Princess, Countess, Socialite, Spy
True Stories of High-Society Ladies Turned WWII Spies (Brave Women Who Changed the Course of WWII)
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Narrated by:
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Natalie Gooding
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By:
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Elise Baker
About this listen
The Second World War changed the course of modern history. It is filled with incredible stories of daring risks and exceptional struggles, but in the popular imagination, these stories are more often than not the stories of men.
There is, however, a hidden treasure trove of untold stories of heroic women who have risked their lives in the monumental battle against fascism.
We’ve heard of women who became nurses treating soldiers with battlefield injuries, partisans who fought occupying armies, and skilled laborers who worked in wartime industries.
But in the shadows, as part of a secret war against the Nazis, women served as intelligence agents who risked their lives to collect and relay information vital to the war effort. Danger lurked at every turn—a danger that some were not able to evade forever.
These courageous women spies worked in secret, but their stories, which are finally coming to light today, offer a significant and unique perspective on the history of World War II.
Inside Princess, Countess, Socialite, Spy: True Stories of High-Society Ladies Turned World War II Spies you’ll learn:
- the thrilling stories of five high-society ladies who went behind enemy lines to aid the war effort, and what motivated them to take such risks,
- what it takes to run a successful espionage operation as a woman during a time when women had little respect in the professional realm,
- the risks of operating undercover and secretly collecting information from the enemy, and
- how these women heroes of WWII helped shape the course and outcome of the most significant war in modern history.
You’ll gain insights into why some high-society ladies chose to give up a life of comfort to fight against global tyranny and live under constant threat of exposure and imprisonment or death.
If you’re looking for a unique and enlightening view of the Second World War and are interested in women’s historically overshadowed roles in international espionage, then look no further than Princess, Countess, Socialite, Spy.
©2022 Elise Baker (P)2022 Elise BakerListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In 1944, Benito Mussolini's daughter, Edda, gave Hitler and her father an ultimatum: release her husband, Galeazzo Ciano, from prison, or risk her leaking her husband's journals to the press. To avoid the peril of exposing Nazi lies, Hitler and Mussolini hunted for the diaries for months, determined to destroy them. Hilde Beetz, a German spy, was deployed to seduce Ciano to learn the diaries' location and take them from Edda. Drawing from in‑depth research and first-person interviews, Mazzeo gives listeners a riveting look into this little‑known moment in history.
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Fascinating WW2 account of women in resistance
- By lgmichael on 10-30-23
By: Tilar J. Mazzeo
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The Book of Honor
- The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives
- By: Ted Gup
- Narrated by: Frank Muller
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Abridged
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In the entrance of the CIA headquarters looms a huge marble wall in to which seventy-one stars are carved - each representing an agent who has died in the line of duty. At the base of this wall lies "The Book of Honor," in which the names of these agents are inscribed, or at least thirty-five of them... In this remarkable program, author Ted Gup delves into covert lives and classified deaths at the CIA.
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Painfully narrated.
- By RM on 08-16-19
By: Ted Gup
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D-Day Girls
- The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II
- By: Sarah Rose
- Narrated by: Sarah Rose
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To "set Europe ablaze," in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharpshooting, was forced to do something unprecedented: recruit women. Thirty-nine answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France.
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an excellent story ruined by horrible narration
- By Joshua on 04-23-19
By: Sarah Rose
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Che Guevara
- A Revolutionary Life
- By: Jon Lee Anderson
- Narrated by: Armando Durán
- Length: 36 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Che Guevara was a dashing rebel whose epic dream was to end poverty and injustice in Latin America and the developing world through armed revolution. Jon Lee Anderson traces Che's extraordinary life from his comfortable Argentine upbringing to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from the halls of power in Castro's government to his failed campaign in the Congo and his assassination in the Bolivian jungle.
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Encompassing and Fair Look at an Historical Man
- By Matt on 08-10-11
By: Jon Lee Anderson
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Agent M
- The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight
- By: Henry Hemming
- Narrated by: Henry Hemming
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The fascinating, improbable true story of Maxwell Knight - the great MI5 spymaster and inspiration for the James Bond character M. Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history. He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain during World War II, in spite of his own history inside this movement. He was also truly eccentric - a thrice-married jazz aficionado who kept a menagerie of exotic pets - and almost totally unqualified for espionage. Yet he had a gift for turning practically anyone into a fearless secret agent.
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Outstanding in every way!
- By Grace O'Malley on 07-18-22
By: Henry Hemming
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An Impeccable Spy
- Richard Sorge, Stalin’s Master Agent
- By: Owen Matthews
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Sorge was a man with two homelands. Born of a German father and a Russian mother in Baku in 1895, he moved in a world of shifting alliances and infinite possibility. A member of the angry and deluded generation who found new, radical faiths after their experiences on the battlefields of the First World War, Sorge became a fanatical communist - and the Soviet Union’s most formidable spy.
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Lots of Politics
- By Cynthia on 04-24-20
By: Owen Matthews
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Hunting Evil
- The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice
- By: Guy Walters
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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From its haunting chronicle of the monstrous mass murders the Nazis perpetrated and the murky details of their postwar existence to the challenges of hunting them down, Hunting Evil is a monumental work of nonfiction written with the pacing and intrigue of a thriller.
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Eye-opening and riveting
- By Ellen on 10-20-10
By: Guy Walters
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True Believer
- Stalin's Last American Spy
- By: Kati Marton
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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True Believer reveals the life of Noel Field, an American who betrayed his country and crushed his family. Field, once a well-meaning and privileged American, spied for Stalin during the 1930s and '40s. Then, a pawn in Stalin's sinister master strategy, Field was kidnapped and tortured by the KGB and forced to testify against his own Communist comrades.
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Misplaced Loyalty
- By Joanne on 04-08-18
By: Kati Marton
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Wise Gals
- The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage
- By: Nathalia Holt
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels.
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Intriguing untold history
- By Andrea Guzman on 12-15-22
By: Nathalia Holt
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Agent 110
- An American Spymaster and the German Resistance in WWII
- By: Scott Miller
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the secret and suspenseful account of how OSS spymaster Allen Dulles led a network of Germans conspiring to assassinate Hitler and negotiate surrender to bring about the end of World War II before the Soviet's advance. Agent 110 is Allen Dulles, a newly minted spy from an eminent family. Dulles met with and facilitated the plots of Germans who were trying to destroy the country's leadership.
By: Scott Miller
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Les Parisiennes
- How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved, and Died Under Nazi Occupation
- By: Anne Sebba
- Narrated by: Polly Stone
- Length: 16 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Paris in the 1940s was a place of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation, and secrets. During the occupation, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurked on every corner. While Parisian men were either fighting at the front or captured and forced to work in German factories, the women of Paris were left behind where they would come face to face with the German conquerors on a daily basis, as waitresses, shop assistants, or wives and mothers, increasingly desperate to find food to feed their families as hunger became part of everyday life.
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An Excellent Historical Perspective
- By Lulu on 10-28-16
By: Anne Sebba
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The Quiet Professional: Major Richard J. Meadows of the U.S. Army Special Forces
- American Warriors
- By: Alan Hoe
- Narrated by: David Gilmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Major Richard J. "Dick" Meadows is renowned in military circles as a key figure in the development of the U.S. Army Special Operations. A highly decorated war veteran of the engagements in Korea and Vietnam, Meadows was instrumental in the founding of the U.S. Delta Force and hostage rescue force. Although he officially retired in 1977, Meadows could never leave the army behind, and he went undercover in the clandestine operations to free American hostages from Iran in 1980.
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Another possibly good book ruined by poor performance
- By Justin L. on 11-15-20
By: Alan Hoe
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Children of Nazis
- The Sons and Daughters of Himmler, Göring, Höss, Mengele, and Others - Living with a Father’s Monstrous Legacy
- By: Tania Crasnianski, Molly Grogan - translator
- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1940, the German sons and daughters of infamous Nazi dignitaries Himmler, Göring, Hess, Frank, Bormann, Speer, and Mengele were children of privilege at four, five, or 10 years old, surrounded by affectionate, all-powerful parents. Although innocent and unaware of what was happening at the time, they eventually discovered the extent of their fathers' occupations: These men were leaders of the Third Reich and would later be convicted as monstrous war criminals.
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Fantastic
- By Anonymous User on 12-30-22
By: Tania Crasnianski, and others
What listeners say about Princess, Countess, Socialite, Spy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- princesscathy
- 01-27-23
Pageant narration
I could not get past the prologue between the pageant/radio announcer narrator and the simplistic writing.
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