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Sons of Freedom
- The Forgotten American Soldiers Who Defeated Germany in World War I
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Wawro
- Length: 20 hrs and 19 mins
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Publisher's summary
The "stirring", definitive history of America's decisive role in winning World War I (Wall Street Journal).
The American contribution to World War I is one of the great stories of the 20th century, and yet it has all but vanished from view. Historians have dismissed the American war effort as largely economic and symbolic. But as Geoffrey Wawro shows in Sons of Freedom, the French and British were on the verge of collapse in 1918, and would have lost the war without the Doughboys. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, described the Allied victory as a "miracle" - but it was a distinctly American miracle.
In Sons of Freedom, prize-winning historian Geoffrey Wawro weaves together in thrilling detail the battles, strategic deliberations, and dreadful human cost of the American war effort. A major revision of the history of World War I, Sons of Freedom resurrects the brave heroes who saved the Allies, defeated Germany, and established the United States as the greatest of the great powers.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Critic reviews
"Geoffrey Wawro has written distinguished works of military history before, but this might be his most compelling. His tale of the Doughboys is gripping, his argument about their accomplishment is persuasive, and his enthusiasm for the era and the subject is irresistible." (H.W. Brands, author of The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
"Geoffrey Wawro adds to his luster as one of America's leading military historians with the meticulously researched Sons of Freedom. He upends the conventional understanding of how World War I ended, showing that the military prowess of the American Expeditionary Forces was of critical importance in the defeat of Wilhelmine Germany even if the U.S. suffered far less than the other combatants. The Doughboys finally get their long overdue credit in this important work of revisionist history. Anyone who wants to understand what really happened in World War I must read this book." (Max Boot, author of The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam)
"Sons of Freedom provides a wonderful description - warts and all - of the army that the United States sent to fight in France in 1918. Wawro's depiction of the battles is truly horrifying, and his analysis of the strategy and politics on both sides wonderfully clear. It is the best book yet about the Doughboys, and one of the most important I have read about the First World War." (Sir Michael Howard, regius professor of modern history (emeritus), University of Oxford)
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Story
The year is 1918. German engineers have fortified Montfaucon, a rocky butte in Northern France, with bunkers, tunnels, trenches, and a top-secret observatory capable of directing artillery shells across the battlefield. Following a number of unsuccessful attacks, the French deem Montfaucon impregnable and dub it the Little Gibraltar of the Western Front. Capturing it is a key to success for AEF commander in chief John J. Pershing's 1.2 million troops.
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Compelling narrative, meticulous research
- By JKW on 07-18-16
By: William Walker
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Forty-Seven Days
- How Pershing's Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I
- By: Mitchell Yockelson
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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The Battle of the Meuse-Argonne stands as the deadliest clash in American history: More than a million untested American soldiers went up against a better-trained and more experienced German army, costing more than 26,000 deaths and leaving nearly 100,000 wounded. Yet, in 47 days of intense combat, those Americans pushed back the enemy and forced the Germans to surrender, bringing the First World War to an end - a feat the British and the French had not achieved after more than three years of fighting.
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Comprehensive history of The First Army in WWI
- By Bruce Miller on 03-08-18
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The Unknowns
- The Untold Story of America’s Unknown Soldier and WWI’s Most Decorated Heroes Who Brought Him Home
- By: Patrick K. O'Donnell
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Brilliantly researched and vividly told, The Unknowns is a timeless tale of heeding the calls of duty and brotherhood and humanizes the most consequential event of the 20th century, which still casts a shadow a century later. Celebrated military historian and best-selling author Patrick O'Donnell illuminates the saga behind the creation of The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and recreates the moving ceremony during which it was consecrated.
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The Unknowns
- By Logophile on 05-09-19
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Desert Fox
- The Storied Military Career of Erwin Rommel
- By: Samuel W. Mitcham Jr.
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the strange and fascinating life of Erwin Rommel, from his days as a youth in Imperial Germany - when he had a child out of wedlock with an early girlfriend - through his lauded military exploits during World War I to his death by suicide during World War II, after he attempted a failed coup against Hitler. Rommel was a man of contradictions: a soldier who wrote a best-selling book about World War I, a commander who went from commanding Hitler's bodyguard to trying to kill him, and a serious military mind who was known for participating in practical jokes.
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Amazing Detail, Amazing Story!
- By Al888 on 05-19-19
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Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour
- Armistice Day, 1918 World War I and Its Violent Climax
- By: Joseph E. Persico
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 17 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of Roosevelt's Secret War traces the last day of World War I, weaving together the experiences of the famous, such as President Wilson, General Pershing, and Douglas MacArthur, and the unsung and unremembered.
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Beauty amidst savagery
- By Amazon Customer on 12-06-04
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The Last Battle
- Victory, Defeat, and the End of World War I
- By: Peter Hart
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Much has been made of - and written about - August 1914. There has been comparatively little focus on August 1918 and the lead-up to November. Because of the fixation on the Great War's opening moves and the great battles that followed over the course of the next four years, the endgame seems to come as a stunning anticlimax. At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the guns simply fell silent. The Last Battle definitively corrects this misperception. As Hart shows, a number of factors precipitated the Armistice.
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Is it over yet?
- By Rick B on 11-17-20
By: Peter Hart
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The Darkest Summer
- Pusan and Inchon 1950: The Battles That Saved South Korea---and the Marines---from Extinction
- By: Bill Sloan
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The outcome of the Korean War was decided in the first three months. The Darkest Summer is the hour-by-hour, casualty-by-casualty story of those months---a period that saw American and UN forces almost driven into the sea by the North Korean invaders, then stage an incredible turn-around that reversed the entire course of the war.
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Great intro to Korea
- By I Ate Your Pug For Lunch and It was Tasty on 01-14-11
By: Bill Sloan
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Shanghai 1937
- Stalingrad on the Yangtze
- By: Peter Harmsen
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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This deeply researched book describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At its height it involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers, while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators and, often, victims. It turned what had been a Japanese adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world.
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The Curtain to World War Two
- By Michael on 03-01-16
By: Peter Harmsen
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Catastrophe 1914
- Europe Goes to War
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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From the acclaimed military historian, a new history of the outbreak of World War I: the dramatic stretch from the breakdown of diplomacy to the battles - the Marne, Ypres, Tannenberg - that marked the frenzied first year before the war bogged down in the trenches. In Catastrophe 1914, Max Hastings gives us a conflict different from the familiar one of barbed wire, mud, and futility.
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I thought I knew the battle of the frontiers
- By Anonymous User on 04-02-21
By: Max Hastings
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D-Day
- The Battle for Normandy
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: Cameron Stewart
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Renowned historian Antony Beevor, the man who "single-handedly transformed the reputation of military history" (The Guardian) presents the first major account in more than 20 years of the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Paris. This is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, but also the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting.
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A commendable book
- By Michael on 01-19-10
By: Antony Beevor
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An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa (1942-1943)
- The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1
- By: Rick Atkinson
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 26 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The liberation of Europe and the destruction of the Third Reich is a story of courage and enduring triumph, of calamity and miscalculation. In this first volume of the Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson shows why no modern learner can understand the ultimate victory of the Allied powers without a grasp of the great drama that unfolded in North Africa in 1942 and 1943. That first year of the Allied war was a pivotal point in American history, the moment when the United States began to act like a great power.
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Fascinating book, great performance
- By Ted on 05-30-16
By: Rick Atkinson
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Snow & Steel
- The Battle of the Bulge 1944-45
- By: Peter Caddick-Adams
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer, Tim Reynolds
- Length: 31 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Between December 16, 1944 and January 15, 1945, American forces found themselves entrenched in the heavily forested Ardennes region of Belgium, France, and Luxembourg defending against an advancing German army amid freezing temperatures, deep snow, and dense fog. Operation Herbstnebel - Autumn Mist - was a massive German counter-offensive that stunned the Allies in its scope and intensity.
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fascinating and thorough, painful narration
- By richard on 01-05-15
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The Battle of the Tanks
- Kursk, 1943
- By: Lloyd Clark
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 5, 1943, the greatest land battle in history began when Nazi and Red Army forces clashed near the town of Kursk, on the western border of the Soviet Union. Code named Operation Citadel, the German offensive would cut through the bulge in the eastern front that had been created following Germany's retreat at the battle of Stalingrad. But the Soviets, well informed about Germany's plans through their network of spies, had months to prepare.
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Good enough
- By Val Shebeko on 05-28-15
By: Lloyd Clark
What listeners say about Sons of Freedom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Shannonfl
- 06-11-24
Solid and thoughtful
Excellent and ballance history of WWI. More history teachers should study this so they provide a better understanding of American involvement and reasoning.
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- Christopher
- 09-24-20
Great content tedious performance
Loved the story and content. Had to listen at 1.3x in however in order to barely tolerate the unnatural emphasis and contrived staccato reading of the second half of almost every last sentence.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-18-24
Fantastic
Focus on America's involvement in WW1 and it's necessity for allied victory over the German juggernaut.
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- Thomas Parker
- 12-20-23
Often Forgotten History
The author makes a very fluid and compelling case for American necessity and exceptionalism in The Great War. This key facet of Allied victory is often overlooked by many contemporary historians and it is a refreshing take on the subject of WWI.
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- Alnico Cunife
- 10-13-18
History can repete
As much as we think “we” are better that the people that came before us we realize we are still the same. We are destined to repete history even if we know what happened. Enough of the philosophy, this was an eye opening book about a war the nobody who fought is still alive. Issues of the time and the disagreements about what to do! A President who’s ideals did not follow with the nations. How one Frenchman’s speech changed many minds. The pressure on General Pershing to build, keep together an army of untrained men. WOW I never knew and I truly hope I (or my sons) will never see this ever happen again.
Look at the maps before you start to listen. It will make more sense. I looked at additional WW1 maps with more detail to get a better perspective.
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4 people found this helpful
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- J.Brock
- 09-07-20
Gives the Yanks Their Due
Geoffrey Wawro has written a stirring account about the American exprience in World War I, one that is virtually ignored. Many forget Americans bravely enered the war, and helped ensured an Allied victory. What's refreshing here is the proud patriotism. Where as many authors go into woke lectures about the racial disparities that occured during this time, Wawro restrains. There are and always will be injustices. And this is 100 plus years in the past, so a woke lecture is absolutely unncessary. That's what ruins current history. It has to apologize for the past. So thank you Wawro for sticking to the facts and leaving the lectures alone .
The Yanks suffered much, but they greatly assisted the exhausted French and British troops, and also bottle necked the Germans. The Germans were betting on an entry into Paris, but soon realized that wasn't going to happen with the addition of American forces. Though the American tenure was short, it was more than effective. And after starting from nothing by way of military preparadnes, the Yanks proved their worth in gold. These men willingly sacrificed their lives for freedom, something that is truly lost in our present day. It's a wonderful thing to feel the nostalgia and relish the once unstoppable American patriotism.
Geoffrey Wawro is one of the few authors who does his own narration, and does it well. That is not an easy thing, especially for a history work. Actors can do it, but that's their job. So hats off to him for his endevor. Well done all the way around. And any reader is prouder to be an American after reading such a fine work .
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2 people found this helpful
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- Bramante
- 01-25-19
Don't let authors narrate.
The author reads his text and he isn't very good at narration. The sentences all sound like sine waves with false emphasis and distracting chuckles at third points. It's so distracting that it hurts the coherence of the book. The text is highly detailed but random. Cant follow from one regiment to another, or one village to another in a continuous story line. Villages and actions appear and disappear unlinked to an overall context. Military units are carefully named, with little elucidation. The author has done his homework but the profusion of disjointed factoids left me bewildered about 1918, the key year of WW1. He might have dealt with each major allied force by chapter through 1918 since each was assigned a section of the western front. I had high hopes for this book since it was well received in the NYT Book Review, but it's likely the Times did not review the audible version. Too bad. May be better in the hard copy with maps.
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4 people found this helpful