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Title: Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee

Subtitle: As Recorded by His Son

Author: Robert E. Lee

Narrator: John Pruden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-15

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Robert E. Lee is one of the most famous and decorated American generals in history. The son of Revolutionary War hero Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III, General Lee was a native of Virginia and a top graduate at West Point. So distinguished was Lee that President Abraham Lincoln offered him command of the entire Union army before the onset of the Civil War. Lee famously declined the offer and instead served his home state of Virginia after it seceded. His closeness with his soldiers as well as his leadership came to personify the South.

Here, in a collection of personal correspondence compiled by his son, Captain Robert E. Lee, the man behind the uniform, is revealed.

Members Reviews:

Not a greater man has lived in our time.

I knew almost nothing of General Lee prior to this well put together compilation. Well narrated and very thought and emotion evoking. Not another person through character alone could have persuaded the South to lay down arms peacefully after years of suffering and bloody conflict which had hardened the southern soul in its cause against a ruthless oppressor.

About as close as you'll get to knowing Lee

In my humble opinion there is no better source of information on the personal life of a person than his correspondence and the recollections of his family. R.E. Lee's son paints a portrait of a gentle man who loved his children dearly. Was a mentor to his sons and held family and honor above even his own feelings.

His treatment of his pets surprised me. I think the way in which he loved and treated them as people almost modernized him for me.

On slave issues and even his feelings about freedman, he was a product of his times and environment. Yet even in this he seems softer than many, if not most, of his contemporaries. If you, like some of my southern acquaintances, are looking for a progressive southerner, you'll find it only by relative comparisons. He freed his slaves during the war to honor a Will. Later he eschewed employing freed blacks on his son's farm.

And yet you still come away respecting this great general who not only fought well in war, but fought well to encourage peace when it was over.

Excellent

This book provides wonderful insight, from personal letters, and intimate relationships with General R. E. Lee.

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Title: Hell and Good Company

Subtitle: The Spanish Civil War and the World It Made

Author: Richard Rhodes

Narrator: Christian Coulson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-15

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 65 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, the remarkable story of the Spanish Civil War through the eyes of the reporters, writers, artists, doctors, and nurses who witnessed it.

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) inspired and haunted an extraordinary number of exceptional artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Joan Miro, Martha Gellhorn, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, and John Dos Passos. The idealism of the cause--defending democracy from fascism at a time when Europe was darkening toward another world war--and the brutality of the conflict drew from them some of their best work: Guernica, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homage to Catalonia, The Spanish Earth.

The war spurred breakthroughs in military and medical technology as well. New aircraft, new weapons, new tactics and strategy all emerged in the intense Spanish conflict. Indiscriminate destruction raining from the sky became a dreaded reality for the first time. Progress also arose from the horror: The doctors and nurses who volunteered to serve with the Spanish defenders devised major advances in battlefield surgery and front-line blood transfusion. In those ways, and in many others, the Spanish Civil War served as a test bed for World War II and for the entire twentieth century.

From the life of John James Audubon to the invention of the atomic bomb, listeners have long relied on Richard Rhodes to explain, distill, and dramatize crucial moments in history. Now he takes us onto battlefields and into bomb shelters, into the studios of artists, into the crowded wards of war hospitals, and into the hearts and minds of a rich cast of characters to show how the ideological, aesthetic, and technological developments that emerged in Spain changed the world forever.

Members Reviews:

Fascinating history lesson

Enjoyed the story, performance and learned much about a period that I knew very little about before selecting this title. Recommended by a friend and five star worthy!

Awkward approach to a civil war

What was most disappointing about Richard Rhodess story?

I found shocking how Spaniards are describe as mere passive figures in this story. No one can deny the huge influence of external actors in the Spanish conflict, but in the end it was a civil war. This fact doesn't come across at all in this book.

What three words best describe Christian Coulsons performance?

I wonder why the producer didn't choose a reader fluent in Spanish, since the book is full of names and expressions in this language. Christian Coulson is not even able to mispronounce Spanish words consistently throughout his reading.

Spanish Civil War. ...texture and context

A book about the texture and context of the war, not events.

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Title: MASH: An Army Surgeon in Korea

Author: Otto F. Apel JR. M.D., Pat Apel

Narrator: Dr. Bill Brooks

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-27-15

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

When North Korean forces invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950, Otto Apel was a surgical resident living in Cleveland, Ohio, with his wife and three young children. A year later he was chief surgeon of the 8076th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, constantly near the front lines in Korea. Immediately upon arriving in camp, Apel performed 80 hours of surgery. His feet swelled so badly, he had to cut his boots off, and he saw more surgical cases in those three and a half days than he would have in a year back in Cleveland. In addition to his own story, Apel details the operating conditions, workload, and patient care at the MASH units while revealing the remarkable advances made in emergency medical care. MASH units were the first hospitals designed for operations close to the front lines, and from this particularly difficult vantage their medical staffs were responsible for innovations in the use of antibiotics and blood plasma and in arterial repair. On film and television, MASH doctors and nurses have been portrayed as irreverent and having little patience with standard military procedures. In this powerful memoir, Apel reveals just how realistic these portrayals were.

The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky.

Critic Reviews:

"The authors have skillfully blended the surgeon's personal experiences into the bigger picture of military medicine, providing the reader with an informative and interesting account of the MASH and its impact during the Korean War." (

Military)

"A superb book... Reading this fine nonfiction account of an army surgeon in the Korean War will make you wish you had been there treating casualties. It did me!" (

Journal of the American Medical Association)

"An excellent account of the history of MASH units and how they operated in Korea." (

Navy Medicine)

Members Reviews:

Should be re-recorded

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, if someone was truly interested in the subject. This is a good history of the beginning of some of the standard surgical techniques adapted for trauma surgery.

What was one of the most memorable moments of MASH: An Army Surgeon in Korea?

The truth behind the shower tent canvas removal scene in the television series was quite a hoot.

What does Dr. Bill Brooks bring to the story that you wouldnt experience if you just read the book?

It was difficult to listen to Dr. Brooks- his pronunciations and completely inappropriate Korean accent left an unappealing sound in my ear.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I'm not good at this type of thing, sorry.

Any additional comments?

This book is a historical and social icon. It should be re-recorded with less strained medical terminology elocution and more sensitivity should be applied to the Korean dialogue. It came off sounding worse than a Mel Brooks film.

One of best combat related books

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend to a friend who is interested in war as I am. I have listened to and read many books about war and combat but this book looks at war from a different perspective.

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Title: Wellington's Rifles

Subtitle: The Origins, Development, and Battles of the Rifle Regiments in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo

Author: Ray Cusick

Narrator: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-06-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 36 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Until now there has not been a serious study of the rifle-armed regiments of the British Army that earned such renown in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. Compiled by a former rifleman, Ray Cusick, who has written extensively on the subject, Wellington's Rifles examines the new rifle regiments, how they came about, their development and their actions. The author also investigates the introduction of rifled muskets into the British Army in the French and Indian wars of the 18th century, where they were shunned by the military establishment, to their transition into a key element in Wellington's extraordinarily successful Peninsular army. The training and tactics of the riflemen are explained and each significant engagement in which they were involved is explored in thrilling detail. It was the riflemen of the 95th Regiment that inspired the series of Sharpe books and films. That was the fiction; this is the reality. The publication will be introduced by the renowned Napoleonic historian Ian Fletcher.

Members Reviews:

A list of facts that help explain development

Would you listen to Wellington's Rifles again? Why?

Maybe later, it was interesting, and it put in order some of the facts of the wars and its players

What other book might you compare Wellington's Rifles to and why?

This book touches on stories in many other books but in a factual way to explain how and why it came about.

Have you listened to any of Matthew Lloyd Daviess other performances before? How does this one compare?

Mr. Davies is a professional and I enjoyed his performance

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The book title is good

Any additional comments?

Enjoyed the order of the history, it was alot of info that was fact not fiction, so it was alittle dry in some places but overall it was great

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Title: A Warrior Dynasty

Subtitle: The Rise and Fall of Sweden as a Military Superpower 1611-1721

Author: Henrik O. Lunde

Narrator: Mark Ashby

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-24-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 81 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

This audiobook examines the meteoric rise of Sweden as the pre-eminent military power in Europe during the Thirty Years War during the 1600s, and then follows its line of warrior kings into the next century until the Swedes finally meet their demise, in an overreach into the vastness of Russia. A small Scandinavian nation, with at most one and a half million people and scant internal resources of its own, there was small logic to how Sweden could become the dominant power on the Continent. That Sweden achieved this was due to its leadership - a case-study in history when pure military skill, and that alone, could override the demographic and economic factors which have in modern times been termed so pre-eminent. Once Protestantism emerged, via Martin Luther, the most devastating war in European history ensued, as the Holy Roman Empire sought to reassert its authority by force. Into this bloody maelstrom stepped Gustav Adolf of Sweden, a brilliant tactician and strategist, who with his finely honed Swedish legions proceeded to establish a new authority in northern Europe. Gustav, as brave as he was brilliant, was finally killed while leading a cavalry charge at the Battle of Ltzen. He had innovated, however, tactics and weaponry that put his successors in good stead, as Sweden remained a great power, rivaled only by France and Spain in terms of territory in Europe. And then one of his successors, Karl XII, turned out to be just as great a military genius as Gustav himself, and as the year 1700 arrived, Swedish armies once more burst out in all directions. Karl, like Gustav, assumed the throne while still a teenager, but immediately displayed so much acumen, daring and skill that chroniclers could only compare him, like Gustav, to Alexander the Great. This book examines thoroughly, yet in highly readable fashion, the century during which Swedish military power set an example for all Europe.

Members Reviews:

Pretty dry military history

If you want the numbers, dates and a narrative for all the engagements in the wars Sweden waged for 100 years, starting with the 30 years war in 1630, this delivers. It does not give much sense of the reasons behind the war, or any of the personalities involved. In keeping with that, it is read like a very long list, very flat. Not what I wanted or expected, but I did listen to it all. Not completely sure why, but it had some strange attraction as background noise. I did learn more a lot about the battles and tactics.

A surprising mirror image of modern Sweden

What made the experience of listening to A Warrior Dynasty the most enjoyable?

The fact that I am Swedish but I felt detached from Swedish military history in particular. This was a nice partial filler of that void.

What did you like best about this story?

All the conflicts and the actual success and reverance of Swedish Kings and Generals.

Which character as performed by Mark Ashby was your favorite?

Noone in particular.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When I realized the impact of the Carnage in Stockholm and the extent of the Danish-Swedish conflict.

Good Read

Good presentation of a long period of military history in a short book. I reccommend.

Military Only

This is not a bad book at all but it only deals with the military aspects of the dynasty and doesn't give you a full picture of what life was like.

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Title: Signature Wound

Subtitle: Hidden Bombs, Heroic Soldiers, and the Shocking, Secret Story of the Afghanistan War

Author: Bob Drury

Narrator: Stephen Graybill

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-03-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Every war has its "signature wounds", injuries inflicted by frightening new weapons and tactics the U.S. military has never faced before. Blistered flesh from mustard gas in World War I. Petroleum burns from oil and gas igniting on the surface of the Pacific in World War II. And now, lost legs, hands, and most devastating of all, genitals, as a result of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in today's war in Afghanistan. Men's Health contributing editor Bob Drury, a veteran reporter of both the Afghan and Iraq wars, delivers his most hard-hitting and important dispatch yet - the unforgettable accounts of U.S. soldiers who have suffered these very personal wounds. Their intense tales of battlefield survival are just a prologue to the unimaginable fights they face once they're stateside. This is essential listening for truly understanding what our fighting forces put on the line - and lose - every single day.

Members Reviews:

Great book

One never thinks about a man going over seas and not to have him come back with his penis damaged or gone

How many wives or girlfriend 20 to 30 years want to live a life with NOT being able to have real sex again.

Forget having a baby

They did not talk about women who may suffer a massive injury to there vagina and for them to come home with such an important part of both a man and a woman's life.

No one goes from the Army to being a nun or priest as soon as they get home

We need to do everything a country can do to help a soldier coming home deformed that way

Have your eyes opened like you never have before

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Title: Neptune

Subtitle: The Allied Invasion of Europe and the D-Day Landings

Author: Craig L. Symonds

Narrator: Craig L. Symonds

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-25-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 174 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Seventy years ago, more than 6000 Allied ships carried more than a million soldiers across the English Channel to a 50-mile-wide strip of the Normandy coast in German-occupied France. It was the greatest sea-borne assault in human history. The code names given to the beaches where the ships landed the soldiers have become immortal: Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, and especially Omaha, the scene of almost unimaginable human tragedy. The sea of crosses in the cemetery sitting today atop a bluff overlooking the beaches recalls to us its cost. Most accounts of this epic story begin with the landings on the morning of June 6, 1944. In fact, however, D-Day was the culmination of months and years of planning and intense debate. In the dark days after the evacuation of Dunkirk in the summer of 1940, British officials and, soon enough, their American counterparts, began to consider how, and, where, and especially when, they could re-enter the European Continent in force. The Americans, led by U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall, wanted to invade as soon as possible; the British, personified by their redoubtable prime minister, Winston Churchill, were convinced that a premature landing would be disastrous. The often-sharp negotiations between the English-speaking allies led them first to North Africa, then into Sicily, then Italy. Only in the spring of 1943, did the Combined Chiefs of Staff commit themselves to an invasion of northern France. The code name for this invasion was Overlord, but everything that came before, including the landings themselves and the supply system that made it possible for the invaders to stay there, was code-named Neptune. Craig L. Symonds now offers the complete story of this Olympian effort, involving transports, escorts, gunfire support ships, and landing craft of every possible size and function. The obstacles to success were many.

Members Reviews:

The Whys of D-Day

This is not another book on the D-Day landings or on the war in Western Europe. Instead it is largely a book on the planning that went into the D-Day landings. Neptune was the part of the concerted effort that included making sure the effort could deliver the troops to the beaches while Overlord was the part of the effort involved once the troops were ashore and this book spends the majority of its time discussing how the plans were drawn up, why specific decisions were made and how the plans expected the effort to be made. As such it covers a part of the war in Western Europe that I have never seen covered in any real detail in any other book.

Mr Symonds has written a fascinating account of what happened during this planning and covered material that is generally not even mentioned in other books. For example in this book you will find out about how competition for raw materials had an impact on decisions that were made concerning what was to be built, in what order and in what quantities, the source of the friction between the British and US army soldiers stationed in the UK during the troop buildup, some hardly ever seen information about the African-American soldiers station in the UK, a detailed explanation on landing craft and why they were the determining factor in when and how the landings were made, information on the mine sweeping operations preceding the invasion, an explanation of what went wrong with the Mulberry Harbors and much else rarely covered.

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Title: The Catholic and the War

Author: Hilaire Belloc

Narrator: Saethon Williams

Format: Unabridged

Length: 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-10-14

Publisher: Cavalier Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) was one of the great Catholic authors and historians of the twentieth century. Born in France, and raised in Great Britain, Belloc later became a naturalised British subject and served in Parliament from 1906 to 1910. After his brief political career Belloc continued his writing, commenting on a large variety of topics throughout his lifetime. This essay, written shortly after the outbreak of WWII (February 1940), examines the state of the war from a Catholic perspective. Belloc explains why the Catholic has a moral obligation to support the war effort against the Axis Powers, not only because of the crimes committed against the Polish and Jewish peoples, but because a loss for the Allies would mean the end of Western Civilization. He also expresses his shock at the attitudes of appeasement, and sympathy, some of his fellow countrymen hold for the enemy.

Members Reviews:

Belloc is clear as a bell

A top notch essay on the application of Catholic social ethics to the situation at the beginning of WW2. Includes an enlightening recap of the events leading to the period of the war just prior to the fall of France. Rare to read such an unequivocal rational voice on the subject of geopolitics. Whether or not you find yourself agreeing with him you will find the engagement with his overview thesis worth having. The narrator is a tad breezy here, but still quite listenable. Time well spent!

Very timely

Fantastic writing - thorough and concise. Excellent narrator. Looking forward to more by this author.

Belloc is brilliant as always

This short book is very thought provoking. Anyone interested in the world wars will benefit from considering the main points raised, pertaining to the moral issues involved.

Phenomenal

The reader manages the tone and voice of the book wonderfully. The reasoning of Belloc is clear and nearly unassailable. All Catholic citizens of a democracy or republic must read this book!

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Title: Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General

Subtitle: A 30-Minute Summary

Author: Instaread Summaries

Narrator: Jason P. Hilton

Format: Unabridged

Length: 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-14

Publisher: Instaread Summaries

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 23 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

On October 3, 1944, Patton's forces were fighting for Fort Driant, a heavily fortified German position near the French town of Metz. The men of his Third Army were inspired a few months earlier by his speech before D-Day, in which Patton told them that Americans do not lose. Up to that point, Patton had never lost a battle.

Patton's men both loved and feared him. He was known for salty language, which he said he used because he wanted to speak as his men did.

The battle at Metz went wrong. Contrary to Patton's intelligence, the German defenders were tough veterans and their position was well protected. Patton was short on troops, supplies and ammunition.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of allied troops in Europe, ordered Patton to stand down so that British forces under Bernard Law Montgomery could lead the offensive into Germany. This was a political decision to honor British's sacrifice during the war, but Patton was angry over being left out and Eisenhower's decision to cut back his supplies. Patton thought his forces and Montgomery's should move into Germany at the same time. Patton remained determined to take Driant and Metz. Unfortunately, his forces suffered severe casualties and he was forced to back down. He believed Eisenhower's cuts caused his first defeat.

Eisenhower's order gave the Germans an opportunity to mount a counteroffensive. Their leader, Adolf Hitler, feared Patton especially and wanted to keep him away from this particular battlefield...

Members Reviews:

awesome

awesome Bill and Jason, loved it keep up the good work, ww2 is awesome, thanks

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Title: For Love of Country

Subtitle: What Our Veterans Can Teach Us About Citizenship, Heroism, and Sacrifice

Author: Howard Schultz, Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Narrator: Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-04-14

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 37 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

A celebration of the extraordinary courage, dedication, and sacrifice of this generation of American veterans on the battlefield and their equally valuable contributions on the home front.

Because so few of us now serve in the military, our men and women in uniform have become strangers to us. We stand up at athletic events to honor them, but we hardly know their true measure. Here, Starbucks CEO and longtime veterans advocate Howard Schultz and National Book Award finalist Rajiv Chandrasekaran of The Washington Post offer an enlightening, inspiring corrective.

The authors honor acts of uncommon valor in Iraq and Afghanistan, including an Army sergeant who repeatedly runs through a storm of gunfire to save the lives of his wounded comrades; two Marines who sacrifice their lives to halt an oncoming truck bomb and protect 33 of their brothers in arms; a 60-year-old doctor who joins the Navy to honor his fallen son.

We also see how veterans make vital contributions once they return home, drawing on their leadership skills and commitment to service: former soldiers who aid residents in rebuilding after natural disasters; a former infantry officer who trades in a Pentagon job to teach in an inner-city neighborhood; a retired general leading efforts to improve treatments for brain-injured troops; the spouse of a severely injured soldier assisting families in similar positions.

These powerful, unforgettable stories demonstrate just how indebted we are to those who protect us and what they have to offer our nation when their military service is done.

Critic Reviews:

Inspiring will certainly move readers who have served in the military, as well as... fans of military histories and those who have close contact with the courageous soldiers who put their lives on the line. (Kirkus)

"This splendid book should be read by every American. It is a story of heroes, of sacrifice, of valor. But it is also a story of resilience, recovery, and a continuing desire to serve our country and its citizens. You must be made of stone to read this and not shed tears. But the books message is that, after the tears, we must not forget the sacrifices those in uniform and their families have made for all of us over the last thirteen years; we must welcome back into our communities those who served not just with thanks and open arms, but with respect, admiration, and new lives and careers worthy of all they have done for all of us. (Robert M. Gates, author of Duty)

Members Reviews:

Worth the read

Great stories and an even better purpose. Some of the chapters are pretty graphic and the language is rough in places. Don't think it's really necessary in order to tell the stories or make the points.

Eye Opening

How amazing are our veterans! An amazing read causing one to want to go out and do more! A definite must read.

Thank You

Good book. It's nice to see that some people appreciate veterans. And I'm definitely going to look up Team Rubicon!

KKD