
The Pity of War
Explaining World War I
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Narrated by:
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Graeme Malcolm
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By:
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Niall Ferguson
About this listen
From a best-selling historian, a daringly revisionist history of World War I
The Pity of War makes a simple and provocative argument: the human atrocity known as the Great War was entirely England's fault. According to Niall Ferguson, England entered into war based on naive assumptions of German aims, thereby transforming a Continental conflict into a world war, which it then badly mishandled, necessitating American involvement. The war was not inevitable, Ferguson argues, but rather was the result of the mistaken decisions of individuals who would later claim to have been in the grip of huge impersonal forces.
That the war was wicked, horrific, and inhuman is memorialized in part by the poetry of men like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, but also by cold statistics. Indeed, more British soldiers were killed in the first day of the Battle of the Somme than Americans in the Vietnam War. And yet, as Ferguson writes, while the war itself was a disastrous folly, the great majority of men who fought it did so with little reluctance and with some enthusiasm. For anyone wanting to understand why wars are fought, why men are willing to fight them and why the world is as it is today, there is no sharper or more stimulating guide than Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War.
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On a sunlit morning in September 1978, a sloop drifts aimlessly across the Chesapeake Bay. The cabin reveals signs of a struggle, and “classified” documents, live 9 mm cartridges, and a top-secret “burst” satellite communications transmitter are discovered aboard. But where is the boat’s owner, former CIA officer John Paisley? One man may hold the key to finding out. Tennent “Pete” Bagley was once a rising star in America’s spy aristocracy, and many expected he’d eventually become CIA director.
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The, too long, story of an obsession
- By Tony on 10-30-22
By: Howard Blum
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Doom
- The Politics of Catastrophe
- By: Niall Ferguson
- Narrated by: Niall Ferguson
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Disasters are inherently hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises. and wars, are not normally distributed; there is no cycle of history to help us anticipate the next catastrophe. But when disaster strikes, we ought to be better prepared than the Romans were when Vesuvius erupted, or medieval Italians when the Black Death struck. We have science on our side, after all.
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Get through the first chapters
- By David on 05-23-21
By: Niall Ferguson
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The Wrong Stuff
- How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned
- By: John Strausbaugh
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In the wake of World War II, with America ascendant and the Soviet Union devastated by the conflict, the Space Race should have been over before it started. But the underdog Soviets scored a series of victories—starting with the 1957 launch of Sputnik and continuing in the years following--that seemed to achieve the impossible. It was proof, it seemed, that the USSR had manpower and collective will that went beyond America's material advantages. They had asserted themselves as a world power. But in The Wrong Stuff, John Strausbaugh tells a different story.
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Perfection
- By Wilhelm on 05-08-25
By: John Strausbaugh
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The Grand Tour
- The Life and Music of George Jones
- By: Rich Kienzle
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In a masterful biography laden with new revelations, veteran country music journalist/historian Rich Kienzle offers a definitive, full-bodied portrait of legendary country singer George Jones and the music that remains his legacy. Kienzle meticulously sifted through archival material, government records, and recollections by colleagues and admirers, interviewing many involved in Jones' life and career. The result: an evocative portrait of this enormously gifted, tragically tormented icon.
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Interesting story, bad reading
- By Amazon Customer on 05-12-16
By: Rich Kienzle
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Renaissance: The Transformation of the West
- By: Jennifer McNabb, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Jennifer McNabb
- Length: 26 hrs and 35 mins
- Original Recording
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While it’s easy to get caught up - and, rightfully so - in the art of the Renaissance, you cannot have a full, rounded understanding of just how important these centuries were without digging beneath the surface, without investigating the period in terms of its politics, its spirituality, its philosophies, its economics, and its societies. Do just that with these 48 lectures that consider the European Renaissance from all sides, that disturb traditional understandings, that tip sacred cows, and that enlarges our understanding of how the Renaissance revolutionized the Western world.
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Reads like a bad high school essay.
- By Matthew Dennis on 10-29-18
By: Jennifer McNabb, and others
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The Great Successor
- The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un
- By: Anna Fifield
- Narrated by: Olivia Mackenzie-Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Anna Fifield reconstructs Kim's past and present with exclusive access to sources near him and brings her unique understanding to explain the dynastic mission of the Kim family in North Korea. The archaic notion of despotic family rule matches the almost medieval hardship the country has suffered under the Kims. Few people thought that a young, untested, unhealthy, Swiss-educated basketball fanatic could hold together a country that should have fallen apart years ago. But Kim Jong Un has not just survived, he has thrived.
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Great book
- By WPD on 06-26-19
By: Anna Fifield
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Bloody Okinawa
- The Last Great Battle of World War II
- By: Joseph Wheelan
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On Easter Sunday, April 1, 1945, more than 184,000 US troops began landing on the only Japanese home soil invaded during the Pacific war. Just 350 miles from mainland Japan, Okinawa was to serve as a forward base for Japan's invasion in the fall of 1945. Nearly 140,000 Japanese and auxiliary soldiers fought with suicidal tenacity from hollowed-out, fortified hills and ridges. Under constant fire and in the rain and mud, the Americans battered the defenders with artillery, aerial bombing, naval gunfire, and every infantry tool.
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Very Technical
- By J.Brock on 07-16-21
By: Joseph Wheelan
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To Sanctify the World
- The Vital Legacy of Vatican II
- By: George Weigel
- Narrated by: Steven Arthur
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was the most important Catholic event in the past five hundred years. Yet sixty years after its opening on October 11, 1962, its meaning remains sharply contested and its promise unfulfilled. In To Sanctify the World, George Weigel explains the necessity of Vatican II and explores the continuing relevance of its teaching in a world seeking a deeper experience of freedom than personal willfulness.
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Fails to see how Vatican II broke with tradition
- By Amanda S on 12-20-24
By: George Weigel
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The Cause of Death
- By: Cynric Temple-Camp
- Narrated by: Mark Davis
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Spontaneous combustion and exhumation, drug mules and devil worshippers, a gruesome killing beneath the Palmerston North Airport control tower, a mysterious death in a historic homestead, a firsthand dissection of the infamous Mark Lundy case... In The Cause of Death, provincial pathologist Dr. Cynric Temple-Camp lifts the lid on the most unusual stories of death and murder he's encountered during his 30-year career.
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Love it!
- By NurseNano on 07-27-18
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The Earl and the Pharaoh
- From the Real Downton Abbey to the Discovery of Tutankhamun
- By: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Narrated by: The Countess of Carnarvon
- Length: 13 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Bestselling author the Countess of Carnarvon tells the thrilling behind-the-scenes story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun on its centennial, and explores the unparalleled life of family ancestor George Herbert—the famed Egyptologist, world-traveler, and 5th Earl of Carnarvon behind it—whose country house, Highclere Castle, is the setting of the beloved series Downton Abbey.
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Plodding Family History…Akin to Listening to Paint Dry
- By J. Willis-Opalenik on 10-31-23
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Silent Spring Revolution
- John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening
- By: Douglas Brinkley
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 29 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
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Need one more book...
- By Chuck Wofford on 02-23-23
By: Douglas Brinkley
What listeners say about The Pity of War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Diligent shopper in California
- 09-27-24
Fresh insights and obliterating old assumptions
This is an excellent analysis and commentary on well studied topic of World War I,, that has shaped much of the 20th and 21st centuries.
The economic, social, and cultural examinations, were particularly surprising, and engaging.
The author succeeded in overcoming the common temptation of coloring WWI with the subsequent WW II, making the space for a clearer analysis of cause and effects.
Thank you, Niall Ferguson, for a great book.
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- Greg
- 05-29-24
History of the War by Topic
In each chapter, the author addresses a single topic of the war, including financing the war, the armaments industry in each country, morale of frontline soldiers, what drove men to volunteer in 1914, the draft, literature produced by the men at the front, how the armistice led to the collapse of the German army. A well-sourced, detailed look at different aspects of the war.
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- Jake Gillock
- 12-22-23
Thought provoking.
This is overall a great book. As another reviewer mentioned, this book isn’t for a person looking to learn about ww1 and the main events and timeline. Rather this is a great book to read after you have read a few other books on ww1. To me each chapter is unique and provides a thought provoking question- it’s as though you are in a classroom lecture discussing the war and focusing on a unique aspect of it, looking beneath the general ‘facts’ of the war.
One tip I would give for people who have a hard time comprehending what they read. Read the conclusion chapter first. Each of the chapters in the book focuses on a specific question. The concluding chapter provides a 1-2 paragraph summary of each of the chapters that is nice to read. He goes into lots of details in each chapter to make his case, so sometimes you can get a little lost.
All around, definitely a top 5 book to read on WW1 if you want to get into the nuances of events and not just regurgitate the ‘facts’.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Walter
- 10-05-23
Required Reading for All Students of History.
A treatise on the greatest blunder of European Civilization, published in the final year of the 20th century and indeed, the entire 2nd millenium A.D., "The Pity of War" is an indispensable work which those seeking to understand the catastrophe of the Great War, MUST read and understand.
Author Niall Fergusson methodically dispells the most common myths cited about the war and questions whether, as it seemed to those alive at the time, the first European conflagration of the 1900s WAS in fact "inevitable" coming to the conclusion that: "No, war was not *inevitable*, BUT...".
Through his analysis of the biographical, domestic/geo-political, economic, personal sentiment (from the lowliest private to the kings and prime ministers themselves), conduct and the aftermath of WW1, Fergusson concludes that besides the United States, the First World War was an unnecessary catastrophe that left every combatant nation worse off than they had been previous to the war- setting Europe back at least several decades.
As the quintessential historian on the life and work of one Georgian man (Ioseb Djhugashvilli) Stephen Kotkin likes to say, "war is usually a miscalculation", and no more obvious example can be found than the paranoid, capricious, and self-serving calculations made by the European leaders that sleep-walked their armies into the worst war since the fall of Rome in 476 A.D., and important lessons for the present and future are plentiful in this definitive work.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Derek
- 11-09-21
Elegant Narrative - Answers to Compelling Questions
This book answers many of the big, important questions about the war rather than being a straight narrative. It’s written in an elegant style that is entertaining and invigoratingly fresh considering the near ancient topic. It’s worth a read if you’re interested in World War 1.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 02-07-24
muy aburrido
Me parece que el historiador trató de narrar la Primera Guerra Mundial desde otro punto de vista me pareció poco útil y aburrido
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- Anonymous User
- 04-18-24
Exhaustive
Ferguson is unique among authors, allowing the facts and evidences to tell the story. A remarkable read which challenges the reader to a more informed understanding of history and the accidental ways we create it.
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- Kico M
- 07-26-24
Great analysis
I like all Ferguson books that I read so far and this is no different.
The book provides a full analysis of the war, its causes and consequences. Sometimes, as in most of Ferguson writings, it gets too detailed and perhaps more useful for historians.
Anyhow the book has a great storyline and a masterpiece final chapter of conclusions.
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- Schen
- 10-07-20
Ferguson wouldn’t know history if it hit him in the head
Niall Ferguson is rightly regarded by historians (including myself) as a right wing hack who uses facts to create a false narrative. His anti communist vendetta is clear in his treatment and lumping together of all socialists. He fundamentally misunderstands the socialist theory of why the war started, and always straw mans socialists whenever they appear. While he does point out the fact that War wasn’t universally heralded as good, overall his history is utter drivel. If I hadn’t needed to read this for a class, I would never have. Unless you are assigned this book, DO NOT READ IT.
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6 people found this helpful