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Golden Ghetto
- How the Americans & French Fell in & out of Love During the Cold War
- Narrated by: Bill Fike
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
Considering the suspicions, jealousies, bigotry, and crass opportunism inherent whenever one power occupies another, Golden Ghetto: How the Americans and French Fell in and out of Love During the Cold War pieces together an improbable tale of how fear and skepticism were crushed by trust and friendship.
Award-winning journalist Steve Bassett stumbled onto this story shortly after he and his wife purchased a home in Sainte Colombe in Central France. They heard countless, somewhat mystical tales about how a huge US Air Force base transformed the political, economic, and social lives of two French and American generations lucky enough to grab onto the base’s brass ring. If ever a US military base deserved the sobriquet “Golden Ghetto”, it was the Déols-Châteauroux Air Station (CHAS), which for 16 years during the height of the Cold War was considered one of the most desirable postings in the world, until Charles de Gaulle booted the Americans and other NATO military out of France and the Golden Ghetto was padlocked.
Based on hundreds of hours of research and interviews, Golden Ghetto is a collective memoir, a first-ever look at life on an overseas base from the perspectives of both the occupied and occupier. Professional and amateur historians as well as casual listeners will be enthralled by this bird’s-eye view of how early Communist-driven distrust and paranoia never stood a chance against handshakes, smiles, and kisses.
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Important story of this secret city
- By CBlox on 11-14-13
By: Denise Kiernan
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The Train to Crystal City
- FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
- By: Jan Jarboe Russell
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II, where thousands of families - many US citizens - were incarcerated.
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I didn't know...
- By Graham Emslie on 02-27-17
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Call of Duty
- My Life Before, During, and After the Band of Brothers
- By: Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton, Marcus Brotherton
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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As part of the elite 101st Airborne paratroopers, Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton fought in the critical battles of Normandy and Market Garden and in the freezing cold of Bastogne. Easy Company, immortalized as the Band of Brothers, stands today as an unparalleled icon of brotherhood and bravery under fire.
This is the true story of a real-life hero who traveled to a faraway place and put his life on the line for the cause of freedom---and an insightful memoir about courage, leadership, camaraderie, compassion, and the opportunities for success that can only happen in America.
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No content
- By Amazon Customer on 06-16-08
By: Lt. Lynn "Buck" Compton, and others
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Destined to Witness
- Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany
- By: Hans Massaquoi
- Narrated by: Peter Jay Fernandez
- Length: 19 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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What would life be like for a Black boy growing up in Nazi Germany? This unprecedented autobiography answers that question with the spellbinding true story of Hans J. Massaquoi’s life in Hamburg during the height of Hitler’s regime. Hans is the son of a Black Liberian diplomat father and a white German mother. His father returns to Africa at the beginning of the war, leaving them behind in poverty without the means to flee. Within this tense atmosphere, increasingly violent Nazi policies and Allied bombing raids make Hans and his mother’s lives a day-to-day survival struggle.
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An important story, marred by lackluster writing.
- By Christopher on 03-04-15
By: Hans Massaquoi
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The Bletchley Girls
- War, Secrecy, Love and Loss: The Women of Bletchley Park Tell Their Story
- By: Tessa Dunlop
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Historian and broadcaster Tessa Dunlop tells the story of the women of Bletchley Park through exclusive and unprecedented access to the women themselves. The Bletchley Girls weaves together the lives of 15 women who were all selected to work in Britain's most secret organisation - Bletchley Park. It is their story, told in their voices; Tessa met and talked to 15 veterans, often visiting them several times. Firm friendships were made as their epic journey unfolded on paper.
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Disjointed & Confusing
- By Sara on 02-02-16
By: Tessa Dunlop
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Dancing Bears
- By: Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones - translator, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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For hundreds of years, Bulgarian Gypsies trained bears to dance, welcoming them into their families and taking them on the road to perform. In the early 2000s, with the fall of Communism, they were forced to release the bears into a wildlife refuge. But even today, whenever the bears see a human, they still get up on their hind legs to dance. In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński, award-winning Polish journalist, Witold Szabłowski uncovers remarkable stories of people throughout Eastern Europe and in Cuba who, like Bulgaria’s dancing bears, are now free but who seem nostalgic for the time when they were not.
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Intelligent, entertaining, & insightful
- By Kait on 07-23-19
By: Witold Szabłowski, and others
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The Day the World Came to Town
- 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
- By: Jim DeFede
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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When 38 jetliners bound for the United States were forced to land at Gander International Airport in Canada by the closing of US airspace on September 11, the population of this small town on Newfoundland Island swelled from 10,300 to nearly 17,000. The citizens of Gander met the stranded passengers with an overwhelming display of friendship and goodwill.
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👍👍 From one of the Plane People
- By Timothy on 12-30-19
By: Jim DeFede
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Midnight in Siberia
- A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia
- By: David Greene
- Narrated by: David Greene
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Through the stories of fellow travelers, Greene explores the challenges and opportunities facing the new Russia: a nation that boasts open elections and newfound prosperity yet still continues to endure oppression, corruption, and stark inequality. Set against the wintery landscape of Siberia, Greene’s lively travel narrative offers a glimpse into the soul of 20th century Russia: how its people remember their history and look forward to the future.
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Long String of NPR Short Reports
- By Sara on 04-13-15
By: David Greene
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Operation Whisper
- The Capture of Soviet Spies Morris and Lona Cohen
- By: Barnes Carr
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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In Operation Whisper, Barnes Carr tells the true story of the most effective Soviet spy couple in America, a pair who vanished under the FBI's nose only to turn up posing as rare book dealers in London, where they continued their atomic spying. The Cohens were talented, dedicated, worldly spies - an urbane, jet-set couple loyal to their service and their friends. Most people they met seemed to think they represented the best of America. The Soviets certainly thought so.
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Too many facts details
- By Rebecca C. Browne on 10-02-17
By: Barnes Carr
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The Last of the Doughboys
- The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War
- By: Richard Rubin
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 20 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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They were the final survivors of the millions who made up the American Expeditionary Forces, nineteenth-century men and women living in the twenty-first century. Self-reliant, humble, and stoic, they kept their stories to themselves for a lifetime, then shared them at the last possible moment so that they, and the war they won - the trauma that created our modern world - might at last be remembered. You will never forget them.
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Flawed But Worthwhile: History Buffs Should Get It
- By Jim on 01-12-14
By: Richard Rubin
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Factory Girls
- From Village to City in a Changing China
- By: Leslie T. Chang
- Narrated by: Susan Ericksen
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A book of global significance that provides new insight into China, Factory Girls demonstrates how the mass movement from rural villages to cities is remaking individual lives and transforming Chinese society, much as immigration to America's shores remade our own country a century ago.
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Living in Shenzhen - and What A Disappointment
- By Abstraction on 03-01-10
By: Leslie T. Chang
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Charlie Mike
- A True Story of War and Finding the Way Home
- By: Joe Klein
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In Charlie Mike, Joe Klein tells the dramatic story of Eric Greitens and Jake Wood, larger-than-life war heroes who come home and use their military discipline and values to help others. This is a story that hasn't been told before, one of the most hopeful to emerge from Iraq and Afghanistan - a saga of lives saved, not wasted.
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Thank you for all. Aco. 2/14TH INF 10TH MNT
- By Wolf on 07-14-20
By: Joe Klein