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Iron Kingdom
- The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947
- Narrated by: Shaun Grindell
- Length: 28 hrs and 24 mins
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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
- Written by: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 43 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through 34 nations and 60 years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative.
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Good content; terrible narrator
- By Daly Close on 2020-01-30
Written by: Tony Judt
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The Battle for Spain
- Written by: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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The civil war that tore Spain apart between 1936 and 1939 and attracted liberals and socialists from across the world to support the cause against Franco was one of the most hard-fought and bitterest conflicts of the 20th century: a war of atrocities and political genocide and a military testing ground before WWII for the Russians, Italians and Germans, whose Condor Legion so notoriously destroyed Guernica.
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Odd pronunciation of names gets on my nerves
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-05-28
Written by: Antony Beevor
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The Napoleonic Wars
- Written by: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
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informative and broad.
- By bill on 2021-03-11
Written by: Alexander Mikaberidze
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The Sleepwalkers
- How Europe Went to War in 1914
- Written by: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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The Sleepwalkers is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
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A History of Contingency
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-01-20
Written by: Christopher Clark
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In the Name of Rome
- The Men Who Won the Roman Empire
- Written by: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Adrian Goldsworthy has received wide acclaim for his exceptional writing on the Roman Empire - including high praise from the acclaimed military historian and author John Keegan - and here he offers a new perspective on the empire by focusing on its greatest generals, including Scipio Africanus, Marius, Pompey, Caesar, and Titus.
Written by: Adrian Goldsworthy
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The Plantagenets
- The Kings Who Made England
- Written by: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 22 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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England’s greatest royal dynasty, the Plantagenets, ruled over England through eight generations of kings. Their remarkable reign saw England emerge from the Dark Ages to become a highly organised kingdom that spanned a vast expanse of Europe. Plantagenet rule saw the establishment of laws and creation of artworks, monuments and tombs which survive to this day, and continue to speak of their sophistication, brutality and secrets. Dan Jones brings you a new vision of this battle-scarred history.
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Very good overall book
- By Jason Gacek on 2023-02-06
Written by: Dan Jones
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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
- Written by: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 43 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world’s most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through 34 nations and 60 years of political and cultural change—all in one integrated, enthralling narrative.
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Good content; terrible narrator
- By Daly Close on 2020-01-30
Written by: Tony Judt
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The Battle for Spain
- Written by: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The civil war that tore Spain apart between 1936 and 1939 and attracted liberals and socialists from across the world to support the cause against Franco was one of the most hard-fought and bitterest conflicts of the 20th century: a war of atrocities and political genocide and a military testing ground before WWII for the Russians, Italians and Germans, whose Condor Legion so notoriously destroyed Guernica.
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Odd pronunciation of names gets on my nerves
- By Amazon Customer on 2021-05-28
Written by: Antony Beevor
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The Napoleonic Wars
- Written by: Alexander Mikaberidze
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 35 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Napoleonic Wars saw fighting on an unprecedented scale in Europe and the Americas. It took the wealth of the British Empire, combined with the might of the continental armies, almost two decades to bring down one of the world's greatest military leaders and the empire that he had created. Napoleon's ultimate defeat was to determine the history of Europe for almost 100 years. From the frozen wastelands of Russia, through the brutal fighting in the Peninsula to the blood-soaked battlefield of Waterloo, this book tells the story of the dramatic rise and fall of the Napoleonic Empire.
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informative and broad.
- By bill on 2021-03-11
Written by: Alexander Mikaberidze
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The Sleepwalkers
- How Europe Went to War in 1914
- Written by: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sleepwalkers is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.
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A History of Contingency
- By Amazon Customer on 2019-01-20
Written by: Christopher Clark
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In the Name of Rome
- The Men Who Won the Roman Empire
- Written by: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Adrian Goldsworthy has received wide acclaim for his exceptional writing on the Roman Empire - including high praise from the acclaimed military historian and author John Keegan - and here he offers a new perspective on the empire by focusing on its greatest generals, including Scipio Africanus, Marius, Pompey, Caesar, and Titus.
Written by: Adrian Goldsworthy
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The Plantagenets
- The Kings Who Made England
- Written by: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 22 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
England’s greatest royal dynasty, the Plantagenets, ruled over England through eight generations of kings. Their remarkable reign saw England emerge from the Dark Ages to become a highly organised kingdom that spanned a vast expanse of Europe. Plantagenet rule saw the establishment of laws and creation of artworks, monuments and tombs which survive to this day, and continue to speak of their sophistication, brutality and secrets. Dan Jones brings you a new vision of this battle-scarred history.
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Very good overall book
- By Jason Gacek on 2023-02-06
Written by: Dan Jones
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Hero of Two Worlds
- The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution
- Written by: Mike Duncan
- Narrated by: Mike Duncan
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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From the massively popular podcaster and New York Times best-selling author comes the story of the Marquis de Lafayette's lifelong quest to protect the principles of democracy, told through the lens of the three revolutions he participated in: the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the Revolution of 1830.
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Wonderful great man!
- By Charles on 2023-10-24
Written by: Mike Duncan
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Peter the Great
- His Life and World
- Written by: Robert K. Massie
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 43 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter's birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas.
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Well Done
- By Tim on 2023-07-12
Written by: Robert K. Massie
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The Great Game
- The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
- Written by: Peter Hopkirk
- Narrated by: Alex Wyndham
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Great Game between Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia was fought across desolate terrain from the Caucasus to China, over the lonely passes of the Parmirs and Karakorams, in the blazing Kerman and Helmund deserts, and through the caravan towns of the old Silk Road - both powers scrambling to control access to the riches of India and the East. When play first began, the frontiers of Russia and British India lay 2000 miles apart; by the end, this distance had shrunk to 20 miles at some points.
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if only history is taught like this in school
- By hsia pai wu on 2023-06-27
Written by: Peter Hopkirk
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The Romanovs
- 1613-1918
- Written by: Simon Sebag Montefiore
- Narrated by: Simon Beale
- Length: 28 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the intimate story of 20 tsars and tsarinas, some touched by genius, some by madness, but all inspired by holy autocracy and imperial ambition. Simon Sebag Montefiore's gripping chronicle reveals their secret world of unlimited power and ruthless empire building, overshadowed by palace conspiracy, family rivalries, sexual decadence, and wild extravagance, with a global cast of adventurers, courtesans, revolutionaries, and poets, from Ivan the Terrible to Tolstoy and Pushkin.
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the worst audiobook I have ever encountered
- By Wade Nelson on 2023-06-02
Written by: Simon Sebag Montefiore
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Imperial Twilight
- The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
- Written by: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage.
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Well written but not the story I was hoping for
- By Simon on 2022-02-03
Written by: Stephen R. Platt
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The First World War
- A Complete History
- Written by: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare.
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good book
- By Matthew laing on 2021-07-25
Written by: Martin Gilbert
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The Thirty Years War
- Written by: C. V. Wedgwood
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Initially, the Thirty Years War was precipitated in 1618 by religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire. But the conflict soon spread beyond religion to encompass the internal politics and balance of power within the Empire, and then later to the other European powers. By the end, it became simply a dynastic struggle between Bourbon France and Habsburg Spain. And almost all of it was fought out in Germany. Entire regions were depopulated and destroyed.
Written by: C. V. Wedgwood
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The Verge
- Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years That Shook the World
- Written by: Patrick Wyman
- Narrated by: Patrick Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In the best-selling tradition of The Swerve and A Distant Mirror, The Verge tells the story of a period that marked a decisive turning point for both European and world history. Here, author Patrick Wyman examines two complementary and contradictory sides of the same historical coin: the world-altering implications of the developments of printed mass media, extreme taxation, exploitative globalization, humanistic learning, gunpowder warfare, and mass religious conflict in the long term, and their intensely disruptive consequences in the short-term.
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Excellent book
- By Justin Currie on 2021-07-28
Written by: Patrick Wyman
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The Wages of Destruction
- The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- Written by: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period.
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A re-telling of World War II
- By Chillyfinger on 2022-11-30
Written by: Adam Tooze
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Crimea
- Written by: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 20 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The terrible conflict that dominated the mid-19th century, the Crimean War, killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It was a war for territory, provoked by fear that if the Ottoman Empire were to collapse then Russia could control a huge swathe of land from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf. But it was also a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populist and ever more ferocious belief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land.
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entertaining and informative
- By brian finamore on 2020-05-22
Written by: Orlando Figes
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Napoleon the Great
- Written by: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 37 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe. After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended.
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Bad pronunciations
- By Amazon User on 2018-06-23
Written by: Andrew Roberts
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World War II at Sea
- A Global History
- Written by: Craig L. Symonds
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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World War II at Sea offers a global perspective, focusing on the major engagements and personalities and revealing both their scale and their interconnection: the U-boat attack on Scapa Flow and the Battle of the Atlantic; the "miracle" evacuation from Dunkirk and the pitched battles for control of Norway fjords; Mussolini's Regia Marina - at the start of the war the fourth-largest navy in the world - and the dominance of the Kidö Butai and Japanese naval power in the Pacific; Pearl Harbor then Midway; and much more.
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A Must for Military History Geeks
- By Max Boyd on 2021-02-25
Written by: Craig L. Symonds
Publisher's Summary
In the aftermath of World War II, Prussia - a centuries-old state pivotal to Europe's development - ceased to exist. In their eagerness to erase all traces of the Third Reich from the earth, the Allies believed that Prussia, the very embodiment of German militarism, had to be abolished. But as Christopher Clark reveals in this pioneering history, Prussia's legacy is far more complex.
What we find is a kingdom that existed nearly half a millennium ago as a patchwork of territorial fragments, with neither significant resources nor a coherent culture. With its capital in Berlin, Prussia grew from being a small, poor, disregarded medieval state into one of the most vigorous and powerful nations in Europe. Iron Kingdom traces Prussia's involvement in the continent's foundational religious and political conflagrations: from the devastations of the Thirty Years' War through centuries of political machinations to the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, from the enlightenment of Frederick the Great to the destructive conquests of Napoleon, and from the "iron and blood" policies of Bismarck to the creation of the German Empire in 1871 and all that implied for the tumultuous 20th century.
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What listeners say about Iron Kingdom
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Chris Shannon
- 2018-12-12
Infuriating narrator can't say German names
A fascinating listen. But the narrator mispronounces almost every German name. Despite this, entirely worth a listen and details the history of Prussia.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Steve
- 2020-11-13
Everything you didn’t want to know about Prussia
This book was an excruciating experience. Prussian history as written by a mid level bureaucrat or accountant. It has tons of incredibly interesting information, but those gems are buried under a mountain of mundane minutiae. When the book finally ended I actually exclaimed out loud “Thank F***ing Christ!”
Not my fave.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Langer MD
- 2019-12-07
Good History Textbook. Not Good Format
If you're a real history buff, this book is for you. Otherwise...
This is a scholarly work. Well-researched, full of quotes. I bet the paper version has plenty of footnotes. Clark's descriptions of military events is spot-on. The sociopolitical discussions are less palatable. The book generally follows a linear timeline, but jumps around a bit based on the subject matter. If you're studying Prussian History, this work has all you need.
Unfortunately, the topic, outside of a college class, is pretty dry - and doesn't translate well to the audiobook configuration. Further, in the download there are no chapter headings - a date range for each chapter would have been helpful to be able to navigate through this 29 (twenty-nine!!) hour recording. The paper form of the book, with an index, would be a great desk-reference.
Shaun Grindell is an average reader...not terrible given the subject matter. His tone is good, he reads German and Latin words fairly accurately (albeit not perfectly), and he tries to inject a modicum of emotion into the text. But I swear I heard him stifling a yawn at one point.
It's likely worth 6 stars out of 10, but I can't give it that. Buy the hard copy.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2023-02-10
Fantastic
Dont let the bad reviews fool you, this book is one of the most educational books one can listen to. Competely shatters what you’ve been taught about German history. Sure, its a long book but Prussia has an incredibly complex backstory. Anything with less depth would not be cohesive.
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- BD
- 2023-01-18
Rich in details
The best effort was likely made to keep material this dense from being dry, and the narrator made a commendable effort to add inflection wherever possible. The beginning was the hardest as I had just finished listening to the monumental Peter the Great narration, which was a lovely experience in its general lightness. This tome contains more info but does not have nearly the atmosphere of Peter. In all, this listen was a tall ask but I made it through and learned a lot.
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- Jonathan Lalonde
- 2021-10-09
Waste of time.
I was looking for information about Prussia. The title of this book must be renamed : A history of antisemitism in Goyim-Prussia from the perspective of Schiff, Warburg and Rothschild...
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- alexyakkavoo
- 2020-06-03
Let me make it easier for you.
I have listened a lot of books on Audible - most of them history - and I just can't take any more of this one.
It's like being nibbled to death by ducks or a bedtime story from the IRS tax form instructions.
For a place that influenced so much European history, Prussia should be much more interesting than this book
makes it out to be:
Take a few hours and repeat the following lines with variations and you will get an idea what this book is like.
(The dates and people and places are in a random order.)
Albert Frederick
April 4, 1602
August 8, 1732
Carl von Brühl
Christian of Oliva
David Caro
Dorothea of Montau
February 2, 1556
Frederick I
Frederick William
Friedrich Bessel
Fyodor Ertell
George William
Hans Albrecht von Barfus
Henry Berger
January 1, 1611
John Endres
John Sigismund
July 7, 1632
June 6, 1589
Leonie Cohn
Ludolf von Alvensleben (Major General)
March 3, 1568
May 5, 1715
October 10, 1547
Paul Beneke
Peter Crüger
September 9, 1788
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46 people found this helpful
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- Nashville Cat
- 2017-03-04
Avoided endless stories about world wars
This is a great book because it sticks to the topic: Prussia. It covers social issues and economic issues and is very interesting as to the development of Europe. Once Germany is formed Prussia becomes dominant and the nation turns in a giant barracks. There is discussion of the world wars but at 20,000 feet and the consequences of Prussian militarism become apparent. Highly recommended.
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26 people found this helpful
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- Jeff Wise
- 2017-10-04
If you are looking for a very detailed accounting of Prussian history this is it.
Very detailed. I think the paper copy would have been a better choice for the ability to annotate and reference. As an audio book it went a little too deep in to the minutiae for effective storytelling. I’ve reviewed the narrator before, and he has gotten better, but still so very breathy in his pronunciation and diction. Very very well researched book though.
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19 people found this helpful
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- Stephen F (SPFJR)
- 2017-03-02
I Recommend This Great Book... (now that technical problem is fixed)
This book gives lots of context for the German Empire which helps explain the course of the Great War.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Glenn Phillips
- 2018-03-25
Hated the narration
I was continually annoyed by pronunciations used by the narrator. Where German names have English equivalents, the author chose to use the English versions (eg, William rather than Wilhelm), but the narrator bizarrely chose to give those English names a mock-German pronunciation (eg, Villiam). It took me a while to work out that "Kolonya" was a reference to Cologne. Route and clerk were given an American pronunciations even though the narrator is English. Courtier was given a French pronunciation, but I had to laugh when courtiers (plural) was also given a French pronunciation, but with an "s" sound tacked on the end. A real classic was Venetian, which sounded half way between the English word and the Italian Venizia. The stress within lots of words was randomly reassigned - straTEEgist, adJUdant. Some words gained syllables while others lost them. I don't speak German, but the pronunciation of some German words and names also sounded off - Hegel being pronounced HEEgal. This all detracted greatly from an otherwise interesting book.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Bill Root
- 2017-04-06
Excellent Overview
I thoroughly enjoyed this book both as a lesson in history and culture. Clark dives right in to the alliances and conflicts of the 17th century Holy Roman Empire. The first chapter is a bit of a whirlwind and I found myself reading articles in other publications to fill myself in on historical events discussed in this book so that I could keep up with the author. My patience and extra studies paid off though. The book is an excellent read, providing incites as to what defined Prussia as a state, and how it's place in history affect our understanding of the German people. I highly recommend this book.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2018-03-12
Tough Going but Worth It
Written in long, convoluted prose, spiced with difficult German names and places, a prior knowledge of European history and geography would make the going much easier. Having neither to a great degree I had to do independent reading to fully understand many of the key events and personalities . However, the book's focus is tailored to its more limited subject, Prussia, and takes a very deep dive into just that. Slow going but rich in insight and into the politics, culture, religion and psychology of the area and by extension, into German history. Fills a big gap in my understanding of this vital area of the world.
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9 people found this helpful
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- JCC
- 2017-03-24
great book, easy to listen to, well written
great book, easy to listen to, well written and great narration. look forward to more from author and narrator
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9 people found this helpful
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- H3
- 2019-01-25
Excellent! Good narration, engaging writing!!
the narrator did an amazing job!!!!!!! I'm probably overly critical of poor narration, and pretty quick to criticize, but this guy narrated this entire tome with talent and professionalism. I'm sure any audiobook lover knows how valuable that is.
the book itself, I found very engaging and informative. it's similar to Massey's Peter the Great narrative language, fascinating vignettes that add dimension to the historical information and even humorous tone make this book well worth even a few listens.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Carl Thompson
- 2017-09-18
Whew. What Was that?
I bought this book to get a keen insight about the making of the Prussian/German psyche. What I got was hours of mundane drivel about the minute details of the inner workings of Prussia.
How did we get from Bismarck to Hitler?
How did Germany go from being a beacon of European development to being the destroyer of European hope?
These question aren't touched. What a pity.
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