Anonymous
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The Second World War
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 39 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the past two decades, Antony Beevor has established himself as one of the world's premier historians of World War II. His multi-award winning books have included Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945. Now, in his newest and most ambitious book, he turns his focus to one of the bloodiest and most tragic events of the twentieth century, The Second World War. Thrillingly written and brilliantly researched, Beevor's provocative account is destined to become the definitive work on World War II.
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It Fills in Gaps I Didn't Know Existed
- By DJM on 07-31-12
- The Second World War
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
The Enormity of World War II
Reviewed: 09-05-21
Until I listened to The Second World War by Antony Beevor, I don't think that I fully understood how enormous World War II was. I mostly read and listen to books about American and European history with some mystery novels thrown in to give my mind a respite before plunging into my next book or second read or even third read/listen of a history book.
As with many "Boomers," my father and my uncles served in World War II, so it has loomed large in the background of my childhood and my adult years. However, it has only been in my retirement that I have had the time to study it in depth. It has, also, taken me some time to incorporate the war's battles on the eastern front. I really thought that I had a pretty good grasp of World War II before listening to this audiobook. I was wrong. i have just completed my first listen, and I feel as though I am understanding the depth and breadth of the battles, the personalities, the plight of soldiers and civilians caught up in horrific events due to faulty decisions by leaders on a much deeper level than I ever have before.
As other reviewers have noted, the detailed research and amount of information provided by the author is remarkable. I will began my second listen soon because I can't stop reflecting on the book. I am not ready to leave it. Other reviews give much more detail about the positive and negative aspects of the book. At this point, I can only express my overall response, which is to recommend it highly. I thought the narrator was very good as well.
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Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
- By: John Lukacs
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons to deliver his first speech as Prime Minister. Europe was in crisis: three days earlier, Germany had invaded France and the Low Countries. Facing only feeble resistance, Hitler's armies were rapidly sweeping westward. Churchill had little support within the British government when he rose to address it that day.
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The best of writers and narrators
- By William Simkiss on 09-29-20
- Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
- By: John Lukacs
- Narrated by: John Lee
Simply Outstanding
Reviewed: 06-11-21
i have read much about WWII, the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, the life of Winston Churchill and his relationships to Roosevelt and Stalin. However, this short audio look at Churchill's speeches and what they reveal about his understanding of the war and of Britain's place in the world that would come after the war completely astounded me. i now wish Roosevelt could have stepped back from his egotism just a bit to see what a gift he had in the foresight and wisdom of Winston Churchill. i have listened to this recording twice and will return to it again I am sure.
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The Life and Times of Prince Albert
- By: Patrick Allitt, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Patrick Allitt
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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In 10 lectures, award-winning historian Patrick N. Allitt transports listeners to England in the 1840s and 1850s. During those two decades, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, became one of the most influential people in the country and remains a figure of fascination even today. In fact, the British royal family as we know it wouldn't exist without the private and public actions of this detached, impartial, and upright political figure.
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A Master Storyteller
- By tru britty on 04-18-20
- The Life and Times of Prince Albert
- By: Patrick Allitt, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Patrick Allitt
A Prince, Husband, and Father Who Died Too Soon.
Reviewed: 06-03-20
Pronce Albert was a rare royal who died too soon. Intelligent, energetic, and patient enough to find his place in the nooks and crannies of British society, he was just beginning to emerge as his own person when his life was cut short. He lived in his wife's shadow, and yet, his influence on her life, their family's lives, and on the affairs of his adopted country was not insignificant. Queen Victoria never stopped mourning for him.
Professor Allitt is an enthusiastic escort for us into the life of Prince Albert and the complicated times he lived in. I enjoyed these lectures. I read much about British and European history. Even in this 21st centuary, it is important to look back on the Victorians and their far reaching legacy. These lectures have given me another look into their world through the life of a royal who had so much more to give.
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The Black Cat Murders
- Heathcliff Lennox, Book 2
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst-Phillips
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
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Who killed Sir Crispin Gibbons? A wedding invitation and news of mischief that could be murder, takes Lennox to The Earl of Bloxford's country estate. He soon finds himself in a world of purloined artworks, forgeries and a priceless Bloxford Beauty.
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Second in the Series did not disappoint!
- By Melissa on 12-27-19
- The Black Cat Murders
- Heathcliff Lennox, Book 2
- By: Karen Baugh Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst-Phillips
I am not able to join the bandwagon of accolades.
Reviewed: 05-17-20
I enjoyed the first book in the series enough to look forward to the second book, The Black Cat Murders, and give it a listen. Now, I am not sure that I will move on to the third book. In spite of of the humor and great vignettes of some of the characters (Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins, for example), this is not a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Murders do take place. My expectation is that the solving of those murders will be taken seriously. I found myself re-listening to many chapers thinking that i had to have missed some clues or some genuine concern about what was happening in the storyline, but i hadn't. Finally, I simply couldn't believe the ending. Where was justice for the victims? If there was none, why write the book? This series is very highly rated for many good reasons, but if, in the end, like me, you expect a sense of order to be restored beyond just a "who did what to whom" solution, this may not be the series for you.
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The Black Cat Murders
- A Cotswolds Country House Murder (Heathcliff Lennox, Book 2)
- By: Karen Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst-Phillips
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Who killed Sir Crispin Gibbons? A wedding invitation and news of mischief that could be murder takes Lennox to the Earl of Bloxford's country estate. He, soon, finds himself in a world of purloined artworks, forgeries, and a priceless Bloxford beauty. But who are the Bloxford beauties? And why are they the focal point around which death swirls?
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Second in the Series did not disappoint!
- By Melissa on 12-27-19
- The Black Cat Murders
- A Cotswolds Country House Murder (Heathcliff Lennox, Book 2)
- By: Karen Menuhin
- Narrated by: Sam Dewhurst-Phillips
I am not able to join the bandwagon of accolades.
Reviewed: 05-17-20
I enjoyed the first book in the series enough to look forward to the second book, The Black Cat Murders, and give it a listen. Now, I am not sure that I will move on to the third book. In spite of of the humor and great vignettes of some of the characters (Mr. and Mrs. Dawkins, for example), this is not a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta. Murders do take place. My expectation is that the solving of those murders will be taken seriously. I found myself re-listening to many chapers thinking that i had to have missed some clues or some genuine concern about what was happening in the storyline, but i hadn't. Finally, I simply couldn't believe the ending. Where was justice for the victims? If there was none, why write the book? This series is very highly rated for many good reasons, but if, in the end, like me, you expect a sense of order to be restored beyond just a "who did what to whom" solution, this may not be the series for you.
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Pont Neuf
- By: Max Byrd
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Original Recording
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Can a young war correspondent find herself and follow her heart? In this work of historical fiction, 20-something Annabella “Annie” March arrives in France in 1944 intending to write about the war. Soon, however, Annie begins to distance herself from her sometimes-mentor, sometimes-rival - the great Martha Gellhorn - and Gellhorn’s larger-than-life husband, the novelist Ernest Hemingway. She turns to photography in the hopes of making her own name and, to her delight, discovers that images come more easily than words.
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BORING
- By Susan on 12-06-19
- Pont Neuf
- By: Max Byrd
- Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
Simply Outstanding!
Reviewed: 01-06-20
I read very little fiction. I am a history junkie. I do read mysteries to give myself a rest between my history readings. However, PONT NEUF by Max Byrd was excellent. Some reviewers had a difficult listen with the narrator's reading speed. I slightly increased the reading speed to 1.05, and I found myself completely drawn into the story. In fact, I listened to sections over again before moving into the next chapter because the writing and the narration were so well done. I will be reading more by this author, and I hope the same narrator.
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Buried Deep
- By: Margot Hunt
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
- Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins
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In this pulse-pounding short thriller for fans of Big Little Lies and The Last Mrs. Parrish, Maggie Cabot refuses to sit by idly as police re-open an investigation into the mysterious death of a woman her husband used to know. After two decades in a near-perfect marriage, Maggie and James Cabot are enjoying their first year as empty-nesters in their charming Florida suburb, until two detectives arrive at their front door and change their lives forever.
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Drivel
- By Pamela B on 12-11-19
- Buried Deep
- By: Margot Hunt
- Narrated by: Therese Plummer
I don't think this genre is for me.
Reviewed: 12-17-19
This is my first time reading a " domestic" thriller as other reviewers called this story. I pushed myself along the story line set up. The narrator was very good, but the initial chapters were boring, and I began to wonder if I could finish the story. I did. The ending was not what I expected at all. I don't anticipate reading another story by this author or from this thrillet sub-genre.
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The Modern Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida
- By: Lawrence Cahoone, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Lawrence Cahoone
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
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What is reality? Ask yourself whether you can actually know the answer, much less be sure that you can know it, and you've begun to grapple with the metaphysical and epistemological quandaries that have occupied, teased, and tormented modern philosophy's greatest intellects since the dawn of modern science and a century before the Enlightenment.
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Was going ok, then he came to Marx
- By Andrew Palmer on 07-12-19
Excellent Great Course!
Reviewed: 08-04-19
While I have always enjoyed intellectual history, I have not always had the background or the ability to understand philosophical concepts, theories, philosophers or schools of philosophy in spite of my interest. In my undergraduate and graduate college years, I was exposed to many of the early modern philosophers such as John Locke, the Enlightenment philosophers, David Hume, John Stuart Mill (a favorite) then later Huserl and phenomenology, which was difficult for me to grasp. I tried Sartre and Camus and felt that I had a limited understanding of existentialism. However, I was in over my head with Bertram Russell, and much later, Derrida and Deconstruction mystified me. So, it was with some trepidation that I decided to listen to this extensive survey course on modern philosophy.
Professor Cahoone is excellent. He has an enormous understanding of and ability to communicate the subject matter. The course chapters were about 30 minutes in length, and I was amazed at how much information he was able to discuss in that time. Also, the organization of the material was excellent. The chapters flowed one into the next. There was continuity of information that linked the concepts of one philosopher or school of philosophy to the next in historical time and development. If I struggled with the material, and the material was often very challenging, I still connected with the philosopher and the context of the ideas enough to know that i would relisten to the material. I was not so overwhelmed that I wanted stop the course. In fact, I am beginning my second listen.
The ideas presented in this course are important. They have had or will have great impact on society, politics, and history. It is important to me to have a much better understanding of them. It isn't so much whether I agree or disagree with a philosopher or a concept. These ideas are impacting my life now and will impact future lives. I am grateful to have found a course that will help me continue my effort to understand them. It is well worth the investment of my time and energy.
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1 person found this helpful
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John Quincy Adams
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of La Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president. John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. In this masterful biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Adams as a towering figure in the nation’s formative years.
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Informative and well written.
- By Gotta Tellya on 08-20-14
- John Quincy Adams
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
Magnificent Biography and Narration
Reviewed: 07-31-19
This author brought John Quincy Adam's to life as uncompromisingly as Mr. Adam's lived it.
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Apostles of Revolution
- Jefferson, Paine, Monroe, and the Struggle Against the Old Order in America and Europe
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 18 hrs and 26 mins
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Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and James Monroe were in the vanguard of revolutionary ideas in the 18th century. As founding fathers, they risked their lives for American independence, but they also wanted more. Each wished for profound changes in the political and social fabric of pre-1776 America and hoped that the American Revolution would spark republican and egalitarian revolutions throughout Europe, sweeping away the old aristocratic order. Ultimately, each rejoiced at the opportunity to be a part of the French Revolution, a cause that became increasingly untenable as idealism gave way to the bloody terror.
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A bit of a challenging listen but well worth it
- By J. Parks on 09-20-21
- Apostles of Revolution
- Jefferson, Paine, Monroe, and the Struggle Against the Old Order in America and Europe
- By: John Ferling
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
Excellent Story of Three Great Men and Their Era
Reviewed: 07-13-19
This book is an outstanding history. I have read it three times already. Ten stars!
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