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The Shortest History of Italy
- 3,000 Years from the Romans to the Renaissance to a Modern Republic―A Retelling for Our Times
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
A concise, star-studded retelling of Italy's past, from Caesar and Augustus to da Vinci and Michelangelo, tracing the story of a country with prodigious global influence—from a foremost author of historic Italy.
The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It's hard to imagine a world without Italian influence—and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of its place in the world. In this breakneck history, bestselling author Ross King dismantles this assumption, uncovering the story of a land rife with inner uncertainty even as its influence spread.
As the Italian tale unfolds, prosperity and power fluctuate like the elevation in the Dolomites. If Rome's seven hills could talk, they might speak of the glorious time of Trajan—or bemoan the era of conquest and the Bubonic Plague that decimated Rome's population. Episodes of wealth like the First Triumvirate and the time of the Medicis are given fresh life alongside descriptions the Middle Ages, the early days of Venice, the invasion of Napoleon, and the long struggle for unification. King paints a colorful, fascinating portrait of a country that remains compelling not just to tens of millions of Italian Americans, but to the millions of Americans who visit Italy every year.
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Since its formation in 1861, Italy has struggled to develop an effective political system and a secure sense of national identity. Christopher Duggan's acclaimed introduction charts the country's history from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West to the present day, and surveys the difficulties Italy has faced during the last two centuries in creating a unified country. Duggan successfully weaves together political, economic, social and cultural history, and stresses the alternation between materialist and idealist programs for forging a nation-state.
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Concise indeed
- By nikex on 03-22-21
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The Shortest History of Germany
- From Julius Caesar to Angela Merkel: A Retelling for Our Times
- By: James Hawes
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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A country both admired and feared, Germany has been the epicenter of world events time and again: the Reformation, both World Wars, the fall of the Berlin Wall. It did not emerge as a modern nation until 1871 - yet today, Germany is the world's fourth-largest economy and a standard-bearer of liberal democracy.
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The narrator can’t pronounce German
- By Vauras Ilmari on 03-22-19
By: James Hawes
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The Shortest History of China
- From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower: A Retelling for Our Times
- By: Linda Jaivin
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics, and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is nothing if not messy. Heroes are also villains; prosperity mingles with violence; cultural vibrancy coexists with censorship and repression. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse, an icon of urbanization, a propaganda state, and an aggressive superpower seeking world domination.
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Loved it!
- By Emma on 10-23-24
By: Linda Jaivin
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The Shortest History of Greece
- The Odyssey of a Nation from Myth to Modernity
- By: James Heneage
- Narrated by: Gareth Richards
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Philosophy, art, democracy, language, even computers—the glories of Greek civilization have shaped our world even more profoundly than we realize. Pericles and the Parthenon may be familiar, but what of Epaminondas, the Theban general who saved the Greek world from Spartan tyranny? Alexander the Great's fame has rolled down the centuries, but the golden Hellenistic Age that followed is largely forgotten. "Byzantine" conjures decadence and deadly intrigue, yet the thousand-year empire that ruled from Constantinople and saved Europe twice from invasion was, in fact, Greek.
By: James Heneage
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Domino
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: Denis Quilley
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Abridged
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After meeting the mysterious and beautiful Lady Beauclair at a society ball, George Cautley, a hapless young artist trying to make his way in the gilded world of 1770s London, paints her portrait while she tells him the scandalous story of Tristano, a castrato singer in Handel's opera company 50 years before. Cautley, seeking love and truth in an age of deception and disguise, flees to Bath, where he unwittingly finds himself re-enacting the tragic fate of Tristano.
By: Ross King
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The Shortest History of India
- From the World's Oldest Civilization to Its Largest Democracy—A Retelling for Our Times
- By: John Zubrzycki
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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5,000 years of history—from the Bhagavad Gita to Bollywood—fill this masterful portrait of the world's most populous nation and a rising global power.
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Quick paced coverage of a very great deal of India’s History
- By Caleagle on 03-22-24
By: John Zubrzycki
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The Pursuit of Italy
- A History of a Land, Its Regions, and Their Peoples
- By: David Gilmour
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 19 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Did Garibaldi do Italy a disservice when he helped its disparate parts achieve unity? Was the goal of political unification a mistake? These questions are asked and answered in a number of ways in this engaging, original consideration of the many histories that contribute to the brilliance - and weakness - of Italy today. David Gilmour's exploration of Italian life over the centuries is filled with provocative anecdotes as well as personal observations.
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Good history: Tough Narration
- By C.S. on 11-12-18
By: David Gilmour
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Brunelleschi's Dome
- How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Brunelleschi's Dome is the story of how a Renaissance genius bent men, materials, and the very forces of nature to build an architectural wonder we continue to marvel at today. Denounced at first as a madman, Brunelleschi was celebrated at the end as a genius. He engineered the perfect placement of brick and stone, built ingenious hoists and cranes to carry an estimated 70 million pounds hundreds of feet into the air, and designed the workers' platforms and routines so carefully that only one man died during the decades of construction.
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Great history with terrible narration
- By Whiskey Mike on 12-16-21
By: Ross King
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Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Abridged
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In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel in Rome. During the four extraordinary years that Michelangelo spent laboring over the ceiling, power politics and personal rivalries swirled around him. He battled ill health, financial and family difficulties, inadequate knowledge of the art of fresco, and the Pope's impatience - a history that is more compelling than most novels.
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History brought to life!
- By Anne on 05-17-03
By: Ross King
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The Shortest History of Japan
- From Mythical Origins to Pop Culture Powerhouse: The Global Drama of an Ancient Island Nation
- By: Lesley Downer
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This history will be of interest to people who know nothing about Japan, but also full of insights for those who do. Lesley Downer takes the listener through the great sweep of Japanese history, focusing on the dramatic stories of larger-than-life individuals—from emperors descended from the Sun Goddess to warlords, samurai, merchants, court ladies, women warriors, geisha, and businessmen who shaped this extraordinary modern society.
By: Lesley Downer
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The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine
- From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace
- By: Michael Scott-Baumann
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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The ongoing struggle between Israel and Palestine is one of the most bitter conflicts in history, with profound global consequences. In this book, Middle East expert Michael Scott-Baumann succinctly describes its origins and charts its evolution from civil war to the present day. Each chapter offers a lucid explanation of the politics and ends with personal testimony from Palestinians and Israelis whose lives have been impacted by the dispute.
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Great Til 1980’s
- By Amazon Customer on 04-29-24
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The Shortest History of the Soviet Union
- By: Sheila Fitzpatrick
- Narrated by: Robin Siegerman
- Length: 7 hrs
- Unabridged
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In 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries came to power in the war-torn Russian Empire in a way that defied all predictions. Scarcely a lifespan later, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed as accidentally as it arose. The decades between witnessed drama on an epic scale—the chaos and hope of revolution, famines and purges, hard-won victory in history's most destructive war, and worldwide geopolitical conflict, all entwined around the dream of building a better society. This book is a lively distillation of this complex history, told with vivid details, a grand sweep, and wry wit.
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EXCELLENT ACCOUNTING OF A WORLD POWER'S HISTORY
- By R. Hart on 07-26-22
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Leonardo and the Last Supper
- By: Ross King
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in 1495, Leonardo da Vinci began work in Milan on what would become one of history's most influential and beloved works of art - The Last Supper. After a dozen years at the court of Lodovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, Leonardo was at a low point personally and professionally: at 43, in an era when he had almost reached the average life expectancy, he had failed, despite a number of prestigious commissions, to complete anything that truly fulfilled his astonishing promise.
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Informative yet creative
- By Isabellabasil on 05-27-15
By: Ross King
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The Shortest History of England
- Empire and Division from the Anglo-Saxons to Brexit—A Retelling for Our Times
- By: James Hawes
- Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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England—begetter of parliaments and globe-spanning empires, star of beloved period dramas, and home of the House of Windsor—is not quite the stalwart island fortress that many of us imagine. Riven by an ancient fault line that predates even the Romans, its fate has ever been bound up with that of its neighbors, and for the past millennia, it has harbored a class system like nowhere else. This bracing tour of the most powerful country in the United Kingdom reveals an England repeatedly invaded and constantly reinvented—yet always fractured by its very own Mason-Dixon Line.
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Mildly entertaining, simplistic, only filler
- By Buretto on 09-16-22
By: James Hawes
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Ancient Rome
- The Rise and Fall of An Empire
- By: Simon Baker
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history.
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Clear and dramatic
- By Tad Davis on 08-01-17
By: Simon Baker
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The Florentines
- From Dante to Galileo: The Transformation of Western Civilization
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Between the birth of Dante in 1265 and the death of Galileo in 1642, something happened that transformed the entire culture of Western civilization. Painting, sculpture, and architecture would all visibly change in such a striking fashion that there could be no going back on what had taken place. Likewise, the thought and self-conception of humanity would take on a completely new aspect. Sciences would be born - or emerge in an entirely new guise.
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Narrator ruins the narrative
- By amavita on 03-24-22
By: Paul Strathern
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The Shortest History of War
- From Hunter-Gatherers to Nuclear Superpowers—A Retelling for Our Times
- By: Gwynne Dyer
- Narrated by: Gareth Richards
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Russia's invasion of Ukraine has punctured the longest stretch of peace between major powers since WWII, bringing the horrors of warfare—past, present, and future—to the forefront of listeners' minds. In The Shortest History of War, internationally acclaimed historian Gwynne Dyer adds urgently needed context. Dyer ably charts the evolution of violent conflict: tribal aggression, classical combat, limited war, total war, and cold war-followed by present-day terrorism, nuclear threats, and the development of lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS).
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War has always been with us
- By Amazon Customer on 10-22-24
By: Gwynne Dyer
What listeners say about The Shortest History of Italy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Miguel
- 08-18-24
Why not hire a reader who has any idea how to pronounce Italian?
Truly annoying.
Also would have appreciated more social history and less Great Man. A bit old-fashioned.
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- Elizabeth A
- 05-24-24
Read the book; avoid the audiobook if you like the Italian language.
The book is well written and worth the time to read. The narrator of the audiobook, however, mangles most of the Italian words. There are a lot of Italian words in this book so if you are fluent in Italian or even speak it well, you might cringe at the pronunciation.
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