Listen to Popular Titles Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: Sun in a Bottle

Subtitle: The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking

Author: Charles Seife

Narrator: Bill Weideman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-30-08

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 111 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

For the past half century, governments and research teams have tried to bottle the sun with lasers, magnets, sound waves, particle beams, and chunks of metal as they struggled to harness the power of fusion. (The latest venture, a giant, multibillion-dollar international fusion project called ITER, is just now getting under way.) Again and again, they have failed, disgracing generations of scientists.

Throughout this fascinating journey, Charles Seife introduces us to the daring geniuses, villains and victims of fusion science: the brilliant and tortured Andrei Sakharov; the monomaniacal and Strangelovean Edward Teller; Ronald Richter, the secretive physicist whose lies embarrassed an entire country; and Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, the two chemists behind one of the greatest scientific fiascoes of the past 100 years.

Sun in a Bottle is the first audiobook to trace the story of fusion from its beginnings into the 21st century, explaining how scientists have gotten burned by trying to harness the power of the sun.

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Title: The Modern Scholar: Cold War: On the Brink of Apocalypse

Author: David Painter

Narrator: David Painter

Format: Original Recording

Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The devastating US atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki not only brought World War II to an end, but effectively gave birth to the Cold War. The postwar world would thereafter be marked by the fragile relationship of two superpowers with opposing ideologies: the United States and the Soviet Union.

For 45 years, these two superpowers would vie for supremacy in world politics. The Cold War, defined by events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, turmoil in the Third World, and the arms race, held the potential for an apocalyptic confrontation that could have spelled doom for the human race. Understanding the Cold War, with all of its far-reaching, global implications, is absolutely essential to our understanding of the history of the second half of the 20th century and beyond.

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Title: Warning of War

Subtitle: A Novel

Author: James Brady

Narrator: Dick Hill

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-17-08

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Half the world is at war, and with the other half about to join in, 1,000 U.S. Marines stand sentinel over the last days of an uneasy truce between ourselves and the Imperial Japanese Army in chaotic North China.

By November 27, FDR is convinced Japan is about to launch a military action. Washington doesn't know where, and isn't sure precisely when. But the Cabinet is sufficiently alarmed that War Secretary Henry Stimson and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox are authorized to send an immediate and coded "warning of war" to American bases and units in harm's way.

In Shanghai two cruise ships are chartered and 800 armed American Marines of the 4th Regiment (serving in China since the Boxer Rebellion) are marched through the great port city with enormous pomp and circumstance, about to embark for Manila.

Another 200 Marines, unable to reach Shanghai, and serving in small garrisons and posts from Peking to Mongolia and the Gobi Desert, are caught short by this "warning of war."

This is their story. Of how a detachment of American Marines marooned in North China as war erupts set out on an epic march through hostile territory in an attempt to fight their way out of China and, somehow, rejoin their Corps for the war against Japan.

James Brady dazzles us once again with a stunning and unflinching look at America at war. Warning of War is a moving tribute to sheer courage, determination, and Marine Corps discipline, and is a wonderful celebration of America in one of its darkest but finest hours.

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Title: The American Home Front

Subtitle: 1941-1942

Author: Alistair Cooke

Narrator: John Byrne Cooke

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-08

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, Alistair Cooke, a newly naturalized American citizen, set out to see his country as it was undergoing monumental change. He wanted to "see what the war had done to people, to the towns I might go through, to some jobs and crops, to stretches of landscape I loved and had seen at peace."

Working throughout the war, Cooke finished The American Home Front as the atomic bomb was being dropped on Hiroshima. His publisher thought there would be little interest in books on the war, so it was stuffed in a closet. It stayed there for almost 60 years, nearly forgotten, until it was unearthed shortly before Cooke's death in 2004.

The American Home Front is a fascinating artifact, a charming travelogue, and a sharp portrait that shows America changing from civilian pursuits to military engagement, from the production of consumer goods to materials of war. It is also a unique record of American life. Cooke travels small highways, with their advertising signs and their local typography, in an age before the interstate highway system. He chronicles the regional glories he encounters, elements of long-lost culture such as his beloved soda fountains, and the reactions of the citizens, from indifference to grief, from opportunism to resilience, under military threat.

Filled with touching personal stories of the effects of war, from a Japanese family facing internment that tries to sell Cooke their car, to the experiences of the unemployed relocating in hopes of jobs in a gunpowder factory, The American Home Front is the work of an experienced, talented journalist; it is intelligent, touching, and funny.

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Title: Rome 1960

Subtitle: The Olympics that Changed the World

Author: David Maraniss

Narrator: David Maraniss

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-01-08

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 37 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The athletes competing in the 1960 Rome Olympics included some of the most honored in Olympic history: decathlete Rafer Johnson, sprinter Wilma Rudolph, Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila, and Louisville boxer Cassius Clay, who at 18 seized the world stage for the first time, four years before he became Muhammad Ali.

Along with these unforgettable characters and dramatic contests, there was a deeper meaning to those late-summer days at the dawn of the 60s. Change was apparent everywhere. The world as we know it was coming into view. Rome saw the first doping scandal, the first commercially televised Summer Games, and the first athlete paid for wearing a certain brand of shoes.

In the heat of the cold war, every move was judged for its propaganda value. East and west Germans competed as a unified team less than a year before the Berlin Wall. There was dispute over the two Chinas. An independence movement was sweeping sub-Saharan Africa, with 14 nations in the process of being born. There was increasing pressure to provide equal rights for blacks and women as they emerged from generations of discrimination.

Using the meticulous research and sweeping narrative style that have become his trademark, Maraniss reveals the rich palate of character, competition, and meaning that gave Rome 1960 its singular essence of theater, suspense, victory, and defeat.

Critic Reviews:

"Maraniss provides an intelligent context for his evocative reportage." (Publishers Weekly)

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Title: Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat

Author: John Lukacs

Narrator: John Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-21-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 41 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Churchill had little support within the British government when he rose to address it that day. He lacked confidence, both in himself and in his ability to lead his nation to victory, for he recognized, far earlier than most, the military genius of Adolph Hitler and the potency of the German military.

In Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat, the eminent historian and master storyteller John Lukacs recreates this pivotal moment in world history, and reveals Churchill as he has rarely been seen before: as a man both unsure of himself and deeply fearful of his nation's defeat.

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Title: Panama Fever

Author: Matthew Parker

Narrator: Oliver Wyman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-18-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 115 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

As thousands of workers succumbed to dysentery, yellow fever, and malaria, scientists raced to stop the deadly epidemics so that work could continue. The treatments they developed changed the course of medical history.

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 spelled the end of the Victorian Age and the beginning of the "American Century".

Panama Fever brilliantly captures the innovative thinking and backbreaking labor, as well as the commercial and political interests, that helped make America a global power.

Critic Reviews:

"Matthew Parker intertwines the various strands of the story - personal and national, political and financial, geographical and technological - with finesse. Best of all, his prose somehow manages to infect the reader with the Panama fever itself." (The Spectator)

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Title: Nixon and Mao

Subtitle: The Week That Changed the World

Author: Margaret MacMillan

Narrator: Barbara Caruso

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 17 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-27-07

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 97 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Nixon thought China could help him get out of Vietnam. Mao needed American technology to repair the huge damage of the Cultural Revolution. Both men wanted an ally against an aggressive Soviet Union. Did they get what they wanted? Did Mao betray his own revolutionary ideals? Did Nixon make a mistake in coming to China as a supplicant? And has the United States been at a disadvantage ever since?

Drawing on newly available material from China and America, and capturing the personalities at the center of the drama (Henry Kissinger, Pat Nixon, and Chou En-lai among them), this breathtaking history looks at one of the formative moments of the 20th century and casts new light on two countries and their relationship, on into the world of the 21st century.

Critic Reviews:

"A lively account....[MacMillan] turns a potentially dry diplomatic story into a fascinating study in high-wire diplomacy, full of intrigue and drama." (Publishers Weekly)

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Title: Boom!

Subtitle: Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today

Author: Tom Brokaw

Narrator: Tom Brokaw

Format: Abridged

Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-07

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 23 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to "turn on, tune in, drop out". While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.

Published as the 40th anniversary of 1968 approaches, Boom! gives us what Brokaw sees as a virtual reunion of some members of "the class of '68", offering wise and moving reflections and frank personal remembrances about people's lives during a time of high ideals and profound social, political, and individual change.

Remarkable in its insights, profoundly moving, wonderfully written and reported, this revealing portrait of a generation and of an era, and of the impact of the 1960s on our lives today, lets us be present at this reunion ourselves, and to join in these frank conversations about America then, now, and tomorrow.

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Title: Sputnik

Subtitle: The Shock of the Century

Author: Paul Dickson

Narrator: Jerry Carrier

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-04-07

Publisher: Spoken Books Publishing

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 58 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Washington journalist Paul Dickson chronicles the dramatic events and developments leading up to and emanating from Sputnik's launch. Supported by groundbreaking, original research and many recently declassified documents, Sputnik offers a fascinating profile of the early American and Soviet space programs and a strikingly revised picture of the politics and personalities behind the facade of America's fledgling efforts to get into space.

By shedding new light on a pivotal era, Paul Dickson expands our knowledge of the world we now inhabit, and reminds us that the story of Sputnik goes far beyond technology and the beginning of the space age, and that its implications are still being felt today.

Critic Reviews:

"Dickson...completely understands the lure and lore of Sputnik and has done a solid job of synthesizing prior books on the subject." (Publishers Weekly)

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