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The Weather Factor
- How Nature Has Changed History
- Narrated by: Chris Kayser
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
A riveting examination of the human experience as Mother Nature wreaks havoc.
From the author of The Hinge Factor comes a thrilling series of dramatic historical re-creations revealing how the fate of humankind has often been decided by the uncontrollable, unpredictable power of weather. From the doomed campaigns of the Roman legions and Napoleon to the fate of US forces in the South Pacific and Vietnam, torrential rain, brutal winters, monster typhoons, and killer hurricanes have had far-reaching - and often terrifying - consequences.
As Erik Durschmied vividly describes in heart-stopping vignettes, the elements have influenced human history even more than the spear, bullet, or atomic bomb. Drawing upon extensive research, as well as the author’s own experiences in Vietnam, The Weather Factor gives a fascinating account of the inevitable collision between weather fronts and human conflict.
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Editorial reviews
Author Erik Durschmied writes striking descriptions of the elemental world and its at times catastrophic impact on life. These heart-stopping essays enable the listener to relive 15 different occasions when inclement weather has altered history. The essays are as brief and vivid as comic book vignettes, although the past news reported here is real and quite dire. Narrator Chris Kayser’s nostalgic radio-news-announcer style highlights the vivid writing and heightens each fateful weather event. Some events reported here are famous, but rarely has the impact of bad weather been given its proper due in turning the tide of history. Listeners will value the chance to wonder what would have been different if the weather had not weighed in with such insistence.
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Performance
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Novelist and prizewinning historian Winston Groom's gripping history of the four-year battle for Ypres in Belgian Flanders, the pivotal engagement of World War I that would forever change the way the world fought - and thought about - war. This is Groom's account of what would become the most dreaded place on Earth.
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I love, love, love this book!
- By Amazon Customer on 08-16-16
By: Winston Groom
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The Liberator
- One World War II Soldier's 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau
- By: Alex Kershaw
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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From July 10, 1943, the date of the Allied landing in Sicily, to May 8, 1945, when victory in Europe was declared - the entire time it took to liberate Europe - no regiment saw more action, and no single platoon, company, or battalion endured worse, than the ones commanded by Felix Sparks, who had entered the war as a greenhorn second lieutenant of the 157th "Eager for Duty" Infantry Regiment of the 45th "Thunderbird" Division. Sparks and his fellow Thunderbirds fought longest and hardest to defeat Hitler.
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Now I Know What a Hero Really Is
- By Steven on 11-27-12
By: Alex Kershaw
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African Kaiser
- General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918
- By: Robert Gaudi
- Narrated by: Paul Hodgson
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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At the beginning of the twentieth century, the continent of Africa was a hotbed of international trade, colonialism, and political gamesmanship. So when World War I broke out, the European powers were forced to contend with each other not just in the bloody trenches - but in the treacherous jungle. And it was in that unforgiving land that General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck would make history.
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Well Written, Well Read, Well Done!
- By Matthew on 02-25-17
By: Robert Gaudi
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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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This Kind of War
- The Classic Korean War History
- By: T. R. Fehrenbach
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 24 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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This Kind of War is a monumental study of the conflict that began in June 1950. Successive generations of U.S. military officers have considered this book an indispensable part of their education. T. R. Fehrenbach's narrative brings to life the harrowing and bloody battles that were fought up and down the Korean Peninsula.
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Great narrative, frustrating redundancy
- By Ted on 08-16-10
By: T. R. Fehrenbach
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In Deadly Combat
- A German Soldier's Memoir of the Eastern Front
- By: Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, Derek S. Zumbro - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Wounded five times and awarded numerous decorations for valor, Gottlob Herbert Bidermann saw action in the Crimea and siege of Sebastopol, participated in the vicious battles in the forests south of Leningrad, and ended the war in the Courland Pocket. In his memoir, he shares his impressions of countless Russian POWs seen at the outset of his service, of peasants struggling to survive the hostilities while caught between two ruthless antagonists, and of corpses littering the landscape.
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Not as engaging as others
- By Bookworm on 12-20-17
By: Gottlob Herbert Bidermann, and others
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Those Who Hold Bastogne
- The True Story of the Soldiers and Civilians Who Fought in the Biggest Battle of the Bulge
- By: Peter Schrijvers
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dramatic account of the 1944-45 winter of war in Bastogne, historian Peter Schrijvers offers the first full story of the German assault on the strategically located town. From the December stampede of American and Panzer divisions racing to reach Bastogne first, through the bloody eight-day siege from land and air, and through three more weeks of unrelenting fighting even after the siege was broken, events at Bastogne hastened the long-awaited end of WWII.
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How Did Anyone Survive?
- By Sher from Provo on 09-26-15
By: Peter Schrijvers
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The Polar Bear Expedition
- The Heroes of America's Forgotten Invasion of Russia, 1918-1919
- By: James Carl Nelson
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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An extraordinary lost chapter in the history of World War I: the story of America’s year-long invasion of Russia, in which a contingency of brave soldiers fought the Red Army and brutal conditions during the fall and winter of 1918-1919.
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Good history, idiot author.
- By Glaudrung on 12-30-19
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D-Days in the Pacific
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Gary Dikeos
- Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Although most people associate the term D-day with the Normandy invasion on June 6, 1944, it is military code for the beginning of any offensive operation. In the Pacific theater during World War II there were more than one hundred D-days. The largest - and last - was the invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, which brought together the biggest invasion fleet ever assembled, far larger than that engaged in the Normandy invasion. D-Days in the Pacific tells the epic story of the campaign waged by American forces to win back the Pacific islands from Japan.
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Terrific one volume history of the Pacific war.
- By Bill on 12-01-12
By: Donald L. Miller
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Kokoda
- By: Paul Ham
- Narrated by: Peter Byrne
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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It was a war without mercy, fought back and forth along 90 miles of river crossings, steep inclines and precipitous descents, with both sides wracked by hunger and disease, and terrified of falling into enemy hands. Defeat was unthinkable: the Australian soldier was fighting for his homeland against an unyielding aggressor; the Japanese ordered to fight to the death in a bid to conquer ‘Greater East Asia’.
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Pulls no Punchs
- By daryl on 10-03-10
By: Paul Ham
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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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Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die
- How the Allies Won on D-Day
- By: Giles Milton
- Narrated by: Giles Milton
- Length: 15 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Seventy-five years have passed since D-Day, the greatest seaborne invasion in history. The outcome of the Second World War hung in the balance on that chill June morning. Giles Milton’s bold new history narrates the day’s events through the tales of survivors from all sides: the teenage Allied conscript, the crack German defender, the French resistance fighter. Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die lays bare the absolute terror of those trapped in the front line of Operation Overlord.
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Needs a map
- By James Lucas on 03-24-19
By: Giles Milton
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Stalingrad
- The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943
- By: Antony Beevor
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Abridged
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In August 1942, an overconfident Adolf Hitler would attempt to invade Stalin's namesake city on the Volga. The battle of Stalingrad is extraordinary in every way: the triumphant invader fought to a standstill; then the Soviet trap sprung, surrounding their attackers; and the terrible siege, with Germans starving and freezing, forced to fight on by a disbelieving Hitler.
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Audible! Pls provide Michael Tudor Barnes
- By Anand on 07-02-15
By: Antony Beevor