Download the Popular Authors Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: All Your Base Are Belong to Us

Subtitle: How Fifty Years of Videogames Conquered Pop Culture

Author: Harold Goldberg

Narrator: Eric Martin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-15

Publisher: Harold Goldberg

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 124 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Through the stories of gaming's greatest innovations and most-beloved creations, journalist Harold Goldberg captures the creativity, controversy - and passion - behind the videogame's meteoric rise to the top of the pop-culture pantheon.

Over the last 50 years, video games have grown from curiosities to fads to trends to one of the world's most popular forms of mass entertainment. But as the gaming industry grows in numerous directions, and everyone talks about the advance of the moment, few explore and seek to understand the forces behind this profound evolution. How did we get from Space Invaders to Grand Theft Auto? How exactly did gaming become a $50 billion industry and a dominant pop culture form? What are the stories, the people, the innovations, and the fascinations behind this incredible growth?

Through extensive interviews with gaming's greatest innovators, both its icons and those unfairly forgotten by history, All Your Base Are Belong to Us sets out to answer these questions, exposing the creativity, odd theories - and passion - behind the 21st century's fastest-growing medium.

Go inside the creation of:

Members Reviews:

Some noticable flaws and incorrect information.

Pretty good but got noticable things wrong including calling the twisted metal clown calypso in stead of Sweet Tooth which is the characters name. Also it states that from the get go the Xbox 360 had simple wifi connection when in reality, the first generation required a separate add on to access wifi. The last issue was small but he mistook the name of South Park's character Kyle for Lyle. Proofreading is important.

A History of Game Developers, Not Games

The book's title is somewhat misleading. Instead of an exploration of the effects that video games have had on pop culture, it reads much more like a collection of short scattered biographies of the men and women that made them, often spending far more time on the childhood and business practices of developers than the games that they created. Although the information provided is interesting, the writing becomes dull after the repetitive use of certain phrases and devices. The book also suffers from horrible organization, mentioning Nintendo in the 80's, EA in the 90's, then jumping back to Sierra in the 70's, and then to Nintendo again in the 2000's.

It's obvious that the book could not be completely comprehensive of video game history, but for a book claiming to be about the effects on pop culture it has some very odd entries and omissions. The author praises "Crash Bandicoot" for it's soundtrack but never mentions Koji Kondo or his compositions for the Mario and Zelda series's, which are arguably the most recognizable soundtracks of all time. The creation of the failed 3DO gaming console gets its own entry, yet Sega's long history is barely a footnote used for comparison to a few other companies. Pokemon, the third highest selling franchise of all time, that has spawned card games, 19 movies, a tv show about to start its 20th season, comics, physical stores, and it's own theme park, doesn't even warrant a mention in this title.

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Title: Grandma Gatewood's Walk

Subtitle: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail

Author: Ben Montgomery

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-16-14

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 658 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than $200. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, 67-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. And in September 1955, atop Maine's Mount Katahdin, she sang the first verse of "America, the Beautiful" and proclaimed, "I said I'll do it, and I've done it." Grandma Gatewood, as the reporters called her, became the first woman to hike the entire Appalachian Trail alone, as well as the first person - man or woman - to walk it twice and three times. The public attention she brought to the little-known footpath was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.

Critic Reviews:

"A quiet delight of a book." (Kirkus)

Members Reviews:

I'd like to walk with her...

Ben Montgomery has given us a glimpse into Grandma Gatewoods (age 67) walks... yes plural... she did the Appalachian Trail three times and many, many others. She was the first ultra-light camper... carrying only a homemade stuff sack, wool blanket, shower curtain and Vienna Sausages. Ben takes his information from her brief journal notes, newspaper articles, family records and interviews. The third person narrative and the writers obvious desire not to write fiction, limits the beauty of the story... and I didn't like the book at first. I listened at 1.25 (not my normal) because it does drag along. However, the magnitude of what she accomplished outweighed any failures in the rendition of it and I'm glad I continued to listen.

This is less entertaining than Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" but she does complete the hike, which Bryson didn't... leaving me ticked at him still. You learn less about trail hiking than you would with Cheryl Strayed's book "Wild." However, anyone serious about hiking, changing lifestyles to be more active or biting off a big goals will appreciate her grit. I googled her after finishing the book and enjoyed the collection of photo's about her hike. She might not of saved the Appalachian Trail single handed, but she certainly motivated a generation of hikers who realized if "Grandma Gatewood" can do it, I can too.

Inspiring story about a strong amazing woman

I loved Grandma Gatewood. She's quirky and ornery and stronger than maybe any other character I've ever known. She suffers gracefully and graciously, which of course makes her perfect for the Appalachian trial. I was inspired by her strength on many levels.

The story only gets four stars because I felt like Montgomery didn't completely do her justice. I felt like this story just scratched the surface of her and what she experienced. There was too much "filler" in the story about the politics of the time, and other topics that didn't belong in this story. I wished there was a lot more detail about her.

The narrator was perfect.

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Title: Acid Test

Subtitle: LSD, Ecstasy, and the Power to Heal

Author: Tom Shroder

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-09-14

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 388 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A fascinating, transformative look at the therapeutic powers of psychedelic drugs, particularly in the treatment of PTSD, and the past fifty years of scientific, political, and legal controversy they have ignited, by award-winning journalist Tom Shroder.

Its no secret that psychedelic drugs have the ability to cast light on the miraculous reality hidden within our psyche. Following the discovery of LSD less than a hundred years ago, psychedelics began to play a crucial role in the quest to understand the link between mind and matter. Compounds such as LSD and MDMA have proved to be extraordinarily effective in treating disorders such as posttraumatic stress - yet the drugs remain illegal, out of reach of the millions of people who could benefit from them.

Tom Shroders Acid Test is a meticulously researched history of LSD and the controversy surrounding psychedelics, as well as a striking look at the unprecedented healing properties of drugs that have for decades been characterized as dangerous, illicit substances. Shroder covers the first heady years of experimentation in the 50s and 60s through the backlash of the '70s and '80s, when the drug subculture exploded and uncontrolled experimentation with street psychedelics led to a PR nightmare that would set therapeutic use back decades. Acid Test is a fascinating, transformative look at the therapeutic powers of psychedelic drugs, particularly in the treatment of PTSD, and the past fifty years of scientific, political, and legal controversy they have ignited.

Members Reviews:

Inspiring, Upsetting, Grounded and Useful

What did you like best about this story?

I suffer from PTSD. With the help of loving friends and carefully following the protocol outlined in the FDA approved study, this book helped me bridge the gap from being anti-drug use, to profound gratitude for the way MDMA can heal my body, heart and world. My personal world is 300% bigger, more satisfying and abundant based on the specific actions I've taken as a result of my six sessions.

This book changed my life.

This is not a book about the dark side of medicine. This is not a book that convinces kids to do drugs. This is a book about the medical practices of very intelligent people in a way that can help those suffering from PTSD and similar illnesses live with out the need of prescription drugs. Rick, Michael and Nick are all incredible people. Especially Rick for all of his hard work. It's a great book for adults of all ages to read. I strongly encourage college student to read this.

Extremely informative and interesting book!

If you've ever once said you "love our veterans" or even claimed to have cared for the wellbeing of people suffering from PTSD (victims of sexual trauma, combat veterans, etc), this book should be a must listen! In the U.S., we have a tendency to not care about things unless they directly affect us, missing the bigger picture.

The information is shared in an interesting and compelling manner in which the author shares people's stories, which keeps the listener engaged while also learning about the content. Not familiar with the narrator, but he also did an outstanding job.

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Title: The Rising Sun

Subtitle: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

Author: John Toland

Narrator: Tom Weiner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 41 hrs and 8 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-27-14

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1461 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the authors words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."

In weaving together the historical facts and human drama leading up to and culminating in the war in the Pacific, Toland crafts a riveting and unbiased narrative history.

Members Reviews:

First rate history

Wow. You come away from this book feeling like you actually understand what would posses the Japanese to launch into a war they knew that they would lose if it went on very long and why they fought so hard right to the end. If all history books were this good why would you ever read fiction?

A political as well as military history

I have read a great many books concerning World War II involving both the European as well as Pacific theaters of war and was not very interested in reading another book centered on the Pacific theater. What drew me to the decision to buy this book is that it offered what was rare in the other books I read, the political background of the Japanese involvement in the war.

The Pacific Theater of the war is a sort of neglected step-child of the history books. While there are many very fine books concerning the war in the Pacific, the number is much smaller than those books on the European Theater and those books that do exist mostly concentrate on the battles and the difficulty in fighting a war on such a broad front. What has almost always been missing is the political background explaining how Japan found itself being inexorably drawn into a war with the US when many of its political and military leaders believed Japan could not win such a war, Yamamoto perhaps foremost among them.

I have always believed that the reason for the lack of extensive material covering the Japanese decisions leading to the war was the general lack of familiarity among most readers, myself included, concerning how the Japanese political system worked and the daunting task facing a writer in explaining the intricate and unfamiliar process to the general reader. However Mr Toland, who has written much about World War II, has successfully provided the political background very well in this book. This was not a new task as this book is quite old (first published in 1970) but nonetheless feels fresh and new. While some of the material may have been superseded by more recent scholarship this book is still very worthwhile for anyone interested not only in how the war progressed, but in why the Japanese government took the decisions it did.

The only problem I found with this book is that some of the Japanese names are very similar and it is easy in the Audible version of this book to mistake one for another. One example is mistaking Tojo for Togo and thus failing to grasp the competing war and peace factions in the government.

Tom Weiner does an excellent job in narrating this book and I found it to be both easy to listen to and well worth the time.

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Title: To Marry an English Lord

Author: Carol McD. Wallace, Gail MacColl

Narrator: Kate Reading

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-27-14

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 216 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

From the Gilded Age until 1914, more than 100 American heiresses invaded Britannia and swapped dollars for titles - just like Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, the first of the Downton Abbey characters Julian Fellowes was inspired to create after reading To Marry An English Lord. Filled with vivid personalities, gossipy anecdotes, grand houses, and a wealth of period details-plus quotes and the finer points of Victorian and Edwardian etiquette - To Marry An English Lord is social history at its liveliest and most accessible.

Critic Reviews:

"In your very flattering article about books that might please fans of

Downton Abbey, I was sorry that one title was missing:

To Marry an English Lord.... It is a marvelous and entertaining study." (Julian Fellowes, writer and creator of

Downton Abbey)

Members Reviews:

Love Downton Abbey?

If you love the British TV show, Downtown Abbey, you'll love this book. It is the true tales of rich American girls in search of a nobleman. And noblemen in search of money to save their ancestral homes and the lifestyle someone of their rank was entitled to.

Not Great on Audio

The organization of the book did not fit well with audio. I can see why the author would have made the lists of people, estates, etc., but they don't work very well here. They interrupt the flow of the text because the narrator reads "the box" that has the extra information. I listened to about half the book, but then I gave up.

Fantastic

The narrator was excellent! She pronounced everything superbly and brought the authors' wonderful words to life. I find 19th century "society" fascinating and this book did not disappoint. Bravo!

Interesting

The storyline was extremely interesting but you need to fast forward through the endless list of names, this added no value to the story.

Interesting Read

If you could sum up To Marry an English Lord in three words, what would they be?

Interesting historical information.

Would you be willing to try another book from Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace ? Why or why not?

Sure. As a long time reader of historical fiction, this book gives a lot of information about the time period I enjoy reading about.

Have you listened to any of Kate Readings other performances before? How does this one compare?

Kate Reading gives an excellent performance in this audio book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, it was just a pleasant, informative read.

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Title: Last Stand at Khe Sanh

Subtitle: The US Marines Finest Hour in Vietnam

Author: Gregg Jones

Narrator: William Hughes

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-01-14

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 277 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The vivid, fast-paced account of the siege of Khe Sanh told through the eyes of the men who lived it.

For seventy-seven days in 1968, amid fears that America faced its own disastrous Dien Bien Phu, six thousand US Marines held off thirty thousand North Vietnamese Army regulars at the remote mountain stronghold called Khe Sanh. It was the biggest battle of the Vietnam War, with sharp ground engagements, devastating artillery duels, and massive US air strikes. After several weeks of heroic defense, the besieged Americans struck back in a series of bold assaults, and the North Vietnamese withdrew with heavy losses.

Last Stand at Khe Sanh is the vivid, fast-paced account of the dramatic confrontation as experienced by the men who were there: Marine riflemen and grenadiers, artillery and air observers, platoon leaders and company commanders, Navy corpsmen and helicopter pilots, and a plucky band of US Army Special Forces. Based on extensive archival research and more than one hundred interviews with participants, Last Stand at Khe Sanh captures the courage and camaraderie of the defenders and delivers the fullest account yet of this epic battle.

Members Reviews:

Great Book

Where does Last Stand at Khe Sanh rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

I would rank this book among the best Vietnam stories I have read

Which scene was your favorite?

All of them

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

Khe Sanh a living hell

Any additional comments?

I was a Special Forces Medic and was at Khe Sanh when the siege begain on 1/21/68. I was only there for two weeks before going back to Phu Bi. It was living hell for the two weeks I was there . This book filled in all the rest of the story that I was ,for a short time part of . I new some of the people mentioned in the book. It was well written and was hard to stop listing too. The narrator was excellent. God bless all the Marines who fought of so hard at Khe Sanh for there buddies and for freedom. WHO RAHHH!

Thanks.

If you could sum up Last Stand at Khe Sanh in three words, what would they be?

Sobering, awe-inspiring, and humbling...

What did you like best about this story?

The truth. It's refreshing to read accounts that are largely straightforward accounts of the situations and the people who experienced them.

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

The topic is too much to sit and listen to in one sitting. It's obviously not a novel... One can take only so much heart-wrenching details and accounts in "one sitting".

Any additional comments?

The topic and reality of what this book covers is sobering. My respect for both our country and her military defenders increased substantially, thanks to this superb and honest book.

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Title: The Strange Career of Jim Crow

Author: C. Vann Woodward

Narrator: Sean Crisden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-11-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 61 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

C. Vann Woodward, who died in 1999 at the age of 91, was America's most eminent Southern historian, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Mary Chestnut's Civil War and a Bancroft Prize for The Origins of the New South. Now, to honor his long and truly distinguished career, Oxford is pleased to publish this special commemorative edition of Woodward's most influential work, The Strange Career of Jim Crow. The Strange Career of Jim Crow is one of the great works of Southern history. Indeed, the book actually helped shape that history. Published in 1955, a year after the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education ordered schools desegregated, Strange Career was cited so often to counter arguments for segregation that Martin Luther King, Jr. called it "the historical Bible of the civil rights movement." The book offers a clear and illuminating analysis of the history of Jim Crow laws, presenting evidence that segregation in the South dated only to the 1890s. Woodward convincingly shows that, even under slavery, the two races had not been divided as they were under the Jim Crow laws of the 1890s. In fact, during Reconstruction, there was considerable economic and political mixing of the races. The segregating of the races was a relative newcomer to the region. Hailed as one of the top 100 nonfiction works of the twentieth century, The Strange Career of Jim Crow has sold almost a million copies and remains, in the words of David Herbert Donald, "a landmark in the history of American race relations."

Members Reviews:

the truth is Stranger Than Fiction

infuriating but is true its history what can you do . narration was kind of monotone in beginning kind of made it hard to pay attention but seemed to improve a little as the story continued on

Essential Reading

If you want to understand the history of injustice in the US and civil rights, then you need to read this book. It's a seminal pathbreaking work. I am not going to claim that it is perfect by any means. Vann Woodward does not make that claim either. As one example, his discussion of the "radical black" political movement in the 1960s and 1970s sounds completely at odds with everything that precedes it. It makes no sense to condemn black political frustration and aggression right after documenting a century of calculated racial aggression from white society. The point is, this isn't the final word on the topic. But it's an impressive first attempt that everyone should read.

The narrator is clear. His style is a little odd. But I had no trouble understanding everything he read. It's not easy to read non-fiction. So I appreciate the performance.

Worthwhile history lesson

Well written book on the struggle to abolish segregation. Thoroughly enjoyed it and if your a history buff like myself you'll enjoy it also!

Very Informative.

Almost put it down. Glad I didn't - LOTS of information. An invaluable history lesson. A definite re-read.

Jim Crow has yet to retire

Unfortunately I didn't learn about Jim

Crow laws until I was older and felt I needed to learn. Woodward traces the history of Jim Crow and reconstruction in clear and concise terms. He is able to give a contextual picture of the laws and the forces behind them.

I would recommend all teachers, politicians and curious citizens read this.

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Title: Operation Paperclip

Subtitle: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America

Author: Annie Jacobsen

Narrator: Annie Jacobsen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-11-14

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 337 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The explosive, dark secrets behind America's post-WWII science programs from the author of the New York Times best seller Area 51.

In the chaos following WWII, some of the greatest spoils of Germany's resources were the Third Reich's scientific minds. The U.S. government secretly decided that the value of these former Nazis' knowledge outweighed their crimes and began a covert operation code-named Paperclip to allow them to work in the U.S. without the public's full knowledge. Drawing on exclusive interviews with dozens of Paperclip family members, colleagues, and interrogators, and with access to German archival documents (including papers made available to her by direct descendants of the Third Reich's ranking members), files obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, and lost dossiers discovered at the National Archives and Harvard University, Annie Jacobsen follows more than a dozen German scientists through their postwar lives and into one of the most complex, nefarious, and jealously guarded government secrets of the 20th century.

Members Reviews:

The Osenberg list

In 1945, Operation Overcast (renamed Operation Paperclip for the paperclips attached to the dossiers of the scientist) began. More than 1600 German scientist were secretly recruited to work for the United States. There was a race between the United States and the U.S.S. R. to obtain these scientists. At the time Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rabbi Steven Wise publically opposed the program.

In 1998 President Clinton signed the Nazi War Crimes disclosure Act, which pushed through the declassification of Americans intelligence records, including F.B. I., Army Intelligence and C.I.A. files of German agents, scientists and war criminals. Jacobsen accessed these documents, along with her research in various special collections, interviews with former intelligence personnel and relatives of the scientists. This makes Jacobsens account the most in-depth to date. The author tracked 21 of these Nazi scientists. Eight of her subjects worked directly with the upper echelon of the Nazi government. Some of these are Werner Von Braun, Hubertus Strughold, Walter Dornberger, and Arthur Rudolph, Fritz Hoffman. The author described in detail the hunt for the Nazi secret chemical and biological warfare sites and the hunt for the scientist.

Jacobsen focuses mostly on biologists, chemists and physicians. She said the rocket scientist had already been widely written about.

The author painstakingly covers the various scientist works for the Nazis; I wish she would have equally covered their work in American. We know the benefit of the work by the rocket scientist in developing the Saturn rocket. German Chemist Fritz Hoffman was assigned by the U.S. to research toxic agents for military use. He is credited with the development of Agent Orange. It was used to defoliate trees in Vietnam. Hoffman died in 1967. Other German scientist worked in the area of aeronautical medicine, research into diabetes, neurological disease and also developing equipment. I believe one of them developed the ear thermometer. The book is an achievement of investigative reporting and historical writing.

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Title: The Lemon Tree

Author: Sandy Tolan

Narrator: Sandy Tolan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-04-14

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 212 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people - one Israeli, one Palestinian - that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East. In 1967, not long after the Six-Day War, three young Arab men ventured into the town of Ramle, in what is now Jewish Israel. They were cousins, on a pilgrimage to see their childhood homes; their families had been driven out of Palestine nearly 20 years earlier. One cousin had a door slammed in his face, and another found his old house had been converted into a school. But the third, Bashir Al-Khairi, was met at the door by a young woman called Dalia, who invited them in. This act of faith in the face of many years of animosity is the starting point for a true story of a remarkable relationship between two families, one Arab, one Jewish, amid the fraught modern history of the region. In his childhood home, in the lemon tree his father planted in the backyard, Bashir sees dispossession and occupation; Dalia, who arrived as an infant in 1948 with her family from Bulgaria, sees hope for a people devastated by the Holocaust. As both are swept up in the fates of their people, and Bashir is jailed for his alleged part in a supermarket bombing, the friends do not speak for years. They finally reconcile and convert the house in Ramle into a day-care centre for Arab children of Israel, and a center for dialogue between Arabs and Jews. Now the dialogue they started seems more threatened than ever; the lemon tree died in 1998, and Bashir was jailed again, without charge. The Lemon Tree grew out of a 43-minute radio documentary that Sandy Tolan produced for Fresh Air. With this audiobook, he pursues the story into the homes and histories of the two families at its center, and up to the present day. Their stories form a personal microcosm of the last 70 years of Israeli-Palestinian history. In a region that seems ever more divided, The Lemon Tree is a reminder of all that is at stake, and of all that is still possible.

Members Reviews:

A real life account that reads like a novel.

Tolan reduces the essence of the Jewish -Palestinian conflict to it lowest common denominator -- personal longing for rootednes. He demonstrates that there is no short or easy route to peace in the Middle East, but it is possible through continual dialogue pressing to see the other as your brother, sister.

Empathetic

As a Jew by choice I read this book to get some idea of the Israel/Palestine conflict. I wanted a view from both sides and I got one. The fact that the author narrated the story made it that much more powerful. You get the full intention of her work with inflections and emphasis in all the right ways. I would highly recommend.

Audible 20 Review Sweepstakes Entry

A very small piece of a huge picture.

The story is well written and colorfully told but it's perspective lacks the spiritual and much longer history that lies beyond what is told here. Neither of the two main characters here are happy and at peace. Furthermore they cannot yet see a solution to their dilemma.

Rethinking history

A chance to hear two very personal stories apart from the media's portrayal of historic events; and contemplate the situation at a more mature time in my life. Very worthwhile reading! Just as it is with my own extended family members, I find that I love both families and feel their pain but am helpless to resolve differences.

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Title: The Pope and Mussolini

Subtitle: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe

Author: David I. Kertzer

Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-28-14

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 175 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

From National Book Award finalist David I. Kertzer comes the gripping story of Pope Pius XIs secret relations with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. This groundbreaking work, based on seven years of research in the Vatican and Fascist archives, including reports from Mussolinis spies inside the highest levels of the Church, will forever change our understanding of the Vaticans role in the rise of Fascism in Europe.

The Pope and Mussolini tells the story of two men who came to power in 1922, and together changed the course of 20th-century history. In most respects, they could not have been more different. One was scholarly and devout, the other thuggish and profane. Yet Pius XI and "Il Duce" had many things in common. They shared a distrust of democracy and a visceral hatred of Communism. Both were prone to sudden fits of temper and were fiercely protective of the prerogatives of their office. ("We have many interests to protect," the Pope declared, soon after Mussolini seized control of the government in 1922.) Each relied on the other to consolidate his power and achieve his political goals.

In a challenge to the conventional history of this period, in which a heroic Church does battle with the Fascist regime, Kertzer shows how Pius XI played a crucial role in making Mussolinis dictatorship possible and keeping him in power. In exchange for Vatican support, Mussolini restored many of the privileges the Church had lost and gave in to the popes demands that the police enforce Catholic morality. Yet in the last years of his life - as the Italian dictator grew ever closer to Hitler - the pontiffs faith in this treacherous bargain started to waver. With his health failing, he began to lash out at the Duce and threatened to denounce Mussolinis anti-Semitic racial laws before it was too late. Horrified by the threat to the Church-Fascist alliance, the Vaticans inner circle, including the future Pope Pius XII, struggled to restrain the headstrong pope from destroying a partnership that had served both the Church and the dictator for many years.

The Pope and Mussolini brims with memorable portraits of the men who helped enable the reign of Fascism in Italy: Father Pietro Tacchi Venturi, Piuss personal emissary to the dictator, a wily anti-Semite known as Mussolinis Rasputin; Victor Emmanuel III, the king of Italy, an object of widespread derision who lacked the stature - literally and figuratively - to stand up to the domineering Duce; and Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, whose political skills and ambition made him Mussolinis most powerful ally inside the Vatican, and positioned him to succeed the pontiff as the controversial Pius XII, whose actions during World War II would be subject for debate for decades to come.

With the recent opening of the Vatican archives covering Pius XIs papacy, the full story of the Popes complex relationship with his Fascist partner can finally be told. Vivid, dramatic, with surprises at every turn, The Pope and Mussolini is history writ large and with the lightning hand of truth.

Critic Reviews:

"David Kertzer has an eye for a story, an ear for the right word, and an instinct for human tragedy.