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Title: The Thirty-Six Strategies of Ancient China

Author: Stefan Verstappen

Narrator: Stefan H. Verstappen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 02-21-13

Publisher: Open Book Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 36 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

The Thirty-Six Strategies of Ancient China is an easy listen and a fascinating look at how many of the strategies and tactics mentioned by Sun Tzu in his book, The Art Of War, were employed in ancient times.

This is one of the most diverse yet accessible collections of Chinese strategies yet assembled. Brief in form, yet endless in wisdom, these fundamental rules of military engagement are easily adapted to the modern office, sports team, or everyday task.

Taken from sources ranging from Lao Zi to Miyamoto Musashi, Stefan H. Verstappen has assembled a fascinating and impressive selection of historical and anecdotal evidence in support of this classic doctrine of strategy and one of the most influential works of East Asian philosophy. Whether you are a platoon commander or a weekend warrior, this book will enable you to stay three steps ahead.

Members Reviews:

A wonderful overview of a fascinating era

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, the narration, the pacing and content combined make for a listening experience that really captures the ambience associated with the subject matter.

What did you like best about this story?

It gives a overview of a segment of a period. Yes just a microcosm but one that I find interesting.

What about Stefan H. Verstappens performance did you like?

His voice matched the material. Magnificent pacing

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Title: A Brief History of Roman Britain

Subtitle: Brief Histories

Author: Joan P. Alcock

Narrator: Lisa Coleman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-28-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

The rise and fall of Roman Britain, how they lived and what they left behind...

In 55 B.C. Julius Caesar came, saw, conquered and then left. It was not until A.D. 43 that the Emperor Claudius crossed the channel and made Britain the western outpost of the Roman Empire that would span from the Scottish border to Persia. For the next 400 years the island would be transformed. Within that period would see the rise of Londinium, almost immediately burnt to the ground in A.D. 60 by Boudicca; Hadrian's Wall, which was constructed in A.D. 112 to keep the northern tribes at bay, as well as the birth of the Emperor Constantine in third century York. Interwoven with the historical narrative is a social history of the period showing how Roman society grew in Britain.

Joan Alcock is a fellow of the University of South London. She is also the author of A Social History of Roman Britain, as well as A Social History of Ancient Rome.

Members Reviews:

Incredibly tedious

What disappointed you about A Brief History of Roman Britain?

It's just an inventory of facts and figures, devoid of any drama or emotion. The people mentioned are simply names, devoid of personality.

What could Joan P. Alcock have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Focused less on checking off every item on her checklist and more on imbuing the story with interest.

What three words best describe Lisa Colemans performance?

Clear, sprightly, cheerful

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Boredom

Packed With Information

Where does A Brief History of Roman Britain rank among all the audiobooks youve listened to so far?

I would have to place this audiobook in the upper third of all the audiobooks I have previously listened to.

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

Well, it's ancient history... there aren't too many spoilers.

What about Lisa Colemans performance did you like?

Lisa Coleman's voice was engaging and easy to listen to.

Any additional comments?

The scholarship on this book was solid. No whimsical tangents taken by the author. This is a solid academic text. If I was going to make one criticism of the text as an audiobook it would have to be the extensive use of referenced archaeological evidence- which in a traditional paper format is standard, but in an audiobook does at times have a cause the narration to drag. Having numerous auditory descriptions, without accompanying pictures is problematic. Overall, I would recommend this book. Alcock is an esteemed scholar on this subject and this audiobook very good.

An exercise in tedium

What disappointed you about A Brief History of Roman Britain?

An appallingly dry and boring book. It is a simple listing of facts with absolutely nothing whatsoever to hold your attention. I literally couldn't believe that a) someone had written something so utterly devoid of interest and b) someone chose to publish it.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The reading was fine, but she might as well have been reading the phone book.

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Title: Inventing the Middle Ages

Author: Norman F. Cantor

Narrator: Frederick Davidson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-13-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 31 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

In this ground-breaking work, Norman Cantor explains how our current notion of the Middle Ageswith its vivid images of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights and ladieswas born in the 20th century. The medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. It had to be conceptually created: it had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention.

Cantor focuses on the lives and works of twenty of the great medievalists of this century, demonstrating how the events of their lives, and their spiritual and emotional outlooks, influenced their interpretations of the Middle Ages. He makes their scholarship an intensely personal and passionate exercise, full of color and controversy, displaying the strong personalities and creative minds that brought new insights about the past.

Members Reviews:

Historian's History

This is a side of scholarship you rarely hear about, the study of those who are studying the histories and putting them together. I find a book like this to be invaluable to any level of historical curiosity because it paints a completely new understanding of how our knowledge of history is informed. What we know, what we think we know, and how we got to either of those types of conclusions is now completely under the microscope for us. From this we get new answers, and thusly, new questions. It makes the study of history that much richer, especially for those of us who don't have much insight into the world of the historian. This book is probably a bit much for the generally curious, but for the most scholarly-oriented, this one's a winner.

Narration is VERY off-putting

What did you like best about Inventing the Middle Ages? What did you like least?

The narrator sounds utterly BORED. He drops pauses into the reading at weird times, so that the sentences don't make sense, and after you hear him do this about a hundred times (and I'm only on chapter 4) you realize it's because he's just mindlessly reading and paying no attention to what it says.

Couldn't they find someone who had even a mild interest in the subject, so that his mind wouldn't wander off and take the listener with it? I mean, this was a full price book, not a bargain basement volume. And while I'm on the subject - why choose a reader with a pompous art-gallery British accent so extreme that it sounds faked? To read a book written by an AMERICAN professor? A book that is mainly about Europe, not Britain?

chatty gossipy and awesome

the late David Case's (Frederick Davidson) snooty English lisp is pitch perfect for this historiography. You will a bit about medieval history but only tangentially. This is a series of biographies of great medievalists from Maitland to the 1970s. Combine it with Civilization of the Middle Ages and you are all set.

Stale

Would you try another book from Norman F. Cantor and/or Frederick Davidson?

maybe

What do you think your next listen will be?

not this one

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Problem was the book was more of a PHD studu than a book of the subject. The narrator only too it more off course

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Inventing the Middle Ages?

All

Any additional comments?

This is an intellectual book on the study of the subject, not the subject.

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Title: Legends and Myths of Ancient Greece: Odyssey [Russian Edition]

Author: Nikolay Kun

Narrator: Galina Zolotukhina

Format: Abridged

Length: 3 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-13-12

Publisher: IDDK

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

The book contains the myths of Odysseus set out on the basis of Homer's "Odyssey".

Please note: This audiobook is in Russian.

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Title: The Modern Scholar: The Dawn of Political History

Subtitle: Thucydides and the Peloponnesian Wars

Author: Fred Baumann

Narrator: Fred Baumann

Format: Original Recording

Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-04-12

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

In this fascinating course of lectures, Professor Fred Baumann leads us on an engaging exploration of this penetrating work. Taking in each of the eight books, we examine the complex juxtaposition of events Thucydides demonstrates without much comment of his own. We see how democrats and oligarchs, Athenians and Spartans, understand the world and misunderstand each other. We explore how Thucydides contrasts Sparta - so deliberately narrow, provincial, overtly moral, and covertly cynical - with Athens - cosmopolitan, sophisticated, overtly cynical and covertly moral. In doing so, we discover his admonishment to respect both and to get past our own instinctive, and sometimes destructive, human tendencies.

In the end, we come to understand how Thucydide's work shows human nature in the most extreme circumstances and thus provides deep insight into both political practice and philosophy. That may indeed be the reason for its lasting relevance: its unique ability to still shed light upon our own predicament some two-thousand years later.

Members Reviews:

Best lecture made so far (I almost said ever)

Amazing, brilliant, original thought on a well covered topic. It is hard to make such a well worn subject feel fresh and new, but it hardly seems like a challenge for the author. Cannot recommend more highly.

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Title: The History of Rome, Volume 6: Books 40 - 45

Author: Titus Livy

Narrator: Charlton Griffin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-28-11

Publisher: Audio Connoisseur

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

Livy's splendid adventure of Rome's rise to dominance comes to a close in this concluding volume of his magnificent history. Sadly, the work abruptly halts near the completion of book 45, which concerns events in Greece in the year 168 BC. The missing portions, numbering 107 books, have never been found. The original text of this monumental history, which came to 142 books when he completed it, carried the story to 9 BC. Livy called his work Ab Urbe Condita, though we refer to it as The History of Rome.

Almost the entire subject of volume six deals with Rome's struggle with Macedon, ending in the defeat of Perseus at the battle of Pydna. It was an epic struggle with a dangerous foe. And though it was certainly not intended by Livy to be the end of his work, this segment does provide a spectacular display of his writing talent and penchant for drama... a fitting end to an epic work. Translation: Roberts

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Title: Hannibal

Author: Ernle Bradford

Narrator: Peter Jones

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-29-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

At the bloody battle of Cannae, he trounced a Roman army twice the size of his own. With his brothers, he subdued nearly all of Italy, Spain, and Northern Africa. A cunning tactician, he secured victory for Bithynia at sea by catapulting poisonous snakes onto the decks of his enemys ships. Biographer Ernle Bradford draws on the historical writings of Livy, Polybius, Plutarch and others in re-creating the fantastic story of the greatest general since Alexander the Great.

Members Reviews:

strong book

detailed and enlightening. this book is worth the purchase. i look forward to more books like this.

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Title: Queen of Kings

Subtitle: The Immortal Story of Cleopatra

Author: Mary Dahvana Headley

Narrator: Katherine Kellgren

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-11

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 14 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

Maria Dahvana Headley blends history, romance, and the supernatural for a fantastic tale set in ancient Egypt. Upon hearing news of her husband Antonys death, Cleopatra is distraught. In an effort to resurrect him, she summons the fearsome warrior goddess Sekhmet. Striking a deal with the deity, Cleopatra pays a terrible price in the bargain and is transformed into a terrifying vampire-like creature whose lust for blood is only matched by her desire to exact vengeance upon those who have wronged her.

Members Reviews:

amazing

I highly recommend this book. I don't like books about vampires but I loved this book anyways.

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Title: The History of Rome, Volume 4, Books 26-32

Author: Titus Livy, William Masfen Roberts (translator)

Narrator: Charlton Griffin

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-07-11

Publisher: Audio Connoisseur

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

No historian has ever possessed the ability to highlight dramatic episodes in the manner that Livy accomplished. He had an uncanny feel for the narrative potential inherent in historical works, and he brought out the drama so well that, even after 2,000 years, we still feel a stirring thrill whenever we hear his retelling of the epic grandeur of the Roman Republic.

In this volume, Hannibal and Carthage are finally worn down by the grim determination of the Roman people, and their army is destroyed at Zama by Publius Scipio. And hardly is this over before the vengeful Romans cast their eyes eastward to Philip of Macedon, who had made the fatal error of backing the Carthaginians.

Livy's The History of Rome continues in an additional two volumes. Translation: William Masfen Roberts.

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Title: Ancient Egypt

Subtitle: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Ian Shaw

Narrator: Brian Bascle

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-24-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: History, Ancient

Publisher's Summary:

The ancient Egyptians are an enduring source of fascination - mummies and pyramids, curses and rituals have captured our imaginations for generations. We all have a mental picture of ancient Egypt, but is it the right one? How much do we really know about this once great civilization?

In this absorbing introduction, Ian Shaw, one of the foremost authorities on Ancient Egypt, describes how our current ideas about Egypt are based not only on the thrilling discoveries made by early Egyptologists but also on fascinating new kinds of evidence produced by modern scientific and linguistic analyses. He also explores the changing influences on our responses to these finds, by examining the impact of Egyptology on various aspects of popular culture such as literature, cinema, opera, and contemporary art. He considers all aspects of ancient Egyptian culture, from tombs and mummies to the discovery of artefacts and the decipherment of hieroglyphs, and from despotic pharaohs to animal-headed gods.

From the general listener interested in Ancient Egypt, to students and teachers of ancient history and archaeology, to museum-goers, this Very Short Introduction will not disappoint.

Members Reviews:

Shaw's Synopsis is Stultifying and Stale

Ian Shaw unfortunately affords extreme Afrocentrists ample ammunition in their allegations against Eurocentric Egyptologists. While it is proper to desire a post-prejudicial society, a post-racial society is neither requisite nor warranted as intellectual ideal. Race remains a meaningful concept and constitutes a legitimate (though betimes imprecise) way of crudely classifying peoples, if classify we must. It is neither irrational nor immoral to inquire into the racial composition of an ancient peoples such as the Egyptians. The accumulated evidence unambiguously indicates that the substratum of the populace was Black-African and that the civilization bore many elements aligning it with other African cultures (as well as influences from and effluences to the Levant). To this Africoid substratum would eventually be added Asiatic and Mediterranean peoples as well as other Africans from northerly (Libyan) and southerly (Nubian, Cushite)) regions. Despite this admixture, the ancient Egyptians must still have appeared distinctively Black for this was the observation of the Father of History, Herodotus, the 5th century BCE traveler who observed and dwelt with the Egyptian priests principally. To deny the simple (though substantive) supposition that the Ancient Egyptians were basically Black suggests the unconscious operation of an obscurantist ideology. Scholars such as Shaw may mean well by presuming to put race behind us but all efforts to alter or embellish the truth are ultimately abortive in the eyes of the informed and enlightened.

He talks wayyy to fast!

I did not enjoy this audio book, i am moving to Egypt, I just thought i'd do a bit of reading, not worth your time.