The Shortest History of Italy Audiobook By Ross King cover art

The Shortest History of Italy

3,000 Years from the Romans to the Renaissance to a Modern Republic―A Retelling for Our Times

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The Shortest History of Italy

By: Ross King
Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
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About this listen

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.

©2024 Ross King (P)2024 Tantor
Europe Geopolitics Italy Rome Renaissance Imperialism
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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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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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