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Title: The Third Reich at War

Author: Richard J. Evans

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 35 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-19-10

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 778 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The final volume in Richard J. Evanss masterly trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany traces the rise and fall of German military might, the mobilization of a peoples community to serve a war of conquest, and Hitlers campaign of racial subjugation and genocide. Already hailed as a masterpiece (William Grimes in The New York Times) and the most comprehensive history of the Third Reich (Ian Kershaw), this epic trilogy reaches its terrifying climax in this volume.

Evans interweaves a broad narrative of the wars progress with viscerally affecting personal testimony from a wide range of people - from generals to front-line soldiers, from Hitler Youth activists to middle-class housewives. The Third Reich at War lays bare the dynamics of a nation more deeply immersed in war than any society before or since.

Fresh insights into the conflicts great events are here, from the invasion of Poland to the Battle of Stalingrad to Hitlers suicide in the bunker. But just as important is the re-creation of the daily experience of ordinary Germans in wartime, staggering under pressure from Allied bombing and their own governments mounting demands upon them. At the center of the book is the Nazi extermination of Europes Jews, set in the context of Hitlers genocidal plans for the racial restructuring of Europe.

Blending narrative, description, and analysis, The Third Reich at War creates an engrossing picture - at once sweeping and precise - of a society rushing headlong to self-destruction and taking much of Europe with it. It is the culmination of a historical masterwork that will remain the most authoritative work on Nazi Germany for years to come.

Critic Reviews:

"Masterful.Evans demonstrates a fluent style and a sweeping grasp of the Third Reichs history and of the enormous historical literature.Evans narrates the Reichs end in gripping fashion as the Allies closed in on Germany. Evanss fellow historians as well as a broader public will listen to this work, not quite with pleasure, for there is little joy in this story, but with admiration for the authors narrative powers. (Publishers Weekly)

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Title: The Third Reich in Power

Author: Richard J. Evans

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 31 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-16-10

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 665 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war. This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of The Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise." It chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule. As those who were deemed unworthy to be counted among the German people were dealt with in increasingly brutal terms, Hitler's drive to prepare Germany for the war that he saw as its destiny reached its fateful hour in September 1939.

The Third Reich in Power is the fullest and most authoritative account yet written of how, in six years, Germany was brought to the edge of that terrible abyss.

Critic Reviews:

[Evanss] three-volume history... is shaping up to be a masterpiece. Fluidly narrated, tightly organized and comprehensive." (William Grimes,

The New York Times)

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Title: The Dream Machine

Subtitle: The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey

Author: Richard Whittle

Narrator: Kevin Foley

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-07-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 74 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

When the Marines decided to buy a helicopter-airplane hybrid "tiltrotor" called the V-22 Osprey, they saw it as their dream machine. The tiltrotor was the aviation equivalent of finding the Northwest Passage: an aircraft able to take off, land, and hover with the agility of a helicopter yet fly as fast and as far as an airplane. Many predicted it would reshape civilian aviation. The Marines saw it as key to their very survival.

By 2000, the Osprey was nine years late and billions of dollars over budget, bedeviled by technological hurdles, business rivalries, and an epic political battle over whether to build it at all. Opponents called it one of the worst boondoggles in Pentagon history. The Marines were eager to put it into service anyway. Then two crashes killed 23 Marines. They still refused to abandon the Osprey, even after the Corps' own proud reputation was tarnished by a national scandal over accusations that a commander had ordered subordinates to lie about the aircraft's problems.

Based on in-depth research and hundreds of interviews, The Dream Machine recounts the Marines' quarter-century struggle to get the Osprey into combat. Whittle takes the listener from the halls of the Pentagon and Congress to the war zone of Iraq, from the engineer's drafting table to the cockpits of the civilian and Marine pilots who risked their lives flying the Osprey - and sometimes lost them. He reveals the methods, motives, and obsessions of those who designed, sold, bought, flew, and fought for the tiltrotor. These stories, including never-before-published eyewitness accounts of the crashes that made the Osprey notorious, not only chronicle an extraordinary chapter in Marine Corps history but also provide a fascinating look at a machine that could still revolutionize air travel.

Critic Reviews:

The Dream Machine expertly weaves telling technical details with heart-stopping human drama into a riveting, fast-paced history of one of the military's most controversial war machines. (The New York Times)

Members Reviews:

Innovation runs into government

The book is about one aircraft. But author Richard Whittle provides insight into how government (bureaucrats and officers, processes, budgeting) and private companies and their executives affect one product, a military aircarft. The books gets into the Pentagon, Bell and Boeing, but is driven by key civilian and military players in the development of new aviation technology. Importantly, Whittle shows how key decisions trickle down, and can mean life and death to the lives of our servicemen and women.

Well Written Book on the V-22

Would you listen to The Dream Machine again? Why?

No, I wouldnt listen again. The book lacks a depth to its writing, its very biographical and informational. The stories that are included are good and entertaining, but theyre not absolutely captivating.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Dream Machine?

The best part about this book is that it details the post-capture phase of the V-22 program, and lets the reader in on how the V-22 came to be.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, it wasnt a fun read, but thats mainly because I had to read it for work.

Fascinating

It is difficult to understand that a single machine required so long to be developed.

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Title: Red November

Subtitle: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War

Author: W. Craig Reed

Narrator: Tom Weiner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-04-10

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 455 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Red November is filled with hair-raising, behind-the-scenes stories that take you deep beneath the surface and into the action of the Cold War.

Few know how close the world has come to annihilation better than the warriors who served America during the tense, 45-year struggle known as the Cold War. Yet for decades, their work has remained shrouded in secrecy. Now, in this riveting new history, W. Craig Reed, a former navy diver and fast-attack submariner, provides an eye-opening, pulse-pounding narrative of the underwater struggles and espionage operations between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. that brought us to the brink of nuclear war more than once.

Red November is filled with hair-raising, behind-the-scenes stories that take you deep beneath the surface and into the action during the entire Cold War period from 1946 through 1992. Reed served aboard submarines involved in espionage operations, and his father was a top military intelligence specialist intimately involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Reed is one of the first authors to obtain so many in-depth interviews with dozens of navy divers, espionage operatives, submariners, and government officials on both sides (including several Soviet submarine captains) about the most daring and decorated missions of the conflict, including top-secret Ivy Bells, Boresight, Bulls Eye, and Holystone operations.

Transcending traditional submarine, espionage, and Cold War accounts, Red November is an up-close examination of one of the most dangerous times in world history and an intimate look at the men and women who participated in our countrys longest and most expensive underwater war.

Critic Reviews:

If Tom Clancy had turned The Hunt for Red October into a nonfiction thriller, W. Craig Reeds Red November might be the result. Here is the full-throttle and riveting story of espionage, secret missions, and the never-before-told tales of submariners on the front lines of a clandestine war. Not to be missed! (James Rollins)

Members Reviews:

Blind Man's Bluff meets Cuban Missile Crisis

This 2 part book really is in two parts. The first part covers the beginning of the nuclear age, and covers some, though not nearly all, of the espionage stories detailed more completely in Sherry Sontag's excellent "Blind Man's Bluff". There is an interesting and significant portion of this that talks about how we figured out how to track the Soviet subs by their transmissions.

Then the second part segues into how subs helped the American side during the Cuban Missile crisis and the Cold War, including the Jennifer Project. There are some excellent stories, and a few gripping moments, but mostly it isn't a compelling, edge of your seat read. If you want to be informed, get this book. If you are looking to be entertained, there are better ones.

Good for fans of "Hunt For Red October"

"Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War" wasn't quite what I expected but it was a very good listen anyway. I had expected an account of most if not all the most interesting Col War sub-vs-sub encounters. Instead it's a more detailed account of certain key episodes in the U.S.-U.S.S.R naval interactions during the Cold War, with an emphasis on thosemissions directly related to the author's service history and that of his father.

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Title: George, Nicholas and Wilhelm

Subtitle: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I

Author: Miranda Carter

Narrator: Rosalyn Landor

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-23-10

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 285 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

In the years before the First World War, the great European powers were ruled by three first cousins: King George V of Britain, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Together, they presided over the last years of dynastic Europe and the outbreak of the most destructive war the world had ever seen, a war that set 20th-century Europe on course to be the most violent continent in the history of the world.

Miranda Carter uses the cousins correspondence and a host of historical sources to tell the tragicomic story of a tiny, glittering, solipsistic world that was often preposterously out of kilter with its times, struggling to stay in command of politics and world events as history overtook it.

George, Nicholas and Wilhelm is a brilliant and sometimes darkly hilarious portrait of these men - damaged, egotistical Wilhelm; quiet, stubborn Nicholas; and anxious, dutiful George - and their lives, foibles, and obsessions, from tantrums to uniforms to stamp collecting. It is also alive with fresh, subtle portraits of other familiar figures: Queen Victoria - grandmother to two of them, grandmother-in-law to the third - whose conservatism and bullying obsession with family left a dangerous legacy; and Edward VII, the playboy arch-vulgarian who turned out to have a remarkable gift for international relations and the theatrics of mass politics.

At the same time, Carter weaves through their stories a riveting account of the events that led to World War I, showing how the personal and the political interacted, sometimes to devastating effect.

For all three men, the war would be a disaster that destroyed forever the illusion of their close family relationships, with any sense of peace and harmony shattered in a final coda of murder, betrayal, and abdication.

Members Reviews:

interesting and entertaining work of history

This is a very good work of narrative, popular history. It reminds you that, not so long ago, in the lives of our grandparents and great-grandparents, the reign of kings, kings with real power. That was certainly the case for the kings of Germany (only so recently combined into a nation-state) and of Russia, much less so for Britain ... even still their Queen Victoria & her two successors had more apparent power than the current regime, if only on the diplomatic level, with their relatives elsewhere in Europe. The details of the lives of these various heads-of-state, their international networks and the political leadership, is a great story. I am not sure you can say the 3 leaders on the eve of World War I, together, had a great influence on the breakout and course of war, although the author does a great job showing that Kaiser Wilhelm (an extraordinarily peculiar person) did have a role in this.

The book is well organized, it does not have too many characters (although I am familiar with the general history) and is well narrated.

Essential history in the centennial year

One hundred years ago this July, events began to unfold which would change the world forever. This book examines of some of the factors which led up to them as they relate to three of Queen Victoria's grandchildren.

Miranda Carter is outstanding and her book is likely to appeal to many.

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Title: The Coming of the Third Reich

Author: Richard J. Evans

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-10

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1227 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitlers rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the worlds most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time. A masterful synthesis of a vast body of scholarly work integrated with important new research and interpretations, Evanss history restores drama and contingency to the rise to power of Hitler and the Nazis, even as it shows how ready Germany was by the early 1930s for such a takeover to occur. The Coming of the Third Reich is a masterwork of the historians art and the book by which all others on the subject will be judged.

Critic Reviews:

"[A]n impressive achievement.... [Evans'] opus will be one of the major historical works of our time." (

The Atlantic)

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Title: The Darkest Summer

Subtitle: Pusan and Inchon 1950: The Battles That Saved South Korea---and the Marines---from Extinction

Author: Bill Sloan

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-28-09

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 62 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The outcome of the Korean War was decided in the first three months. The Darkest Summer is the hour-by-hour, casualty-by-casualty story of those months---a period that saw American and UN forces almost driven into the sea by the North Korean invaders, then stage an incredible turn-around that reversed the entire course of the war. Drawing on exclusive author interviews, unpublished memoirs, and oral histories, the book recounts the most dramatic and historically important portion of the war from the perspective of the soldiers and Marines on the ground. Bill Sloan takes the listener into muddy foxholes, across endless rice paddies, and up hotly contested ridges with the men who fought and fell there.

©2009 Bill Sloan; (P)2009 Tantor

Critic Reviews:

"Sloan has crafted another superb narrative. Strongly recommended." (Library Journal, Starred Review)

Members Reviews:

Better Told Elsewhere

This book tells of the travails of the UN forces in Korea in 1950. There is little here that is not in the Fehrenbach classic "This Kind of War" which deals with the war in its entirety. This book lacks focus if you are familiar with the basic plot, counterplot and subplot (MacArthur). It spends far more time with the Marines than with the details of what happened to Army 1st Cav, 2d, 24th and 25th Div and practically nothing on the ROK. Ex-Marines will like this book a lot.

Great intro to Korea

This book did exactly what I wanted. It threw me into the day-to-day events of the Korean war and gave me a broad overview. I thought the narration was perfect. I was not bored for a second, and saw this as a good starting point. I would like to read/listen to more in-depth about the how and the why of the conflict.

Very thorough

Very thorough examination of the events in the first several months of the Korean War

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Title: The Imperial Cruise

Subtitle: A Secret History of Empire and War

Author: James Bradley

Narrator: Richard Poe

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-24-09

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 163 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name. In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission and discovered what had transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing, and Seoul.

Members Reviews:

Bradley is showing excellent promise was historian

If you could sum up The Imperial Cruise in three words, what would they be?

Thought provoking

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Imperial Cruise?

Discussion of the Philippines insurrection

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

Not a particular scene as much as the consequences that lay the history of WWII and the last half of the century.

Over the Top - Why did I waste my time?

Bradley's sloppy so-called history is either revisionist history or cheap propaganda. It is page after page of deliberate truth bending, cherry-picked facts, inaccurate details, and out of context quotes. Its conclusions are not sustainable when contrasted to factual history. It was not worth my time and money.

Bradley has an agenda that is dishonestly left out of the publisher's summary. Early in the book you hear about white "Aryan" racism setting the theme for Western Civilization. Those who want to believe could easily come away from his discussion believing that America was founded on white "Aryan" racist principles instead of those of Judeo-Christian tradition. He suggests the founding fathers were white "Aryan" racists who set in motion American westward expansion because it was the destiny of the master race. Bradley over-uses the term "Aryans" throughout. The passages on the "Aryan American Army"; and "Aryan Admiral Dewey" challenged me to find the intestinal fortitude to continue reading.

This read like Bradley had a personal axe to grind with Theodore Roosevelt. He took every opportunity to be critical of Roosevelt. Negative information was frequently used without the context of relevant positive information. Professional historians don't succeed using the cherry picking methods used by Bradley. Those who have read much about Roosevelt will find this treatment grossly unbalanced.

This book is a continuous political rant. The writing is more at home in an extreme leftist blog or a juvenile freshman essay, but it continues for hundreds of pages. Don't waste your time.

Demagoguery and repetition

Bradley presents a picture of 19th century Americans as racist imperialists. And nothing but racist imperialsts. While that description certainly has some truth, Bradley repeats the same charge over and over for such a long time that he loses credibility... and starts boring the listener to death. He does not try to conceal his disdain for the Anglo-Saxon Americans of the late 19th and early 20th century, characterising them as genocidal imperialists out to eradicate all other people from the earth with no redeeming qualities. This could have been an interesting tale, but the interminable and very biased preaching makes it very difficult take if you are a listener with a more balanced perspective.

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Title: D-Day

Subtitle: The Battle for Normandy

Author: Antony Beevor

Narrator: Cameron Stewart

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-30-09

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 308 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The Allied fleet attempted by far the largest amphibious assault ever, and what followed was a battle as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. Casualties mounted on both sides, as did the tensions between the principal commanders. Even the joys of liberation had their darker side. The war in northern France marked not just a generation, but the whole of the postwar world, profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe. Beevor draws upon his research in more than 30 archives in six countries, going back to original accounts, interviews conducted by combat historians just after the action, and many diaries and letters donated to museums and archives in recent years.

D-Day will surely be hailed as the consummate account of the Normandy invasion and the ferocious offensive that led to the liberation of Paris.

Critic Reviews:

"It is a dramatic, important and instructive story, and Beevor tells it surpassingly well....Readers fortunate enough to know his previous books...are aware that his fascination with warfare is compounded by a deep knowledge, not always encountered in military histories, that war is hell. People looking for romanticized combat or Greatest Generation sentimentality will not find an ounce of either here." (The Washington Post)

Members Reviews:

A commendable book

Beevor gives a thoroughly readable account of the familiar D-Day story, enlivened by a number of telling anecdotes from generals to privates and unvarnished sketches of all the key participants on the Allied and German sides. Nor does Beevor spare us the truly gory details of the battles and the systematized killing that was the Normandy campaign. War is always a bloody business and Beevor rightly refuses to ignore it. This is a refreshingly unsentimental view of things that should never be seen as anything but what they were.

The book is not faultless, however. There are annoying factual and grammatical errors that could have been prevented by an attentive copy editor with minimal knowledge of the era: in the most striking example, Beevor writes of a bombing attack carried out by "B-24 Flying Fortresses" and "B-17 Liberators," when the opposite terminology is of course the correct one. My late father-in-law, a "mickey operator" on Eighth Air Force B-17s in 1944-45, would have turned even greyer at the hearing. And Beevor's troops are forever becoming "disorientated." The correct word is "disoriented."

The narration is technically competent and Cameron Stewart moves it along crisply in a strong, clear voice, but he has an unfortunate habit of adopting rather bad American, French and German voice accents when recounting stories from archival material, military orders, personal diaries, and the like. The Germans all sound like bad actors in a B movie. A straightforward narration in his own voice throughout would have been the better course.

Nevertheless, this is a fine account of one of the world's most significant battles and its ensuing military campaign--one that changed our civilization forever for the better.

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Title: The Big Burn

Subtitle: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America

Author: Timothy Egan

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-19-09

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1487 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

In The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan put the environmental disaster of the Dust Bowl at the center of a rich history, told through characters he brought to indelible life. Now he performs the same alchemy with The Big Burn, the largest-ever forest fire in America, a tragedy that cemented Teddy Roosevelt's legacy.

On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping hundreds of small blazes into a roaring inferno that destroyed towns and timber in an eye-blink. Forest rangers assembled nearly 10,000 men - college boys, day workers, immigrants from mining camps - to fight the fire. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them.

Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of President Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of national forests as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen. The robber barons fought them, but the fire saved the forests even as it destroyed them: the heroism shown by the rangers turned public opinion permanently in favor of the forests, even as it changed the mission of the Forest Service, with consequences felt in the fires of today.

The Big Burn tells an epic story, paints a moving portrait of the people who lived it, and offers a critical cautionary tale for our time.

©2009 Timothy Egan; (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Members Reviews:

A fascinating history of early Forest Service

I heard Timothy Egan interviewed on NPR about this book, so downloaded despite two early "2 star" reviews. I was glad I did. His book provides a fascinating history of the early conservation movement and the great fire of 1910 and the role it played in solidifying the Forest Service in the hearts and minds of Americans. BTW, it's a great companion read to "Roosevelt: Wilderness Warrior" which, sadly, is not available in audio format.

wonderful audio experience

This is an very good book, but an excellent listen. The story is captivating and uplifting as both success and tragedy. The mix of personal adventure and non-wonky political analysis work very well at oral pace. The flaws in the writing (see, e.g., the New York Times review), such as the author's tendency toward over-dramatic or breathless prose, turn out to be little or no problem when listening rather than reading. (You notice the phrases that seem comical out of context if you look for them, but only if you look for them. Otherwise, they glide right by.) Dean's narration is near perfect, and adds much to what is already a very good book. I would definitely recommend this book, and make the rarely-deserved recommendation that listening is much better than reading.