Download Popular Titles Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: The Most Important Meetings of the Allies during World War II

Subtitle: The History of the Tehran Conference, Yalta Conference, and Potsdam Conference

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-01-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Separated by vast gulfs of political, cultural, and philosophical divergence, the three chief Allied nations of World War II - the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain - attempted to formulate a joint policy through a series of three conferences during and immediately after the conflict. The first meeting took place in Tehran in late 1943, while the fate of World War II still hung in the balance. The fate of World War II hung in the balance in 1943. On the Eastern Front, the opposed juggernauts of the Wehrmacht, army of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich, and the Red Army, the military force of Josef Stalin's Soviet Union, grappled in a nearly apocalyptic battle. Black smoke rose into the steppe air from burning vehicles strewing the landscape, while millions of men maneuvered, fought, and died in a series of brutal encounters. Meanwhile, the Western Allies succeeded in ousting the Germans from North Africa, then took Sicily with Operation Husky and landed in Italy. There, the tough, hardened warriors of the German military turned the Italian peninsula into a vast fortress; these seasoned fighters made the determined Anglo-American forces pay a bitter price for each mountain ridge, river crossing, and stony valley swept by cunningly-placed gun emplacements. Adolf Hitler's Third Reich had scant time remaining when the "Big Three" met at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 to discuss the future of Germany, Europe, and the postwar world as a whole.

Members Reviews:

Ever wonder how the Cold War ended up taking the ...

Ever wonder how the Cold War ended up taking the shape it did? This book comprehensively explains how the Allies agreed on some things and disagreed on a lot more as they wrapped up World War II. This will help any reader understand the end of the war and what came next.

Five Stars

Very informative. Helpful in understanding the outcome of WWII.

Four Stars

Detailed facts not easily found.

Four Stars

Heavy reading...

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Title: World War II: Desert War

Subtitle: American Heritage

Author: Stephen W. Sears

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-17-17

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The struggle for North Africa was unlike any other campaign of World War II. The desert proved a real test of generalship, pitting Germany's Erwin Rommel against Britain's Bernard Montgomery and America's George Patton. Here, from award-winning military historian Stephen W. Sears, is the dramatic story of the generals, politicians, and soldiers who changed the course of the war.

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: The Big Break

Subtitle: The Greatest American WWII POW Escape Story Never Told

Author: Stephen Dando-Collins

Narrator: Paul Woodson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-10-17

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

In the tradition of Paul Brickhill's best-selling The Great Escape, comes the amazing true story of the most successful mass Allied escape of World War II from Schubin, Poland.

The story opens in the stinking latrines of the Schubin camp as an American and a Canadian lead the digging of a tunnel which enabled a break involving 36 prisoners of war (POWs). The Germans then converted the camp to Oflag 64, to exclusively hold US Army officers, with more than 1500 Americans ultimately housed there. Plucky Americans attempted a variety of escapes until January 1945, only to be thwarted every time. Then, with the Red Army advancing closer every day, camp commandant Colonel Fritz Schneider received orders from Berlin to march his prisoners west. Game on! Over the next few days, 250 US Army officers would succeed in escaping east to link up with the Russians - although they would prove almost as dangerous as the Nazis - only to be ordered once they arrived back in the United States not to talk about their adventures. Within months, General Patton would launch a bloody bid to rescue the remaining Schubin Americans.

In The Big Break, this previously untold story follows POWs including General Eisenhower's personal aide, General Patton's son-in-law, and Ernest Hemingway's eldest son as they struggled to be free. Military historian and Paul Brickhill biographer Stephen Dando-Collins expertly chronicles this gripping story of Americans determined to be free, brave Poles risking their lives to help them, and dogmatic Nazis determined to stop them.

Members Reviews:

Four Stars

Amazing story; hard to believe it hasn't been told before.

Great book and full of important WW2 history

Interesting and intriguing, but somewhat tedious, especially to keep track of all the names and places. Definitely worth a read however.

Average book

An average book. Not much to keep you wanting to turn the pages. Although, the last 1/3 of the book was much more interesting.

My father was involved in the Big Break

I have been searching for information about my father's experience as a POW in WWII. He was a physician and was appointed Medical Director of the American POW Hospital. On page 88 and 89, his bravery is shown to protect one of his patients from being sent away from the hospital by telling the German medical inspector that the man needed an appendectomy - and that he needed operating instruments. I realize, now, the pressure he was under. It was a very scary time. Dad told me when I was a teenager about being a part of faking an appendectomy to protect one of the servicemen from having to be forced to go to the "front". But, he never told me where and when this happened. Now, it is in print. I am so thankful to read this book.

The spoon (shown below) is wooden and hand-painted. He used the spoon and a tin can to eat the only food they had - wild lettuce and water soup with bread from the Russians, who finally, a week or more after the war ended, trucked Dad, the other medical officers and his patients towards their final destination. Odessa, Rumania. Not having enough food was very stressful. He went down to 135 pounds the winter of 1944-45, when there was a terrible food shortage and this horrible trek caused him to lose weight again.

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Title: World War II: Carrier War

Author: Stephen W. Sears

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-10-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

At dusk on December 8, 1941, the carrier Enterprise and her escort of cruisers and destroyers entered Pearl Harbor. Officers and men lined the rails, watching in stunned silence. The twisted, smoldering superstructure of the Arizona was still aflame, and there was a stench of charred wood and fuel oil in the air.

"Morale went to nothing just about then," said an officer on one of the escorting cruisers. "We were sick and shocked. We couldn't believe that this had happened to us." Through the night the crew of the Enterprise, under the command of Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, took on fuel, provisions, and ammunition. Before dawn it was back at sea.

Members Reviews:

A concise review of the carrier's decisive role in replacing ...

A concise review of the carrier's decisive role in replacing the battleship as the deciding factor in naval warfare during the Pacific war. Ultimately, the U.S. got and exploited the technological, industrial, and human edge that enabled it to reduce the most powerful navy in the world in 1941 to an empty shell by 1945. By war's end, Japan had few carriers, fewer planes, and very few replacement pilots to fly those planes. This outcome was by design, not by accident.

I highly recommend this book to adults and high school or college ...

Mr. Sears has provided a comprehensive, easy-to-read account of the aircraft carrier and its use by both Japan and the United States in the Pacific Ocean during World War II. His many personal accounts make the story an exciting history to read. While Mr. Sears mentions all of the important (as well as less known) land battles, this book concentrates on the Navy version and specifically the sailors and pilots assigned or attached to naval vessels.

I highly recommend this book to adults and high school or college students.

solid work

Classic work from renowned historian. Nothing shocking or unexpected for the serious student of modern naval history but gives the reader a solid foundation on the war in the Pacific.

While the carrier war of 1941-1945 was only 30 years from the cloth and wood early planes of WWI and some 40 years from Kittyhawk the principles of air power projection developed 70 years ago is still the basis of USN operations today.

A lesson from history involving aircraft carriers worth the read for military professionals.

I am currently reading this book and am able finished. What I find interesting is that the author introduces the characters - both American and Japanese, that most other books have not done so. Obviously the author has done his research in depth and that makes the book worth the read especially for those that would continue in a military career.

All in all a book that might be a good starter, but doesn't really hold any surprises for ...

It is an odd thing to read a book about War and the word that pops into your mind when you think of a description for it is...cute.

This book is an introduction type book about Carrier Warfare in the Pacific during WWII. It is an extremely one sided view of the affair, dealing almost exclusively with the US viewpoint.

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Title: The Sinking of the Bismarck

Subtitle: The History of the Battle That Destroyed Nazi Germany's Most Famous Battleship

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Jim D. Johnston

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-04-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Immensely powerful and thickly armored, armed with eight 15-inch guns aimed by one of the most sophisticated target acquisition systems of its day, the Third Reich's premier battleship, the KMS Bismarck, left an indelible trail of legends behind it during its single, fatal foray against the British in 1941. Victorious over the HMS Hood, prowling the Arctic waters north of England, and circling in a desperate effort to evade the Royal Navy and reach the safety of Brest in France, the Bismarck's first and last combat voyage lasted a brief total of eight days.

Though well-constructed for the most part and extremely formidable, the KMS Bismarck did not represent the world's most powerful battleship at the time, subsequent myth-making notwithstanding. The Americans, Italians, and indeed the pre-invasion French already possessed equal or slightly superior combat craft. The Japanese soon produced much stronger vessels. Nevertheless, Nazi Germany deployed no warship more powerful, so the Bismarck's loss caused a disproportionately high loss of German morale and a similar boost to English confidence during one of the darkest periods of the war.

Naval warfare in 1941 sat on the cusp between the past when battleships and their massive gun batteries ruled the waves and the very near future when aircraft carriers proved stunningly dominant over ships armed only with artillery. A single aircraft carrier involved itself in the pursuit and destruction of the Bismarck, causing one of the pivotal events of "Exercise Rhine" through nearly wholly random chance.

The KMS Bismarck's destruction represented neither a predestined conclusion nor the result of the impending radical change in naval tactics and strategy. The Bismarck sailed during the narrow window at the start of World War II when the battleship remained a viable independent instrument of war rather than the mobile defense for aircraft carriers or the floating artillery battery supporting shore operations it became.

Instead, human decisions and pure chance conjoined to result in the Bismarck's destruction. Admiral Gunther Lütjens, overall expedition commander, committed several major errors during the operation. Towards its end, he wallowed in despair, failing to carry through on several ruses devised by his subordinates which, in the hands of a commander not already resigned to death, might have tipped the scale to the Bismarck's survival.

Both sides made crucial errors, but those of Gunther Lütjens proved most decisive. As Charles de Gaulle pithily observed, "Victory often goes to the army that makes the least mistakes, not the most brilliant plans." The sinking of the Bismarck demonstrated the truth of this aphorism. A handful of poor choices at vital turning points on the part of one man Lütjens decided the fate of the KMS Bismarck and cost the lives of 2,088 men aboard her (or 94.7% of her crew), including his own.

Members Reviews:

Just the facts..

Decent account of the well known story of the mighty Bismarck.. Basic factual regurgitation of the facts.. my only issue being that the narrator could have taken the time to check pronunciation of some of the ship names..

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Title: Hitlers Thirty Days to Power

Subtitle: January 1933

Author: Henry Ashby Turner Jr.

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-13-16

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Distinguished Yale historian Henry Ashby Turner Jr. makes an important and influential addition to his lifelong study of Nazi Germany. Hitler's Thirty Days to Power paints vivid portraits of the main players in the drama of January 1933 and, using newly available documents, masterfully recreates the bewildering circumstances surrounding Hitler's unexpected appointment as chancellor of Germany. The result is a work that Booklist calls "first rate...a gripping, foreboding narrative."

Members Reviews:

Add this to your wish list

This is a must read for anyone with a thirst for history of this time period. This book, as the

title suggests deals with the events and characters in the immediate run up to Jan 30th, 1933. The reader will learn how literally right up to very moment Hitler was chosen to be Chancellor the history of the world could have easily changed. Hitler did not by his "iron will", beat down an old dithering Hindenburg into submission. Not at all. Hitler was not swept into power by a tidal wave German masses. In fact, in the nation election just held days before his appointment, 2 out of every 3 voting Germans voted against Hitler.

So how did it happen. How did Hitler rise to power in just 30 days. Listen to this book.

5 stars go to the narrator Paul Boehmer. Bravo sir, well done

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Title: The Japanese Invasion of Manchuria and the Rape of Nanking

Subtitle: The History of the Most Notorious Events of the Second Sino-Japanese War

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Colin Fluxman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-06-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Though scarcely mentioned in the world of early 21st century politics, Manchuria represented a key region of Asia during the first half of the 20th century. Once the heartland of the fierce Manchu empire, this northeastern Chinese region's rich natural resources made it a prize for nations in the process of entering the modern age, and three ambitious nations in the midst of such a transformation lay close enough to Manchuria to attempt to claim it: Japan, Russia, and China.

For countries attempting to shake off their feudal past and enter a dynamic era of industrialization, Manchuria's resources presented an irresistible lure. With immense natural resources coupled to economic activity more concentrated than elsewhere in China, this region, abutting Mongolia, Korea, the Yellow Sea, and the Great Wall "accounted for 90 percent of Chinas oil, 70 percent of its iron, 55 percent of its gold, and 33 percent of its trade. If Shanghai remained Chinas commercial center, by 1931 Manchuria had become its industrial center." (Paine, 2012, 15).

Thus, it's not altogether surprising that Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931 resulted from a long, complex chain of historical events stretching back to the late 19th century. Approximately 380,000 square miles in extent, or 1.4 times the size of the American state of Texas, Manchuria came into Imperial Russia's possession in 1900 due to the Boxer Rebellion in China, but the Russians held it only briefly; their defeat in the Russo-Japanese War shook loose their control from important parts of Manchuria by the end of 1905.

The Japanese gained two important footholds in Manchuria thanks to their victory. One consisted of Port Arthur (renamed Ryojun by the Japanese), an economically and strategically vital harbor city on the Liaodung Peninsula, plus the peninsula itself. The other comprised the South Manchurian Railway, which the Russians gave to the Japanese as a prize of war, in lieu of a cash indemnity.

Three days of plundering traditionally befell cities taken by storm, a fate usually avoided by those surrendering before the first attacking soldier penetrated beyond the outer walls. In Europe and areas influenced by Enlightenment thinkers, this practice faded rapidly after the Napoleonic Wars. In 1937, however, as the Imperial Army of Japan invaded China, this custom returned in a horrifying new form the Rape of Nanking or the Nanking Massacre, a bloodbath lasting more than six weeks and possibly claiming more than a quarter of a million lives.

Even the Japanese participating in the Nanking Massacre provided no rationale for their actions. They made no effort to explain it as a measure to terrorize other Chinese cities into surrender, or even to extract the location of hidden valuables. Instead, the Rape appears on the page of history as a psychopathic orgy of sadism for sadism's sake. Insatiably driven by hatred and, apparently, an unabashed relish for cruelty, the Japanese soldiery abandoned any semblance of restraint.

Women of every age, from small children to ancient elders, suffered innumerable rapes, in many cases dying from the mass raping alone. Those who did not die from sexual assault suffered death in other forms shot, decapitated, or tortured to death once the soldiers found themselves sexually exhausted.

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Title: The Navajo Code Talkers

Subtitle: The History of the Native American Marines Behind World War II's Most Uncrackable Code

Author: Charles River Editors, Chester Smith

Narrator: Jim D Johnston

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-24-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

One of World War II's most crucial struggles happened in the realm of the unseen, inside the human mind, and amid the invisible flow of radio waves. Every war is a battle of wits as intelligence-gathering, tactics, and strategies clash, from the level of individual action up to the grand, overarching schemes of generals and statesmen. Intelligence took on a freshly urgent aspect in World War II, however, as the fate of offensives, armies, and nations came to hang on the struggle to decrypt vital enemy radio traffic and military communications.

Members Reviews:

Good history

This is a good history of the Code Talkers, but doesn't really give and specific examples. Nice read about events and times.

forget this one

I thought the book would be more about the code talkers but it was more of a political view of the Indians as a whole instead of the code talkers themselves. Not a good read

Disappointed

very disappointed not much substance

Code Talkers

Not enough code language enclosed in the short History. Otherwise, a good read.

True Americans

Very special history lesson for all

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Title: Water Tossing Boulders

Subtitle: How a Family of Chinese Immigrants Led the First Fight to Desegregate Schools in the Jim Crow South

Author: Adrienne Berard

Narrator: Moe Egan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-16

Publisher: Beacon Press

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A generation before Brown v. Board of Education struck down America's "separate but equal" doctrine, one Chinese family and an eccentric Mississippi lawyer fought for desegregation in one of the greatest legal battles never told.

On September 15, 1924, Martha Lum and her older sister, Berda, were barred from attending middle school in Rosedale, Mississippi. The girls were Chinese American and considered by the school to be "colored"; the school was for whites. This event would lead to the first US Supreme Court case to challenge the constitutionality of racial segregation in Southern public schools, an astonishing 30 years before the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. Unearthing one of the greatest stories never told, journalist Adrienne Berard recounts how three unlikely heroes sought to shape a new South.

A poor immigrant from Southern China, Jeu Gong Lum came to America with the hope of a better future for his family. Unassuming yet boldly determined, his daughter Martha would inhabit that future and become the face of the fight to integrate schools. Earl Brewer, their lawyer and staunch ally, was once a millionaire and governor of Mississippi. When he took the family's case, Brewer was both bankrupt and a political pariah - a man with nothing left to lose. By confronting the "separate but equal" doctrine, the Lum family fought for the right to educate Chinese Americans in the white schools of the Jim Crow South.

Using their groundbreaking lawsuit as a compass, Berard depicts the complicated condition of racial otherness in rural Southern society. In a sweeping narrative that is both epic and intimate, Water Tossing Boulders evokes a time and place previously defined by black and white, a time and place that, until now, has never been viewed through the eyes of a forgotten third race. In vivid prose, the Mississippi Delta, an empire of cotton and a bastion of slavery, is reimagined to reveal the experiences of a lost immigrant community. Through extensive research in historical documents and family correspondence, Berard illuminates a vital, forgotten chapter of America's past and uncovers the powerful journey of an oppressed people in their struggle for equality.

Critic Reviews:

"In an engaging bit of social history, Berard rescues a forgotten part of Southern history and brings it to light, offering readers a rare glimpse into Chinese immigrant life and the way segregation affected so many for decades. Flush with telling details and backed by meticulous research, a piece of near-forgotten Chinese-American history is retold." (Kirkus Reviews)

"Surely the most racist Supreme Court decision in the twentieth century, Gong Lum v. Rice has finally found its biographer. Adrienne Berard, who lives about twenty miles from where it all happened, has unearthed fresh facts and brought them to life to tell an important story." (James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me)

"With luminous prose and intricate research, Adrienne Berard has preserved an undeservedly forgotten battle in the struggle for racial equality...In Berard's skilled and supple hands, the past speaks eloquently to our American present." (Samuel G.

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Title: Submarine Warfare in the Pacific

Subtitle: The History of the Fighting Under the Waves Between Japan and America During World War II

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Dan Gallagher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 22 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Submarines exercised a decisive impact on the outcome of the Pacific Theater in World War II. The US submarine fleet, largely though not exclusively under the overall command of Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood, strangled the supply lines and shipping traffic of the Empire of Japan. Their commerce raiding crippled both Japan's ability to keep its frontline units supplied and to manufacture the weapons, vessels, and vehicles needed to successfully carry on the struggle. The United States and Japan both produced excellent, high-tech submarines in the context of the World War II era. Japanese I-boats showed excellent seakeeping capabilities and offered the versatility created by their large size, including the ability to serve as motherships for midget submarines or aircraft carriers for scouting aircraft or even specialized bombers. The Type 93 Long Lance and Type 95 torpedoes they carried packed enough punch to sink capital ships like battleships and carriers at ranges of several miles.

American submarines, though smaller, could dive deeply, move quickly, and provide both firepower and survivability. Though their type XIV and type XVIII torpedoes could not match the Japanese type 93, they still gave a lethal punch, particularly after improvements in late 1943. The USS Archerfish demonstrated the deadliness of American submarines to Japanese capital ships also.

The submariners of both fleets showed immense courage, daring, and skill in carrying out their duties. Both groups of men exhibited aggression, patriotism, and fighting spirit in equal measure, regardless of the different cultural lenses through which these traits manifested themselves. Both navies successfully produced professional, highly capable submarine officers.

The Japanese, however, decided to use their submarines mainly to support a grand fleet action at visual ranges, which never occurred. Instead, the submarines carried out sporadic, uncoordinated attacks and the rest of the time remained on sentry duty or found their time squandered with supply runs and undersea evacuations. The Japanese never corrected these problems - probably due to cultural factors. The rowdy, democratic Americans, suspicious of authority and used to asserting themselves, confronted their commanders boisterously when they felt something was amiss. The torpedo problem nearly caused fistfights between submarine skippers and admirals, yet in the end, the admirals examined and corrected the problem.

Though constituting only one point six percent of the total US Navy's tonnage in the Pacific, the submarine fleet inflicted massive losses on the Imperial Japanese Navy and Japan's crucial merchant marine. Submarines sank 55% of the merchant shipping lost, or approximately 1,300 vessels; overall, the Allies sank 77% of Japan's shipping.

Members Reviews:

Submarine warfare in the Pacific

I know it is a large subject, however I would call this book an introduction to the Pacific submarine campaign.