Try free for 30 days
-
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy: 1945-1975
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 33 hrs and 48 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy: 1945-1975
Buy Now for $43.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
The Rising Sun
- The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 41 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a very detailed account of Americas pacific war
- By Truthfull Jones on 20-06-2015
-
Vietnam
- The Australian War
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Peter Byrne
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 208
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 183
Drawing on hundreds of accounts by soldiers, politicians, aid workers, entertainers and the Vietnamese people, Paul Ham reconstructs for the first time the full history of our longest military campaign. From the commitment to engage, through the fight over conscription and the rise of the anti - war movement, to the tactics and horror of the battlefi eld, Ham exhumes the truth about this politicians' war - which sealed the fate of 50,000 Australian servicemen and women.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The best audio book i have ever listen to.
- By Dave on 12-03-2022
-
The Last Charge of the Australian Light Horse
- From the Australian bush to the Battle of Beersheba - an Epic Story of Courage, Resilience and Derring-Do
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Bligh
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 29
On 31st October 1917, as the day's light faded, the Australian Light Horse charged against their enemy. Eight hundred men and horses galloped four miles across open country, towards the artillery, rifles and machine guns of the Turks occupying the seemingly unassailable town of Beersheba. What happened in the next hour changed the course of history. This brave battle and the extraordinary adventures that led to it are brought vividly to life by Australia's greatest storyteller, Peter FitzSimons.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A great story of a great Australian event
- By Russell on 22-02-2024
-
The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4
The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
History at its best
- By Anonymous User on 28-02-2024
-
Band of Brothers
- E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Tim Jerome
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 396
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 393
Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, was as good a rifle company as any in the world. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to D-Day and victory, Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company, which kept getting the tough assignments. Easy Company was responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. Band of Brothers is the account of the men of this remarkable unit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everyone needs to listen to this
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-2020
-
Trafalgar
- The Biography of a Battle
- By: Roy Adkins
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
This is the true story of the Battle of Trafalgar, Britain's most significant sea battle, as seen through the smoke-hazed gunports of the fighting ships. In an atmosphere of choking fumes from cannon and musket fire, amid noise so intense it was almost tangible, the crews of the British, French and Spanish ships did their best to carry out their allotted tasks. For over five hours they were in constant danger from a terrifying array of iron and lead missiles fired from enemy guns, as well as the deadly wooden splinters smashed from the ships' hulls by the cannon-balls.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An amazing insight into old sailing Naval battles
- By David Shaw on 07-01-2024
-
The Rising Sun
- The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
- By: John Toland
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 41 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
This Pulitzer Prize-winning history of World War II chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of the Japanese empire, from the invasion of Manchuria and China to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Told from the Japanese perspective, The Rising Sun is, in the author’s words, "a factual saga of people caught up in the flood of the most overwhelming war of mankind, told as it happened - muddled, ennobling, disgraceful, frustrating, full of paradox."
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a very detailed account of Americas pacific war
- By Truthfull Jones on 20-06-2015
-
Vietnam
- The Australian War
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Peter Byrne
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 208
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 183
Drawing on hundreds of accounts by soldiers, politicians, aid workers, entertainers and the Vietnamese people, Paul Ham reconstructs for the first time the full history of our longest military campaign. From the commitment to engage, through the fight over conscription and the rise of the anti - war movement, to the tactics and horror of the battlefi eld, Ham exhumes the truth about this politicians' war - which sealed the fate of 50,000 Australian servicemen and women.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The best audio book i have ever listen to.
- By Dave on 12-03-2022
-
The Last Charge of the Australian Light Horse
- From the Australian bush to the Battle of Beersheba - an Epic Story of Courage, Resilience and Derring-Do
- By: Peter FitzSimons
- Narrated by: Richard Bligh
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 29
On 31st October 1917, as the day's light faded, the Australian Light Horse charged against their enemy. Eight hundred men and horses galloped four miles across open country, towards the artillery, rifles and machine guns of the Turks occupying the seemingly unassailable town of Beersheba. What happened in the next hour changed the course of history. This brave battle and the extraordinary adventures that led to it are brought vividly to life by Australia's greatest storyteller, Peter FitzSimons.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A great story of a great Australian event
- By Russell on 22-02-2024
-
The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 4
The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
History at its best
- By Anonymous User on 28-02-2024
-
Band of Brothers
- E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Tim Jerome
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 396
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 393
Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, was as good a rifle company as any in the world. From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to D-Day and victory, Ambrose tells the story of this remarkable company, which kept getting the tough assignments. Easy Company was responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. Band of Brothers is the account of the men of this remarkable unit.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Everyone needs to listen to this
- By Anonymous User on 11-09-2020
-
Trafalgar
- The Biography of a Battle
- By: Roy Adkins
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 19
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
This is the true story of the Battle of Trafalgar, Britain's most significant sea battle, as seen through the smoke-hazed gunports of the fighting ships. In an atmosphere of choking fumes from cannon and musket fire, amid noise so intense it was almost tangible, the crews of the British, French and Spanish ships did their best to carry out their allotted tasks. For over five hours they were in constant danger from a terrifying array of iron and lead missiles fired from enemy guns, as well as the deadly wooden splinters smashed from the ships' hulls by the cannon-balls.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An amazing insight into old sailing Naval battles
- By David Shaw on 07-01-2024
Publisher's Summary
From the best-selling author of All Hell Let Loose comes a masterful chronicle of one of the most devastating international conflicts of the 20th century and how its people were affected.
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam and less familiar battles such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom 40 died for every American. US blunders and atrocities were matched by those committed by their enemies. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners’ victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, marines from North Carolina and Huey pilots from Arkansas.
No past volume has blended a political and military narrative of the entire conflict with heart-stopping personal experiences, in the fashion that Max Hastings’ listeners know so well. The author suggests that neither side deserved to win this struggle, with so many lessons for the 21st century about the misuse of military might to confront intractable political and cultural challenges. He marshals testimony from warlords and peasants, statesmen and soldiers, to create an extraordinary record.
Critic Reviews
"This is a comprehensive, spellbinding, surprisingly intimate, and altogether magnificent historical narrative." (Tim O’Brien)
"Masterpiece...manages with great skill to combine the accumulation of strategic and political disaster with the real experience of those fighting on the ground." (Antony Beevor, Spectator)
"Will surely set the benchmark for years to come. This may be his best. Exhaustively researched and superbly written, it is both a balanced account of how and why the war unfolded as it did, and a gripping narrative on what it was like to take part. History as it should be: objective, immersive and compelling." (Daily Telegraph, five stars)
More from the same
What listeners say about Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy: 1945-1975
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 12-06-2022
Excellent
Powerful and getting from the first chapter. Max Hastings is both an excellent historian and a brilliant writer.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Matt
- 28-09-2019
Another amazing book from Max Hastings
It's amazing how much Max Hastings has covered here while still presenting a cogent and accessible overall narrative of the conflict. I'm a huge fan of how Max Hastings brings an objective and dispassionate approach to history (in this regard he is at his best in books like "Bomber Command", "Nemesis" and "Das Reich"). In this book he does become more judgemental than is the norm for him (he covered this conflict himself as a journalist when he was still a young man and it seems to have affected him a great deal) but the way he seems to struggle with himself in this regard is part of what makes this book an amazing experience (especially if you've read other Hastings books and are familiar with how reserved he usually is about such fault-finding). Even with this, I still found this to be one of the most balanced and thoughtful studies of the Vietnam War I have ever come across. And you get so much! The sections on the Korean and Australian contributions, and the final section on the ARVN's struggles following the 1973 withdrawal of US-forces, are not to be found in other comparable studies.
Unfortunately (unlike some of the other reviews) I cannot recommend Peter Noble's narration. He too often gives a sarcastic edge to his reading where this was not needed. It annoyed me no end (I think a narrator like Cameron Stewart or Barnaby Edwards or Nigel Carrington would have been a better fit). Even so, this book is so good I would recommend it notwithstanding the disappointing narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Roger T. G. Patterson
- 25-12-2022
Epic
Max does it again. Balanced, comprehensive, personal, insightful are some words that come to mind
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ben
- 05-11-2023
Amazing
I think I have read every Max Hastings book out there and I would probably say that this is his best work. Meticulously researched, this is perhaps the definitive book for anybody wanting to better understand the Vietnam War. A must listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Richard
- 12-11-2018
Very disturbing and Depressing
I listened to this excellent history of the Vietnam War ever written. Read in conjunction with the Audible narration which gave the tragedy more resonance than if I had just read the book. The the last chapter sums up my feelings about what has happened to Vietnam since the end of WW2. Having lived in Vietnam for more than 6 years and having worked as firstly a diplomat and then as a consultant since 2002, the Gerontocracy of the northern leadership and their mendacity defies belief. Only coming back from Saigon and Hanoi just recently the South remains a separate nation from the north. Despite that Marxist Leninist theory is indeed still taught at schools as the Author indicates. The lessons of Vietnam obviously hasn’t been learned by the West. There is still a huge divide between the rural poor and the rich urban population. The big fear now is China. Despite that I am confident that once a new generation sweeps through the Vietnamese political system there will eventually be change for the future.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 09-02-2019
Another thorough history novel by this author
Thorough, fascinating military history of Vietnam and its people. A country torn by continual wars. Great narration. Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 26-09-2019
Very comprehensive including the French involvement.
A story that needed to be written by an experienced author. A story of no real winners. So much expediency and ego driven leadership. Such a shame all troops have always been vilified in what they simply obeyed orders. A must listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 22-01-2024
Superb coverage of a terrible waste
Nothing to dislike. Max Hastings is a superb historian, and Peter Noble is a magnificent narrator.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- George
- 16-06-2019
An unruly patchwork quilt of a book
The book is driven by a disorderly meta narrative. Yet the author claims to have written the last word on Vietnam.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall2 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 04-02-2022
Sanctimonious journalist dribble
A much too long, over detailed, poorly executed journalistic hindsight view of the 30 year Vietnam war in which the statements and opinions of nobodies is given equal (often greater) weight to the highest political/military commander.
It is easy to always find fault with the Americans and South Vietnam leadership and military whereas the North Vietnam often escapes equal weighted criticism.
In war the enemy has a vote; confusion, mistakes, misunderstanding is an integral part of any conflict; and allowances should always be made to those executing the conflict; and,accordingly, be given the benefit of the doubt.
It was tedious to listen to and provided little in the way of new insight into this conflict.
I still await the definitive history of the war.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
