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1913
- The Eve of War
- Narrated by: Christopher Oxford
- Length: 2 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's summary
Christmas 1913: In Britain, people are debating a new dance called ‘the tango’. In Germany, they are fascinated by the wedding of the Kaiser’s daughter to the Duke of Brunswick. Little did they know that their world was on ‘The Eve of War’, a catastrophe that was to engulf the continent, cost millions of lives, and change the course of the century. And yet behind the scenes, the Great Powers were marching towards what they thought was an inevitable conflict.
In this controversial and concise essay, the military historian Paul Ham argues that the First World War was not an historical mistake, a conflict into which the Great Powers stumbled by accident. Nor was it a justified war, in which uncontained German aggression had to be defeated. Instead the politicians and generals of the day willed the war, and prepared for it - but eventually found themselves caught up in an inferno they could no longer control.
Paul Ham is the author of the forthcoming 1914: The Year the World Ended, to be published by Random House in Britain in 2014. He has previously written the acclaimed Sandakanz, Kokoda, Vietnam: The Australian War and Hiroshima Nagasaki. A former Australia Correspondent of the Sunday Times, he was born in Sydney and educated in Australia and Britain. He now lives in Sydney and Paris.
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A country both admired and feared, Germany has been the epicenter of world events time and again: the Reformation, both World Wars, the fall of the Berlin Wall. It did not emerge as a modern nation until 1871 - yet today, Germany is the world's fourth-largest economy and a standard-bearer of liberal democracy.
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The narrator can’t pronounce German
- By Vauras Ilmari on 03-22-19
By: James Hawes
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Napoleon
- Soldier of Destiny
- By: Michael Broers
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 20 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Written with great energy and authority - and using the newly available personal archives of Napoleon himself - the first volume of a majestic two-part biography of the great French emperor and conqueror.
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Clarity
- By Tad Davis on 03-25-19
By: Michael Broers
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Hitler
- By: Joachim C. Fest, Richard Winstton - translator, Clara Winstton - translator
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 41 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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This masterful biography by one of Germany’s best known journalists was the leading nonfiction best seller in Germany. Fest shows Hitler as the receptacle of the dreads and resentments of a shaken social order, gifted with an uncanny instinct for all that was hollow behind the appearance of power, at home and abroad. Though a warped human being, he was neither clown nor puppet, as many liked to think; Hitler appears here as an enormously astute politician, impressing and hypnotizing Germans and foreigners alike with the scope of his projects and the theatricality of their presentation. Fest uncovers in Hitler a constantly destructive personality....
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Should be part of high school education
- By Rex Riethmeier on 12-25-18
By: Joachim C. Fest, and others
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Bully of Asia
- By: Steven W. Mosher
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The signs are everywhere. China unilaterally claims the entire South China Sea as sovereign territory, then builds artificial islands to bolster its claim. It suddenly activates an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea, and threatens to down any aircraft that does not report its position. It builds roads into Indian territory, then redraws the maps to show that it is actually Chinese territory. The People's Republic under President Xi Jinping is quickly becoming The Bully of Asia.
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Eye opening, up to date
- By Silomi on 01-01-19
By: Steven W. Mosher
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Pandora’s Box
- A History of the First World War
- By: Jorn Leonhard, Patrick Camiller - translator
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 39 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In this monumental history of the First World War, Germany's leading historian of the 20th century's first great catastrophe explains the war's origins, course, and consequences. With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora's Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come. Jörn Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy, the everyday tactics of dynamic movement and slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of frontline soldiers.
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Excellent reading of a complex book
- By chris on 02-26-19
By: Jorn Leonhard, and others
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Napoleon
- A Concise Biography
- By: David A. Bell
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility that Napoleon represented. Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.
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Perfect introduction to Napoleon
- By DJP on 10-17-20
By: David A. Bell
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The War That Ended Peace
- The Road to 1914
- By: Margaret MacMillan
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 31 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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From the best-selling and award-winning author of Paris 1919 comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, a fascinating portrait of Europe from 1900 up to the outbreak of World War I.
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Detailed review of 1882 to 1914
- By smarmer on 04-06-14
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The Deluge
- The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 21 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In the depths of the Great War, with millions dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. The heart of the financial system shifted from London to New York. The infinite demands for men and materiel reached into countries far from the front. The strain of the war ravaged all economic and political assumptions, bringing unheard-of changes in the social and industrial order.
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Not For The Faint of Heart
- By David on 07-15-15
By: Adam Tooze
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The Pity of War
- Explaining World War I
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 21 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.
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Ferguson wouldn’t know history if it hit him in the head
- By Schen on 10-07-20
By: Niall Ferguson
What listeners say about 1913
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Frederic
- 08-25-21
What caused the First World War?
Quite a different take on origins of WW1. Should to the point and highly compelling.
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- customers coins
- 01-01-18
1913 The Eve of War
My husband taught me, guided me, into an appreciation of history. For that I'll always be Thankful. Happy New Year! My hope is that more people learn history, good, bad as it was, as it is. Thank-you
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1 person found this helpful
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- Gregala
- 06-12-21
The calm before
Useful and engrossing prequel and context to the Great War. The mindsets, policies, and decisions of the European powers made war not only desirable in their distorted view, but virtually inevitable. Much of this is touched upon in Barbara Tuchman's wonderfully readable book, The Guns of August.
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- ‘Nette
- 06-09-15
Mediocre, neither good nor bad
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I wouldn't say it was a waste of time, but it wasn't terribly enjoyable, either.
What do you think your next listen will be?
Something with a lighter subject, perhaps.
Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Christopher Oxford?
I don't know enough about narrators to answer this question.
Did 1913 inspire you to do anything?
It inspired me to avoid books narrated by Christopher Oxford.
Any additional comments?
I will probably keep it I the library, but may not ever listen to it again.
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- James A. Bretney
- 05-10-22
a clever alternative history
This arrangement of facts illustrates the influence of militarism and yet the possibility of peace in Europe prior to the Great War. I disagree with this conclusion that denies the possibility of "invisible forces" driving toward war. Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus warned us with their lives of the predisposition that republics have towards victimization by invisible forces. that said this book serves as a clever what if thought experiment as to what the world would look like if there was no war.
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- Damian B. Thompson
- 01-12-23
Great precursor to understanding why
Very good at explaining the mood of each of the countries in Europe right before the lights went out in 1914!
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- upfrontboi
- 04-26-18
This is What Wasn't Taught in School.
This is a great read that gives you a broad and quick idea of the European leaders and the mind set that lead up to The Great War. A lot of statistical numbers are rattled off, but you'll get through it, and they are helpful with country by country comparisons. I had always wondered why these three cousins George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, did not just set down and hash things out? One may be King, Tsar, or Kaiser but ambition, paranoia and the state run bureaucracy was the true ruler here. Family ties could not and did not have influence on the actions taken in September 1914.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Noel C. Ice
- 07-28-14
Paul Ham
What made the experience of listening to 1913 the most enjoyable?
Paul Ham's writing. He is an exceptionally gifted writer as well as a first rate historian. He knows how to turn a phrase, and I found myself constantly highlighting sentences that were especially well put. It was delightful to come across a prose style that even in a fiction writer would set him apart. Also, he is not afraid to make a judgment now and then, which, when appropriate, is welcome from a historian who does not overdo it. One such judgement is that the leaders of the various countries who fought during the great tragedy known as WW I is that they more or less accepted the inevitability of a war that was not inevitable. For example, none so much as proposed a conference to discuss the issues that preceded and led to the War. As long as a historian is not being overtly tendentious, there is nothing wrong with calling it as you see it, and this author is not afraid to do that when plainly called for.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes.
Any additional comments?
I am actively seeking out to read or listen to other works by Paul Ham, based on how impressed I was by (a) his writing skills, and (b) his willingness to state plainly what went wrong and why on issues that cry out for someone to do just that.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Editor, Contraband Press
- 07-20-21
Shocking and revealing
Excellent topic. Well researched by the author and well read by the narrator.
Clearly shows how European leaders used poor judgment to make bad decisions that caused a world wide disaster. Very well done.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-01-23
A fascinating essay
This was truly a great essay. I was fascinated by every sentence; intrigued by all the details. My only gripe is with the performance, and that is mainly because of some of the dull tones of the narrator. I truly recommend this. A great 3 hours.
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