The Games
A Global History of the Olympics
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Narrated by:
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Napoleon Ryan
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By:
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David Goldblatt
About this listen
Renowned sportswriter David Goldblatt has been hailed by the Wall Street Journal for writing "with the expansive eye of a social and cultural critic". In The Games, Goldblatt delivers a magisterial history of the biggest sporting event of them all: the Olympics. He tells the epic story of the games from their reinvention in Athens in 1896 to the present day, chronicling classic moments of sporting achievement from Jesse Owens to Nadia Comaneci, the Miracle on Ice to Usain Bolt.
He goes beyond the medal counts to explore how international conflicts have played out at the Olympics, including the role of the games in Fascist Germany and Italy, the Cold War, and the struggles of the postcolonial world for recognition. He also tells the extraordinary story of how women fought to be included on equal terms, how the Paralympics started in the wake of World War II, and how the Olympics reflect changing attitudes to race and ethnicity.
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Traditionally known as a dirty, congested, and dangerous city, 19th Century Paris was transformed in an extraordinary period from 1848 to 1870, when the government launched a huge campaign to build streets, squares, parks, churches, and public buildings. The Louvre Palace was expanded, Notre-Dame Cathedral was restored and the French masterpiece of the Second Empire, the Opra Garnier, was built.
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Why Paris looks the way it does today
- By Neil Chisholm on 11-28-13
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Midnight at the Pera Palace
- The Birth of Modern Istanbul
- By: Charles King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul - an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city - people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims.
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INTERESTING SUBJECT - CONFUSED WRITING
- By The Louligan on 01-18-15
By: Charles King
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Golden Dreams
- California in an Age of Abundance, 1950-1963
- By: Kevin Starr
- Narrated by: Elijah Alexander
- Length: 29 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Starr brilliantly illuminates the dominant economic, social, and cultural forces in California in these pivotal years. In a powerful blend of telling events, colorful personalities, and insightful analyses, Starr examines such issues as the overnight creation of the postwar California suburb, the rise of Los Angeles as Super City, the reluctant emergence of San Diego as one of the largest cities in the nation, and the decline of political centrism.
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Give us more Starr on California!!
- By Roger on 08-24-16
By: Kevin Starr
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The Invention of Russia
- From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- By: Arkady Ostrovsky
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
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The end of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation.
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Sad Story of Russia's Abandonment of Liberalism
- By Amazon Customer on 10-03-16
By: Arkady Ostrovsky
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The Third Reich in Power
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 31 hrs and 58 mins
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The definitive account of Germany's malign transformation under Hitler's total rule and the implacable march to war. This magnificent second volume of Richard J. Evans's three-volume history of Nazi Germany was hailed by Benjamin Schwartz of The Atlantic Monthly as "the definitive English-language account... gripping and precise." It chronicles the incredible story of Germany's radical reshaping under Nazi rule.
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Great book, annoying narrator
- By Maria on 08-14-10
By: Richard J. Evans
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Bending Adversity
- Japan and the Art of Survival
- By: David Pilling
- Narrated by: Tim Andes Pabon
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
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In Bending Adversity, Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.
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Good book, but terribly read
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The Italians
- By: John Hooper
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John Hooper's marvelously entertaining and perceptive new book is ideal for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Italy and the unique character of the Italians. Looking at the facts that lie behind and often belie the stereotypes, his revealing book sheds new light on many aspects of Italian life: football and Freemasonry, sex, symbolism, and the reason Italian has twelve words for a coat hanger yet none for a hangover.
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Mi piace molto!
- By Adeliese Baumann on 12-30-16
By: John Hooper
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Harlem
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Harlem is perhaps the most famous, iconic neighborhood in the United States. A bastion of freedom and the capital of black America, Harlem's 20th-century renaissance changed our arts, culture, and politics forever. But this is only one of the many chapters in a wonderfully rich and varied history. In Harlem, historian Jonathan Gill presents the first complete chronicle of this remarkable place.
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Very Interesting.
- By Joyce Mirowski on 06-05-20
By: Jonathan Gill
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The Coming of the Third Reich
- By: Richard J. Evans
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
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- Unabridged
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There is no story in 20th-century history more important to understand than Hitler’s rise to power and the collapse of civilization in Nazi Germany. With The Coming of the Third Reich, Richard Evans, one of the world’s most distinguished historians, has written the definitive account for our time.
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Compelling and depressing
- By Tad Davis on 06-30-10
By: Richard J. Evans
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Pivotal Tuesdays
- Four Elections That Shaped the Twentieth Century
- By: Margaret O'Mara
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
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Pivotal Tuesdays looks back at four pivotal presidential elections of the past 100 years to show how they shaped the 20th century. During the rowdy, four-way race in 1912 between Teddy Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Eugene Debs, and Woodrow Wilson, the candidates grappled with the tremendous changes of industrial capitalism and how best to respond to them. In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt's promises to give Americans a "New Deal" to combat the Great Depression helped him beat the beleaguered incumbent, Herbert Hoover.
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Important book...especially this year.
- By Jim on 07-31-16
By: Margaret O'Mara
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Once in a Great City
- A Detroit Story
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrated by: David Maraniss
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It's 1963, and Detroit is on top of the world. The city's leaders are among the most visionary in America. It was the American auto makers' best year; the revolution in music and politics was underway. Walter Reuther's UAW had helped lift the middle class. Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then. Yet so much of what Detroit gave America lasts.
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Great read
- By Jordanel on 01-02-16
By: David Maraniss
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The number one New York Times best-selling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race. Out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times - the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
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What listeners say about The Games
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andrea
- 08-21-17
a bit cynical
if you are more into investigative journalism than inspiring stories, this book is for you.
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- Shawn Klein
- 11-28-23
Quite Disappointing
Performance: generally fine; though some mispronunciations. As a Boston sports fan, hearing the Boston Celtics pronounced with the hard 'c' (as in keltic) was a bit confusing for moment.
Content: Quite disappointing. There is some interesting and useful information; especially about the early games and the 19th century context that the Olympic revival comes out of. But as it gets further on; the book suffers. Frankly, it is probably trying to do and say too much in too little space. There is no overarching theme or narrative; no through line, that connects the chapters. There are some focal points; but these are not as well developed as they could be; and sometimes forced as the author tries to shoe horn in all the games of a specific time frame into the focus. But, as often as not, these focuses get lost in the details. The author tends to spend more time on the planners (and their backgrounds) than the games themselves. The latter half is almost entirely focused on the broader sociological and economic contexts of the host cities and games with very little discussed about the games themselves. There is only a tiny bit about Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, for example, when discussing the Summer Games in 2008. A good chunk of the Rio games is taken up by a discussion of the Brazilian presidential impeachment and surrounding scandals. Also, the closer to our own era we get, the more the authors particular political biases come through, muddying the analysis.
The subtitle of the book is the “A Global History of the Games” but it is not at clear what is particularly global about this history. Obviously, it is global, since the Olympics is global, but beyond that, I am not sure what they are trying to get at with that.
There is also a kind of elitist aesthetics expressed throughout. Inevitable, Olympic projects, such as buildings, slogans, or mascots, are described as kitschy, banal, vacuous, or ugly. There is a lot of sneering at the consumerism around the Olympics—which seems to run counter to the author’s concerns about the IOC’s long history of clinging to 19th century amateurism.
There are some errors as well; the most egregious being when he inexplicably labels the Christian identity nationalist, Eric Rudolph, the terrorist responsible for the Atlanta Olympic pipe bomber, a libertarian.
Overall the author’s cynicism and elitism get in the way of the valid criticisms of Olympic projects. As this and other histories show, there are many problems and criticisms to be made, but this work doesn’t do the work necessary to develop these, explain why they are concerns, or offer much in the way of alternatives. In most cases, the reality of the games is implicitly compared to some unstated majestic and idyllic system where the Olympics could take place without these problems. Furthermore, as critical as the author is of the vision of Coubertin’s Olympics, the author actually seems to in a way share this utopian vision of pure sport. But since the reality of the Olympics can never live up to this vision; it gets lots of righteous scorn and rhetorical sneering.
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- Vanessa Francis
- 10-05-16
Disappointed
I love all things Olympic - so when I purchased this book, I had the hopes that it would be a great way to learn some facts and discover a new side to the Olympic Games. Unfortunately, the way this book was written - and perhaps it's better to physically read it, as opposed to listen to it - I found it distracting and unorganized. Instead of listing the different facts about each of the modern games, every topic jumped back and forth varying on what idea the author was trying to talk about. Then, it would mention multiple Games before breaking them down into just talking about that particular game. I just found it frustrating and confusing. I'm not the best writer of reviews, granted, but listening to this book could've helped inspire such a bad review.
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- Garrett Baker
- 08-26-24
Perhaps the most meanspirited author I’ve ever read
I truly feel bad for them. Buy this if you want to hear “old man yells at olympics”. Every event is taken in the most pessimistic mean-spirited way possible. Overrated book.
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