Showing results by author "History by the Hour" in All Categories

Probably the most naturally gifted musician the world has ever known, Mozart began his career early as a child prodigy. By the age five, he was already proficient on the violin, the harpsichord, and piano keyboard, and had begun composing music that had integrity. He was a showman as well, according to contemporary documents, and charmed many of the crowned heads of Europe with his performance and his manner. 

Probably the most naturally gifted musician the world has ever known, Mozart began his career early as a child prodigy. By the age of five, he was already proficient in the violin, the harpsichord, and piano keyboard. He had also begun composing music that had integrity.  Ludwig van Beethoven is a crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in classical music. Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age. Listen to the full biographies of these two musicians, from the beginning to the end!

Frida Kahlo was ahead of her time. She was bisexual and would have fit in perfectly in the time we live in now. Her disabilities would be acceptable in our society of today and her husband, Diego would probably be run out of town by the Real Housewives of “Cheaters”. Frida came with a lot of baggage in her life starting when she was only six years old and even more baggage piled on when she was in high school. Her suffering was more than anyone can imagine but she kept her head held high and forged her way forward.

Adolf Hitler was a German politician, demagogue, and Pan-German revolutionary who was the leader of the Nazi Party, chancellor of Germany, and führer ("leader") of Nazi Germany. As dictator, Hitler initiated World War II in Europe with the invasion of Poland and was central to the Holocaust. 

Cleopatra VII Philopator was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, nominally survived as pharaoh by her son Caesarion. She was also a diplomat, naval commander, polyglot, and medical author. As a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, she was a descendant of its founder, Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great.

Nikola Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments. Hear more about Tesla in this audiobook.

Initially presiding over an oligarchic one-party regime that governed by plurality, Joseph Stalin became the de facto dictator of the Soviet Union. Stalin raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings, and protection rackets. To eradicate those regarded as "enemies of the working class", Stalin instituted the "Great Purge" in which more than a million were imprisoned and at least 700,000 were executed from 1934 to 1939.

As you begin to listen to this audiobook, you will undoubtedly feel that Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louise XVI led spoiled lives. You will be right in what you think; but you will also find out that with their parents arranging their marriages at a very young age, neither of them was ever able to experience the feelings of young love. You will see what horrors and terrors that Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, their children, and Louis’ sister had to suffer through for four years before their deaths.

Unlike most artists, Van Gogh developed very slowly, beginning with work as an art dealer that exposed him to many great works. He undertook this work for several years, after which he spent time as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church. Thereafter, he drifted for several years before returning home to his parents’ house, where he took up painting, largely self-taught with books on anatomy and painting. His great works all date from the later years of his life.

This audiobook includes biographies on the following men: Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments... There are a lot more to the story than just the light bulb, and there is a lot more to the invention of the light bulb than just Thomas Edison. One thing is for sure that he is still remembered as one of the greatest inventors of all time, and perhaps the greatest that America has ever produced.

Patton’s life was a patchwork of a hard-driving leadership style, a colorful and sarcastic personality, and a series of dire political missteps. His image is often contradictory. On one hand, he was a hot spark who could often fly off the handle and say and do things that were injurious to himself and others. On the other hand, he was a gifted orator whose capacity to inspire his troops was second to none. Reconciling those elements of his being can sometimes be a tricky proposition.

Did Christopher Columbus discover America or a route to the Far East? He was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who had a singular goal toward which he was driven. His courage was astounding, as he and his three small ships set sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus and his men took precarious and dangerous journeys toward a blue horizon. All they had to depend upon were nautical charts, an astrolabe, and a quadrant. The maps he used were developed by more ancient astronomers such as Ptolemy and Eratosthenes – men who had never sailed the great sea.

In this one-hour history book, discover why World War II happened as we uncover the main events that lead to the beginning of the most lethal war of all times. Probably no historical period has been discussed and dissected as much as World War II. Yet there is always something new to learn upon closer inspection. Events occurred at lightning speed during the war years, and you almost have to take things on a day-by-day basis to take them all in. That is why this book focuses solely on what transpired from 1938 to 1939.   

Discover the lives and poltical history of German politician and demagogue Adolf Hitler - leader of the Nazi Party, chancellor of Germany, and führer of Nazi Germany - and Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union.

Unlike most artists, Van Gogh developed very slowly, beginning with work as an art dealer that exposed him to many great works. He undertook this work for several years, after which he spent time as a missionary for the Dutch Reformed Church. After that, he drifted for several years before re-turning home to his parents’ house, where he took up painting, largely self-taught with books on anatomy and painting. His great works all date from the later years of his life.

Much of the material in this book comes from The Bamboo Annals, The Records of the Grand Historian, and later historians who studied those sacred texts. The bamboo annals were discovered in AD 281, inside the tomb of King Xian. The Records of the Grand Historian were reportedly written by Sima Tian and continued by his son, Sima Qian. Only fragments remain today, but the original may have been written just prior to 86 BC.

The very first democracy in the world found its origins in Ancient Greece. The most exquisite art and architecture of the world had its origins there. While education had its roots in many cultures after the Bronze Age, education found its flowering in the rise of some of greatest literature ever written. From the very small country of Greece came the development of the higher sciences. Even the most celebrated of sports events, the Olympics, started in a small city-state of Athens.

Ancient Rome covers Roman civilization from the founding of the city of Rome to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic, and Roman Empire, until the fall of the Western empire. In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to the classical republic, and then to an increasingly autocratic empire.

The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screen fold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest instances of the explicit zero in the world.

Almost everyone has heard Martin Luther King’s name. He organized and led marches in support of African Americans’ rights. King was against racial discrimination and segregation. This was the era when, in the South, Whites and African Americans were divided in everything - schools, churches, neighborhoods, and even hospitals.