Download Popular Titles Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Hit the Target

Subtitle: Eight Men Who Led the Eighth Air Force to Victory over the Luftwaffe

Author: Bill Yenne

Narrator: Corey M. Snow

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-16

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Less than a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US Army formed its first air force designated to operate overseas, the Eighth. Within four months they had set up base in England. Three months later they were bombing German targets in occupied Europe.

The Eighth was the first bomber command on either side to commit to strategic daylight bombing. It was a major change in tactics - and the men of the Eighth paid the price in both lives and blood. But it was that very sacrifice that led the Allies to victory.

Hit the Target introduces listeners to those who made the Eighth Air Force the formidable juggernaut it soon became - men of all ranks, from General Tooey Spaatz, the hard-driving founding commander, to Colonel Jimmy Doolittle, the hero who led the first air raid on Japan, to Maynard "Snuffy" Smith, the irascible first airman in Europe to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal, who survived his time with the "Bloody Hundredth", which lost airmen at a horrifying rate, and who went on to serve as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.

The story of the Mighty Eighth is told through these men, whose careers paralleled the early history of aviation and who helped to revolutionize airborne warfare and win World War II.

Members Reviews:

Four Stars

Very enlightening book.

Required reading for all Americans/still a fun book to read

I loved this book. You hear about Patton all the time. You never hear about the other famous very famous Generals that were instrumental in winning the WW2. I have so much respect for them. Some of these men flew in WW1. These generals include; Generals Curtis LeMay,Arnold,Doolittle,Eaton,Spatz. All wonderful people that built our current Airforce. This book should be on the required reading list for for all seniors. Most Americans have no idea what these incredible people did for our country and I am a retired Army LTC.

Maybe you won't want to open our poris boarders and give away our country to immigrants after understanding how tough and how many Americans lost their lives to win WW2. Some collage kids don't even know who won the civil war. We had to defeat two country's Japan and Germany during WW2 and I'll bet some of our collage kids are clueless.

Five Stars

Good read

Great history

Bill Yenne does a wonderful job with some great Americans and their contribution to our history. Could not put it down.

FRAUD ALERT

This book uses sources without attribution. All the information is available elsewhere. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!!!

My father is one of the officers described in this book. The author never contacted our family, the 100th Bomb Group Foundation, or any other sources for his material. He took all his content from other books, sources, and organizations and never cited any of them. This is just a regurgitation of information from far better sources that are easily available to the public.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Teapot Dome Scandal

Subtitle: The History and Legacy of the Early 20th Century's Most Infamous Government Scandal

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-11-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Americans in the 21st century cite the relatively recent Watergate Scandal, and to a lesser degree the Enron Oil Scandal, as prime examples of modern governmental corruption. It is a widely held perception that these incidents, particularly the one bringing about the first resignation of an American president, caused the public to lose trust in federal institutions and political figures.

However, the prototype for the breakdown of governmental fidelity lies in the early 20th century, a time in which the recent territories of the United States struggled to evolve from a lawless, Wild West culture. The federal government viewed its western resources as both unlimited and outside the grasp of the government. The leading oil barons, born and raised in the 19th century, were accustomed to federally-blessed land-grabs and easily obtained mining and lumber interests, often doled out to the social and financial elite under the guise of exploration. Federal interference was minimal in contrast to later decades, and the government itself was eager to conquer the West through large-tract farming, river management, mineral and timber development, not to mention the procurement of oil for a growing society as coal gave way to new types of fuel.

The early 20th century was a time of sudden growth for the young American automobile industry, and of a military beginning to extend its reach around the world. In what would become largely a jurisdictional dispute over Western natural resources, the unbridled oil industry of the new century collided with the United States military and the Department of the Interior, set against the dominance of a corruption-riddled presidential administration. For the first time in American history, in a contest between entrepreneurism and government management, a high-ranking cabinet official was convicted of corruption and sent to prison in the aftermath, along with his co-conspirators.

In the ensuing Congressional investigation that sought to root out the widespread graft, bribery, and usurpation of government property over the following decade, the two-year affair became commonly known as the Teapot Dome Scandal. Although three major oil fields were actually involved, including Elk Hills and Buena Vista in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the symbol of the incident became a rock formation north of Casper, Wyoming, shaped in what most observers would describe as a teapot. Beneath this formation lay an enormous reservoir of crude oil, and all of it the property of the United States Navy.

On June 4, 1920, Congress at last declared that the Secretary of the Navy was to hold the power to "conserve, develop, use and operate", at its discretion, a tract of approximately 70,000 acres in California. The Wyoming fields fell under the same dictate, and although Teapot was the smaller reserve in terms of acreage, it contained a great deal more oil than its Californian counterparts.

Although never directly implicated in the row over Teapot Dome and its sister fields, the administration of Republican Warren G. Harding, elected in November of 1921, set the scandal in motion by transferring control of the Navy's oil fields to the Department of Interior, at the Secretary of the Interior's incessant urging.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Vanquished

Subtitle: Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923

Author: Robert Gerwarth

Narrator: John Banks

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-04-16

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

For the Western allies, 11 November 1918 has always been a solemn date - the end of fighting which had destroyed a generation and a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of their principal enemies: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe, this was a day with no meaning, as a continuing nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed country after country.

In this highly original, gripping book, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War. In large part it was not the fighting on the Western front which proved so ruinous to Europe's future but the devastating aftermath, as countries on both sides of the original conflict were wrecked by revolution, pogroms, mass expulsions and further major military clashes. If the war itself had in most places been a struggle purely between state-backed soldiers, these new conflicts were mainly about civilians and paramilitaries, and millions of people died across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe before the USSR and a series of rickety and exhausted small new states came into being. Everywhere there were vengeful people, their lives racked by a murderous sense of injustice, looking for the opportunity to take retribution against enemies real and imaginary. Only a decade later, the rise of the Third Reich and other totalitarian states provided them with the opportunity they had been looking for.

Members Reviews:

excellent summary

A most enjoyable book. Succinct, well written, informative on a tangled era of european history.

Only negative is its sometimes prolonged and possibly unnecessary descriptions of extreme violence.

Now I get why there are so many problems in our world

Wow. A comprehensive study of the violent chaos in Europe and beyond following the cessation of hostilities on the western front. Real and direct resonance with the causes of today's turmoil in these same areas.

A Terrible Legacy

Well narrated history. A comprehensive history of the fall out from the 'Great War. Recommended reading.

RD Cool H

This is the best war in history I have listened to so far It explain more about the two wars and problems we have up to the present day today. The atrocity committed in Eastern Europe after fall of the Ottoman Empire. Carving up of the Middle East. And the new European map of Europe this is more than history lesson.

If you thought the First World War ended in 1918 you need to read this book!

A well written corrective to the common belief that the First World War ended in 1918. The guns on the Western front may have fallen silent on 11th November but all across the eastern zone of the conflict they continued to fire. The end of the Romanov,Habsburg and Ottoman empire's and the birth of nationstates were paralleled by population exchanges and bloodshed. Anyone who is interested in history of any kind needs to read this book.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Cambodian Campaign During the Vietnam War

Subtitle: The History of the Controversial Invasion of Cambodia and Laos

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-02-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The Vietnam War could have been called a comedy of errors if the consequences weren't so deadly and tragic. In 1951, while war was raging in Korea, the United States began signing defense pacts with nations in the Pacific, intending to create alliances that would contain the spread of Communism. As the Korean War was winding down, America joined the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, pledging to defend several nations in the region from Communist aggression. One of those nations was South Vietnam.

By the end of 1967, with nearly half a million troops deployed, more than 19,000 deaths, and a war that cost $2 billion a month and seemed to grow bloodier by the day, the Johnson administration faced an increasingly impatient and skeptical nation. Early in 1968, a massive coordinated Viet Cong operation - the Tet Offensive - briefly paralyzed American and South Vietnamese forces across the country, threatening even the American embassy compound in Saigon. With this, the smiling mask slipped even further, inflaming the burgeoning antiwar movement.

Members Reviews:

It does a really good job of contrasting the campaign to others in the ...

A lot of people are familiar with the secret bombing of Cambodia, but this looks more at the ground invasion undertaken by South Vietnamese forces, American soldiers, and even the participation of the Cambodians. It does a really good job of contrasting the campaign to others in the Vietnam War and how American efforts were ultimately undone.

Great overview

This was an outstanding overview of the Cambodian Campaign during the Vietnam War. I thoroughly enjoyed it, knowing very little of this history. Well worth reading.

Interesting book

Stupid politicians. The reason we keep sending our young people off to fight and die in wars only to walk away with nothing gained. What a shameful waste.

Three Stars

Did not receive at this time.

One Star

DID NOT HAVE MUCH TO DO WITH US TROOPS. MAINLY ARVN'S.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Final Destination: Disaster

Subtitle: What Really Happened to Eastern Airlines

Author: George Jehn

Narrator: Joe Barrett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-17-16

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Final Destination: Disaster informs the public, for the very first time, of what actually precipitated the controversial sale of Eastern Airlines - at one time the second largest airline in the free world - to Frank Lorenzo's Texas Air Corporation, which led to its certain demise. This unbelievable story is written by an 18-year veteran Eastern pilot who was intimately involved in many aspects of the tumultuous events that culminated in the sale.

Members Reviews:

Rambling personal account of working at Eastern

What would have made Final Destination: Disaster better?

Reads more like a listening to a disgruntled employee at the bar. To many personal details, mostly about personalities that would only be interesting if you knew who the people were. Primary focus is on contract negotiations. There was a whole chapter about preparing to write a letter and I think that sums up this book...

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: World War I in 50 Events: From the Very Beginning to the Fall of the Central Powers

Subtitle: History in 50 Events Series, Book 5

Author: James Weber

Narrator: Damien Connolly

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-12-16

Publisher: James Weber

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Do you want to learn how the Great War began, was fought and ultimately won by the Allied Forces? Hear about the 50 most important events of World War I, from the very beginning to the fall of the Central Powers. This book is perfect for history lovers. Author James Weber did the research and compiled this huge list of events and battles that changed the course of history forever.

Some of them include:

The book takes you through the most important events of WWI from before the beginning of the war in 1914 until its end in 1918. It contains all the major battles and fights.

Members Reviews:

Good introducion to the history of WWI

What did you like best about World War I in 50 Events: From the Very Beginning to the Fall of the Central Powers? What did you like least?

Gives better understanding to cause of war and great battles throughout.

Any additional comments?

Could have been more in depth.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The 20th Century in 50 Events

Subtitle: The Most Important Inventions, Conflicts, Technologies & Much More

Author: James Weber

Narrator: Anthony Colby

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-04-16

Publisher: James Weber

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Hear about the 50 most important events in the 20th century, from the Chinese Boxer Rebellion in 1900 to the Y2K bug. This book is perfect for history lovers. Author James Weber did the research and compiled this huge list of events that changed our planet's history forever.

Some of them include:

The book takes you through the most important events of the 20th century. This is the perfect resource for students and anyone wanting to broaden their knowledge in history.

Download your copy now!

Members Reviews:

Explore the evolution and effects of of the Industrial Revolution and its transformation of Great Britain, the U

This comprehensive volume explores all these events and more, including the aftermath of the Revolution.its spread beyond Britain and the U.S. to Asia and throughout the world, allowing for a higher standard of living while challenging that standard with increased pollution and health problems, a widened economic and social class gap, and a weakening of traditional family structure. Biographical sketches of key figures, a chronology of events, primary document excerpts from the period, and a print and nonprint source bibliography supplement the work. Explore the evolution and effects of of the Industrial Revolution and its transformation of Great Britain, the U.S., and the rest of the world.

Efficient way for non academic types to learn (study) history ...

Efficient way for non academic types to learn (study) history. A way to compare dates of events and then remember (learn) those dates with other significant dates that we remember (know). The organization into shorter (2 to 4 pages) descriptions of events allows coverage in less time than is reading in book form.

Great read!

I never had an interest in reading history books because I found them boring, however as I have read this book, I realized that knowing the worldâs history can be interesting and fun. I was fascinated with how the author elaborated about the most significant events in human history. This book is very clear, concise and easy to understand. Unlike any other history books, this book is a unique one. It is a mix of science and history including information on the appearance of Homo sapiens as well as Cro-Magnon. Itâs great!

productive read

It has been a productive read for me! I find it to be very helpful since I work in an industry that talks to a lot of people of different races. It's great to learn their history especially those that people really celebrate and commemorate because it helps us understand more the culture and behavior of most individuals. It also taught me the important events that shaped the country itself. It is a fine book that would certainly add more knowledge.

History :Best events of last century

I like to read history. When I read any history book ,I feel that I am travelling through the history.This is a very good book.There are many events happened in the past century.It is not possible to identify top 50 events but the writer tried to concentrate on this. Vietnam war ,Berlin wall, different revolutions are included here. This book will provide you the knowledge about 20 century.You can keep this book in your collection.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: The Battle of Leyte Gulf

Subtitle: The History and Legacy of World War II's Largest Naval Battle

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Colin Fluxman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-30-16

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The waters of the Pacific Ocean - stretching deep blue under the tropical sun, or scourged by typhoons - provided World War II's most far-flung battlefield. Two of the world's premier mid-20th century maritime powers, the United States of America and the Empire of Japan, grappled for supremacy across that pelagic expanse. In the process, they forcefully sounded the death knell of battleships and naval gunnery, ushering in the era of the aircraft carrier and the submarine.

As 1944 passed, the US Navy (USN) steadily drove the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) westward, closer to the Japanese home islands and defeat. Nevertheless, the IJN remained aggressive, hoping to launch a devastating attack on the American fleets to improve their nation's bargaining position, or perhaps even reverse the fortunes of war. This, of course, ignored a pair of previous catastrophic failures of similar plans, at Midway and the Battle of the Philippine Sea, otherwise known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot" due to the loss of around 480 Japanese aircraft at a cost of 49 US planes.

The Americans forced the Japanese to abandon their forward base at Truk. At the same time, the USN moved its main fleet base westward, first to Eniwetok. Due to the constraints of the era's technology, plus the necessity to maintain a robust logistics chain across the Pacific's vast spaces, the island-hopping campaign represented a strategic necessity, with only the specific islands taken or bypassed open to debate.

The US aimed to take Ulithi as the new site for a new forward base in early autumn 1944, pushing fleet resupply even closer to Japan's last bastion. From there, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, swayed by the plans and arguments of General Douglas MacArthur, planned to seize a number of islands and then Leyte in the Philippines as a prelude to invasion of Luzon, then Formosa.

Conducting massive air raids on Leyte in September, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey's air groups destroyed 500 Japanese aircraft and 59 ships at a cost of nine aircraft shot down. This prompted Halsey to send an urgent message to Roosevelt, then at the Octagon Conference in Canada with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, claiming a feeble defense of the Philippines.

Trying to take advantage of this intelligence, the Joint Chiefs moved up the timetable for the landings on Leyte to October 20th. The Americans would now bypass several islands such as Yap, to take Leyte and Luzon quickly, though Ulithi and several other islands remained earmarked for conquest.

The USN assembled a massive attack force for Leyte, consisting of Seventh Fleet, charged with the actual amphibious landings, and Third Fleet's Task Force 38, Halsey's powerful strike force centered around 17 aircraft carriers bearing some 1,000 aircraft. The Americans, however, did not realize that a powerful IJN force lurked near Singapore.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War

Author: Kevin Ruane

Narrator: Barnaby Edwards

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-08-16

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career: his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons.

Kevin Ruane shows how Churchill went from regarding the bomb as a weapon of war in the struggle with Nazi Germany to viewing it as a weapon of Communist containment (and even punishment) in the early Cold War before, in the 1950s, advocating and arguably pioneering what would become known as mutually assured destruction as the key to preventing the Cold War flaring into a calamitous nuclear war.

While other studies of Churchill have touched on his evolving views on nuclear weapons, few historians have given this hugely important issue the kind of dedicated and sustained treatment it deserves.

In Churchill and the Bomb in War and Cold War, however, Kevin Ruane has undertaken extensive primary research in Britain, the United States and Europe and accessed a wide array of secondary literature in producing an immensely digestible yet detailed, insightful and provocative account of Churchill's nuclear hopes and fears.

Members Reviews:

Slow Starter. Fast finisher.

This book took a bit of time to get going, but after the first few chapters it really kicked into gear. I have read another book on the same subject and this book felt totally different whilst telling a very similar story which is testament to its overall quality.

Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation

Subtitle: Great Lakes Books Series

Author: Anthony J. Yanik

Narrator: Barry Eads

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-19-16

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Maxwell Motor was one of the leading automobile producers in the United States during the first quarter of the 20th century, and its cars offered several innovations to buyers of the time. Maxwell's was the first popular car with its engine in front instead of under the body, the first to be designed with three-point suspension and shaft drive, and one of the earliest cars to feature thermo-syphon cooling. Anthony J. Yanik examines the machines, the process, and the men behind Maxwell, describing both the vehicle engineering and the backroom wheeling and dealing that characterized the emergence and disappearance of the early auto companies.

Yanik charts the company's evolution through the early Maxwell-Briscoe years, 1903-1912; the Maxwell Motor Company years, 1913-1920; and finally the Maxwell Motor Corporation years, 1921-1925. He considers the influential leaders, including Jonathan Maxwell, Benjamin Briscoe, Walter Flanders, and Walter P. Chrysler, who executed the business decisions and corporate mergers that shaped each tumultuous era, concluding with Chrysler's eventual deal to transfer all Maxwell assets to form a new Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Yanik also discusses the aftermath of Maxwell's dissolution and the fate of its famous corporate leaders.

He fills a gap in existing automotive scholarship and proves that the Maxwell story is an excellent resource for documenting the development of the automobile industry in the early twentieth century.

Society of Automotive Historians Award. The book is published by Wayne State University Press.

Members Reviews:

Ford was not the only car builder.

There is a lot more to the history of US car manufacturing than just Henry Ford.

A ton more.

The story is basically about how the Maxwell Motors was born, evolved, and became Chrysler Motors.

Yanik tells us about how the manufacturing of cars got started. How these companies got financed. And how a lot of them went out of business.

At one time there was hundreds of car manufacturers in the US. If you had a company that did anything with metal or wheels you were looking for a way to build, or help build a car.

It was an easy read. Well written and a lot of info.

Five Stars

Very well written and researched book

Five Stars

Nice attention given to an often forgotten marque

Not for everyone * Perfect for a few

This book has very limited appeal. It is not a coffee table book. It is a serious, well researched history book. For the few of us that like to get down in the weeds and study the machines and personalities from the beginnings of the automobile industry it is a gem. Full of anecdotes, facts and figures, and insights into the industry pioneers... sometimes in their own words. This book follows a logical chronological order which effectively transported me back in time and left me with great admiration for the men who built the automobile industry. A little heavy on finances and stock deals but overall very pleasant and informative reading for the automobile history buff.