
Grand Expectations
The United States 1945-1974
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Narrated by:
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Robert Fass
About this listen
Grand Expectations weaves the major political, cultural, and economic events of the period into a superb portrait of America from 1945 through Watergate.
Read with warmth by Robert Fass, who previously narrated Oxford’s Empire of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood, this history portrays the amazing growth after World War II rallied an upbeat mood and grander and grander expectations as the era progressed.
As one of four new volumes offered by Audible, Grand Expectations brings to audio one part of an elegant American history that was conceived of and originally edited by C. Vann Woodward and Richard Hofstadter more than 50 years ago.
Please note: The individual volumes of the series have not been published in historical order. Grand Expectations is number X in The Oxford History of the United States.
Listen to more of the definitive Oxford History of the United States.©1996 James T. Patterson (P)2010 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Very Entertaining/Researched
- By ptr on 02-23-25
By: Dan Slater
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The Director
- My Years Assisting J. Edgar Hoover
- By: Paul Letersky, Gordon L. Dillow - contributor
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book ever written about FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover by a member of his personal staff - his former assistant, Paul Letersky - offers unprecedented insight into an American legend.
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Honest Account
- By ptr on 11-17-21
By: Paul Letersky, and others
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American Front
- The Great War, Book 1
- By: Harry Turtledove
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Hugo Award winner Harry Turtledove is the master of alternate history. In American Front he envisions World War I as it may have been if fought on American soil. The United States and Germany clash with the Confederacy, France, and Britain as the machines of modern warfare litter the landscape with carnage. Meanwhile, oppressed southern blacks head toward a fateful confrontation.
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Cassette Recording?
- By Robert on 07-23-20
By: Harry Turtledove
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The Start
- 1904-1930
- By: William L. Shirer
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 22 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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William L. Shirer was a CBS foreign correspondent and renowned author of New York Times best-selling nonfiction about World War II, and this is the first part of his three-part autobiography. A renowned journalist and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer chronicles his own life story in a personal history that parallels the greater historical events for which he served as a witness.
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Clouds gathering on the horizon in Europe
- By Nancy on 08-12-20
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Thomas Jefferson and His Time, Volume 1
- The Virginian
- By: Dumas Malone
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the first volume of distinguished historian Dumas Malone's Pulitzer Prize-winning six-volume work on the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. Based on a myriad of sources, it covers Jefferson's ancestry, youth, education, and legal career; his marriage and the building of Monticello; the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Notes on Virginia; his rich, fruitful legislative career; his highly controversial governorship; and his early services to the development of the West.
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thoroughly satisfying
- By Robert on 01-22-08
By: Dumas Malone
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The Trial of the Century
- By: Gregg Jarrett, Don Yaeger - contributor
- Narrated by: Gregg Jarrett
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly a century ago, famed liberal attorney Clarence Darrow defended schoolteacher John Scopes in a blockbuster legal proceeding that brought the attention of the entire country to the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Darrow’s seminal defense of freedom of speech helped form the legal bedrock on which our civil liberties depend today. Expertly researched, “colorful, and dramatic” (Publishers Weekly), The Trial of the Century calls upon our past to unite Americans in the defense of the free exchange of ideas, especially in this divided time.
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Well written and well narrated
- By GERRARD-GOUGH on 02-05-25
By: Gregg Jarrett, and others
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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume One
- By: Edward Gibbon
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Gibbon's masterpiece on Rome is a monument of literature and a model of modern historical research. There has never been anything quite like it since its publication between 1776 and 1788. Although some of Gibbon's views are considered controversial today, there is no doubt that his research and patient devotion to scholarship produced one of the most valuable and renowned histories of all time.
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the standard
- By Mark on 11-22-13
By: Edward Gibbon
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Race to the Bottom
- Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education
- By: Luke Rosiak
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In Race to the Bottom, Luke Rosiak uncovers the shocking reason why American education is failing: Powerful special interest groups are using our kids as guinea pigs in vast ideological experiments. These groups’ initiatives aren’t focused on making children smarter—but on implementing a radical agenda, no matter the effect on academic standards.
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This is literally 100% propaganda.
- By Ekim N. on 03-11-22
By: Luke Rosiak
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Valley Forge
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Valley Forge is the riveting true story of an underdog US toppling an empire. Using new and rarely seen contemporaneous documents - and drawing on a cast of iconic characters and remarkable moments that capture the innovation and energy that led to the birth of our nation - the New York Times best-selling authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin provide a breathtaking account of this seminal and previously undervalued moment in the battle for American independence.
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Moving story about saving the Revolution
- By LEE on 11-15-18
By: Bob Drury, and others
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Roman History, Volume 1
- By: Dio Cassius
- Narrated by: Charlton Griffin
- Length: 29 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Dio Cassius was a Roman statesman and historian of Greek origin. He published 80 volumes of history on ancient Rome, beginning with the arrival of Aeneas in Italy. The volumes documented the subsequent founding of Rome (753 BC), the formation of the republic (509 BC), and the creation of the empire (31 BC). The history continues until AD 229.
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Charlton Griffin is amazing as usual!
- By Placeholder on 07-12-18
By: Dio Cassius
What listeners say about Grand Expectations
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- Luis-mad
- 07-14-16
great overview of the period
great overview of the period, balanced but engaging, and the story like format makes it compatible with doing other tasks.
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- Clayton Bosler
- 09-03-12
Great read, on a little explored time in US Histor
Would you listen to Grand Expectations again? Why?
There's so much in this book that helps understand the arc of US history! I was quite impressed with the excellent writing and solid performance of this book. Highly recommended!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Thomas
- 08-14-11
fast moving history
I really enjoyed this book. The first few hours sort of drag, but maybe this is becuase i had just finished the previous book in the series, Freedom from Fear, and this was somewhat repetitive. But after that, I thought this book was really enjoyable.
First, the narration is outstanding, well paced, and well read.
There are sections that are truly outstanding. Rather then delve into tons of details and give day by day, or week by week accounts of certain time periods in history, the authors given an overview. For instance, he lays out the 4 key components to johnson's liberal agenda early in his second term, and then goes on to analyze this from a longer term perspective. Now one could argue that he does a fair bit of "interpretation", and there is a fair bit of opinion in some of these sections, but i found them pretty balanced, and he offers both positives and negatives to most historical questions, including whose fault was the cold war, the effectiveness of eisenhower, and johnson's role in both domestic and civil rights issues, as well as the war.
There are a few sections which are a little weak, where the authors gives rather dull lists of statistics to support his point, and there are a few topics which seem alittle bit over stressed where i had a little trouble paying attention, but overall a very very good read and rapid moving assessment of the period and definitely worth it. I look forward to the next book in the series.
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9 people found this helpful
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- NK
- 02-12-14
Very Well Worth the Time
The story was very interesting, the narration was great. Very much enjoyed this book plus learned a wealth of information about the 50's and 60's.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Ray
- 02-12-11
Disappointing
I have listened to most of the books in the Oxford US History series and found this one to be the weakest. One problem is the difficulty in writing about recent history (this was written 20 years after the end of the period covered). It generally takes many decades for history to be discussed objectively and with the benefit of hindsight. Recent revelations conflict with the author’s conclusions in some instances. (The identity of Deep Throat, guilt of the Rosenberg’s and Alger Hiss).
Several chapters are devoted to rambling, simplistic discussions of topics such as suburbs and women’s liberation that caused my attention to drift. How long can you listen to someone lament the loss of intimacy of the city as people migrated to the sterile suburbs. This is simply someone’s idealistic viewpoint, not history.
I found it refreshing that he portrayed JFK’s presidency objectively, not as Camelot. Surprisingly, Stalin was OK; if only we had treated him better at the end of World War II we may have avoided the Cold War. He seems a bit harsh on Nixon. The man had many faults, but the author states that everything he did, from establishing relations with China to winding down the war in Vietnam was done solely for the purpose of getting re-elected. This simplistic conclusion avoids the more complex geopolitical analysis this topic deserves.
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18 people found this helpful
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- D. DOMINGUE
- 01-16-15
The More Things Change...
...the more they stay the same. Mr. Patterson did a great job of showing me a wide variety of people and events and perspectives of both to know more about history. I'm a history teacher and I love when I can find a history book to expand my knowledge and give me a new view of the story. Mr. Patterson did both. This isn't the first Oxford history book that I've read (or had read to me thanks to Audible). I can now say that I'm quite addicted. I've now purchased every eBook and audio book in the series!
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7 people found this helpful
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- R.S.
- 12-08-11
A Tour de Force
This was quite an extraordinary history book. It has been a few weeks now since I've listened to it, but it left a good impression. I remember thinking that the United States has an impressive pantheon of historians. Scholars who not only write disciplined prose, but present judicious, comprehensive and thoughtful accounts of the American past. Though I did not approach this book with grand expectations, at its conclusion I looked back at it as a grand listening experience.
The reader's authoritative voice moved the narrative along at a good pace
Generally, the available variety of good books to listen to is stunning and overwhelming.
Though one cannot expect an answer, the question suggests itself, because the contrast between the scholarly realm and the realm of politics on television is so vast. Given the existence of such a vast quantity of quality writing in so many humanistic fields, why is it that in the American political arena the variety of voices are so meager, and the discourse so base, and so awful?
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3 people found this helpful
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- trevor
- 09-10-12
Exactly What I wanted
This book, as with the others in the Oxford History of the United States, is a well written and very thorough account of the time period identified. I enjoyed it very much.
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1 person found this helpful
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- James Wilson
- 01-13-22
Well written, fast paced, and balanced
Much better than expected. The book covers a huge period of history, but does a great job providing an overview fitting a consistent theme, while still providing sufficient detail to understand the individual events. Definitely one of the better written history books I've read. The narrator was also surprisingly good and easy to listen to.
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- Kindle Customer
- 03-04-13
A Fairly Unbiased Look at US Political History
Where does Grand Expectations rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
As far as books on American history go, this is fairly unbiased and is very thorough. The author did a very good job of putting a lot of complicated history into a very easy to follow chain of events.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Grand Expectations?
Throughout the text the author presented the topics covered in a very unbiased fashion. I could not detect any spin or revisionism with the topics presented. That stands out throughout the book. I can't say anything was earth shattering because it has been covered i one way shape or form.
Which character – as performed by Robert Fass – was your favorite?
He did a good job with LBJ.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Not really. However the way this aspect of 20th history was presented I can say that I have a greater understanding of what was going on. The author did a much better job than most of my history professors at explaining the facts and making them clear and understandable.
Any additional comments?
It does start out slow in the first few chapters. It is a lot of fairly deep stuff. Trust me this book is worth your time.
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9 people found this helpful