
The Weimar Years
Rise and Fall 1918–1933
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Narrated by:
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Paul McGann
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By:
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Frank McDonough
About this listen
A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEK
A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR
A DAILY TELEGRAPH BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023
ASPECTS OF HISTORY BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023
A DAILY MAIL BEST CHRISTMAS BOOK OF 2023
Established in 1918–19, in the wake of Germany’s catastrophic defeat in the First World War and the revolution that followed swiftly on its heels, the Weimar Republic ushered in widespread social reform, a radical cultural flowering and the most democratic conditions the German people had ever known.
At its beginning, Weimar held out the hope that democracy, stability and prosperity would take root in Germany, but it was beset by frequent changes of government, waves of economic upheaval and spasms of violence of increasing intensity between the forces of left and right. Agitation and assassination by rightwing nationalists – enraged by the severity of the Treaty of Versailles and the acceptance of its terms by liberal German politicians – formed a threatening descant to the conciliatory efforts of successive coalition governments. Ultimately, the instabilities of Weimar would lead to the appointment as German Chancellor of the Nazi Fu¨hrer Adolf Hitler, who created a one-party dictatorship that abandoned the rule of law, democracy and civil rights. In the words of Gustav Stresemann, Germany’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning Foreign Minister from 1923 to 1929, Weimar democracy was ‘dancing on a volcano’.
The Weimar Years is a vivid and compelling narrative of a dramatic period in German history. Year by year, from 1918 to 1933, Frank McDonough covers the major events in both domestic and foreign policy and the personalities who shaped them, together with developments in music, art, theatre and literature. McDonough places particular focus on the parliamentary history of Weimar, arguing that it was the failure of parliamentary democracy to bring stability that eroded public confidence and allowed the power of the elected Reichstag to gradually diminish, culminating in Hitler’s accession to power in January 1933.
The Weimar Years is the tragic story of a rise and fall, as well as a warning of how, under poor leadership, economic pressure and unrelenting political volatility, a democracy can drift towards a form of authoritarian rule that eventually destroys it.©2023 Frank McDonough (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
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The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
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Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
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China's World View
- Demystifying China to Prevent Global Conflict
- By: David Daokui Li
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Writing in response to the growing anti-Chinese sentiment and alarmed by the threat of war, Dr. David Daokui Li pulls from his wealth of firsthand experience to demystify contemporary Chinese society and advocate for understanding between China and the West. In this urgently needed and fascinating book, he explains the inner workings of a rising superpower to help the world understand how it works-and how to work with it.
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The spirit of this book is critically important.
- By Mike Turner on 06-21-24
By: David Daokui Li
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Operation Pineapple Express
- By: Scott Mann
- Narrated by: Lt. Col. Scott Mann
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In April 2021, an urgent call was placed from a Special Forces operator serving overseas. The message was clear: Get Nezam out of Afghanistan now. Nezam was part of the Afghan National Army’s first group of American-trained commandos; he passed through Fort Bragg’s legendary Q course and served alongside the US Special Forces for over a decade. But Afghanistan’s government and army were on the edge of collapse, and Nezam was receiving threatening texts from the Taliban.
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amazing, uplifting, heart wrenching
- By Lisa L. Weinley on 09-13-22
By: Scott Mann
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The Hitler Years: Triumph, 1933-1939
- By: Frank McDonough
- Narrated by: Paul McGann
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In this first volume of a new chronicle, Frank McDonough charts the rise and fall of the Third Reich under Hitler's hand, ending on Germany's comprehensive military defeat of Poland in 1939.
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Exceptionally informative and detailed telling of Hitler’s rise in 1933-1939
- By M. Price on 06-22-24
By: Frank McDonough
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City of Fortune
- How Venice Rule the Seas
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 14 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The rise and fall of the Venetian empire stands unrivaled for drama, intrigue, and sheer opulent majesty. In City of Fortune, Roger Crowley, acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author of Empires of the Sea, applies his narrative skill to chronicling the astounding five-hundred-year voyage of Venice to the pinnacle of power.
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A Wonderful Listen
- By Scot on 06-12-14
By: Roger Crowley
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A Woman in Berlin
- Eight Weeks in the Conquered City: A Diary
- By: Anonymous, Philip Boehm - translator
- Narrated by: Isabel Keating
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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For eight weeks in 1945, as Berlin fell to the Russian army, a young woman kept a daily record of life in her apartment building and among its residents. The anonymous author depicts her fellow Berliners in all their humanity, as well as their cravenness, corrupted first by hunger and then by the Russians. A Woman in Berlin tells of the complex World War II relationship between civilians and an occupying army and the shameful indignities to which women in a conquered city are always subject—the mass rape suffered by all, regardless of age or infirmity.
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Interesting
- By northwoods woman on 06-25-20
By: Anonymous, and others
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The Field of Blood
- Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
- By: Joanne B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Joanne B. Freeman
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Field of Blood, Joanne B. Freeman recovers the long-lost story of physical violence on the floor of the US Congress. Drawing on an extraordinary range of sources, she shows that the Capitol was rife with conflict in the decades before the Civil War. Legislative sessions were often punctuated by mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests. When debate broke down, congressmen drew pistols and waved Bowie knives. One representative even killed another in a duel. Many were beaten and bullied in an attempt to intimidate them into compliance, particularly on the issue of slavery.
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fascinating look at an untold aspect of US.history
- By P. Cardella on 09-27-18
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American Exception
- Empire and the Deep State
- By: Aaron Good
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term “deep state” was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.
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I buy the premises, but not the conclusions...
- By Clark on 01-05-23
By: Aaron Good
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Gettysburg
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: Jaime Renell
- Length: 21 hrs
- Unabridged
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The greatest of all Civil War campaigns, Gettysburg was the turning point of the turning point in our nation’s history. Volumes have been written about this momentous three-day battle, but recent histories have tended to focus on the particulars rather than the big picture: on the generals or on single days of battle—even on single charges—or on the daily lives of the soldiers. In Gettysburg Sears tells the whole story in a single volume.
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Great book and performance!
- By Steve D on 08-12-24
By: Stephen W. Sears
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Hiroshima
- The Last Witnesses (Embers, Book 1)
- By: M. G. Sheftall
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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In this vividly rendered historical narrative, M. G. Sheftall layers the stories of hibakusha—the Japanese word for atomic bomb survivors—in harrowing detail, to give a minute-by-minute report of August 6, 1945, in the leadup and aftermath of the world-changing bombing mission of Paul Tibbets, Enola Gay, and Little Boy.
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EXCELLENT
- By JK on 04-29-25
By: M. G. Sheftall
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East West Street
- On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity"
- By: Philippe Sands
- Narrated by: David Rintoul, Philippe Sands
- Length: 14 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials.
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Outstanding!
- By lori on 05-07-18
By: Philippe Sands
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Ten Caesars
- Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine
- By: Barry Strauss
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three-and-a-half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of 10 of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine.
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Good for beginners
- By Richferguson1 on 03-01-20
By: Barry Strauss
What listeners say about The Weimar Years
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jackie Renee Johnson
- 04-02-24
An excellent history of the time period
This is a very detailed, systematic study of the Weimar Era. I really enjoyed the fact that it was divided by years instead of themes.
I wish I could give it a sixth star for its analysis of my favorite movie (Metropolis).
As an added bonus, Paul McGann’s narration is superb. His pronunciation of the various German words and phrases is flawless and unfaltering. Often when narrators come to foreign text in a book, they pause briefly or seem to stumble; not so with Paul McGann.
I definitely recommend The Weimar Years to anyone interested in either the time period or history in general.
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- michaelfaisalgreen
- 08-04-24
Wonderful narrative, underpinned by a good range of primary and secondary sources, as well as electoral data.
Well narrated, compelling thesis, definitely a great guide to the political history of the Weimar republic
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- Anonymous User
- 02-18-25
Amazing listen
Author explains the Weimar republic very well, with detailed history of every year, significant personalities and elections. The author never gives too many names, like some history book authors do, to the point it being impossible to recall any, but gives just enough so that you know all important people and organizations by the time you finish the book. The narrator's voice is clear and pleasant to listen to. Overall, a very good account of this significant period of German history.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-02-24
Depth
This guy as an author is goated. I have all three Weimar and hitler years , super in depth coverage. Easily one of my favorite series. You can listen to anything narrated by Paul mcgann
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2 people found this helpful
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- M. Price
- 06-19-24
A good picture of the Weimar government
I have been looking for more information about the nature of the Weimar government than I had been getting from what I had seen and read about the rise of the Nazis. This book does a good job in explaining how the leaders of the Weimar Republic did and did not function and thus took themselves down the path of fostering the ability of Hitler and the Nazi party to attract voters so that Hitler could demand to be made chancellor and they ultimately handed him the power he sought that allowed him to lead Germany and the world into the horrors of a totalitarian dictatorship and a Second World War.
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- Autumn Jackson
- 09-19-24
An in depth account and post mortem of the Weimar Republic
For those who are interested in the events between the Great War and the rise of the Nazi Regime, this is the most definitive audiobook to listen to. Its narration is clear and soothing, and it gives an accurate and engaging description and explanation for the events that preceded the rise and fall of the short lived experiment of German democracy.
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- Rory
- 09-16-24
Excellent overview
Changed a lot of preconceptions I had about Weimar. A little light on cultural matters, but the detail and analysis of the constantly changing political environment well outweighs that minor quibble.
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- Phyllis
- 12-30-24
I learned a ton
A superb book with chilling parallels to contemporary history in terms of threats to democracy.
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2 people found this helpful