
1861
The Lost Peace
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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Jay Winik
About this listen
From an award-winning historian and New York Times bestselling author, a gripping, fly-on-the-wall account of the weeks leading up to Abraham Lincoln's decision to go to war against the Confederacy.
1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.
Through Jay Winik’s singular reporting and storytelling, listeners will learn about the extraordinary Washington Peace Conference at the Willard Hotel to avert cataclysmic war. They will observe the irascible and farsighted Senator JJ Crittenden, the tireless moderate seeking a middle way to peace. Lincoln himself called Crittenden “a great man” even as Lincoln jousted with him. Listeners will glimpse inside Lincoln’s cabinet—the finest in history—which rivaled the executive in its authority, a fact too often forgotten, and witness a parade of statesmen frenetically grasping for peace rather than the spectacle of a young nation slowly choking itself to death. A perfect listen for history buffs, with timely overtones to our current political climate.
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Story
Shannon Monaghan follows a core group of Western volunteers in Ukraine, fighting together from the early battle for Kyiv through to the last stands at Severodonetsk and Bakhmut. They arrived alone, but became a family—back when nobody bothered to learn names, because they all expected to die. These men knew they'd be fighting without the NATO support they were used to. They knew the danger they faced, and how they might be criticized for fighting someone else's war. But they also knew it was the right thing to do. This is their story.
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Listened to this twice in a row!
- By Nicholas Klein on 06-18-25
By: Shannon Monaghan
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The Sisterhood of Ravensbrück
- How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Decades after the end of World War II, the name Ravensbrück still evokes horror for those with knowledge of this infamous all-women’s concentration camp, better known since it became the setting of Martha Hall Kelly’s bestselling novel, Lilac Girls. Particularly shocking were the medical experiments performed on some of the inmates. Ravensbrück was atypical in other ways as well, not just as the only all-female German concentration camp, but because 80 percent of its inmates were political prisoners, among them a tight-knit group of women who had been active in the French Resistance.
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Grabbed my heart
- By Marvel Votaw on 06-16-25
By: Lynne Olson
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The Prophet
- The Life of Leon Trotsky
- By: Isaac Deutscher
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 62 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Few political figures of the twentieth century have aroused such intensities of fierce admiration and reactionary fear as Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. His extraordinary life and extensive writings have left an indelible mark on the revolutionary consciousness. Yet there was once a danger that his life and influence would be relegated to the footnotes of history. Published over the course of ten years, beginning in 1954, Deutscher's magisterial three-volume biography turned back the tide of Stalin's propaganda, and has since been praised by everyone from Tony Blair to Graham Greene.
By: Isaac Deutscher
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Captain Kidd
- A True Story of Treasure and Betrayal
- By: Samuel Marquis
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Captain William Kidd stands as one of the most notorious "pirate" outlaws ever, but his legend is tainted by a bed of lies. Having captivated imaginations for more than three hundred years and inspired many stories about pirates, troubling questions remain. Was he really a criminal or is the truth more inconvenient: that he was a buccaneer's worst nightmare, a revered pirate hunter turned fall guy for scheming politicians?
By: Samuel Marquis
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John Hancock
- First to Sign, First to Invest in America's Independence
- By: Willard Sterne Randall
- Narrated by: Steve Hendrickson
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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A contemporary of Samuel Adams, John Adams, George Washington, and the Marquis de Lafayette, Hancock had a list of contacts that read like a who’s who of the American Revolution. But shockingly little has been written about Hancock himself. John Hancock tells the story of a man who deserves far more credit for his contribution to the American Revolution than he previously received—and award-winning scholar Willard Sterne Randall is determined to give him his due at last.
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Sea of Grass
- The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie
- By: Dave Hage, Josephine Marcotty
- Narrated by: Sandra Murphy, George Newbern
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The North American prairie is an ecological marvel, a lush carpet of grass that stretches to the horizon, and home to some of the nation’s most iconic creatures—bison, elk, wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, and bald eagles. Plants, microbes, and animals together made the grasslands one of the richest ecosystems on Earth and a massive carbon sink, but the constant expansion of agriculture threatens what remains.
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Enlightening and informative to all people living on the earth
- By Norma Ward on 06-14-25
By: Dave Hage, and others
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The People’s War
- Unheard Stories: Life on the Battlefront and at Home in World War II
- By: John Willis
- Narrated by: John Willis, Christine Kavanagh, Rosina Aichner, and others
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In The People's War, John Willis unearths untold stories of everyday bravery, moments of terror, and tales of life-affirming community, that guide us through the years of the Second World War. From soldiers in North Africa and prisoners of war in East Asia, to evacuees in the British countryside and women in the factories, The People's War is a truly ambitious and comprehensive journey through a devastating and pivotal period of our history, as you've never read before.
By: John Willis
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Korea
- War Without End
- By: Richard Dannatt, Robert Lyman
- Narrated by: Mark Elstob
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Korea: War Without End examines the stand-off between East and West in Korea that ultimately defined the second half of the 20th century. It provides a critical analysis of the lack of preparation by the West for war; the results of the North Korean invasion in June 1950; the counter-stroke by MacArthur in September and then the strategic overreach which led to communist China’s involvement on the North Korean side, and the rapid escalation to consideration of the use of nuclear weapons.
By: Richard Dannatt, and others
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The Wars of the Lord
- The Puritan Conquest of America's First People
- By: Matthew J. Tuininga
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Puritan Christianity, Matthew J. Tuininga shows, shaped both the spiritual and military conquests of New England from beginning to end.