Download the Popular Authors Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: The Great Halifax Explosion

Subtitle: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism

Author: John U. Bacon

Narrator: Johnny Heller

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-07-17

Publisher: Harper Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 55 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

From New York Times best-selling author John U. Bacon, a gripping narrative history of the largest manmade detonation prior to Hiroshima: In 1917, a ship laden with the most explosives ever packed on a vessel sailed out of Brooklyn's harbor for the battlegrounds of World War I; when it stopped in Halifax, Nova Scotia, an extraordinary disaster awaited....

On Monday, December 3, 1917, the French freighter SS Mont-Blanc set sail from Brooklyn carrying the largest cache of explosives ever loaded onto a ship, including 2,300 tons of picric acid, an unstable, poisonous chemical more powerful than TNT. The US had just recently entered World War I, and the ordnance was bound for the battlefields of France to help the Allies break the grueling stalemate that had protracted the fighting for nearly four demoralizing years. The explosives were so dangerous that Captain Aimé Le Medec took unprecedented safety measures, including banning the crew from smoking, lighting matches, or even touching a drop of liquor.

Sailing north, the Mont-Blanc faced deadly danger, enduring a terrifying snowstorm off the coast of Maine and evading stealthy enemy U-boats hunting the waters of the Atlantic. But it was in Nova Scotia that an extraordinary disaster awaited. As the Mont-Blanc waited to dock in Halifax, it was struck by a Norwegian relief ship, the Imo, charging out of port. A small fire on the freighter's deck caused by the impact ignited the explosives below, resulting in a horrific blast that, in 1/15 of a second, leveled 325 acres of Halifax - killing more than 1,000 people and wounding 9,000 more.

In this definitive account, Bacon combines research and eyewitness accounts to re-create the tragedy and its aftermath, including the international effort to rebuild the devastated port city. As he brings to light one of the most dramatic incidents of the 20th century, Bacon explores the long shadow this first "weapon of mass destruction" would cast on the future of nuclear warfare - crucial insights and understanding relevant to us today.

Members Reviews:

Halifax Explosion - Lesson of caring

Would you consider the audio edition of The Great Halifax Explosion to be better than the print version?

Not a huge fan of this narrator. Came across very monotone after hours of listening.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

More inflection during the story. I know its a historical story, but it would give it more life.

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

An unlikely friendship begins with tragedy.

A LOT of (unnecessary) tangential information

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Would not recommend due to much off-topic material that doesn't add to what should be the central theme (and the title) of the book.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Still struggling to get there - and might never....

What about Johnny Hellers performance did you like?

Excellent presentation.

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Title: The Second Coming of the KKK

Subtitle: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s and the American Political Tradition

Author: Linda Gordon

Narrator: Jo Anna Perrin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-17

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

By legitimizing bigotry and redefining so-called American values, a revived Klan in the 1920s left a toxic legacy that demands reexamination today.

Boasting four to six million members, the reassembled Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s dramatically challenged our preconceptions of hooded Klansmen, who through violence and lynching had established a Jim Crow racial hierarchy in the 1870s South.

Responding to the "emergency" posed by the flood of immigrant "hordes" - Pope-worshipping Irish and Italians, "self-centered Hebrews," and "sly Orientals" - this "second Klan," as award-winning historian Linda Gordon vividly chronicles, spread principally above the Mason-Dixon Line in states like Indiana, Michigan, and Oregon. Condemning "urban" vices like liquor, prostitution, movies, and jazz as Catholic and Jewish "plots" to subvert American values, the rejuvenated Klan became entirely mainstream, attracting middle-class men and women through its elaborate secret rituals and mass "Klonvocations" before collapsing amid revelations of sordid sexual scandals, financial embezzlement, and Ponzi-like schemes. The Klan's brilliant melding of Christian values with racial bigotry and its lightning-like accretion of political power now becomes a sobering parable for the 21st century.

Critic Reviews:

"This clear-eyed analysis illuminates the character and historic power of America's own 'politics of resentment.'" (

Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Necessary History

This text sheds light on a recent period of American history that still echoes in our present more than most what to believe.

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Title: The Mighty Eighth

Subtitle: The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It

Author: Gerald Astor

Narrator: Kaleo Griffith

Format: Unabridged

Length: 23 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-10-17

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 14 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Europe has fallen. Pearl Harbor is in flames. Enter: the Eighth.

In 1941 the RAF fought a desperate battle of survival against the Luftwaffe over Britain. Then, from across the Atlantic, came a new generation of American pilots, gunners, and bombardiers, a new generation of flying machines called the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator, the P-47 Thunderbolt, and the P-51 Mustang fighter. Soon these brave young men were hurtling themselves and their unproven planes across the Channel and into the teeth of enemy firepower, raining down bombs on the German military machine, and going up against Hitler's best fliers in the sky.

This is the dramatic oral history of the Army Air Corps and the newly created Eighth Air Force stationed in Britain, an army of hard-fighting, hard-playing flying men who suffered more fatalities than the entire US Marine Corps in the Pacific campaign of World War II. Here, in their own words, are tales of survival and soul-numbing loss, of soldiers who came together to fight a kind of war that had never been fought before - and win it with their courage and their blood.

But the road to victory was paved with sacrifice. From its inaugural mission on July 4, 1942, until V-E Day, the Eighth Air Force lost more men than did the entire United States Marine Corps in all its campaigns in the Pacific. The Mighty Eighth chronicles the testimony of the pilots, bombardiers, navigators, and gunners who daily put their lives on the line. Their harrowing accounts recall the excitement and terror of dogfights against Nazi aces, maneuvering explosive-laden aircraft through deadly flak barrages, and fending off waves of enemy fighters while coping with subzero temperatures.

Beginning with the opening salvos from a mere dozen planes, crewmen describe the raids on Berlin and Dresden, the fiasco at Ploesti, Romania, and Black Thursday over Schweinfurt. They fell to the terror of seeing aircraft destroyed - helplessly watching as comrades crash and burn, or parachute over enemy territory, where they will attempt to evade enemy capture through the underground. Others tell of mourning downed airmen murdered by vengeful citizens and soldiers, and of those who endured captivity in POW camps.

Critic Reviews:

"Great reading." (Stephen Ambrose)

"Bold, brawny, epic in scope...Astor captures the fire and passion of these tens of thousands of US airmen who flew through the inferno that was the bomber war over Europe." (Stephen Coonts)

Members Reviews:

Courageous Men Who Faced Death Almost Daily, But Still Went Up

Good editing of a large number of memoirs and remembrances to put together a pretty good narrative of the horrors of trying to bomb the Nazis into submission. The effort proved the Billy Mitchell theory wrong. It also took boots on the ground to ultimately be the Germans. Unfortunately a great many lives were lost before this was realized by the Generals in charge. Tremendous courage was shown by the vast majority of the aircrew from 1943 through 1945. It's too bad that General Eaker and others underestimated the ability of the German fighters and the flak gunners on the 88s for so long. This cost the Eighth Air Force dearly in the early years.

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Title: The Odyssey of Echo Company

Subtitle: The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War

Author: Doug Stanton

Narrator: CJ Wilson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-19-17

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 69 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A powerful work of literary military history from the New York Times best-selling author of In Harm's Way and Horse Soldiers - the harrowing and redemptive account of an American army platoon fighting for survival during the Vietnam War.

On a single night, January 31, 1968, some 100,000 soldiers in the North Vietnamese Army attacked 36 cities throughout South Vietnam, hoping to topple that government and dislodge American forces. The 12 American boys of the recon platoon of the 101st Airborne Division, average age 19, are from small farms, California beach towns, and big cities like Chicago, and they are cast into a war they neither understand nor ultimately feel they can win. The fighting was hand-to-hand, nonstop, and waged in endless small battles that forged this group into a lifelong brotherhood of survivors. The Odyssey of Echo Company is about the young men who survived 60 days on the run from the enemy during the Tet Offensive, at the height of the Vietnam War.

Each young man lived 100 years in these days and came home to a country that did not understand, and didn't try to understand, what they had survived. They came home winners because they were alive but were losers for having fought there. When they arrived, they landed in San Francisco, took off their uniforms, and walked back into America, where they fell silent and realized that not many wanted to hear the remarkable story they had to tell - until now.

Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, dozens of detailed letters written to and from Echo Company soldiers, a huge trove of Pentagon after-action reports, and travel to the scenes of battle with the American soldiers and some of their Vietnamese enemy soldiers, The Odyssey of Echo Company breaks through the wall of time to tell this important story of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.

Members Reviews:

Great look into what a Nam solder endured.

I would recomend this book to anyone who is interested in the Vietnam War. My father served 2 tours there in the Marines and I have studied this war for years. My father's health is declining rapidly and in listening to this book it gave some of the best insight into my father and his war.

An attempt of a historian to be a novelist

Listed as history, the author is enamored with melodrama which appears forced and is in fact boring

Amazing, enraging and heart wrenching.

Would recommend to anyone who enjoys and can handle war books. A must read. d

WOW, could not stop listening.

I understand better what so many of my friends endured during the conflict. thank you Doug and to all who served.

I wasn't a fan.

I mean it was ok, it just wasn't my cup of tea. Overall it seemed like nearly every other Vietnam War memoir book.

Sorry, I just didn't like this one

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Title: The New Education

Subtitle: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux

Author: Cathy N. Davidson

Narrator: Carolyn Cook

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 20 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A leading educational thinker argues that the American university is stuck in the past - and shows how we can revolutionize it to prepare students for our age of constant change.

Our current system of higher education dates to the period from 1865 to 1925, when the nation's new universities created grades and departments, majors and minors, in an attempt to prepare young people for a world transformed by the telegraph and the Model T.

As Cathy Davidson argues in The New Education, this approach to education is wholly unsuited to the era of the gig economy. From the Ivy League to community colleges, she introduces us to innovators who are remaking college for our own time by emphasizing student-centered learning that values creativity in the face of change above all. The New Education ultimately shows how we can teach students not only to survive but to thrive amid the challenges to come.

Members Reviews:

There is no doubt that education is both more important ...

There is no doubt that education is both more important than ever and, at the same time, suffering from a wide range of challenges, attacks, self-doubts, and crises. The New Education reminds us of two crucial ideas, at least concerning higher education. First, that the current structure of higher education--the structures of disciplines, the particular ways scholarship and teaching are unequally tethered together--are historical developments. The university has been changed in profound ways before as it endeavored to meet the challenges of its world, and to take advantage of the resources that world made available. The point is, the university can and should be changed--in fundamental ways. And second, that our understandings of the goals, means and practices of education also have and have to change, again in response to the changing demands and possibilities of the world we live in. But more than just make these arguments--compassionately AND persuasively, Davidson provides us with a series of truly inspiring examples of people and groups that are doing something about the crises of education now. I have been teaching a long time. Since reading The New Education, I have been thinking about pedagogical possibilities I had not even imagined before. If there is an academic equivalent of a page-turner, this is it.

Important and Timely

As a new professor, I have a good deal to learn about contemporary higher education. Brass tacks: I can safely say that I am more informed about the industry's challenges, opportunities, and history after reading Davidson's book.

Davidson points out the numerous and formidable challenges inhibiting higher ed. (Her tale of Alexander Coward at the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department reminded me of 'Dead Poets Society.') At the same time, though, she provides real solutionsâand not just from a pedestal. Rather, she details a number of innovative programs, professors, and universities. The latter include my employer Arizona State University, Georgetown University, and many community colleges.

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Title: The House of Government

Subtitle: A Saga of the Russian Revolution

Author: Yuri Slezkine, Claire Bloom - director

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Format: Unabridged

Length: 45 hrs and 9 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-25-17

Publisher: Blackstone Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

On the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, the epic story of an enormous apartment building where Communist true believers lived before their destruction.

The House of Government is unlike any other book about the Russian Revolution and the Soviet experiment. Written in the tradition of Tolstoy's War and Peace, Grossman's Life and Fate, and Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, Yuri Slezkine's gripping narrative tells the true story of the residents of an enormous Moscow apartment building where top Communist officials and their families lived before they were destroyed in Stalin's purges. A vivid account of the personal and public lives of Bolshevik true believers, the book begins with their conversion to Communism and ends with their children's loss of faith and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Completed in 1931, The House of Government, later known as The House on the Embankment, was located across the Moscow River from the Kremlin. The largest residential building in Europe, it combined 505 furnished apartments with public spaces that included everything from a movie theater and a library to a tennis court and a shooting range. Slezkine tells the chilling story of how the building's residents lived in their apartments and ruled the Soviet state until some 800 of them were evicted from the house and led, one by one, to prison or their deaths.

Drawing on letters, diaries, and interviews, The House of Government weaves together biography, literary criticism, architectural history, and fascinating new theories of revolutions, millennial prophecies, and reigns of terror. The result is an unforgettable human saga of a building that, like the Soviet Union itself, became a haunted house, forever disturbed by the ghosts of the disappeared.

Members Reviews:

Inside saga of the leaders of Bolshevism & the USSR

What a generous & magisterial book! Basically the story of a wide group of leaders, intellectuals & senior bureaucrats and their families, most of whom lived at one time or other in the House of Govt. From the pre-revolutionary backgrounds thru the Oct Revolution, building the new Communist state, collectivization, the 5 year plans, the Great Terror & then the Great Patriotic War. This is s deep social, cultural & intellectual history of how a Bolshevik sect became the state religion of a great country, but it reads more like Tolstoy of War & Peace! Lots of Russian names & families to keep track of. Long, but fascinating, subtle, generous & sympathetic, but never rose tinted. Most highly recommended! Reader was easy to listen to, with the right balance of seriousness (& occasionally, irony).

Haunting tour of the temple of the failed deity

Engrossing relatable stories, often in their own words, of the thinkers who envisioned the Soviet state.

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Title: Tin Can Titans

Subtitle: The Heroic Men and Ships of World War II's Most Decorated Navy Destroyer Squadron

Author: John Wukovits

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-15-17

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 147 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

When Admiral William Halsey selected Destroyer Squadron 21 to lead his victorious ships into Tokyo Bay to accept the Japanese surrender, it was the most battle-hardened US naval squadron of the war.

But it was not the squadron of ships that had accumulated such an inspiring résumé; it was the people serving aboard them. Sailors, not metallic superstructures and hulls, had won the battles and become the stuff of legend. Men like Commander Donald MacDonald, skipper of the USS O'Bannon, who became the most decorated naval officer of the Pacific war; Lieutenant Hugh Barr Miller, who survived his ship's sinking and waged a one-man battle against the enemy while stranded on a Japanese-occupied island; and Doctor Dow "Doc" Ransom, the beloved physician of the USS La Vallette, who combined a mixture of humor and medical expertise to treat his patients at sea epitomize the sacrifices made by all the men and women of World War II.

Through diaries, personal interviews with survivors, and letters written to and by the crews during the war, preeminent historian of the Pacific theater John Wukovits brings to life the human story of the squadron and its men, who bested the Japanese in the Pacific and helped take the war to Tokyo.

Members Reviews:

Captivating

So much has been written about World War II that anyone writing about it must come up with a different angle. Wukovits chose to write about the destroyers (Tin Cans) which he says were the workhorse of the war in the Pacific. Wukovits describes the story of Destroyer Squadron 21 (DesRon21). He follows the squadron from 1942 to leading the United States Fleet into Tokyo Bay to receive the Japanese surrender in August 1945. The author covers not only the action, the ships, but also the crews that manned the ships.

The book is divided into three parts, each containing three or four chapters. The first is on the origins of the vessels, then the squadron organization and lastly the campaigns. All sections are about the crews. In fact, the author makes the book read more like a novel than a history book. The book is well written and researched. The author conduced oral interviews of the veterans of DesRon21 as well as read many diaries. He dissected naval archives and reviewed action reports. The book format has photographs and maps. Destroyer Squadron 21 was the most decorated naval squadron of WWII. Anyone who likes to read about WWII will enjoy this book.

The book is almost eleven hours long. Robertson Dean does an excellent job narrating the book. Dean is a multi-award -winning audiobook narrator. Dean is well known to most long-time audiobook readers.

Gripping Book

This book is a gripping telling of the harrowing lives of those who served on the ships of Destroyer Squadron 21 during World War II. Based on diaries and other writings of the sailors who manned these ships, it provides an amazing array of insights into what it was like to face danger in the battles of the Pacific Theater.

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Title: The Great Quake

Subtitle: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet

Author: Henry Fountain

Narrator: Robert Fass

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-08-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 108 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

In the best-selling tradition of Erik Larson's Isaac's Storm, The Great Quake is a riveting narrative about the biggest earthquake in North American recorded history - the 1964 Alaska earthquake that demolished the city of Valdez and swept away the island village of Chenega - and the geologist who hunted for clues to explain how and why it took place.

At 5:36 p.m. on March 27, 1964, a magnitude 9.2 earthquake - the second most powerful in world history - struck the young state of Alaska. The violent shaking, followed by massive tsunamis, devastated the southern half of the state and killed more than 130 people. A day later George Plafker, a geologist with the US Geological Survey, arrived to investigate. His fascinating scientific detective work in the months that followed helped confirm the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics.

In a compelling tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain combines history and science to bring the quake and its aftermath to life in vivid detail. With deep on-the-ground reporting from Alaska, often in the company of George Plafker, Fountain shows how the earthquake left its mark on the land and its people - and on science.

Critic Reviews:

"The Great Quake explains how one of North America's worst recent natural disasters led to a fascinating insight. Henry Fountain offers a gripping tale of loss, heroism, and, ultimately, discovery." (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction)

"Henry Fountain knows earthquakes, and he knows how to spin a yarn. The Great Quake is the fascinating result. It takes meticulous research and real narrative skill to tell a story that moves this fast yet still feels so complete. The book shines on two levels: as a portrait of two quirky frontier communities before, during and after a stunning disaster, and as the story of an unpretentious geologist whose brilliant analysis of the great quake's causes provided crucial backing for one of the biggest ideas in all of science." (Dan Fagin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Tom's River)

"For five terrifying minutes in 1964, the earth shook beneath Anchorage, Alaska. It devastated the city, and towns and villages throughout the state. In this fast-paced, engaging account of that disaster, Henry Fountain tells us what it was like to be there. His interviews with fortunate survivors bear witness to the pluck and determination of the human spirit - and reveals the better side of our natures in times of crisis. Read this book to better understand nature's power - and our human resilience. Fountain's riveting, 'you were there' account pulls you in, and keeps you turning the pages to find out who survived - and how." (Virginia Morell, author of Animal Wise, a New York Times best-seller)

Members Reviews:

Fascinating to hear the full story

I was in this earthquake. I was 11 years old at the time. I remember much of what was told here, the JCPenney wall falling on the car, 4th street sinking, even the guy with the trumpet and much more. Learning now of the scientific side of the quake was so very enlightening and enjoyable. I'll listen to this book over and over. Only wish my Dad was still alive to hear it. He wrote his account of what all happened to us that day.

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Title: Midnight in the Pacific

Subtitle: Guadalcanal - The World War II Battle That Turned the Tide of War

Author: Joseph Wheelan

Narrator: Kevin Stillwell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-01-17

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 102 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A sweeping narrative history - the first in over 20 years - of America's first major offensive of World War II, the brutal, no-quarter-given campaign to take Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal.

From early August until mid-November of 1942, US marines, sailors, and pilots struggled for dominance against an implacable enemy: Japanese soldiers, inculcated with the bushido tradition of death before dishonor, avatars of bayonet combat - close-up, personal, and gruesome. The glittering prize was Henderson Airfield. Japanese planners knew that if they neutralized the airfield, the battle was won. So did the marines who stubbornly defended it.

The outcome of the long slugfest remained in doubt under the pressure of repeated Japanese air, land, and sea operations. And losses were heavy. At sea, in a half-dozen fiery combats, the US Navy fought the Imperial Japanese Navy to a draw, but at a cost of more than 4,500 sailors. More American sailors died in these battles off Guadalcanal than in all previous US wars, and each side lost 24 warships. On land, more than 1,500 soldiers and marines died, and the air war claimed more than 500 US planes. Japan's losses on the island were equally devastating - starving Japanese soldiers called it "the island of death".

But when the attritional struggle ended, American marines, sailors, and airmen had halted the Japanese juggernaut that for five years had whirled through Asia and the Pacific. Guadalcanal was America's first major ground victory against Japan and, most importantly, the Pacific War's turning point.

Published on the 75th anniversary of the battle and utilizing vivid accounts written by the combatants at Guadalcanal, along with marine corps and army archives and oral histories, Midnight in the Pacific is both a sweeping narrative and a compelling drama of individual marines, soldiers, and sailors caught in the crosshairs of history.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

Members Reviews:

Don't start here or you'll be confused.

Would you try another book from Joseph Wheelan and/or Kevin Stillwell?

Maybe. Guadalcanal is a tough topic. This author tries to bring the personal part of the story home, and frequently does a good job of that, bringing humanity through the voices of the participants. On the other hand, he does a poor job providing the overall context of what's going on. This fight is a huge story of outstanding and poor leadership, of great individual bravery and some cowardice, often by the folks in charge.

The author misses some key things. He gives us a great account of Puller going aboard the destroyer and saving his men, he misses the human part of the exchange between Puller and the ship captain about who's got the better life (and potential death).

The USS San Francisco kills as many sailors aboard the USS Atlanta than the Japanese kill Marines on Bloody Ridge. Callahan dies on the San Francisco. The author makes assumptions about what Callahan thought during the battle and states them as fact when we can't possibly know.

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Title: A Wretched and Precarious Situation

Subtitle: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier

Author: David Welky

Narrator: Joel Richards

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-28-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A Kirkus Reviews best nonfiction book of 2016.

A remarkable true story of adventure, betrayal, and survival set in one of the world's most inhospitable places.

In 1906, from atop a snow-swept hill in the ice fields northwest of Greenland, hundreds of miles from another human being, Commander Robert E. Peary spotted a line of mysterious peaks looming in the distance. He called this unexplored realm "Crocker Land". Scientists and explorers agreed that the world-famous explorer had discovered a new continent rising from the frozen Arctic Ocean.

Several years later, two of Peary's disciples, George Borup and Donald MacMillan, assembled a team of amateur adventurers to investigate Crocker Land. Before them lay a chance at the kind of lasting fame enjoyed by Magellan, Columbus, and Captain Cook. While filling in the last blank space on the globe, they might find new species of plants or animals, or even men; in the era of Jules Verne and HG Wells, anything seemed possible. Renowned scientific institutions, and even former president Theodore Roosevelt, rushed to endorse the expedition.

What followed was a sequence of events that none of the explorers could have imagined. Trapped in a true-life adventure story, the men endured howling blizzards, unearthly cold, food shortages, isolation, a fatal boating accident, a drunken sea captain, disease, dissension, and a horrific crime. But the team pushed on through every obstacle, driven forward by the mystery of Crocker Land and faint hopes that they someday would make it home.

Populated with a cast of memorable characters, and based on years of research in previously untapped sources, A Wretched and Precarious Situation is a harrowing Arctic narrative unlike any other.

Members Reviews:

Dry history

This was a very dry straight forward history. Partly because most arctic exploration is a story of hardship and disappointment and of course the shadow of shackletons shadow looms over all polar exploration. But still feel the story could have had more life. The narrators voice and tone were fine but his pronunciation of words like Inuit were miserable. The good news is a much great appreciation for Macmillan who is often under pearys shadow. Would like to learn more about his adventures in the Bowdoin. My favorite thing of the book is learning that I can sign my name just like Macmillan with bowdoin 98 exactly 100 years between our graduations.

Outstanding book!

Fascinating story expertly woven together from first person accounts - a piece of forgotten history that needed to be uncovered.