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Three Empires on the Nile
- The Victorian Jihad, 1869-1899
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
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Publisher's summary
This is not the Middle East of the early 21st century. It is Africa in the late 19th century, when the river Nile became the setting for an extraordinary collision between Europeans, Arabs, and Africans. A human and religious drama, the conflict defined the modern relationship between the West and the Islamic world. The story is not only essential for understanding the modern clash of civilizations but is also a gripping, epic, tragic adventure.
Three Empires on the Nile tells of the rise of the first modern Islamic state and its fateful encounter with the British Empire of Queen Victoria. Ever since the self-proclaimed Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi gathered an army in the Sudan and besieged and captured Khartoum under its British overlord Charles Gordon, the dream of a new caliphate has haunted modern Islamists. Today, Shiite insurgents call themselves the Mahdi Army, and Sudan remains one of the great battle lines between Muslims and Christians, blacks and Arabs. The 19th-century origins of it all were even more dramatic and strange than today's headlines.
In the hands of Dominic Green, the story of the Nile's three empires is an epic in the tradition of Kipling, the bard of empire, and Winston Churchill, who fought in the final destruction of the Mahdi's army. It is a sweeping and very modern tale of God and globalization, slavers and strategists, missionaries and messianists.
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Critic reviews
"Green...has written a formidable work....He succeeds in not only untangling the complex politics of the Great Powers as they reacted to the crisis along the Nile but also explaining the equally opaque motivations of the shadowy Mahdi and his followers as they pursued their jihad." (Publishers Weekly)
"Green achieves a vividly popular account of Britain's ascendance in Egypt and Sudan." (Booklist)
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Lone Star Nation is the gripping story of Texas' precarious journey to statehood, from its early colonization in the 1820s to the shocking massacres of Texas loyalists at the Alamo and Goliad by the Mexican army, from its rough-and-tumble years as a land overrun by the Comanches to its day of liberation as an upstart republic.
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Texas: From Spanish colony to statehood
- By Brian Shivers on 04-06-05
By: H.W. Brands
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George Washington
- The Wonder of the Age
- By: John Rhodehamel
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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As editor of the award-winning Library of America collection of George Washington's writings and a curator of the great man's original papers, John Rhodehamel has established himself as an authority of our nation's preeminent founding father. Rhodehamel examines George Washington as a public figure, arguing that the man - who first achieved fame in his early twenties - is inextricably bound to his mythic status.
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Not what I expected for an unabridged book
- By David Osborne Jr. on 04-13-17
By: John Rhodehamel
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Union 1812
- The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence
- By: A. J. Langguth
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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This dramatic account of the War of 1812 fills a surprising gap in the popular literature of the nation's formative years. It is this war, followed closely on the War of Independence, that established the young nation as a permanent power and proved its claim to Manifest Destiny.
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Fantastic narrative history
- By Tad on 03-22-12
By: A. J. Langguth
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The Black Count
- Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Tom Reiss
- Narrated by: Paul Michael
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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General Alex Dumas is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
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The story behind the greatest novelist of all time
- By Melinda on 01-13-13
By: Tom Reiss
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Ibn Saud
- The Desert Warrior Who Created the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
- By: Michael Darlow, Barbara Bray
- Narrated by: Brian Bascle
- Length: 21 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Ibn Saud grew to manhood living the harsh traditional life of the desert nomad, a life that had changed little since the days of Abraham. Equipped with immense physical courage, he fought and won, often with weapons and tactics not unlike those employed by the ancient Assyrians, a series of astonishing military victories over a succession of enemies much more powerful than himself. Over the same period, he transformed himself from a minor sheikh into a revered king and elder statesman, courted by world leaders such as Churchill and Roosevelt.
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Short-est Way to Learn about the Modern Day Saudia
- By Shah Alam on 02-18-14
By: Michael Darlow, and others
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America's Hidden History
- Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation
- By: Kenneth C. C. Davis
- Narrated by: Sam Freed, Kenneth C. Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Kenneth C. Davis presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation's destiny and character. Davis' dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation's fate hung in the balance.
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Boring, boring, boring
- By Yeshe on 10-14-10
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Napoleon
- A Life
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 32 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Andrew Roberts' Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon's thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine.
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What a dynamo!
- By Tad Davis on 01-16-15
By: Andrew Roberts
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Light-Horse Harry Lee
- The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero
- By: Ryan Cole
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry Lee III - whose nickname, "Light-Horse," came from his legendary exploits with mounted troops and skill in the saddle - was a dashing cavalry commander and hero of America's War for Independence. By now most Americans have forgotten about Light-Horse Harry Lee, the father of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, but this new biography reveals he may be one of the most fascinating figures in our nation's history. A daring military commander, Lee was also an early American statesman whose passionate argument in favor of national unity helped ratify the Constitution.
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Outstanding biography
- By MH on 12-24-20
By: Ryan Cole
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Lords of the Horizons
- A History of the Ottoman Empire
- By: Jason Goodwin
- Narrated by: Grahame Edwards
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ottoman Empire has long exerted a strong pull on Western minds and hearts. For over 600 years the empire swelled and declined, rising from a dusty fiefdom in the foothills of Anatolia to a power which ruled over the Danube and the Euphrates with the richest court in Europe. But its decline was prodigious, protracted and total.
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Good introduction to the Ottomans, bad narration
- By Skeptical on 06-06-18
By: Jason Goodwin
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Midnight's Furies
- The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition
- By: Nisid Hajari
- Narrated by: Sunil Malhotra
- Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobody expected the liberation of India and birth of Pakistan to be so bloody - it was supposed to be an answer to the dreams of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for centuries. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi's protégé and the political leader of India, believed that Indians were an inherently nonviolent, peaceful people. Pakistan's founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a secular lawyer, not a firebrand.
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Amazingly detailed account of this tragedy i gigan
- By BG on 10-09-15
By: Nisid Hajari
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William Walker's Wars
- How One Man's Private American Army Tried to Conquer Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras
- By: Scott Martelle
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In the decade before the onset of the Civil War, groups of Americans engaged in a series of longshot - and illegal - forays into Mexico, Cuba, and other Central American countries in hopes of taking them over. These efforts became known as filibustering, and their goal was to seize territory to create new independent fiefdoms, which would ultimately be annexed by the still-growing United States. Most failed miserably. William Walker was the outlier. Soft-spoken with no military background, in 1856 he managed to install himself as president of Nicaragua.
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Riveting
- By Jean on 03-17-19
By: Scott Martelle
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The Russian Revolution
- A New History
- By: Sean McMeekin
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 15 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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From an award-winning scholar comes this definitive, single-volume history that illuminates the tensions and transformations of the Russian Revolution. In The Russian Revolution, acclaimed historian Sean McMeekin traces the events which ended Romanov rule, ushered the Bolsheviks into power, and introduced Communism to the world. Between 1917 and 1922, Russia underwent a complete and irreversible transformation.
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Great Book on the Russian Revolution
- By Nostromo on 09-02-17
By: Sean McMeekin
What listeners say about Three Empires on the Nile
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Gypsi
- 10-31-23
Very Interesting
This nonfiction account tells of the clash between Victoria's Britain, Turkish-ruled Egypt, and the Islamic army of the Madhi in Sudan toward the end of the nineteenth century. Green brings many of the Victorian players to life, and manages to tell a good yarn while explaining a tragic bit of history. I certainly recommend it to those interested in Victorian foreign politics, or larger-than-life Victorian figures.
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- Carleton
- 07-24-10
An extraordinary book
Tells a fascinating and, among Americans, little-known story that is important in its own right and helps explain today's world situation. Extremely well-written and well-narrated.
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Overall
- IVFarmboy
- 07-15-07
Very pertinent today
I really liked the way the author writes, very informative but not in a dull historical way. Was hard to put down my MP3 player at times. Well done. Gives a great look at a region in the world the west has had so much trouble in.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jsaid
- 05-24-16
oh my god
for anyone interested in the politics of the modern Middle East ,this book is both Illuminating and captivating . it would be an Illuminating and humbling read for Western policymakers who wish to effect change in the region
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Overall
- Richard
- 11-26-07
Good, not great
A very interesting history that gives a lot of the background to not only the personal history of some famous figures (like Winston Churchill), but also the origins of some of the greatest issues of our day (the rise of the Islamist fundamentalism underlying al-Qa'ida). The book contains some brilliant descriptions drawn from artfully chosen quotations of the original works and writings from key characters.
However, this book does not lend itself well to audio. The writing is scattered and it is difficult to follow. The book keeps jumping across timelines and years, with very poor "bridge" passages and almost no signposts to allow the listener to following the relationships between different pieces. It is nearly impossible to keep track of what events were happening when -- which things came first, and which follow. In the end, the audio book is a sometimes facinating collection of stories but does not hold together or flow as a history.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Eclectic
- 05-16-09
An old story, recent as todat's news
A beautifully read absorbing story of Khedives, Mahdis, imperialists, "Chinese" Gordon, Kitchener of Khartoum, the Sudan, the Suez Canal, etc. Today it's the Taliban, Darfur, Islamic fundamentalism and jihad. A timely book.
It also got me to rent the 1966 Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier epic film "Khartoum" which is remarkably accurate.
The author is modern in his lack of reverence for the British "protectors" of Egypt but holds no phony politically correct view of militant Islam either.
Held my attention and the narrator was very easy on the ears.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Cher R. Eaves
- 10-07-07
exceptional
Fascinating history with edge-of-your-seat battles and intrigues
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- Sean O'Keefe
- 05-05-07
Astoundingly good
I've read many great books about the Middle East (by authors like Lawrence Wright, David Fromkin, Rory Stewart, Michael Oren, and Peter Hopkirk) and this one ranks right there with the best of them. Green is a masterful storyteller - I found myself running, cleaning, and doing my laundry solely to listen to it! As he crazy-glues you to the book (or your headphones in this case), Green deftly covers every important influence on the Nile watershed in the late nineteenth century - British, French, Egyptian, and Ottoman politics, slavery, the scramble for africa (Egypt wanted to be a colonial power too!), the British media, Sudanese religious practices, and great vignettes of about ten or so main characters. The only thing he leaves out is the American civil war veterans' quiet but profound influence on Egypt's military and education practices (see Oren's Power, Faith and Fantasy on that).
In addition, Stephen Hoy is one of my top 5 favorite narrators, and I've heard at least 25. His reading is awesome. You will love this book.
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Roger
- 11-30-07
Masterful
This is a comprehensive and compelling analysis of imperialism, as practiced by both the Ottomans and the British, and the reactions of both the nationalists and the religious fundamentalists. It also explores the tensions among the Europeans as well as among various African tribes.
The stories told resonate both for the current crisis in Darfur, as well as the mistakes made in Iraq.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Chi-Hung
- 07-17-10
An narrative that captured the spirit of an age
I like the narrative for the emotional framing rather than historical accuracy, emotional narrative makes a history very entertaining, so I'd suggest one to read this as a well researched historical novel than serious history, the book captured the spirit and inherent contradiction of British imperialism incredibly well. Loved it.
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2 people found this helpful