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Dale

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Very enlightening

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 12-21-11

I've been rediscovering American History after flitting through the topic in my childhood. Naturally, my attention tended to focus initially on the Revolutionary period and the Civil War as these events tend to overshadow others. This book goes a long way towards defining and clarifying the period between these two general periods. If one reads a book on Revolutionary America then opens a book about the Civil War, a lot of questions might spring to mind: How did Florida get into the union? And Texas? What was the War of 1812 about? Who were the Whigs? Where did these political parties come from? All of these are addressed to some extent in this book as Andrew Jackson figured large in relation to most of them. Highly recommended both for content and the narrator has a good pace and tone. He style is almost grandfatherly and works well with the material.

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12 people found this helpful

Decent Tale, Robotic Delivery

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 11-09-11

Nagel's account of JQA is decent and will probably be sufficient for most readers/listeners eager to get a good summary and account of his life and times. Serious scholars should probably look elsewhere. As a relatively short work, Nagel has to make some arguably controversial prioritizations in his telling of JQAs life. For example, only one chapter is devoted to his presidency and the tone of the text is that it was such a dismal failure that one could be excused for ignoring it. (I don't necessarily agree with this.) On the other hand, Nagel does a good job of telling the tale of JQAs life in the House and how he shined in that setting even though it would be easy to miss this since some of his brilliance was in parlimentery tactics at key moments. The narrator is difficult to take at times. He sounds very robotic and occasionally pronounces words oddly or gives awkward phrasing to sentences.

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2 people found this helpful

Great fun

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 10-12-11

His unabridged recording of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates by two well-known actors is both great fun and a fantastic insight into a key debate on a central issue in American history. Both actors seem to really get into character (although I wonder if Dreyfuss maybe hams it up a bit... this may be unfair as I do not know the literature regarding how Douglas really spoke and delivered his speeches) and the intervening comments of the 3rd narrator (communicating time, location, and audience interruptions) help to place the listener at the edge of the stage in the crowd. Great stuff.

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10 people found this helpful

Bloodlands Audiobook By Timothy Snyder cover art

I can't stop thinking about it.

Overall
5 out of 5 stars
Performance
5 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-22-11

I'd heard about this book when it came out and picked it at a whim from audible's catalog. I'm so glad I did because this work is going to stick with me and affect the rest of my life. I was so affected that I had to purchase the print version as well so that the rest of my family can take it in. At first glance, Snyder is giving an accounting of the massive death and misery that covered Eastern Europe (in an area he calls the "Bloodlands") from 1931-1945. I mean "accounting" in the professional sense of the word. He is aiming to give true and accurate numbers, so far as this is possible, to the various mass-killings which occurred it the Bloodlands through state-sponsored actions. What blossoms out of this undertaking is a beautiful explanation of how tyranny came to dominate Europe, how that tyranny morphed into totalitarianism, how that totalitarianism came to view mass-killing as a viable tool, and how that tool was enacted. I came away from this book with an appreciation that the tragedy of this era is not just the holocaust, but that the holocaust was simply the grand finale to unimaginable death and killing as implemented by 2 murderous regimes (Soviet Union, Nazi Germany). In effect, there were multiple holocausts and Snyder attempts to give each it's own story. Very moving and performed very well by the narrator.

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11 people found this helpful

flawed, but tolerable

Overall
2 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-22-11

I'm in the process of devouring audiobooks on early American history. Thus far, I've listened to books on the first 4 presidents as well as Franklin (among others). This biography is the weakest I've encountered so far. The soaring horn intro and exit as well as the narrators deep and smooth voice bring to mind a campaign add. There seems to be very little objectivity or perspective on the part of the author. On the whole, I don't mind when an author openly admires a biography subject but at times this author glorifies Monroe at the expense of other figures like Madison and J.Q. Adams. The text is often trite and hyperbolic and riddled with political cliche's. If one is looking for a summary of Monroe's life with a decent summary of the first 50 years of U.S. history, it's not bad, but I wouldn't consider it a serious academic work.

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1 person found this helpful

Adequate but not definitive

Overall
3 out of 5 stars
Performance
2 out of 5 stars
Story
4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-08-11

I'm an amateur historian who's been running through audiobooks about central figures in American history. I've listened to excellent biographies on Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. I turned to this book looking for a good treatment of Madison. I found it adequate but definitely not sufficiently thorough for my tastes. To be fair, the author explicitly states that his intention is not to be necessarily comprehensive. In his prologue, he refers to several more complete biographies of JM and says that his purpose is to (paraphrasing) give a broad overview of JM's political life with an eye towards the context of the time and in the face of several criticisms of JM and other historians have leveled and this one finds somewhat unjust. There is barely any background for JM in this book. We start off with JM in his early political life and go from there. From then on, it's a blow-by-blow account of his political life which is pretty good. The author does come across as "pro-JM" but he gives criticism where it is due (namely his late years as Sec. of State and several blunders leading up to the War of 1812). The recording bothered me a bit. The reader's voice is clear and pleasing but he fails to make any change in tone that might indicate a shift from the author's text to a quote from JM or a contemporary. Add to this some odd editing in the reading so that there are few pauses in cadence (think of a Japanese movie dubbed with English) and it can be quite distracting. I wonder if some of the reviewers about this book mistook quotes from JM's contemporaries praising him to be coming from the author because the context wasn't clear? All in all, decent if you're an amateur like me but likely to leave you wanting if you want a lot of detail.

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3 people found this helpful

Classic work, so-so reading

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-06-11

The work is probably the definitive biography of Thomas Jefferson. It's hard to imagine one more complete or better executed and is a real joy to read. Some reviews on this state that Malone is "pro-Jefferson" and biased towards him. Certainly, Malone is admires Jefferson (I can't imagine spending so many years on one man and not feeling some attachment to him), but he always seems objective regarding the facts in any given controversy and doesn't spare TJ any criticism when warranted. On the other hand, TJ made many enemies over his lifetime and these made numerous claims without necessarily being based in facts. Malone examines each with care and reason. The recording is dated in the late-1990s and was originally on cassette tapes. This is known because there is an occasional slip as she announces the beginning of a new tape from time to time. There are some technical problems and I recall these being mainly in the 1st and 5th volumes. On the whole, they aren't a big deal. Her tone is a bit wry for my taste but she gets the job done (the big, big job).

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3 people found this helpful

Thomas Jefferson and His Time Volume 2 Audiobook By Dumas Malone cover art

Classic work, so-so reading

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-06-11

The work is probably the definitive biography of Thomas Jefferson. It's hard to imagine one more complete or better executed and is a real joy to read. Some reviews on this state that Malone is "pro-Jefferson" and biased towards him. Certainly, Malone is admires Jefferson (I can't imagine spending so many years on one man and not feeling some attachment to him), but he always seems objective regarding the facts in any given controversy and doesn't spare TJ any criticism when warranted. On the other hand, TJ made many enemies over his lifetime and these made numerous claims without necessarily being based in facts. Malone examines each with care and reason. The recording is dated in the late-1990s and was originally on cassette tapes. This is known because there is an occasional slip as she announces the beginning of a new tape from time to time. There are some technical problems and I recall these being mainly in the 1st and 5th volumes. On the whole, they aren't a big deal. Her tone is a bit wry for my taste but she gets the job done (the big, big job).

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1 person found this helpful

Classic work, so-so reading

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-06-11

The work is probably the definitive biography of Thomas Jefferson. It's hard to imagine one more complete or better executed and is a real joy to read. Some reviews on this state that Malone is "pro-Jefferson" and biased towards him. Certainly, Malone is admires Jefferson (I can't imagine spending so many years on one man and not feeling some attachment to him), but he always seems objective regarding the facts in any given controversy and doesn't spare TJ any criticism when warranted. On the other hand, TJ made many enemies over his lifetime and these made numerous claims without necessarily being based in facts. Malone examines each with care and reason. The recording is dated in the late-1990s and was originally on cassette tapes. This is known because there is an occasional slip as she announces the beginning of a new tape from time to time. There are some technical problems and I recall these being mainly in the 1st and 5th volumes. On the whole, they aren't a big deal. Her tone is a bit wry for my taste but she gets the job done (the big, big job).

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2 people found this helpful

Classic work, so-so reading

Overall
4 out of 5 stars
Performance
3 out of 5 stars
Story
5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 09-06-11

The work is probably the definitive biography of Thomas Jefferson. It's hard to imagine one more complete or better executed and is a real joy to read. Some reviews on this state that Malone is "pro-Jefferson" and biased towards him. Certainly, Malone is admires Jefferson (I can't imagine spending so many years on one man and not feeling some attachment to him), but he always seems objective regarding the facts in any given controversy and doesn't spare TJ any criticism when warranted. On the other hand, TJ made many enemies over his lifetime and these made numerous claims without necessarily being based in facts. Malone examines each with care and reason. The recording is dated in the late-1990s and was originally on cassette tapes. This is known because there is an occasional slip as she announces the beginning of a new tape from time to time. There are some technical problems and I recall these being mainly in the 1st and 5th volumes. On the whole, they aren't a big deal. Her tone is a bit wry for my taste but she gets the job done (the big, big job).

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1 person found this helpful

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