Download the New Releases Audiobooks in History, Military

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Title: Eight Lives Down

Author: Chris Hunter

Narrator: Julian Rhind Tutt

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-17-07

Publisher: Random House AudioBooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

But for Chris Hunter, just when life couldn't get any more dangerous, the stakes are raised again. Halfway through his tour, he is told, "They want you dead, Chris. You and your team have captured their weaponry, you've fingered them with forensics, you've neutralised a shedload of their IEDs. They're out to kill the golden-haired bomb man in Basra."

Suddenly Chris Hunter is not only saving other people's lives, he's saving his own.

Members Reviews:

enlightening, relentless, and depressing

An outstanding narration of a fascinating but depressingly predictable service of a segment of the British Army in Iraq. Yet, Hunter writes in a fetchingly personal style, presenting with intelligence the reality of life in a foreign army placed in a relatively friendless land. The final chapter of all of our post-9/11 realities is yet to be written, and, likewise, this book doesn't even attempt to assign a positive outcome to the whole bloody mess, either. Pity.

brutally honest

Chris just tells it like it is and explains the contradictions in his life. The tough stuff is well balanced and the insight into what went on revealing

hope he (they - his family) are happy now

An honest account of front line service

This is a memoir written from the perspective of an ATO (Ammunition Technical Officer - conducting bomb disposal, investigation, IED removal, etc). It concentrates on the author's time in Iraq, but touches on his time elsewhere including in Northern Ireland, As such it's not an analysis of the war, but an account of his personal experiences and relocations.

It is a very honest account of the personal experiences and costs of his career choices. It also gives an insight into the Iraqi experience of normal people in Basra, Baghdad and some of the other locations. And for this the author should be congratulated.

It is however a personal account, and therefore is limited in scope for those looking for broader investigation and conclusions. For those wanting a personal account of a senior ATO in a front line role this is exactly what you are looking for.

It's very well narrated and edited (no level issues or obvious cuts).

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Title: Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts

Author: Robert D. Kaplan

Narrator: Don Leslie

Format: Abridged

Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-15-07

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Expanding on Kaplan's acclaimed Imperial Grunts, Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts shifts focus to the Pacific and completes his analysis of Army Special Forces and the Marines, while also taking listeners into the heart of the myriad tribal cultures of the Air Force, surface and subsurface navies, and the regular Army's Stryker brigades. Kaplan goes deep into their highly technical and exotic worlds, and he tells this story through the words and perspectives of the enlisted personnel and junior officers themselves.

This provocative and illuminating audiobook not only conveys the vast scope of America's military commitments, but also shows us astonishing and vital operations right as they unfold: from the point of view of the troops themselves.

Critic Reviews:

"Kaplan combines the travel writer's keen eye for detail and the foreign correspondent's analytical skill to produce an account of America's military worthy of its subject." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Down and Dirty

A book set in the 1990s covers those individuals who were at the center of the fight in Iraq. I thought it an interesting, yet dated, read. The book gives the reader an idea of what it's like to fight a modern war from the soldier's perspective.

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Title: Animals in War

Author: Jilly Cooper

Narrator: Patricia Gallimore

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-05-07

Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Pigeons carrying vital messages to and from the beleaguered city during the Siege of Paris; horses and mules struggling through miles of fetid mud to bring ammunition to the front in the Great War; dogs sniffing out mines for the British invasion force in the Second World War: countless brave animals have played their part in the long, cruel history of warfare. Some have won medals for gallantry. Too many others have died abandoned, in agony and alone, after serving their country with distinction. Jilly Cooper pays tribute to the role of animals in wartime with a collection of stories from the tragic to the hilarious, which illustrate how important "non-human combatants" have been throughout the history of war.

©1983, 2000, 2002 Jilly Cooper; (P) Clipper Audio

Members Reviews:

Animals in War.

I thought this was pretty good but I thought it could have included much more and been written better than what it was.

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Titre: La Grande Guerre

Auteur: Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau

Narrateur: Stéphane Audoin-Rouzeau

Format: Original Recording

Durée: 55 mins

Langue: Français

Date de publication: 04-05-06

Éditeur: De Vive Voix

Genres: History, World

Résumé de l'éditeur:

L'histoire de la Première Guerre Mondiale est ici profondément renouvelée ; le conflit est présenté dans tous ses aspects : politique, militaire, économique mais aussi quotidien et humain.

Cet enregistrement dense et émouvant laisse à l'auditeur une compréhension durable et claire de cette fracture brutale qui a orienté dans un sens tragique tout le destin du XXe siècle.

L'intervenant

est professeur à l'Université de Picardie et directeur du mémorial de la Grande Guerre à Péronne (Somme).

© De Vive Voix 2001

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Title: Hitler and the Holocaust [Modern Library Chronicles]

Author: Robert S. Wistrich

Narrator: George Guidall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-18-05

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 77 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

For over 50 years scholars and philosophers alike have attempted to make some sense of the Third Reich and its "Final Solution" campaign. Historian Robert Wistrich takes listeners on a guided tour through the death camps and meticulously details the events that led to this horrific tragedy and the lasting repercussions it had on the world community.

©2001 Robert S. Wistrich

Critic Reviews:

"Wistrich's balanced, nuanced discussion is illuminating." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Subperb and profound

This excellent work succintly reviews both the crime and the causes of the Holocaust. As a student of World War II and the Third Reich, I felt that I had a good comprehension of this subject. Wistrich gave me a far deeper understanding in four or five hours than I have attained in hundreds of hours of study with other materials. This is a truly superb work.

Exhaustive and Enlightening

I found this volume to be an immensely interesting and fairly complete overview of a world leader that forever changed the world. It definitely revealed what is not commonly taught in school concerning the historical philosophical influences that were affecting European beliefs from the late nineteenth century forward that caused a nation to embrace the Nazi ideology. I highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to have a greater understanding of the events and beliefs that led up to one of the most diabolical segments of world history. The documentation of prewar antisemitism that pervaded Europe as well as America was enlightening. This book reveals the character traits of the upper echelon of the Nazi party as well as the beliefs of the average German of that era. This book is a must read to anyone that wants to understand how and why such a monstrous event could take place in the "civilized" world of the early twentieth century.

Excellent overview

This is an excellent overview of the holocaust. In addition, it contains a summary of some of the new research in the study of the holocaust and offers some critique of some of the newer historiographical methodologies. The one issue that I would raise with the book is that the title is a little misleading. In reality, the book is not all that much about Hitler as it is about the environment that led to the holocaust, including - of course - Hitler. I suspected that the book would be more of a study about how Hitler was involved with the final solution. Indeed, the book is much better because it is not specifically about Hitler and his role in the holocaust.

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Title: Inventing Japan [Modern Library Chronicles]

Author: Ian Buruma

Narrator: Nelson Runger

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-15-05

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 97 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.

Members Reviews:

Excellent Primer on Modern Japan

I could have used this audiobook a couple years ago when I took Japanese Politics in college. This covered all of the important developments, social phenomena, etc., that went into the making of modern Japan. The chronology starts at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate and describes clearly the Meiji Restoration, Taisho Democracy, Showa and the militarist war government so that you get a very good sense of how one period flowed into the next to make Japan what it is today -- essentially a one-party corporate state managed by the LDP. The roles of left and right radicals, gangsters, fixers and the American occupation authorities are all discussed. If I'd had this in school, I could have gotten an A+.

Not much left in my head after listening

Would you listen to Inventing Japan [Modern Library Chronicles] again? Why?

Maybe

Any additional comments?

I guess, I am not a fan of these kind of fast-paced overviews of the historical events: too many names, too much information. Not much left in my head after the listen.

The epic story of Imperial era Japan

If you could sum up Inventing Japan [Modern Library Chronicles] in three words, what would they be?

Japan is cool.

What did you like best about this story?

This is one of those histories that reads like a story. Eminently listenable.

What aspect of Nelson Rungers performance would you have changed?

The narrator simply did not know how to pronounce Japanese words correctly.

Any additional comments?

For people looking for a quick introduction to modern Japanese history, look no further.

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Title: A Spy at the Heart of the Third Reich

Author: Lucas Delattre

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-20-05

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 97 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Kolbe had decided to betray his country. Over the next two years, Kolbe passed on countless valuable documents about German war efforts by tying the pages to his thigh and praying to avoid customs searches. He described the location of munitions factories and relayed diplomatic reports on Germany's intelligence operations and relations with other Axis nations like Romania and nominally neutral countries like Spain.

Viewed by many Germans as a traitor, he was erased from the history books and, after Hitler's fall, his diplomatic career came to an end. Drawing on recently declassified materials at the National Archives in Washington and Kolbe's personal archives, Lucas Delattre has written an extraordinary tale of an ordinary man who knew the most valuable service he could provide his country was to betray it.

Critic Reviews:

"Smoothly chronicles the impressive wartime activities, and woeful postwar treatment, of a German foreign ministry official." (Kirkus Reviews)

Members Reviews:

100% very good

I liked everything about this book: The topic, the prose, the reader. One more instance of a hero coming from the least expected place, and how unfairly things can turn out for those who don't deserve it.

Interesting, most of all because it's true.

This is not really a novel, but rather a true story told in a documentary, third person form. Some may think it's a bit dry, and the narrartor tells the story kinda like a documentary voice over. Still, if you can visualize the scenes and the characters, it is quite engaging. While you'll want to pay attention - to fight the tendency to doze off due to the monotonous narration - you can't help but come away with a sharper insight as to the horror of the Third Reich, the terror the German people endured from the bombing and their own leadership, and the unfair way in which life can turn. Also, Fritz is not an especially likeable fellow as told here. If you enjoy WW II stories, you'll probably like this.

Disappointing

The book reads more like a diary than a work of literature. It seemed to be a recitation of events in a rather matter of fact style. It was somewhat interesting, but not really entertaining.

Ok

This wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it might be. It was VERY detailed, which I didn't mind, but was definitely from the documentary perspective when I was hoping it might be a little more of a "story" perspective.

The reader was good.

Epic story

Recommended to any history particularly WWII buffs. Fascinating.

Throws a light on the internal tensions in NAZI Germany.

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Title: Days of Infamy

Subtitle: Military Blunders of the 20th Century

Author: Michael Coffey

Narrator: Robert Abia

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-22-04

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 24 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

This book is the official companion volume to the riveting History Channel 26-part documentary series.

Critic Reviews:

"Like the best general history volumes, Coffey's book, in clean, muscular prose, expertly informs as it artfully entertains." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Not For The History Buff

The book itself is plagued by numerous errors. Not tiny details, but large, easily verified points of fact that a decent pass through a qualified proof reader should have caught. Even viewed as light fare, it fails because of these errors.

Add to that the voice talent working without a pronunciation guide and some very labored prose (Must we use the word "blunder" constantly? I know it is in the title, but still.) and you end up with volume you are better off skipping.

For all it?s shortcomings, a good provoking book

I was quite excited when I discovered this book whilst browsing the titles. But alas it didn't really live up to my expectations. Although being mindful of the scope of the book, it's still very light weight. I would have expected a little more analysis as to psyche of the participants, is there a common factor with the participants involved with the events described. Even the nature of the information they acted on and whether perhaps they seen only what they wanted to see, and finally the reasons for a particular 'type' of interpretation.

Instead I got a rather brief collection of story's. Very interesting, and well narrated for that but its for the non history buff. (In truth it didn't claim to be any thing else!) In short, its great light listening, but just wasn't involved enough to engage me.

a bad letdown

There have been a number of books about military mistakes, some good some bad. This falls into the latter category. A book called "days of infamy" that doesn't even cover the mistakes of Pearl Harbor (the original "day of infamy"? That talks of Versailles, but fails to detail the blunder of Appeasement (which undermined the treaty)?

That fails to record the Battle of France, together with "Sitzkrieg"

as great errors? That goes into detail about Hitler's declaration of war against the US as a major error (when it is clear that the US would have found a pretext (after Pearl Harbor to soon declare war on Germany) while missing the turning point of WW2, the invasion of Russia, underestimating the Russian will to resist and the Russian winter? These are all signs of poor understanding. Add to this numerous factual errors (eg Bismark was sunk in the Atlantic , not in

a fjord, and the Munich agreement was prior to the occupation of the Sudetenland) and you have (especially in the case of WW2) a poor result. Add also things that cannot be reasonably described as Military Blunders (eg the assassination of Franz Ferdinand) and an exagerrated breathless writing style (heavy use of phrases like

"little did they know they were sailing to their doom") and it spells literary disaster. A further point, names are mispronounced eg

the ship Graf Spee is pronounced Spay rather than rhyming with bee

and French city names are also mispronounced.

Blunders

Interesting book, though 20 yrs old. Summaries different points in history of 20th century

Narrator has a good voice but mispronounces every german word that is used.

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Title: Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour

Subtitle: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax

Author: Joseph E. Persico

Narrator: Harry Chase

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-11-04

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: History, Military

Publisher's Summary:

Joseph E. Persico puts the reader in the trenches with the forgotten and the famous, among the latter, Corporal Adolf Hitler, Captain Harry Truman, and Colonels Douglas MacArthur and George Patton. Mainly, he follows ordinary soldiers' lives, illuminating their fate as the end approaches. Persico sets the last day of the war in historic context with a gripping reprise of all that led up to it, from the 1914 assassination of the Austrian archduke, Franz Ferdinand, which ignited the war, to the raw racism black doughboys endured except when ordered to advance and die in the war's last hour. Persico recounts the war's bloody climax in a cinematic style that evokes All Quiet on the Western Front, Grand Illusion, and Paths of Glory.

The pointless fighting on the last day of the war is the perfect metaphor for the four years that preceded it, years of senseless slaughter for hollow purposes. This book is sure to become the definitive history of the end of a conflict Winston Churchill called "the hardest, cruelest, and least-rewarded of all the wars that have been fought".

Critic Reviews:

"Effectively marshaling his source material, Persico powerfully reconstructs Armistice Day as an emblem of the war." (Booklist)

Members Reviews:

Exceptional

This book tends gives a general history of the events leading up to the war and eventually to the armistice. Though numerous key events are described in brief detail, the author's purpose is effectively accomplished. For detailed descriptions of battles [X attacks Y's flank, etc.] try Keegan's World War I. But don't pass up this book if you're interested in the affect the war had on the western world's war generation.

Also, the reader's role is very well performed.

Almost Like Being There

Making sense out of WWI is sometimes hard, even for the military history buff. Making sense out of what appears to be the senseless waste of lives in the last days of a war is even harder. This author has done a great job of making sense out of the senseless and doing so in an interesting and intertaining way. This book deserves a place on the must hear or read list of anyone interested in the Great War.

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Title: Scourge

Subtitle: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox

Author: Jonathan B. Tucker

Narrator: Patrick Cullen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-05-04

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 89 votes

Genres: History, World

Publisher's Summary:

Starting in the 16th century, the smallpox virus afflicted rich and poor, royalty and commoners, and repeatedly altered the course of human history.

No safe way of preventing smallpox existed until 1796, when an English country doctor named Edward Jenner developed a vaccine against it. During the ensuing 170 years, vaccination banished smallpox from the industrialized countries, but it remained a major cause of death in the developing world, killing almost two million people per year. Finally, in 1967, the World Health Organization launched an intensified global campaign to eradicate smallpox. By early 1978, the disease had been eliminated worldwide.

During the 1980s, Soviet leaders cynically exploited the world's new vulnerability to smallpox by mass-producing the virus as a strategic weapon. In recent years, concern over the possible return of smallpox has taken an even greater urgency with the realization that clandestine stocks of the virus may still exist.

Members Reviews:

Everyone should listen to this

Well written and read. Can get a little technical but I learned quite a bit from this book. This story is important in understanding more of the ease of spread of current diseases and the near impossible fight against them. Great work...

Everything you wanted to know about Smallpox

Seminal book on the science and politics of Smallpox throughout history, and the tug of war between states to hold on to the virus for later, possibly destructive, uses. Gives you a great look at the workings of the WHO, and public health in general. Well researched. The author was robably was granted access to WHO and CDC files, naming patients, dates, medical files, etc. The ending is so political that one loses track, but in general, a great book well narrated.

Interesting, but with annoying mispronunciations

The book is quite interesting as an overview of the challenge faced in eradicating smallpox in the 20th century. The book is detailed and addresses WHO efforts worldwide as well as political challenges that impeded the work.

The narrator has an old-fashioned newscaster's tone and pacing, but annoying mispronounces many ordinary words. I am willing to overlook mispronunciation of technical terms, but the narrator should be able to speak standard English.

Very informative

Would you consider the audio edition of Scourge to be better than the print version?

I did not read the print version. I prefer audio because I can clean my house and "read"a great informative book at the same time. I can also drive and "read" too.

What did you like best about this story?

The way it was presented was both informative and entertaining. It kept my attention and I hated when it was over.

Have you listened to any of Patrick Cullens other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I think he did a fine job on Scourge.

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

The Maker of Tears

Any additional comments?

I am a nurse and love books about health related issues.

Informative story if you can get past the mistakes

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

Reader mispronounces so many names that it is VERY irritating to listen to.He even mispronounces the name of the virus the reason the book was written. The story is compelling and informative if you can get past all the mistakes.