Listen to Popular Titles Audiobooks in History, 20th Century

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Title: The Kamikazes

Subtitle: The History of Japan's World War II Suicide Pilots

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Stan Chandler

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-29-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

One of the most fascinating aspects of World War II was Japan's use of suicide pilots known around the globe as kamikazes, though the Japanese referred to them as Tokubetsu kgekitai ("Special Attack Units"). Translated as "God Wind", "Divine Wind", and "God Spirit", kamikazes would sink 47 Allied vessels and damage over 300 by the end of the war, but the rise in the use of kamikaze attacks was evidence of the loss of Japan's air superiority and its waning industrial might. This method of fighting would become more common by the time Iwo Jima was fought over in early 1945, and it was especially prevalent during the invasion of Okinawa in April 1945. The "privilege" of being selected as a kamikaze pilot played directly into the deep-seated Japanese mindset of "death before defeat". The pilot training manual assured each kamikaze candidate that when they eliminated all thoughts of life and death, fear of losing the earthly life can be easily overcome.

Still, not all cases of those chosen to be kamikazes were equally noble. Recruits were trained with torturous regimens or corporal punishment, and stories of mental impairment caused by drugs or saki abound. Some were described as "tottering" and dazed, being carried to their planes by maintenance officers, and forcibly pushed in if they backed down. Pilots who could not find their targets were told to turn around and spare their own lives for another day, but if a pilot returned nine times, he was to be shot. At the moment of collision, he was instructed to keep his eyes open at all times, and to shout "Hissatsu" ("clear kill").

The Kamikazes chronicles the history of Japan's famous suicide pilots and explains when, why, and how Japan resorted to their use near the end of war.

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Title: The Kent State Massacre

Subtitle: The History and Legacy of the Shootings That Shocked America

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Wendy Almeida

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-23-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

"Suddenly, they turned around, got on their knees, as if they were ordered to, they did it all together, aimed. And personally, I was standing there saying, they're not going to shoot, they can't do that. If they are going to shoot, it's going to be blank." - One eyewitness to the shootings

The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial events in American history, and political arguments over the war brought about massive cultural changes across the country during the 1960s. The war ultimately fueled the hippie counterculture, and anti-war protests spread across the country on campuses and in the streets. While some protesters spread peace and love, others rioted. In August 1968, riots broke out in the streets of Chicago, leading to incredible scenes of National Guardsmen and police confronting 10,000 anti-war rioters during the Democratic National Convention.

By the end of the decade, Vietnam had left tens of thousands of Americans dead, spawned a counterculture with millions of protesters, and destroyed a presidency. But there was plenty more yet to come. Vietnam was already wildly unpopular by 1970, but when President Nixon announced the bombing of Cambodia on April 30, 1970, protests exploded across college campuses. Some of those protests took place at Kent State in Kent, Ohio, and the state's governor replied by declaring a state of emergency and sending the Ohio National Guard to the campus.

On May 4, a Monday, thousands of Kent State students decided to attend protests instead of class. Jeff Miller and his friends had tear gas shot at them by the Ohio National Guard, and Miller picked up one of the tear gas canisters and threw it back at the Guardsmen. At 12:24 p.m., some of the Guardsmen opened fire with live rounds. Miller was instantly killed by a shot through the mouth.

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Title: Nothing Less Than War

Subtitle: A New History of America's Entry into World War I

Author: Justus D. Doenecke

Narrator: Tom Lennon

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-08-15

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

When war broke out in Europe in 1914, political leaders in the United States were swayed by popular opinion to remain neutral; yet less than three years later, the nation declared war on Germany. In Nothing Less Than War: A New History of America's Entry into World War I, Justus D. Doenecke examines the clash of opinions over the war during this transformative period and offers a fresh perspective on America's decision to enter World War I.

Doenecke reappraises the public and private diplomacy of President Woodrow Wilson and his closest advisors and explores in great depth the response of Congress to the war. He also investigates the debates that raged in the popular media and among citizen groups that sprang up across the country as the US economy was threatened by European blockades and as Americans died on ships sunk by German U-boats.

The decision to engage in battle ultimately belonged to Wilson, but as Doenecke demonstrates, Wilson's choice was not made in isolation. Nothing Less Than War provides a comprehensive examination of America's internal political climate and its changing international role during the seminal period of 1914-1917.

The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky.

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Title: The Night of the Long Knives

Subtitle: The History and Legacy of Adolf Hitler's Notorious Purge of the SA

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Dan Gallagher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-06-15

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 13 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Germany's Nazi Party was remarkably implacable in the hostility it showed to the outside world, staunchly opposing both Communism and liberal democracy from the moment of its inception to that of its violent dissolution. The Nazis likewise showed steely, unwavering resolve in their lethal hatred of the Jews, the Slavs, and many others whom they labeled as "untermenschen," subhumans unworthy of rights, cultural standing, or life itself. They pursued their dark vision of "Aryan" superiority with a terrifying clarity and zeal, and they were willing to incur the enmity of the entire world in the process.At the same time, despite this fanatic dedication to their overall vision, the Nazis had their own share of factional strife, and perhaps not surprisingly, the internecine struggle often led to violence, executions, and assassinations, byproducts of a totalitarian environment in which power appeared in its most undisguised and aggressive form. The firing squad, the bomb, the torture chamber, the extermination camp, the crematorium, and the noose of piano wire took the place of debate and persuasion in Hitler's Germany.Like other totalitarian regimes, the leader of the Nazis kept an iron grip on power in part by making sure nobody else could attain too much of it, leading to purges of high-ranking officials in the Nazi party. Of these purges, the most notorious was the Night of the Long Knives, a purge in the summer of 1934 that came about when Hitler ordered the surprise executions of several dozen leaders of the SA. This fanatically National Socialist paramilitary organization had been a key instrument in overthrowing democratic government in Germany.

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Title: Close to Shore

Subtitle: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 (Adapted for Young People edition)

Author: Michael Capuzzo

Narrator: Taylor Mali

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-25-15

Publisher: AudioBookShelf

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

The summer of 1916 was brutally hot, driving thousands to the Jersey Shore to indulge in the newfangled activity of swimming in the ocean, and a good swimmer could strut his stuff in front of an appreciative audience. But happiness turned to horror as a killer invaded this idyllic scene - with never a warning and showing no mercy to its victims. Soon the beaches were filled with screams as this monster of the sea dragged unsuspecting vacationers down under the waves, chomping off limbs and leaving pools of blood and horrified onlookers in its wake.

How many deaths would it take before the truth about this terrifying monster would be known? History and hubris. Drama and daring. Science and sizzle. It's all here in one package, brought to life by the extraordinary voice of Taylor Mali.

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Title: Veiled Warriors

Subtitle: Allied Nurses of the First World War

Author: Christine E. Hallett

Narrator: Elizabeth Jasicki

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-21-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Caring for the wounded of the First World War was tough and challenging work, demanding extensive knowledge, technical skill, and high levels of commitment. Although allied nurses were admired in their own time for their altruism and courage, their image was distorted by the lens of popular mythology. They came to be seen as self-sacrificing heroines, romantic foils to the male combatant and doctors' handmaidens, rather than being appreciated as trained professionals performing significant work in their own right. Christine Hallett challenges these myths to reveal the true story of allied nursing in the First World War - one which is both more complex and more absorbing.

Drawing upon evidence from archives across the world, Veiled Warriors offers a compelling account of nurses' wartime experiences and a clear appraisal of their work and its contribution to the allied cause between 1914 and 1918, on both the Western and the Eastern Fronts. Nurses believed they were involved in a multi-layered battle. Primarily, they were fighting for the lives of their patients on the "second battlefield" of casualty clearing stations, transports, and military hospitals. Beyond this, they were an integral component of the allied military machine, putting their own lives at risk in field hospitals close to the front lines, on board hospital ships vulnerable to enemy submarine attack, and in base hospitals subject to heavy bombardment.

As working women in a sometimes hostile, chauvinistic world, allied nurses were also fighting to gain recognition for their profession and political rights for their sex. For them, military nursing might help to win not only the war itself, but also a more powerful voice for women in the post-war world.

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Title: Gallipoli

Author: Peter FitzSimons

Narrator: Robert Meldrum

Format: Unabridged

Length: 25 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-01-14

Publisher: Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 71 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

On 25 April 1915, Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula in present-day Turkey to secure the sea route between Britain and France in the west and Russia in the east. After eight months of terrible fighting, they would fail.

Turkey regards the victory to this day as a defining moment in its history, a heroic last stand in the defence of the nation's Ottoman Empire. But, counter-intuitively, it would signify something perhaps even greater for the defeated Australians and New Zealanders involved: the birth of their countries' sense of nationhood.

Now approaching its centenary, the Gallipoli campaign, commemorated each year on Anzac Day, reverberates with importance as the origin and symbol of Australian and New Zealand identity. As such, the facts of the battle which was minor against the scale of the First World War and cost less than a sixth of the Australian deaths on the Western Front are often forgotten or obscured. Peter FitzSimons, with his trademark vibrancy and expert melding of writing and research, recreates the disaster as experienced by those who endured it or perished in the attempt.

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Title: Judy: A Dog in a Million

Author: Damien Lewis

Narrator: Ben Addis

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-25-14

Publisher: Quercus

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

Judy, a beautiful liver and white English pointer, and the only animal POW of WWII, truly was a dog in a million. Whether she was dragging men to safety from the wreckage of a torpedoed ship, scavenging food to help feed the starving inmates of a hellish Japanese POW camp, or by her presence alone bringing inspiration and hope to men living through the 20th century's darkest days, she was cherished and adored by the British, Australian, American and other Allied servicemen who fought to survive alongside her.

Viewed largely as human by those who shared her extraordinary life, Judy's uncanny ability to sense danger, matched with her quick-thinking and impossible daring saved countless lives. She was a close companion to men who became like a family to her, sharing in both the tragedies and joys they faced. It was in recognition of the extraordinary friendship and protection she offered amidst the unforgiving and savage environment of a Japanese prison camp in Indonesia that she gained her formal status as a POW.

Judy's unique combination of courage, kindness and fun repaid that honour a thousand times over and her incredible story is one of the most heartwarming and inspiring tales you will ever read.

Critic Reviews:

"The dog of war whose sixth sense saved hundreds of British lives." (Mail on Sunday)

"One of the most famous animals of the Second World War" (Daily Express)

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Title: The Night I Danced with Rommel

Author: Elisabeth Marrion

Narrator: Nancy Peterson, Bennett Allen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 34 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-23-14

Publisher: Elisabeth Marrion

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

"May I have this dance, Hilde?" asked Field Marshal Rommel, opening the Grande Ball held in his honour. Did this dance save the life of Hilde's Polish friends? Hilde had come a long way since her dream of becoming a singer was shattered when her father made arrangements for her to work as a housekeeper in Berlin at the tender age of fourteen. Hilde's life is thrown into turmoil in Berlin during the late 1920s early 1930s. Having Polish friends meant it was becoming increasingly unsafe for her to stay there and she finds a new life in the Harz mountains. In Goslar, Hilde meets her husband, Karl, a young officer in the German Army. When he joins the Seventh Panzer Brigade led by General Erwin Rommel at the beginning of World War II, Hilde is left to bring up their children in war-torn Germany. Hilde's story is based on facts and is told here by her youngest daughter, Elisabeth.

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Title: Libya and Change: How It Happened

Author: Thomas Hodge

Narrator: Carl Moore

Format: Unabridged

Length: 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-23-14

Publisher: Thomas Hodge

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 17 votes

Genres: History, 20th Century

Publisher's Summary:

A look at the rise and fall of Gaddafi's regime in Libya.

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