonishing courage required to defeat it.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Mike Giglio (P)2019 PublicAffairsListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"[A] forthright account by an invested journalist unafraid to ask key questions about the many ramifications of the conflict" (Kirkus Reviews)
"Giglio's Shatter the Nations is more than a brave on-the-ground chronicle of the battle against ISIS - it is a lyrical, thrilling work that stands amongst the best of war literature." (Molly Crabapple, author of Drawing Blood and illustrator of Brothers of the Gun: A Memoir of the Syrian War)
"With a reporter's unflinching eye and in a fine writer's clear prose, Mike Giglio has written a hypnotically compelling account of the rise and fall of the blood-drenched ISIS 'caliphate' in the Middle East. Unforgettable." (Jon Lee Anderson, staff writer for the New Yorker)
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
Toward the beginning of Places and Names, Elliot Ackerman sits in a refugee camp in Turkey, across the table from a man named Abu Hassar, who fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq, and whose connections to the Islamic State are murky. At first, Ackerman pretends to be a journalist, but after establishing a rapport with Abu Hassar, he takes a risk by revealing to him that in fact he was a Marine special operation officer. Ackerman then draws the shape of the Euphrates River on a large piece of paper, and his one-time adversary quickly joins him in the game of filling in the map.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A crazy ride through the Mideast.
- By Kent Prochazka on 12-05-19
By: Elliot Ackerman
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They Will Have to Die Now
- Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate
- By: James Verini
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 121
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 115
James Verini arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2016 to write about life in the Islamic State. He stayed to cover the jihadis' last great stand, the Battle of Mosul, not knowing it would go on for nearly a year, nor that it would become, in the words of the Pentagon, "the most significant urban combat since WWII." They Will Have to Die Now takes the listener into the heart of the conflict against the most lethal insurgency of our time. We see unspeakable violence, improbable humanity, and occasional humor.
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5 out of 5 stars
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really solid performance keeps you engaged
- By TFMethane on 04-12-21
By: James Verini
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The Spymaster of Baghdad
- A True Story of Bravery, Family, and Patriotism in the Battle Against ISIS
- By: Margaret Coker
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 70
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story5 out of 5 stars 65
The Spymaster of Baghdad tells the dramatic yet intimate account of how a covert Iraqi intelligence unit called “the Falcons” came together against all odds to defeat ISIS. The Falcons, comprised of ordinary men with little conventional espionage background, infiltrated the world’s most powerful terrorist organization, ultimately turning the tide of war against the terrorist group and bringing safety to millions of Iraqis and the broader world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Worth every penny
- By Michelle on 04-20-21
By: Margaret Coker
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The Fifth Act
- America's End in Afghanistan
- By: Elliot Ackerman
- Narrated by: Elliot Ackerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 187
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 167
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Story5 out of 5 stars 167
Elliot Ackerman left the American military ten years ago, but his time in Afghanistan and Iraq with the Marines and later as a CIA paramilitary officer marked him indelibly. When the Taliban began to close in on Kabul in August 2021 and the Afghan regime began its death spiral, he found himself pulled back into the conflict. Afghan nationals who had worked closely with the American military and intelligence communities for years now faced brutal reprisal and sought frantically to flee the country with their families.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A painful but necessary read
- By Tom Hanks on 08-22-22
By: Elliot Ackerman
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The Forever War
- By: Dexter Filkins
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 514
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 340
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 341
Through the eyes of Dexter Filkins, we witness the chain of events that began with the rise of the Taliban in the 1990s, continued with the attacks of 9/11, and moved on to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Forever War allows us a visceral understanding of today's battlefields and of the experiences of the people on the ground, warriors and innocents alike. It is a brilliant, fearless work, not just about America's wars after 9/11, but ultimately about the nature of war itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A memorable "read"
- By TCinDC on 02-16-09
By: Dexter Filkins
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Night Draws Near
- Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War
- By: Anthony Shadid
- Narrated by: Anthony Shadid
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
Determined to offer an unfiltered version of events, the Washington Post's Anthony Shadid was neither embedded with soldiers nor briefed by politicians. Because he is fluent in Arabic, Shadid, an Arab-American born and raised in Oklahoma, was able to actually disappear into the divided, dangerous worlds of Iraq. Day by day, as American dreams clashed with Arab notions of justice, he pieced together the human story of ordinary Iraqis weathering the terrible dislocations and tragedies of war.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Too little, too late
- By Kindle Customer on 03-23-09
By: Anthony Shadid
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First Casualty
- The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11
- By: Toby Harnden
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 489
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 425
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Story5 out of 5 stars 422
This dramatic true story reveals the secret mission of the eight members of the CIA’s Team Alpha, the first Americans to be dropped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan after 9/11.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Deeply researched
- By Jason G on 09-08-21
By: Toby Harnden
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Pumpkinflowers
- A Soldier's Story
- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
Using humor, pop culture, and even musical references, Michael Friedman re-creates the wartime experience in a narrative that is part memoir, part journalism, part military history. The years in question were pivotal ones, seeing the perfection of a type of warfare that would eventually be exported to Afghanistan and Iraq and has come to seem like the only kind of warfare in existence - wars in which there is never any clear victory, but not quite enough lives are lost to rally the country against it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Israeli Defense Fighter’s Story of War in Lebanon
- By Debbie on 05-02-19
By: Matti Friedman
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Full Battle Rattle
- My Story as the Longest-Serving Special Forces A-Team Soldier in American History
- By: Ralph Pezzullo, Changiz Lahidji
- Narrated by: Eric Pollins
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 436
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 402
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 400
Master Sergeant Changiz Lahidji served on Special Forces A teams longer than anyone in history, completing over a hundred combat missions in Afghanistan. Changiz is a Special Forces legend. He also happens to be the first Muslim Green Beret. Changiz served this country starting with Operation Eagle Claw in 1980, when he entered Tehran on a one-man mission to spy on Iranian soldiers guarding the US embassy where 52 US diplomats were being held hostage.
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2 out of 5 stars
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They need to find a narrator who knows military.
- By Kevin M. Staples on 05-03-18
By: Ralph Pezzullo, and others
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Imperial Grunts
- On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond...
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 210
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4 out of 5 stars 98
Plunging deep into midst of some of the hottest conflicts on the globe, Robert D. Kaplan takes us through mud and jungle, desert and dirt to the men and women on the ground who are leading the charge against threats to American security. These soldiers, fighting in thick Colombian jungles or on dusty Afghani plains, are the forefront of the new American foreign policy, a policy being implemented one soldier at a time.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book
- By Rob on 10-03-05
By: Robert D. Kaplan
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No Turning Back
- Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria
- By: Rania Abouzeid
- Narrated by: Susan Nezami
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Based on more than five years of clandestine reporting on the front lines, No Turning Back is an utterly engrossing human drama full of vivid, indelible characters that shows how hope can flourish even amid one of the 21st century's greatest humanitarian disasters.
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4 out of 5 stars
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SYRIA'S FAMILY BUSINESS
- By chetyarbrough.blog on 12-03-22
By: Rania Abouzeid
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The Way to the Spring
- Life and Death in Palestine
- By: Ben Ehrenreich
- Narrated by: Ben Ehrenreich
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
From an award-winning journalist, a brave and necessary immersion into the everyday struggles of Palestinian life. Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages. Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkable New York Times Magazine cover story. Now comes the powerful new work that has always been his ultimate goal, The Way to the Spring.
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1 out of 5 stars
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One-sided version of 'the truth'
- By Mark on 01-01-18
By: Ben Ehrenreich
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Checkpoint Charlie
- The Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
- By: Iain MacGregor
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 74
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
A powerful, fascinating, and groundbreaking history of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous military gate on the border of East and West Berlin where the US confronted the USSR during the Cold War.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Hard to follow
- By J.Brock on 03-07-21
By: Iain MacGregor
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I Lost My Love in Baghdad
- A Modern War Story
- By: Michael Hastings
- Narrated by: Michael Hastings
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 27
At age 25, Michael Hastings arrived in Baghdad to cover the war in Iraq for Newsweek. He had at his disposal a little Hemingway romanticism and all the apparatus of a 21st-century reporter: cell phones, high-speed Internet access, digital video cameras, fixers, drivers, guards, and translators.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Sad story...
- By kathryn on 01-01-09
By: Michael Hastings
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Mosul
- Australia's Secret War Inside the ISIS Caliphate
- By: Ben Mckelvey
- Narrated by: Nick Farnell
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story5 out of 5 stars 29
Taking us from the suburbs of Western Sydney and Australia's military army bases, to the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, this is a remarkable audiobook that reveals the as-yet untold story of the battle for Mosul and the secret involvement of Australians on both sides of the war - both our commandos and Australian ISIS fighters. Mosul details the rise of ISIS influence in Australia, the Iran and Australia allegiance to fight Daesh and shows what led up to the battle and the ramifications that are still being felt at home - by our soldiers and the victims of that war.
By: Ben Mckelvey
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Zero Footprint
- The True Story of a Private Military Contractor's Covert Assignments in Syria, Libya, and the World's Most Dangerous Places
- By: Simon Chase, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Eric Brooks
- Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,023
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 922
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 926
Armored cars, burner phones, top-notch weaponry, and top-secret missions - this is the life of today's private military contractor. Like author Simon Chase, many PMCs were once the world's top military operatives, and since retiring from outfits like US Navy SEAL TEAM Six and the UK's Special Boat Service, they have devoted their lives to executing missions too sensitive for the government to acknowledge. Chase reveals here for the first time the operations too hazardous and politically volatile to be officially sanctioned by his employers.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Read Amazon reviews, not Audible reviews
- By Andrew M on 02-22-16
By: Simon Chase, and others
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The Kremlin Conspiracy
- A Marcus Ryker Novel, Book 1
- By: Joel C. Rosenberg
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,853
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,370
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,342
Everything he learned to protect the president, he must use to take out theirs. With an American president distracted by growing tensions in North Korea and Iran, an ominous new threat is emerging in Moscow. A czar is rising in the Kremlin, a Russian president feverishly consolidating power, silencing his opposition, and plotting a brazen and lightning-fast military strike that could rupture the NATO alliance and bring Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war. But in his blind spot is the former U.S. Secret Service agent, Marcus Ryker.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding thriller
- By DIANE M TINKLE on 03-12-18
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All Secure
- A Special Operations Soldier's Fight to Survive on the Battlefield and the Homefront
- By: Tom Satterly, Steve Jackson
- Narrated by: Tom Satterly
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,501
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,341
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,338
As a senior non-commissioned officer of Delta Force, the most elite and secretive special operations unit in the US military, Command Sergeant Major Tom Satterly fought some of this country's most fearsome enemies. Tom is a legend even among other Tier One special operators. Yet the enemy that cost him three marriages, and ruined his health physically and psychologically, existed in his brain. Told through Satterly's firsthand experiences, it also weaves in the reasons for his career-long battle against the most insidious enemy of all: post-traumatic stress.
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5 out of 5 stars
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- One of those books that truly make a difference
- By henry on 12-21-19
By: Tom Satterly, and others
What listeners say about Shatter the Nations
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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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
- Peter A.
- 01-01-20
Most important book for the coming decade
I say this not simply for the vast and pervasive nature of ISIS, nor the risks the author took to tell it's story with the truth it deserves, nor even the sublime ease with which he wrote it, but mostly, because it is a story that cannot be heard in its entirety anywhere else.
This book will leave you with a deep sense of the importance of ISIS' origins and the social change that evolved around it, yet a naked helplessness for what it may mean for the future it has not yet finished nudging.
I imagine we will hear more from Mike Giglio, but this book will surely stand out as his defining work.
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