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Titel: Richard Wagner (ZEIT Geschichte)

Autor:: DIE ZEIT

Erzähler: N.N.

Format: Abridged

Spieldauer: 2 hrs and 7 mins

Sprache: Deutsch

Veröffentlichungsdatum: 02-26-13

Herausgeber: ZEIT-Verlag

Kategorien: History, World

Zusammenfassung des Herausgebers:

Ein genialer Schurke:

Richard Wagner schuf Großes und hielt sich für den Größten. Unstet war er, ein Getriebener, ein Mann auf der Flucht und auf der Suche, so skrupellos wie empfindsam. Bis heute lässt er uns keine Ruhe. Von Wolfram Goertz.

Nichts Sanfteres führt zum Ziel:

Vom Kapellmeister zum Revolutionär: Wie sich Richard Wagner 1849 in den Dresdner Maiaufstand stürzte. Von Christian Jansen.

Auf dem braunen Hügel:

Die Wagners waren Nationalsozialisten der ersten Stunde - allen voran Richard Wagners Schwiegertochter Winifred, die ihrem "Führer" auch nach 1945 noch die Treue hielt. Von Volker Ullrich.

Große Oper, großes Geld:

Der eine war chronisch verschuldet, der andere ein erfolgreicher Unternehmer: Die beiden Operngenies Richard Wagner und Giuseppe Verdi im Finanzvergleich. Von Volker Hagedorn.

Ich liebe Wagner:

Ich liebe Wagner. Denn seine Musik ist wie ein gewaltiger, alles mitreißender Strom. Von Hanns-Josef Ortheil.

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Title: Round About the Earth

Subtitle: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit

Author: Joyce E. Chaplin

Narrator: Joyce Bean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-13

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

For almost 500 years, human beings have been finding ways to circle the Earth - by sail, steam, or liquid fuel; by cycling, driving, flying, going into orbit, even by using their own bodily power. The story begins with the first centuries of circumnavigation, when few survived the attempt: In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan left Spain with five ships and 270 men, but only one ship and 35 men returned, not including Magellan, who died in the Philippines. Starting with these dangerous voyages, Joyce Chaplin takes us on a trip of our own as we travel with Francis Drake, William Dampier, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, and James Cook.

Eventually sea travel grew much safer and passengers came on board. The most famous was Charles Darwin, but some intrepid women became circumnavigators too - a Lady Brassey, for example. Circumnavigation became a fad, as captured in Jules Verne's classic novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. Once continental railroads were built, circumnavigators could traverse sea and land. Newspapers sponsored racing contests, and people sought ways to distinguish themselves - by bicycling around the world, for instance, or by sailing solo. Steamships turned round-the-world travel into a luxurious experience, as with the tours of Thomas Cook & Son. Famous authors wrote up their adventures, including Mark Twain and Jack London and Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (better known as Nellie Bly). Finally humans took to the skies to circle the globe in airplanes. Not much later, Sputnik, Gagarin, and Glenn pioneered a new kind of circumnavigation - in orbit.

Through it all, the desire to take on the planet has tested the courage and capacity of the bold men and women who took up the challenge. Their exploits show us why we think of the Earth as home. Round About the Earth is itself a thrilling adventure.

Critic Reviews:

"Hardship, frolic, barnstorming, and spiritual enigma shape this scintillating history of round-the-world travel." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

If you like history, well...

The book is broken down by the eras that the world circumnavigators lived in. It is well written, but is less enlightening on the subject of terrestrial navigation, than on the nature of the struggle that each generation faced. History buffs will love it, but others may not be so enthusiastic. Your sixth grade teacher never told you just how dangerous geography could be.

Round About the Earth: Circumnavigation from Magellan to Orbit

Round About the Earth is the perfect book for someone who likes both history and travel. It is a highly readable account of circumnavigation. It goes into the details of each expedition as well as background social and political issues without becoming boring. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history and travel and who is curious about the world around them.

Interesting and Informative

Outstanding analysis and writing by Dr. Chaplin. She takes a subject that most people are not familiar with and makes it interesting and informative. Highly recommend!

Great read - not your normal review of history

Bought this book to first read then give to my parents as they have circumnavigated the world twice on cruise ships.

I really liked the attention to the social framework and interconnectednesss of all the attempts through the ages.

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Title: The Story of Indian Business: The East India Company

Subtitle: The World's Most Powerful Corporation

Author: Tirthankar Roy

Narrator: Vikas Adam

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-20-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 64 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

A first-time account of the East India Company from the perspective of Indian business history....

For over 200 years, the East India Company was the largest and most powerful mercantile firm in Britain and Asia. Set up to procure Asian goods for British consumers, the Company's business network spanned Persia, India, China, Indonesia, and North America. In the late 1700s, its career took a dramatic turn as the Company lost ground as a trading firm, but founded an empire in India. Why did a merchant firm end up being an empire builder? Why did politics mesh so closely with the conduct of business in this time?

This new account of the East India Company answers these questions by taking a fresh look at the world of Indian business. The story fits together many pieces of a vast jigsaw puzzle, and shows how trading in India changed the Company and how the Company changed Indian business.

Members Reviews:

Super overview of the East India Company

This little book is an excellent overview of the 275 year existence of the first modern corporation. Anyone interested this topic will find this to be an excellent source. It contains many interesting dates, names and significant historical events. I also enjoyed the audio format because I would not how to pronounce the trough of Indian words, names and places that would naturally be contained in such a book.

A novel approach to a complex subject

What did you love best about The Story of Indian Business: The East India Company?

There were two thinks I especially appreciated about this book, which I read (or listened to) in preparation for a trip to Chennai and Kolkata. First, this is one of the few histories of India where the narrator pronounces the Indian words correctly. Mispronunciation can be very irritating over the course of an audio book; Mr. Adam's care to pronounce both north and south Indian city names correctly makes the book much more pleasurable. Second, Mr. Roy's approach, focusing on the economics that led to the Raj provide a context from which you can understand the roots of European involvement in India, but also sheds a new light on ones understanding of the Raj and Independence.

Which scene was your favorite?

The description of the Clive campaign at Plassey.

A broad perspective

This book was both more and less than I expected. More in that the views presented were combined from a plethora of sources of Hindustani origin, and less in that I expected it to cover the Sovereign Rule of India too. It takes you right up to that point and that's where this story ends. I can't complain though as the title makes it clear what it does and does not cover!

This book is very well balanced and tells the history of the Company from the point of view of it's merchants, Indian Traders and Kings. It's told more from the perspective of the effect the company had on India and Great Britain and makes it quite clear that there wasn't really a driving force or goals being the Company any different from any other company i.e. to make money.

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Title: A Less Boring History of the World

Author: Dave Rear

Narrator: Miles Jupp

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-04-12

Publisher: Random House Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 42 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Refreshes the parts other history books cant reach.... A bit ropy on the Renaissance? In the dark about the Enlightenment? Or, in fact, do you need a revision course on the entire history of the world and want to read a witty, irreverent, definitely not boring romp through everything that has ever happened on planet earth from 15 billion years BC to the present day? Good. A Less Boring History of the World tells you everything you need to know from the Big Bang to Barack Obama, taking in the Byzantines, the Black Death, the Boston Tea Party, Bonaparte, and Bin Laden along the way. Each historical episode is boiled down to edible, bite size chunks so that you can finally piece together all the different bits of history - and see how on earth we ended up in the mess we are today.

Whipping through the chaotic journey of man, past ancient civilisations, the rise of empires, and the fall of bankers, A Less Boring History refreshes your memory and broadens your mind. And, if thats not enough, it will also make you laugh. A lot.

Members Reviews:

A Less Boring Audiobook

This book wasnt for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

the author

What was most disappointing about Dave Rears story?

Extremely boring and a tasteless sense of humour

What didnt you like about Miles Jupps performance?

The performance was just OK. The history of the book didn't help at all

What character would you cut from A Less Boring History of the World?

The author

silly

Would you try another book from Dave Rear and/or Miles Jupp?

no..

Would you ever listen to anything by Dave Rear again?

no

What didnt you like about Miles Jupps performance?

just too silly for anyone older than 7

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from A Less Boring History of the World?

the whole book

Any additional comments?

win a few lose a few

A less funny history

What would have made A Less Boring History of the World better?

The author tries way too hard to be funny - and fails. Perhaps many jokes only British readers would get?

How could the performance have been better?

If it had actually been funny and historical.

Terrible - Not educational and not a good read.

What disappointed you about A Less Boring History of the World?

i wanted this to be an educational read to learn more in an interesting way --- book is written to be goofy and stupid. I STRONGLY recommend that you listen to the sample of the book before you buy so you know what i am saying. You will learn nothing from this, and it is not entertaining --- it is annoying.

What could Dave Rear have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

not written it.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Miles Jupp?

anyone - i did not like the narrator

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

disappointed

Fufilled my every expectation (I hadn't any).

Would you listen to A Less Boring History of the World again? Why?

Yes. I listened to the audio book twice already trying memorize some of the humorous bits which I hope to use at parties.

What other book might you compare A Less Boring History of the World to and why?

Dave Barry's History of the Millenium (So Far) Written by: Dave Barry

A Short History of Nearly Everything Written by: Bill Bryson

Have you listened to any of Miles Jupps other performances before? How does this one compare?

Miles Jupp hosts the News Quiz on BBC Radio 4.

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Title: Bayonets to Lhasa

Author: Peter Fleming

Narrator: William Gaminara

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-06-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

In April 1932 Fleming replied to an advertisement in the personal columns of The Times: Exploring and sporting expedition, under experienced guidance, leaving England June to explore rivers central Brazil, if possible ascertain fate Colonel Percy Fawcett; abundant game, big and small; exceptional fishing; Room Two More Guns; highest references expected and given. The result of this trip was Brazilian Adventure, his best known book. Fleming kept traveling and published nine books altogether.

Members Reviews:

Five Stars

An engaging read that's as meticulous as Fleming's other works.

Five Stars

Fine binding, good paper quality: all one could want

None

Peter Fleming writes a blow by blow of the unfortunate British mission to Lhasa. His desire to have been there is evident on every page. We only have read his accounts of his own travels to be thankful he was not.

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Title: The Mansion of Happiness

Subtitle: A History of Life and Death

Author: Jill Lepore

Narrator: Coleen Marlo

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-05-12

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 26 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Renowned Harvard scholar and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has composed a strikingly original, ingeniously conceived, and beautifully crafted history of American ideas about life and death from before the cradle to beyond the grave.

How does life begin? What does it mean? What happens when we die? All anyone can do is ask, Lepore writes. Thats why any history of ideas about life and death has to be, like this book, a history of curiosity. Lepore starts that history with the story of a 17th-century Englishman who had the idea that all life begins with an egg and ends it with an American who, in the 1970s, began freezing the dead. In between, life got longer, the stages of life multiplied, and matters of life and death moved from the library to the laboratory, from the humanities to the sciences.

Lately, debates about life and death have determined the course of American politics. Each of these debates has a history. Investigating the surprising origins of the stuff of everyday life - from board games to breast pumps - Lepore argues that the age of discovery, Darwin, and the space age turned ideas about life on earth topsy-turvy. New worlds were found, she writes, and old paradises were lost.

As much a meditation on the present as an excavation of the past, The Mansion of Happiness is delightful, learned, and altogether beguiling.

Members Reviews:

Disappointing

The book does not engage in any philosophical discussion of life and death, despite the title. The author talks about breast pumps, cryogenics and birth control without venturing an opinion about them.

She seems more interested in the biographies of people who were associated with various movements than in discussing our attitudes of life and death. Rather than taking a stand on an issue the reader is left to determine the author's position by how sympathetically she paints the protagonists. The subject matter is so rich it is hard to believe that she did not dive into it with more conviction.

The performance is very good. It is read with excellent pacing and inflection and the narrator's voice is pleasant.

Despite the title this is not a reflection on life and death. I'm still not sure what it is.

Love Jill Lepore, but performance needs revision

Anyone who reads the New Yorker, knows that you never go wrong with Jill Lepore. She is very entertaining, and I always come away learning something thought provoking. The narrator, however, does not know a lot about 20th century history. For example, she mispronounces W.E.B. Du Bois's name. I am sure that this has been pointed out to her. "The pronunciation of my name is Due Boyss, with the accent on the last syllable." -David Levering Lewis W.E.B. DuBois, Biography of a Race, p. 11 Also, in the same section of _The Mansion_ she refers to a law as Title "X" not title Ten. I also found her delivery to sound automated. I actually thought it was until she tried some oral interpretation, which was not bad. Great book. Performer could have been more informed and skilled.

Not As the Title Suggests

This book was awful. The narrator spoke at a speed that was not good for my ears or brain. The book isn't about life and death or people's attitudes toward them at different time periods. It is about board games and trivia. It should have a different title and then maybe people interested in what it is about could purchase it.

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Title: Capitalism and the Jews

Author: Jerry Z. Muller

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-08-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

The unique historical relationship between capitalism and the Jews is crucial to understanding modern European and Jewish history. But the subject has been addressed less often by mainstream historians than by anti-Semites or apologists. In this book Jerry Muller, a leading historian of capitalism, separates myth from reality to explain why the Jewish experience with capitalism has been so important and complex - and so ambivalent.

Drawing on economic, social, political, and intellectual history from medieval Europe through contemporary America and Israel, Capitalism and the Jews examines the ways in which thinking about capitalism and thinking about the Jews have gone hand in hand in European thought, and why anticapitalism and anti-Semitism have frequently been linked. The book explains why Jews have tended to be disproportionately successful in capitalist societies, but also why Jews have numbered among the fiercest anticapitalists and Communists. The book shows how the ancient idea that money was unproductive led from the stigmatization of usury and the Jews to the stigmatization of finance and, ultimately, in Marxism, the stigmatization of capitalism itself. Finally, the book traces how the traditional status of the Jews as a diasporic merchant minority both encouraged their economic success and made them particularly vulnerable to the ethnic nationalism of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Providing a fresh look at an important but frequently misunderstood subject, Capitalism and the Jews will interest anyone who wants to understand the Jewish role in the development of capitalism, the role of capitalism in the modern fate of the Jews, or the ways in which the story of capitalism and the Jews has affected the history of Europe and beyond, from the medieval period to our own.

Critic Reviews:

"Muller provides a refreshingly frank account of the major role of Jews on both sides of capitalism's ideological barricades. His brisk and lively book is a welcome sign that historians are moving beyond a stale preoccupation with challenging stereotypes, and are now more willing to engage candidly and directly with the economic dimension of Jewish history." (Jewish Quarterly)

"Muller is keen to rescue from apologists, ideologues, and anti-Semites the exploration of what he describes as the Jews' 'special relationship' with capitalism.... This book is both scholarly and speculative, analysing the sociology and the anti-Semitic pseudo-sociology of the Jews' participation in capitalism. It will not be the last word on the subject, but it is a genuine contribution to it." (New Statesman)

"A work of intellectual history.... Muller is acutely aware of the irony that Jews have been attacked sometimes for being the quintessence of capitalism and sometimes for being the quintessence of anticapitalism. The merit of his book is that it takes seriously the need to understand how historical circumstances bring this about." (Moment magazine)

Members Reviews:

Takes an interesting cross-section of history

As I expected, this collection of essays has a lot to say about the relationship of Christianity and European "mainstream" society of days past to finance, as well as to the Jews who, for a long time, embodied it there. Another very interesting and vivid narrative on this, with a narrower focus, can be found in the excellent audio "Dynasties" by David S.

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Title: The Ice Balloon

Subtitle: S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration

Author: Alec Wilkinson

Narrator: John Pruden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-28-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

In this grand and astonishing account, Alec Wilkinson brings us the story of S. A. Andrée, the visionary Swedish aeronaut who, in 1897, during the great age of Arctic endeavor, left to discover the North Pole by flying to it in a hydrogen balloon. Called by a British military officer the most original and remarkable attempt ever made in Arctic exploration, Andrées expedition was followed by nearly the entire world, and it made him an international legend.

The Ice Balloonbegins in the late 19th century, when nations vied for the greatest discoveries and newspapers covered every journey. Wilkinson describes how in Andrée several contemporary themes intersected: He was the first modern explorer - the first to depart for the Arctic unencumbered by notions of the Romantic age and the first to be equipped with the newest technologies - but no explorer had ever left with more uncertainty regarding his fate, since none had ever flown over the horizon and into the forbidding region of ice.

Woven throughout is Andrées own history and how he came by his brave and singular idea. We also get to know Andrées family, the woman who loved him, and the two men who accompanied him - Nils Strindberg, a cousin of the famous playwright, with a tender love affair of his own, and Knut Fraenkel, a willing and hearty young man.

Andrées flight and the journey - based on the expeditions diaries and photographs, which were dramatically recovered thirty-three years after the balloon came down - along with Wilkinsons research, provide a book filled with suspense and adventure, a haunting story of high ambition and courage made tangible with the detail, beauty, and devastating conditions of traveling and dwelling in the realm of Death, as one Arctic explorer put it.

Alec Wilkinson began writing for the New Yorker in 1980. Previously he was a policeman in Massachusetts and before that a rock-and-roll musician. He has published nine other books and articles. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Lyndhurst Prize, and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

Critic Reviews:

Wilkinsonwrites with insight and flair, artfully interleaving Andrées story with a brief history of Arctic exploration. [His] prose style suits the spare polar landscape, making his occasional poetic touches even more effective. And Wilkinson doesnt get bogged down in too much detail.He understands that the value of polar stories isnt to be found in guy ropes and provisions.It lies elsewhere, in our endless love of discovery and the drama of being human. (New York Times Book Review)

A writer known for discerning portraiture, Wilkinson here probes the personality of Swedish explorer Salomon Andrée, who, along with two companions, disappeared in an 1897 attempt to discover the North Pole by balloon[A] fine addition to the annals of polar exploration. (Booklist)

Wilkinson, ever elegant and thorough, fleshes out his account by delineating the previous expeditions of Greely and Nansen in order to get at the motivations in the minds of this parade of fanatics heading for the deep places.Beautifully focused and controlled. (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

Very Interesting Look at Little Known Event

I enjoyed this because it covers an event not commonly known in the U.S.

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Title: Thinking Small

Subtitle: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagon Beetle

Author: Andrea Hiott

Narrator: Suzanne Toren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-13-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 38 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Sometimes achieving big things requires the ability to think small. This simple concept was the driving force that propelled the Volkswagen Beetle to become an avatar of American-style freedom, a household brand, and a global icon. The VW Bug inspired the ad men of Madison Avenue, beguiled Woodstock Nation, and has recently been re-imagined for the hipster generation. And while today it is surely one of the most recognizable cars in the world, few of us know the compelling details of this cars story. In Thinking Small, journalist and cultural historian Andrea Hiott retraces the improbable journey of this little car that changed the world.

Andrea Hiotts wide-ranging narrative stretches from the factory floors of Weimar Germany to the executive suites of todays automotive innovators, showing how a succession of artists and engineers shepherded the Beetle to market through periods of privation and war, reconstruction and recovery.

Henry Fords Model T may have revolutionized the American auto industry, but for years Europe remained a place where only the elite drove cars. That all changed with the advent of the Volkswagen, the product of a Nazi initiative to bring driving to the masses. But Hitlers concept of the peoples car would soon take on new meaning. As Germany rebuilt from the rubble of World War II, a whole generation succumbed to the charms of the worlds most huggable automobile.

Indeed, the story of the Volkswagen is a story about people, and Hiott introduces us to the men who believed in it, built it, and sold it: Ferdinand Porsche, the visionary Austrian automobile designer whose futuristic dream of an affordable family vehicle was fatally compromised by his patron Adolf Hitlers monomaniacal drive toward war; Heinrich Nordhoff, the forward-thinking German industrialist whose management innovations made mass production of the Beetle a reality; and Bill Bernbach, the Jewish American advertising executive whose team of Madison Avenue mavericks dreamed up the legendary ad campaign that transformed the quintessential German compact into an outsize worldwide phenomenon.

Thinking Small is the remarkable story of an automobile and an idea. Hatched in an age of darkness, the Beetle emerged into the light of a new era as a symbol of individuality and personal mobility - a triumph not of the will but of the imagination.

Critic Reviews:

"...diligently researched...breezy....Such was the car's universal appeal that if it were invented today it would likely be called the iBug." (Wall Street Journal)

"[Hiott] presents the history of the whimsical German automobile, unveiling an intricate saga that spans nearly 90 years and includes some of the most monumental shifts in politics, economics, and creativity in the past century....A surprisingly substantial and far-reaching chronicle of 'a car that belongs to the world.'" (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Iconic Car

The Volkswagen Beetle is an iconic car around the world. No matter where you are, what language you speak, you always know a VW Bug when you see one on the road or in the junk. "Thinking Small"is an excellent read about Volkswagen. Very interesting history behind the wheel. I've read my fair share of Adolf Hitler and the war, but I would never discover his story and Volkswagen if I didn't decide to get this book.

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Title: Ghosts of Empire

Subtitle: Britain's Legacies in the Modern World

Author: Kwasi Kwarteng

Narrator: Kwasi Kwarteng, Elliot Levey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-22-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 25 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Kwasi Kwarteng is the child of parents whose lives were shaped as subjects of the British Empire, first in their native Ghana, then as British immigrants. He brings a unique perspective and impeccable academic credentials to a narrative history of the British Empire, one that avoids sweeping judgmental condemnation and instead sees the Empire for what it was: a series of local fiefdoms administered in varying degrees of competence or brutality by a cast of characters as outsized and eccentric as anything conjured by Gilbert and Sullivan.

The truth, as Kwarteng reveals, is that there was no such thing as a model for imperial administration; instead, appointees were schooled in quirky, independent-minded individuality. As a result the Empire was the product not of a grand idea but of often chaotic individual improvisation. The idosyncracies of viceroys and soldier-diplomats who ran the colonial enterprise continues to impact the world, from Kashmir to Sudan, Baghdad to Hong Kong.

Critic Reviews:

"Kwarteng effectively illustrates the effects of empire in a forceful and thorough book that holds important lessons for todays leaders - in particular that the cost of invading and occupying a country always exceeds expectations." (Kirkus Reviews)

"This is an absorbing, richly researched book, smoothly written with a light touch, and suggests, if its gifted Ghanaian/British author is anything to go by, that the Empire at least got something right." (The New Republic)

Kwasi Kwarteng, in this fine book, argues that the empire granted far too much authority to the wrong people. Accidents and decisions made on a personal, almost whimsical, level have had a massive impact on international politics,' Kwarteng writes. Ghosts of Empire explores six cases where this impact was felt: Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, Hong Kong, Kashmir, and Burma. This is a list without many success stories, and Kwarteng, who is a Conservative member of Parliament with Ghanaian parents and who claims to want to transcend sterile debates about the empire, ends up making a damning case. Kwarteng is critical but not patronizing, allowing the reader to grasp the motivations of the British while simultaneously seeing the shortcomings of their decisions. (New York Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Extremely Informative

Great listen while I was packing up to move. I really liked the insight into how different ways places were treated after colonization had impact on how the nation following has coped with its independence.

Your voice is too good.

Would you listen to Ghosts of Empire again? Why?

Kwai - Your voice is too good to let anyone else read for you. For War & Gold, please read it yourself. It may take additional time, but your fans will wait.