Daniel Shenk
- 6
- reviews
- 13
- helpful votes
- 205
- ratings
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Furies
- War in Europe, 1450-1700
- By: Lauro Martines
- Narrated by: Simon Brooks
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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During the European Renaissance, an age marked equally by revolutionary thought and constant warfare, it was armies, rather than philosophers, who shaped the modern European nation state. "Mobile cities" of mercenaries and other paid soldiers - made up of astonishingly diverse aggregations of ethnicities and nationalities - marched across the land, looting and savaging enemy territories. In the 15th century, Poland hired German, Spanish, Bohemian, Hungarian, and Scottish soldiers.
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Narrator needs to go back to grade school
- By Jessica on 01-03-14
- Furies
- War in Europe, 1450-1700
- By: Lauro Martines
- Narrated by: Simon Brooks
Great Social-Military History
Reviewed: 04-02-23
Focuses on the daily reality of European war for common people, both soldiers and civilians.
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China After Mao
- The Rise of a Superpower
- By: Frank Dikötter
- Narrated by: Robbie Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Through decades of direct experience of the People’s Republic combined with extraordinary access to hundreds of hitherto unseen documents in communist party archives, the author of The People’s Trilogy offers a riveting account of China’s rise from the disaster of the Cultural Revolution. He takes us inside the country's unprecedented four-decade economic transformation—from rural villages to industrial metropoles and elite party conclave—that vaulted the nation from 126th largest economy in the world to second largest.
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Fantastic Book, Terrible Production
- By Daniel Shenk on 02-10-23
- China After Mao
- The Rise of a Superpower
- By: Frank Dikötter
- Narrated by: Robbie Stevens
Fantastic Book, Terrible Production
Reviewed: 02-10-23
Frank Dikotter is easily my favorite historian of modern China, and this book is a great resource for learning about the last 40 years of Chinese history. Dikotter's trademark of using sources that no one else has investigated (and that are often no longer available because of new restrictions) is used to show a far more grim history than Chinese propaganda, and many Western analysts, would have you believe.
Unfortunately, it is marred by the worst production I have ever heard on an Audible book. Sentences are cut off in the middle, words and phrases are often repeated in a loop that lasts several seconds. The narrator is great, and the book is well worth it all the same, but this entire audiobook needs re-edited.
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4 people found this helpful
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Escape from Rome
- The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 21 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The fall of the Roman Empire has long been considered one of the greatest disasters in history. But in this groundbreaking book, Walter Scheidel argues that Rome's dramatic collapse was actually the best thing that ever happened, clearing the path for Europe's economic rise and the creation of the modern age. Ranging across the entire premodern world, Escape from Rome offers new answers to some of the biggest questions in history: Why did the Roman Empire appear? Why did nothing like it ever return to Europe? And, above all, why did Europeans come to dominate the world?
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Very interesting book, terrible narration
- By Matt Griffin on 12-03-19
- Escape from Rome
- The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
Fantastic!
Reviewed: 03-21-20
This is one of the best books I have listened to in a long time! I have read almost everything I can find on why "the West" reached modernity before the rest of the world. Scheidel approaches this question from a completely original angle. He also provides the best, most accessible overview of the current theories that I have found. Definitely one of my all-time favorite history books.
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1 person found this helpful
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Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume One
- By: Michael Burlingame
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 49 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first multivolume biography of Abraham Lincoln to be published in decades, Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame offers a fresh look at the life of one of America's greatest presidents. Incorporating the field notes of earlier biographers along with decades of research in multiple manuscript archives and long-neglected newspapers, this remarkable work will both alter and reinforce our current understanding of America's 16th president.
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Psychoanalysis from afar.
- By Jackstraw on 06-02-17
- Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume One
- By: Michael Burlingame
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
The most comprehensive Lincoln biography ever
Reviewed: 08-06-18
This is a review for volumes 1 and 2. This book is not for the casual listener. It is very long and sometimes repetitive (because Burlingame cites never before used sources that often say the same thing), but extremely thorough. No other book will give you as much knowledge about Lincoln and his life.
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5 people found this helpful
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Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume Two
- By: Michael Burlingame
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 53 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In volume 2, Burlingame examines Lincoln's presidency and the trials of the Civil War. He supplies fascinating details on the crisis over Fort Sumter and the relentless office seekers who plagued Lincoln. He introduces listeners to the president's battles with hostile newspaper editors and his quarrels with incompetent field commanders. Burlingame also interprets Lincoln's private life, discussing his marriage to Mary Todd, the untimely death of his son, Willie, to disease in 1862, and his recurrent anguish over the enormous human costs of the war.
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A Magnificent and Important Book
- By G. Green on 03-03-16
- Abraham Lincoln: A Life, Volume Two
- By: Michael Burlingame
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
The most comprehensive Lincoln biography ever
Reviewed: 08-06-18
This is a review for volumes 1 and 2. This book is not for the casual listener. It is very long and sometimes repetitive (because Burlingame cites never before used sources that often say the same thing), but extremely thorough. No other book will give you as much knowledge about Lincoln and his life.
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1 person found this helpful
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History of the World, Updated
- By: J.M. Roberts
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 54 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In the History of the World, Updated, J. M. Roberts has revised his monumental previous work, History of the World, taking into account the great range of discoveries that have altered our views on everything from early civilizations to post-Cold War globalism. Large portions of text have been rewritten, addressing events as recent as the relationship between the Arab and Western worlds in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
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Comprehensive world history
- By Alan Rither on 03-31-07
- History of the World, Updated
- By: J.M. Roberts
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
Excellent book, but very out of date
Reviewed: 08-23-16
J.M. Roberts is a fantastic author and I look forward to reading everything else he has written.This is probably the best introduction you world history I have read. But contrary to Audible's description, this recording is not updated. The latest edition of Roberts' book was published in 2007, but the first 52 hours of this recording are entirely from the 1987 edition. It includes obsolete terms like USSR, and discussions of the implications of a world population of 5 billion, soon to be 6 billion. The postwar era, one of the most important in history, is analyzed without any knowledge of how it ended. Though the recording covers the end of the Cold War and September 11 by tacking the end of the 2003 edition onto the 1987 edition, this is done so poorly that you have to listen to Roberts' conclusion twice; it is repeated at the end of both the1987 edition and the 2003 edition almost word for word.
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1 person found this helpful