Fateful Choices Audiobook By Ian Kershaw cover art

Fateful Choices

Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941

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Fateful Choices

By: Ian Kershaw
Narrated by: Bruce Mann
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About this listen

The newest immensely original undertaking from the historian who gave us the defining two-volume portrait of Hitler, Fateful Choices puts Ian Kershaw's analytical and storytelling gifts on dazzling display.

From May 1940 to December 1941, the leaders of the world's six major powers made a series of related decisions that determined the final outcome of World War II and shaped the course of human destiny.

As the author examines the connected stories of these profound choices, he restores a sense of drama and contingency to this pivotal moment, producing one of the freshest, most important books on World War II in years - one with powerful contemporary relevance.

©2007 Ian Kershaw (P)2020 Tantor
20th Century World World War II Military War Interwar Period Imperialism Holocaust Self-Determination Winston Churchill
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What listeners say about Fateful Choices

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Awful, distracting narration

Good book but incredibly annoying narration that distracted me ever second. It is a painful listen but the information is fascinating which is why it should be recorded again by another narrator.

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Extraordinary

The Second World War was the war of my father’s generation and so became the prism through which my generation saw the world and the basis on which many subsequent decisions were made. Because of this I have read a considerable amount on the period from 1930 through 1945 to understand the causes that led to so much destruction and loss of life and Mr Kershaw’s book has been very helpful in understanding why some things occurred as compared to how they occurred.

What Mr Kershaw has done is take 10 decisions made from May 1940 through December 1941 which he feels changed the world. When I first approached this book my assumption was that these were 10 decisions made by heads of government on who to fight and how to wage the war but my outlook was too narrow as one of those decisions had nothing to do specifically with the waging the war itself. What the book does is examine each of these 10 decisions in detail.

The author looks at the background behind each decision, the decision process itself in considerable detail, the effects of the decision and some possible alternatives that could have been made instead. Many of the decision themselves - Britain’s decision to continue fighting after the defeat of France, Hitler’s decision to attack the Soviet Union, Roosevelt’s decision to provide Britain help through the Destroyers for Bases deal and Lend Lease, Japan’s decision to go to war rather than allow diplomacy to continue and Hitler’s decision to declare war on the US - are those that anyone who studied the war would have included in a list of the 10 most important decisions, but some are surprises and Mr Kershaw goes to some length to explain why he feels that the decisions were made and why they were important.

Although I have read a great deal about World War II there was not a single decision covered in the book that did not tell me something I did not know, and much of it was in such detail that it explained not only how, but why the decision was made and I found this very helpful in understanding things I always wondered about. For example, why did Japan decide to “go south” in its attacks instead of attacking the Soviet Union, it’s old enemy? Why did Hitler decide to declare war on the US in spite of the fact that his alliance with Japan did not require him to do so? Why did Japan attack the US when none of its politicians really believed it could win a long war?

Also a bit surprising are some of the decisions left out of the list. I had expected to see France’s decision to capitulate instead of continuing to fight after the German attack and the decision to proceed with the Manhattan Project to be included but neither was.

The narration is adequate, although a bit slow and I ended up listening at 1.1X normal speed to compensate. Still I found the book so interesting and so informative that I ended up finishing it in a little over a week. Since the book is about 27 hours long that meant about 3 hours a day and that is a lot for me. Basically I found it hard to put down, and I recommend this book to anyone interested in why some decisions were made during The Second World War rather than how they were implemented.

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Just couldn't stand the narrator

I rarely return a book without finishing but I just could not stand the narrator and returned after 6 hours. I just couldn't imagine going another 21 hours. PLEASE list to the sample before deciding!

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Thought provoking listening

A new audio book of Kershaw's 2007 book. 'Fateful Choices' shows it's age well and it still very worthwhile listen, and often challenges a lot of 'conventional' that is still present in popular culture today.

Unfortunately while the narrator is competent and his voice engaging enough so that I didn't fall asleep. His speaking speed was very slow in my opinion. I'd suggest listening to the book at 1.25 speed for greater enjoyment. As well there were several technical gaffes; where the narrator asked questions to the editor that made it into the recording.

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Good book but needs better editing

This is the first audiobook (out of hundreds) in which I heard verbal notes left by the narrator to the editor. It didn’t diminish the effect of the story but were surprising nonetheless.

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Interesting!

It's an interesting book, very thoughtful and well written, but much of it repeats material from other books. Even so, worth the time. I did have some difficulty with narrator...I did become more accustomed to his style by the time I finished..

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Interesting and insightful

I very much enjoyed the way the author took apart the decisions and the factors that influenced them.

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Riveting Story

How quickly nations can slip into war - world war. We should take heed in 2023. Loved the book. Did not like the narrator. Distracted from the story.

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You may grind your teeth to powder

Hard to get to content because the reader was wrong for the content. We didn't get past an hour because the opening provided a list of each of the characters and their positions—with no context. We lost faith in the writer soon into chapter one.

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Recitation is not Explanation

First off, the narrator is just not cut out for this business. He has no flow and his pronunciation of one of the key words in this book, 'war', sounds like anything from whoa to wow to wall. It makes for a tedious listen.

Next, the material. I'm not totally convinced this is Kershaw writing this book. Having read his two volume bio of Hitler, which was published earlier than this book, it's just not the same author's voice. This is redundant, dull, splattered with unprofessional phrases such as 'way back'' and 'way beyond' and often times infers emotions and conclusions of leaders that are distractions from the dilemmas he is examining. The dilemmas themselves are exhaustively explored but in excruciatingly pedantic fashion, which I consider totally unnecessary. No casual is going to stumble on this book and think, "Wow, what a great first book on WW2 I've found!" He's writing to a specialist audience yet treats it as a college lecture and the result is awful.

Specifically, his analysis of Hitler's declaration of war on the USA is far off the mark. He wants to reduce it some kind of rationality but his reasons aren't convincing in the least. His final chapter on the decision to engage in genocide is, as he admits, hardly a forced decision point, made no sense in relation to winning the war and the alternatives to genocide given the nature of National Socialism's inherent racism was unlikely to have had any traction. So why include it here, except as drama? He thoroughly examined the Holocaust in relation to Hitler in his bio of Hitler, which is where it properly belongs, not here, considering decision points that could possibly have altered the course of the war.

The most interesting chapter was the one of Mussolini's entrance into the war. Aside from that, this is a grandiose swing and a miss.

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4 people found this helpful