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The English and Their History
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Detailed without the drudgery of many texts
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Overall
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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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Well worth the listen
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Once vast swathes of the globe were coloured imperial red, and Britannia ruled not just the waves but the prairies of America, the plains of Asia, the jungles of Africa and the deserts of Arabia. Just how did a small, rainy island in the North Atlantic achieve all this? And why did the empire on which the sun literally never set finally decline and fall? Niall Ferguson's acclaimed Empire brilliantly unfolds the imperial story in all its splendours and its miseries.
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enjoyable stuff
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Overall
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Performance
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Overall
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Performance
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Hailed as the most compelling biography of the German dictator yet written, Ian Kershaw's Hitler brings us closer than ever before to the heart of its subject's immense darkness. From his illegitimate birth in a small Austrian village to his fiery death in a bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin, Adolf Hitler left a murky trail, strewn with contradictory tales and overgrown with self-created myths. One truth prevails: the sheer scale of the evils that he unleashed on the world has made him a demonic figure without equal in the 20th century.
-
-
Splendid, sobering, scholarly account
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courage provoking
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The Blind Watchmaker, knowledgably narrated by author Richard Dawkins, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the 18th-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte.
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Narration poor
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The History of the Medieval World
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The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.
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Deep dive into The Holy Roman Empire
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The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westward on its axis, it now turns to the east.... For centuries, fame and fortune were to be found in the West - in the New World of the Americas. Today it is the East that calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from Eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia, deep into China and India, is taking center stage.
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Not a history of Asia
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France
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John Julius Norwich (at 88) has finally written the book he always wanted to write, the extremely colourful story of the country he loves best. From frowning Roman generals and belligerent Gallic chieftains to Charlemagne through Marie Antoinette and the storming of the Bastille to Vichy, the Resistance and beyond, France is packed with heroes and villains, adventures and battles, romance and revolution. Full of memorable stories and racy anecdotes, this is the country that has inspired the rest of the world to live, dress, eat - and love better.
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easy listening
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Le Morte D'Arthur
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To the modern eye, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table have many similarities to our own contemporary super-heroes. Equipped with magical powers, enchanted swords, super-strength, and countless villains to take on, they protect the weak and innocent and adhere to their own code of honor. Comparing Batman, Superman, and Captain America to Sir Launcelot, Sir Tristram, and Sir Galahad isn't a huge leap of the imagination.
Publisher's Summary
In The English and Their History, the first full-length account to appear in one volume for many decades, Robert Tombs gives us the history of the English people and of how the stories they have told about themselves have shaped them, from the prehistoric 'dreamtime' through to the present day.
If a nation is a group of people with a sense of kinship, a political identity and representative institutions, then the English have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. They first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognisable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history. The English have come a long way from those precarious days of invasion and conquest, with many spectacular changes of fortune.
Their political, economic and cultural contacts have left traces for good and ill across the world. This book describes their history and its meanings from their beginnings in the monasteries of Northumbria and the wetlands of Wessex to the cosmopolitan energy of today's England.
Robert Tombs draws out important threads running through the story, including participatory government, language, law, religion, the land and the sea, and the ever-changing relations with other peoples. Not the least of these connections are the ways the English have understood their own history, have argued about it, forgotten it, and yet been shaped by it. These diverse and sometimes conflicting understandings are an inherent part of their identity.
Rather to their surprise, as ties within the United Kingdom loosen, the English are suddenly beginning a new period in their long history. Especially at times of change, history can help us to think about the sort of people we are and wish to be.
This audiobook, the first single-volume work on this scale for more than half a century, and which incorporates a wealth of recent scholarship, presents a challenging modern account of this immense and continuing story, bringing out the strength and resilience of English government, the deep patterns of division, yet also the persistent capacity to come together in the face of danger.
Critic Reviews
"Learned, pithy and punchy, with a laudable sense of narrative sweep and a bracing willingness to offer bold judgments, [Tombs's] survey is a tremendous achievement, and deserves to become the standard history for years to come." (Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times)
"Packed with telling detail and told with gentle, sardonic wit...[a] vast and delightful book." (Ben Macintyre, The Times)
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- Chris
- 03-06-2018
Not being a British History buff!
After Tombs recent Australian visit, I was impressed by his enlightening interview.
Listening since, I have been amazed by clarity and continuity of how my heritage evolved.
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- Amazon Customer
- 15-06-2017
Superb, educational, captivating.
Brilliantly written and narrated. Highly recommend this book. if you know nothing about the english then read this and you will know all about the english
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- Al Dante
- 07-06-2017
Excellent, with surprising details, super narrator
Mr Tombs has done a fine job of compressing the complex story of the English into a one-volume book. The great sweep may be known to many, but he teases out the social factors that make history come alive, and delivers the death blow to many misconceptions along the way. Thoroughly recommended.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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- m sinclair
- 20-02-2017
A big commitment, easily paid off!
This is the first history book I've read since school.
It seemed daunting with the size of it at a nuts 45+ hours and it's taken me months to get through.
Please don't let this stop you though from taking it on.
This book has helped me to have such a vastly more expansive view of history from our own little island perspective.
Not only that but it's made me fall even more deeply in love with my own country of birth!
I am so very proud to be English!
Thank you Robert!
35 of 37 people found this review helpful
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- D. D. Paxton
- 26-10-2016
This is a masterpiece.
It's incredible that a subject so vast can be so comprehensively explored in one volume. Tombs manages it and does so with balance and insight. This is an exceptional work.
Far more than a chronological collection of facts and anecdotes, Tombs provides analysis which constantly appears somehow refreshing, vital, and incontrovertible. Perhaps this is why the book is recommended by people from across the political spectrum.
Highly recommend.
22 of 23 people found this review helpful
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- Joseph Stenson
- 11-03-2017
Can't recommend enough
A brilliant, informative book, great narrator, very clear and engaging. I would highly recommend it.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
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- Stephen Johnson
- 29-11-2016
Thoroughly interesting and engaging work
Although initially slightly intimidated by the length sheer scale of this audiobook, the lure of its scope paired with such good reviews were too much to resist.
Having read a few other works on general English history, mostly due to a frustration at lack of coverage during my schooling throughout the 2000's, this book provided a perfectly pitched walkthrough of the series of events that lead to England's present state. For me personally, no topic was lingered on for too long, and coverage was good. Although focused on England, there is also enough discussion of events that occurred in other nations which add context to the reasons why these impacted those in England.
The final proportion covering the past 40 years (especially the last 20) were extremely refreshing, mostly just to remember events which today's constant news cycle make so easy to forget.
Interesting and thought-provoking...what more could you want from a book
14 of 16 people found this review helpful
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- qwerty
- 18-03-2017
Fresh view on broad canvas
Thoroughly enjoyed it. Well researched and presented. Quite a radical but curiously uncontentious broad canvas view of England, Britain and the UK and the world in general. The last remark put it in perspective for me.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful
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- mat brown
- 01-09-2016
Brilliant
A great read that looks at English history from a different view point highly recommended
The readers smooth tones help me through some of the more arcane subjects
12 of 15 people found this review helpful
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- Michael
- 01-02-2018
Fantastic book, I thoroughly recommend.
I recommend to anyone interested in England or history. The narration is great and fits the theme of the book perfectly. This taught me so much of my country's history that the schools never taught.
My only problem and the reason this is 4 star instead of 5 is that the chapter segmentation in audible is weird, every chapter is around 20 but does not correlate into the chapters the actual book uses, nor buy context. This does not ruin this book however, just a slight inconvenience.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- Steve
- 07-12-2016
Amazing, seems fairly balanced
Great for anyone unsure of English motivation and actions both nationally and internationally over the last few thousand years. A real eye opener to both the prides and shames of the English people.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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- robyn
- 04-11-2016
wow
very informative, the narrator has a tone of voice that kept me interested all the way through. a must for lovers of British history!
5 of 6 people found this review helpful
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- Murray H.
- 20-09-2017
An excellent and well told history
very long but worth it, gives a great detailed summary of our history and the politics it brought forth
1 of 1 people found this review helpful