Hero of the Empire
The Boer War, a Daring Escape, and the Making of Winston Churchill
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Narrated by:
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Simon Vance
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By:
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Candice Millard
About this listen
From New York Times best-selling author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt, a thrilling narrative of Winston Churchill's extraordinary and little-known exploits during the Boer War.
At age 24 Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had just lost his first election campaign for Parliament. He believed that to achieve his goal, he had to do something spectacular on the battlefield. Despite deliberately putting himself in extreme danger as a British army officer in colonial wars in India and Sudan and as a journalist covering a Cuban uprising against the Spanish, glory and fame had eluded him.
Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899, valet and crates of vintage wine in tow, there to cover the brutal colonial war the British were fighting with Boer rebels. But just two weeks after his arrival, the soldiers he was accompanying on an armored train were ambushed, and Churchill was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape - but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory alone, with nothing but a crumpled wad of cash, four slabs of chocolate, and his wits to guide him.
The story of his escape is incredible enough, but then Churchill enlisted, returned to South Africa, fought in several battles, and ultimately liberated the men with whom he had been imprisoned. Churchill would later remark that this period, "could I have seen my future, was to lay the foundations of my later life".
Millard spins an epic story of bravery, savagery, and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters - including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener, and Mohandas Gandhi - with whom he would later share the world stage. But Hero of the Empire is more than an adventure story, for the lessons Churchill took from the Boer War would profoundly affect 20th-century history.
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- By Bradley on 11-28-18
By: Edward G. Lengel
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The War Lovers
- Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Although there was no evidence that the Spanish were responsible, yellow newspapers such as William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal whipped Americans into frenzy by claiming that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship. Soon after, the blandly handsome and easily influenced President McKinley declared war, sending troops not only to Cuba but also to the Philippines.
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A Rather Poor History
- By Paul C. White on 08-17-10
By: Evan Thomas
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The Saboteur
- The Aristocrat Who Became France's Most Daring Anti-Nazi Commando
- By: Paul Kix
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of Agent Zigzag comes this breathtaking biography, as fast-paced and emotionally intuitive as the very best spy thrillers, which illuminates an unsung hero of the French Resistance during World War II - Robert de La Rochefoucald, an aristocrat turned anti-Nazi saboteur - and his daring exploits as a résistant trained by Britain's Special Operations Executive.
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Brave outstanding young man
- By paula wright on 06-02-20
By: Paul Kix
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April 1865
- The Month That Saved America
- By: Professor Jay Winik
- Narrated by: Professor Jay Winik
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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April 1865 could have destroyed the nation. Instead it saved it. As April begins, the battered Confederate capital of Richmond falls to the Union Army. Robert E. Lee surrenders his forces to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox one week later. In good spirits and sensing the war's end, President Abraham Lincoln attends a comedic play - and is assassinated. Simultaneously, Secretary of State William Seward is brutally attacked but survives.
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REALLY!
- By Jonah on 04-22-17
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Into Africa
- The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone
- By: Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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"Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" So goes the signature introduction of New York Herald star journalist Henry Morton Stanley to renowned explorer Dr. David Livingstone, who had been missing for six years in the wilds of Africa. Into Africa ushers us into the meeting of these remarkable men. In 1866, when Livingstone journeyed into the heart of the African continent in search of the Nile's source, the land was rough, unknown to Europeans, and inhabited by man-eating tribes.
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Riveting
- By Gene on 04-01-04
By: Martin Dugard
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My Fellow Soldiers
- General John Pershing and the Americans Who Helped Win the Great War
- By: Andrew Carroll
- Narrated by: Andrew Carroll
- Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Carroll's intimate portrait of General Pershing, who led all of the American troops in Europe during World War I, is a revelation. Given a military force that on the eve of its entry into the war was downright primitive compared to the European combatants, the general surmounted enormous obstacles to build an army and ultimately command millions of US soldiers. But Pershing himself - often perceived as a harsh, humorless, and wooden leader - concealed inner agony from those around him.
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Don’t pass this up
- By PineappleSmoothy on 03-29-18
By: Andrew Carroll
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Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
- Four Women Undercover in the Civil War
- By: Karen Abbott
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Karen Abbott illuminates one of the most fascinating yet little-known aspects of the Civil War: The stories of four courageous women - a socialite, a farmgirl, an abolitionist, and a widow - who were spies. After shooting a Union soldier in her front hall with a pocket pistol, Belle Boyd became a courier and spy for the Confederate army, using her charms to seduce men on both sides. Emma Edmonds cut off her hair and assumed the identity of a man to enlist as a Union private, witnessing the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.
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Shockingly Bad Narrator
- By Sheesha on 11-12-14
By: Karen Abbott
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Prevail
- The Inspiring Story of Ethiopia's Victory over Mussolini's Invasion, 1935-1941
- By: Jeff Pearce, Richard Pankhurst - foreword
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 24 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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It was the war that changed everything, and yet it's been mostly forgotten: in 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia. It dominated newspaper headlines and newsreels. It inspired mass marches in Harlem, a play on Broadway, and independence movements in Africa. As the British Navy sailed into the Mediterranean for a white-knuckle showdown with Italian ships, riots broke out in major cities all over the United States.
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This is not a history, it's a package of anecdotes
- By M2 on 02-03-15
By: Jeff Pearce, and others
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1944
- FDR and the Year That Changed History
- By: Jay Winik
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 21 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Jay Winik brings to life in gripping detail the year 1944, which determined the outcome of World War II and put more pressure than any other on an ailing yet determined President Roosevelt.
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Stimulating
- By Jean on 11-14-15
By: Jay Winik
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Thunder in the Mountains
- Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War
- By: Daniel Sharfstein
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 3 mins
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Oliver Otis Howard thought he was a man of destiny. Chosen to lead the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War, the Union Army general was entrusted with the era's most crucial task: helping millions of former slaves claim the rights of citizens. He was energized by the belief that abolition and Reconstruction, the country's great struggles for liberty and equality, were God's plan for himself and the nation.
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Interesting but lenghty.
- By Tristan on 05-10-18
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Swansong 1945
- A Collective Diary of the Last Days of the Third Reich
- By: Walter Kempowski, Shaun Whiteside - translator
- Narrated by: Eric G. Dove, Christine Williams
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
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Swansong 1945 chronicles the end of Nazi Germany and World War II in Europe through hundreds of letters, diaries, and autobiographical accounts covering four days that fateful spring: Hitler's birthday on April 20, American and Soviet troops meeting at the Elbe on April 25, Hitler's suicide on April 30, and finally the German surrender on May 8.
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Important, Tragic, Poignant...
- By Amazon Customer on 07-31-15
By: Walter Kempowski, and others
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To End All Wars
- A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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World War I stands as one of history's most senseless spasms of carnage, defying rational explanation. In a riveting, suspenseful narrative with haunting echoes for our own time, Adam Hochschild brings it to life as never before. He focuses on the long-ignored moral drama of the war's critics, alongside its generals and heroes. Thrown in jail for their opposition to the war were Britain's leading investigative journalist, a future winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and an editor who, behind bars, published a newspaper for his fellow inmates on toilet paper.
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A story of personalities
- By Tad Davis on 06-09-11
By: Adam Hochschild
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On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
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John Lee’s narration is a struggle
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What listeners say about Hero of the Empire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- G
- 10-04-16
Outstanding work
Beautifully and elligantly written and historically faithful, this is exciting and moving prose. Highly recommended .
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- Cash
- 05-02-19
historically amazing
I loved this book, it's the second I've listened to from this author. the first being Theodore Roosevelt and the river of doubt. both were incredible. highly recommend.
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1 person found this helpful
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- D PAULSEN
- 06-11-18
the Humbling that shaped a leader
what an intriguing, uncelebrated set of events that inevitably changed and shaped a strong, driven, self-assured aristocrat. Knowing what lies in Churchill's future role in the resilience of his mother country in the wake of the Nazi rampage, the reading audience is subtily lead to recognize the Devine intervention and weaving of tragedy, fear, loss, lonliness, hopelessness, senselessness, tenacity, leadership, patriotism, and experience to prepare the right man for the WWll crisis. Millard has an artful skill of connecting forshadowing, past events, and the present, to tell an edgy story that explains the "how" the quirky, brilliant Churchill became that man. The reader of this audio, Simon Vance, read this story in the dignity of a Brittish accent, and convincing manner of a story teller.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-29-17
Another great Candice Millard Book
What made the experience of listening to Hero of the Empire the most enjoyable?
Great narrator, great story. How Winston became Winston.
What did you like best about this story?
It was like reading an action novel, but it was real
Which scene was your favorite?
The armored train.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
no
Any additional comments?
All three of Millard's novels are must-read.
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- Neil
- 01-12-20
What an adventure
Fantastic real life story of Churchill. Was he a war correspondent or in the military. I highly recommend this book, if you like adventure and real life facts then this will not disappoint. The courage of the Boers was something also, They won their first engagement, but pushed the empire to take them on again, but the British neglected them in prisoner camps. Most died there.
Gold was the driver of it all for the Europeans with the natives being spectators and victims.
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- Joseph
- 01-10-17
The Drama of History
Almost all of what I knew about Winston Churchill started with the second World War. So it was with real interest that I read Hero of the Empire, to get some sense of the early life of this great man.
Candice Millard tells the story of Churchill in a style that could be fiction. It kept my interest throughout. I was also pleased to learn about the Boers, South Africa and the conflicts and courage of people on all sides.
Simon Vance is wonderful with his command of language(s) and pronunciations as well as his interpretation of the drama in the story itself.
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- Levins-Hevin
- 11-26-17
A great period education of Sir Winston Churchill
A great period education of Sir Winston Churchill time in South Africa during the Boer war. One irritant, was the author went to great lengthens to learn how to pronounce Afrikaans words, and got the most commonly used Afrikaans word in the book INCORRECT. It is kopies NOT kop-jees. A little, sometime more irritating as the book went along, that he could have gotten that word so wrong. Kopies are small hillocks in that area, that give the country a beauty, and he used the word a lot!! Note to a narrator, when doing accents, get a local of that language/dialect to listen to the book.
It also merged Sir Churchill's accounting with another historical book that less expansive bias of his exploits.
I loved the story.
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- Darren Sapp
- 05-12-17
Fascinating!
Any additional comments?
I knew this snippet of Churchill's life, but I had no idea it was worthy of a movie. Millard is an excellent storyteller.
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-12-17
Wonderful!
this is a wonderful introduction to the man who would become a lion. the facial nature is compelling.
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- Bonnie
- 11-07-19
Great book. I highly recommend.
The historical detail is wonderful. The narrator did a fine job of reading the story and even giving a Churchillian flavor to his voice.
Well done, and well enjoyed.
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