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American Warlords
- How Roosevelt's High Command Led America to Victory in World War II
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
American Warlords is the story of the greatest "team of rivals" since the days of Lincoln.
In a lifetime shaped by politics, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proved himself a master manipulator of Congress, the press, and the public. But when war in Europe and Asia threatened America's shores, FDR found himself in a world turned upside down, where his friends became his foes, his enemies his allies. To help wage democracy's first "total war", he turned to one of history's most remarkable triumvirates.
Henry Stimson, an old-money Republican from Long Island, rallied to FDR's banner to lead the Army as Secretary of War and championed innovative weapons that helped shape our world today. General George C. Marshall argued with Roosevelt over grand strategy, but he built the world's greatest war machine and willingly sacrificed his dream of leading the invasion of Europe that made his protégé, Dwight Eisenhower, a legend. Admiral Ernest J. King, a hard-drinking, irascible fighter who "destroyed" Pearl Harbor in a prewar naval exercise, understood how to fight Japan, but he also battled the army, the air force, Douglas MacArthur, and his British allies as they moved armies and fleets across the globe.
These commanders threw off sparks whenever they clashed: generals against politicians, army versus navy. But those sparks lit the fire of victory. During four years of bitter warfare, FDR's lieutenants learned to set aside deep personal, political, and professional differences and pull a nation through the 20th century's darkest days.
Encircling Roosevelt's warlords - and sometimes bitterly at odds with them - was a colorful cast of the Second World War's giants: Winston Churchill, MacArthur, Josef Stalin, Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Charles de Gaulle. These and other larger-than-life figures enrich a sweeping story of an era brimming with steel, fire, and blood.
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Overall
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Author of the best-seller FDR, Jean Edward Smith is a master of the presidential biography. Setting his sights on Dwight D. Eisenhower, Smith delivers a rich account of Eisenhower’s life using previously untapped primary sources. From the military service in WWII that launched his career to the shrewd political decisions that kept America out of wars with the Soviet Union and China, Smith reveals a man who never faltered in his dedication to serving America, whether in times of war or peace.
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Good, although biased, biography
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-15-12
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The Brilliant Disaster
- JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba
- By: Jim Rasenberger
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The U.S.-backed military invasion of Cuba in 1961 remains one of the most ill-fated blunders in American history, with echoes of the event reverberating even today. Despite the Kennedy administration’s initial public insistence that the United States had nothing to do with the invasion, it soon became clear that the complex operation had been planned and approved by the best and brightest minds at the highest reaches of Washington, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President John F. Kennedy himself.
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US Government Perspective
- By Kindle Customer on 05-25-11
By: Jim Rasenberger
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Pearl Harbor
- FDR Leads the Nation into War
- By: Steven M. Gillon
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Franklin D. Roosevelt famously called December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." History would prove him correct; the events of that day - when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor - ended the Great Depression, changed the course of FDR's presidency, and swept America into World War II. In Pearl Harbor, acclaimed historian Steven M. Gillon provides a vivid, minute-by-minute account of Roosevelt's skillful leadership in the wake of the most devastating military assault in American history. FDR proved both decisive and deceptive, inspiring the nation....
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rehash that excludes faults of FDR
- By mike hammer on 10-31-11
By: Steven M. Gillon
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The General vs. the President
- MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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From master storyteller and historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how President Harry Truman and General Douglas MacArthur squared off to decide America's future in the aftermath of World War II.
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A Vivid Dramatic Accounting
- By Jean on 11-11-16
By: H. W. Brands
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Never Surrender
- Winston Churchill and Britain's Decision to Fight Nazi Germany in the Fateful Summer of 1940
- By: John Kelly
- Narrated by: Gordon Greenhill
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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London in April, 1940, was a place of great fear and conflict. Everyone was on edge; civilization itself seemed imperiled. The Germans are marching. They have taken Poland, France, Holland, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia. They now menace Britain. Should Britain negotiate with Germany? The members of the War Cabinet bicker, yell, lose their control, and are divided. Churchill, leading the faction to fight, and Lord Halifax, cautioning that prudence is the way to survive, attempt to usurp one another by any means possible.
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A Vivid Account
- By Jean on 01-21-16
By: John Kelly
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The Mantle of Command
- FDR at War, 1941–1942
- By: Nigel Hamilton
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 20 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on years of archival research and interviews with the last surviving aides and Roosevelt family members, Nigel Hamilton offers a definitive account of FDR’s masterful - and underappreciated - command of the Allied war effort. Hamilton takes listeners inside FDR’s White House Oval Study - his personal command center - and into the meetings where he battled with Churchill about strategy and tactics and overrode the near mutinies of his own generals and secretary of war.
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Great Book, Terrible Narration
- By Ross Mackey on 04-11-22
By: Nigel Hamilton
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The Accidental President
- Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
- By: A. J. Baime
- Narrated by: Tony Messano
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman's first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
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Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-14-17
By: A. J. Baime
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Roosevelt and Stalin
- Portrait of a Partnership
- By: Susan Butler
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Susan Butler's brilliantly listenable audiobook firmly places FDR where he belongs, as the American president engaged most directly in diplomacy and strategy, who not only had an ambitious plan for the postwar world but had the strength, ambition, and personal charm to overcome Churchill's reluctance and Stalin's suspicion to bring about what was, in effect, an American peace and to avoid the disastrous consequences that followed the botched peace of Versailles in 1919.
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The History We Never Knew
- By LS1015 on 05-03-16
By: Susan Butler
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Citizens of London
- The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour
- By: Lynne Olson
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, Averell Harriman, and John Gilbert Winant. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and a reluctant American public to support the British at a critical time.
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If we are together nothing is impossible
- By Susan on 03-06-10
By: Lynne Olson
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Partners in Command
- George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Mark Perry
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book ever to explore the relationship between George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, Partners in Command eloquently tackles a subject that has eluded historians for years. As Mark Perry charts the crucial impact of this duo on victory in World War II and later as they lay the foundation for triumph in the Cold War, he shows us an unlikely, complex collaboration at the heart of decades of successful American foreign policy - and shatters many of the myths that have evolved about these two great men and the issues that tested their alliance.
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Engrossing
- By Jean on 03-02-21
By: Mark Perry
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Donovan
- America’s Master Spy
- By: Richard Dunlop, William Stephenson - foreword
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The fascinating biography of the man who laid the foundation for the CIA. One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.
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Fascinating Biography
- By Jean on 10-15-14
By: Richard Dunlop, and others
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Six Months in 1945
- FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman--from World War to Cold War
- By: Michael Dobbs
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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When Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill met in Yalta in February 1945, Hitler's armies were on the run and victory was imminent. The Big Three wanted to draft a blueprint for a lasting peace - but instead set the stage for a 44-year division of Europe into Soviet and western spheres of influence. After fighting side by side for nearly four years, their political alliance was rapidly fracturing. By the time the leaders met again in Potsdam in July 1945, Russians and Americans were squabbling over the future of Germany and Churchill was warning about an "iron curtain" being drawn down over the Continent.
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Totally Outstanding. Bravo !
- By Alan on 10-25-12
By: Michael Dobbs
What listeners say about American Warlords
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mark C.
- 07-30-15
Another Outstanding Book by this Author
Loved the information and pace of the book and its terrific narrator. It provided great personal insights into these men who were absolutely perfect for the roles Fate assigned them. I became very interested in learning more about George Marshall, a man sadly forgotten about over time.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Alan
- 12-26-15
Terrific listen
I do not hand out 5 stars to every book. In order for a book to be a 5 star you must be
teleported to where the story is being told and you become engrossed in what is happening
around you. You must live the story rather then just witness it. This is why Ameridan
Warlords gets 5 stars from me.
This book is the telling of WW2 from the perspective of the major policy players. Roosevelt Marshal, King, Stimson, Ickies and others. As Hitler takes power in 1933, Roosevelt knows
that a distant storm is coming Wrapped in the throws of the depression, Roosevelt has the vision to jump start the American manufacturing war machine to keep Great Briton afloat.
This book is a must read for the WW2 history buff. Where the book loses one star in performance is the mispronunciation of key names and cities. Missing from this book is any discussion of Harry Hopkins, one of Roosevelt's closest advisers I wonder at this omission
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4 people found this helpful
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- Dennis K.
- 05-01-16
A gem
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This book enthralled me for several weeks. It certainly was not short, but every chapter was a gem. Jonathan W. Jordan's skill with the English language was forever present, and his constant use of naval terms was entirely enjoyable. I have, I guess, a better than average knowledge of WWII for someone of my age, a baby boomer born just a few scant years after the end of the war, and I have read and watched footage of many battles. But everything I had every read or viewed in the past always centered on the battles, and on the military planning for the battles. Jordan's book takes us into the politics and the personalities of the men at the top, and he provides so much wonderful minutia, so many well-woven factoids, so many issues of trivia, that the book comes alive as if the reader (or in my case, the listener) were on scene as a fly on the wall. This is really a terrific book, and vastly enlarged my knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes during WWII. I had not known that much about Ernie King, and always thought of Chester Nimitz as the great admiral of the war. I did not realize that Churchill so staunchly, and for so long, opposed the Normandy invasion, trying desperately and continuously to steer the US to operations in Italy and the Balkans. Certainly I had always known of Eisenhower's success on D-Day, but I did not know that his assignment was almost a last-minute decision. Finally, the pivotal and essential role of Marshall really comes through. The amount of research Jordan must have done to write this book is astounding, and the source material he cites is highly impressive, not only that he viewed these materials, but that he found them. In sum, the book is so beautifully written, so filled with facts, but presented so masterfully, that I found myself suspending my own knowledge and waiting to see how it all worked out. As they say in some book reviews, "A tour de force!"
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- TJ
- 03-18-24
Excellent Audio History Book
Excellent book and reading performance. The author does an excellent job of describing each of the figures in great and vivid detail. 
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- Brian
- 12-02-15
WWII From a different angle
I have read 20+ books on WWII but I haven't read anything as comprehensive from the American high command. I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot
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1 person found this helpful
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- Byron J. Swafford
- 09-08-22
Must read/listen
Just a wonderful and interesting book. Let’s you know just how great a man was George C Marshall…
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- Alice Conley
- 05-14-22
Excellent and colorful
Overall this is an entertaining narrative of the American military high command in World War II. Easy to listen to and captivating.
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- Leslie Mollner
- 05-12-17
Spectacular!
As a 75 year old with an intense interest in WWII, this book was s terrific rendering of how our nations leaders formulated and executed our countries war strategy. It clearly laid out the roles of political and military leaders in place for 5 long years. It's a not to miss audio book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Carly
- 04-19-16
Best WW2 non-fiction I've listened to
Combination of great writing and a great performance made this difficult to put down and by the time I'd finished 20 hours I still wanted more. Fascinating insights from a perspective I've read little about, this book certainly brings the characters to life. Will definitely buy more from this author & performer.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kevin
- 12-04-16
Great listen!
It puts all the major players together and how they reacted with each other. Puts in more perspective than any one biography.
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