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Witchcraft
- A Very Short Introduction
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
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Publisher's summary
Witchcraft is a subject that fascinates us all, and everyone knows what a witch is - or do they? From childhood most of us develop a sense of the mysterious, malign person, usually an old woman. Historically, too, we recognize witch-hunting as a feature of premodern societies. But why do witches still feature so heavily in our cultures and consciousness? From Halloween to superstitions, and literary references such as Faust and even Harry Potter, witches still feature heavily in our society. In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Malcolm Gaskill challenges all of this and argues that what we think we know is, in fact, wrong.
Taking a historical perspective from the ancient world to contemporary paganism, Gaskill reveals how witchcraft has meant different things to different people and that in every age it has raised questions about the distinction between fantasy and reality, faith and proof.
Telling stories, delving into court records, and challenging myths, Gaskill examines the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries and explores the reinvention of witchcraft - as history, religion, fiction, and metaphor.
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Just 2 Issues
- By VIPER G on 09-01-19
By: Andrew L. Seidel, and others
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The Closing of the Western Mind
- The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason
- By: Charles Freeman
- Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in 368 AD, he changed the course of European history in ways that continue to have repercussions to the present day. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, he turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant, and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority, whether that of the Bible, or the writings of Ptolemy in astronomy and of Galen and Hippocrates in medicine.
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Not proven
- By Jeffrey D on 04-30-21
By: Charles Freeman
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Stories We Tell Ourselves
- Making Meaning in a Meaningless Universe
- By: Richard Holloway
- Narrated by: Richard Holloway
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history we have told ourselves stories to try and make sense of what it all means: our place in a small corner of one of billions of galaxies, at the end of billions of years of existence. In this new book Richard Holloway takes us on a personal, scientific and philosophical journey to explore what he believes the answers to the biggest of questions are.
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Effortlessly profound
- By Consi on 09-28-21
By: Richard Holloway
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Strange Gods
- A Secular History of Conversion
- By: Susan Jacoby
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 19 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In this original and riveting exploration, Susan Jacoby argues that conversion - especially in the free American "religious marketplace" - is too often viewed only within the conventional and simplistic narrative of personal reinvention and divine grace. Instead, the author places conversions within a secular social context that has, at various times, included the force of a unified church and state, desire for upward economic mobility, and interreligious marriage.
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Our own fabrications
- By David E. Felker on 01-03-17
By: Susan Jacoby
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The Chalice and the Blade
- Our History, Our Future
- By: Riane Eisler
- Narrated by: Riane Eisler
- Length: 2 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Riane Eisler believes that war and the "war of the sexes" are concepts neither divinely nor biologically ordained. Join the author as she reconstructs a prehistoric culture based on partnership rather than domination and traces the roots of the global shift to patriarchy. Eisler, an acclaimed scholar, futurist, and activist, also presents new scripts for living based on a more socially, economically, ecologically, personally, and spiritually balanced society. This script is in direct opposition to the tension and violence typical of what she calls the dominator model. Her vision is the partnership model, which today is struggling to reemerge. This program is an important contribution to that struggle.
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the chalice and the blade
- By Anne on 07-25-08
By: Riane Eisler
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Dominion
- How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland, Mark Meadows
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of crucifixion - an obscure provincial by the name of Jesus - was to be worshipped as a god. Dominion explores the implications of this shocking conviction as they have reverberated throughout history.
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Only the forward is narrated by Holland.
- By Honora on 06-16-20
By: Tom Holland
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Why You Think the Way You Do
- The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home
- By: Glenn S. Sunshine
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Why You Think the Way You Do traces the development of the worldviews that underpin the Western world. Professor and historian Glenn S. Sunshine demonstrates the decisive impact that the growth of Christianity had in transforming the outlook of pagan Roman culture into one that—based on biblical concepts of humanity and its relationship with God—established virtually all the positive aspects of Western civilization.
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"Christian's view of the western world"
- By Bradley on 03-21-10
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Witches, Sluts, Feminists
- Conjuring the Sex Positive
- By: Kristen J. Sollee
- Narrated by: Kristen J. Sollee
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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“Like being deemed a witch hundreds of years ago, being presumed a slut today is cause for ostracism, abuse, and death”.... Archetypes of “witch” and “slut” have been used to police female sexuality and punish women; now, feminists are reclaiming them as positive affirmations. This book unearths the sex positive feminist legacy of the witch in art, music, politics, and popular culture, connecting the fictional witch we love to emulate and fear with real women, past and present.
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Uh Ok
- By Chris J Saretto on 05-05-20
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A Thousand Small Sanities
- The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
- By: Adam Gopnik
- Narrated by: Adam Gopnik
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history.
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Erudite and entertaining!
- By D. A. Vail on 05-20-19
By: Adam Gopnik
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This imaginative and stimulating Very Short Introduction audiobook goes beyond a simple retelling of the stories to explore the rich history and diverse interpretations of classical mythology. It is a wide-ranging account, examining how classical myths are used and understood in both high art and popular culture, taking the listener from the temples of Crete to skyscrapers in New York, and finding classical myths in a variety of unexpected places: from Arabic poetry and Hollywood films, to psychoanalysis, the Bible, and New Age spiritualism.
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Woeful: poorly titled, written, and structured
- By Drone Boy on 05-08-24
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it was very boring.
- By Linda on 06-02-24
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The Crusades
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Crusading fervor gripped Europe for over 200 years, creating one of the most extraordinary, vivid episodes in world history. Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, they have fascinated generations ever since, and their legacy of ideas and imagery has resonated through the centuries, inspiring Hollywood movies and great works of literature. Even today, to invoke the Crusades is to stir deep cultural myths, assumptions and prejudices.
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VSI # 140
- By Darwin8u on 10-29-24
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Comparative Literature
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Ben Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
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From colonial empire-building in the 19th century to the postcolonial culture wars of the 21st century, attempts at "comparison" have defined the international agenda of literature. But what is comparative literature? That is discussed in this audiobook....
By: Ben Hutchinson
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The Apocryphal Gospels
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Paul Foster
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
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This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers a clear, accessible, and concise account of the apocryphal gospels - exploring their origins, their discovery, and discussing how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond.
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Religion
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Religion: A Very Short Introduction offers a concise nonpartisan overview of religion's long history and its complicated role in the world today.
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Dry, even by academic standards
- By Owen Summerscales on 10-13-24
By: Thomas A. Tweed
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Classical Mythology
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Helen Morales
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 3 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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This imaginative and stimulating Very Short Introduction audiobook goes beyond a simple retelling of the stories to explore the rich history and diverse interpretations of classical mythology. It is a wide-ranging account, examining how classical myths are used and understood in both high art and popular culture, taking the listener from the temples of Crete to skyscrapers in New York, and finding classical myths in a variety of unexpected places: from Arabic poetry and Hollywood films, to psychoanalysis, the Bible, and New Age spiritualism.
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Woeful: poorly titled, written, and structured
- By Drone Boy on 05-08-24
By: Helen Morales
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The Koran
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Michael Cook
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
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The Koran has constituted a remarkably resilient core of identity and continuity for a religious tradition that is now in its 15th century. In this Very Short Introduction, Michael Cook provides a lucid and direct account of the significance of the Koran both in the modern world and in that of traditional Islam. He gives vivid accounts of its role in Muslim civilization, illustrates the diversity of interpretations championed by traditional and modern commentators, discusses the processes by which the book took shape, and more.
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it was very boring.
- By Linda on 06-02-24
By: Michael Cook
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The Crusades
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Christopher Tyerman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 5 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Crusading fervor gripped Europe for over 200 years, creating one of the most extraordinary, vivid episodes in world history. Whether the Crusades are regarded as the most romantic of Christian expeditions, or the last of the barbarian invasions, they have fascinated generations ever since, and their legacy of ideas and imagery has resonated through the centuries, inspiring Hollywood movies and great works of literature. Even today, to invoke the Crusades is to stir deep cultural myths, assumptions and prejudices.
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VSI # 140
- By Darwin8u on 10-29-24
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Comparative Literature
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Ben Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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From colonial empire-building in the 19th century to the postcolonial culture wars of the 21st century, attempts at "comparison" have defined the international agenda of literature. But what is comparative literature? That is discussed in this audiobook....
By: Ben Hutchinson
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The Apocryphal Gospels
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Paul Foster
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
This Very Short Introduction audiobook offers a clear, accessible, and concise account of the apocryphal gospels - exploring their origins, their discovery, and discussing how the various texts have been interpreted both by the Church and beyond.
By: Paul Foster
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Religion
- A Very Short Introduction
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- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Religion: A Very Short Introduction offers a concise nonpartisan overview of religion's long history and its complicated role in the world today.
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Dry, even by academic standards
- By Owen Summerscales on 10-13-24
By: Thomas A. Tweed
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World Mythology
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: David A. Leeming
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The mythologies of the world are collective cultural dreams, and as such should be analyzed first from cultural perspectives. How do myths of the ancient Egyptians or Greeks, for instance, reflect the realities of the Egyptian and Greek cultures? When compared, however, mythologies reveal certain universal themes or motifs that point to larger trans-cultural issues such as the place of the human species in creation or the nature of deity as a concept. World Mythology: A Very Short Introduction is organized around the universal motifs.
By: David A. Leeming
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The Bible
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: John Riches
- Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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This Very Short Introduction looks at the importance accorded to the bible by different communities and cultures and attempts to explain why it has generated such a rich variety of uses and interpretations. It explores how the Bible was written, the development of the canon, the role of biblical criticism, the appropriation of the bible in high and popular culture, and its use for political ends.
By: John Riches
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The First World War
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Michael Howard
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
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By the time the First World War ended in 1918, eight million people had died in what had been perhaps the most apocalyptic episode the world had known. This Very Short Introduction audiobook provides a concise and insightful history of the Great War - from the state of Europe in 1914, to the role of the US, the collapse of Russia, and the eventual surrender of the Central Powers.
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A very quick synopsis
- By Anonymous User on 11-22-22
By: Michael Howard
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Viruses
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Dorothy H. Crawford
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Viruses are big news. From pandemics such as HIV, swine flu, and SARS, we are constantly being bombarded with information about new lethal infections. In this Very Short Introduction, Dorothy Crawford demonstrates how clever these entities really are. From their discovery and the unravelling of their intricate structures, Crawford demonstrates how these tiny parasites are by far the most abundant life forms on the planet.
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Theology
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: David Ford
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 5 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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This Very Short Introduction provides both the believer and non-believer with a balanced survey of the central questions of theology. David Ford's approach draws us in to considering the principles underlying religious belief, including the centrality of salvation to most major religions; the concept of God in ancient, modern, and postmodern contexts; the challenge posed to theology by prayer and worship; and the issue of sin and evil. He also probes the nature of experience, knowledge, and wisdom in theology, and discusses what is involved in interpreting theological texts.
By: David Ford
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Colonial America
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Alan Taylor
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
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Over the last generation, historians have broadened our understanding of colonial America by adopting both a trans-Atlantic and a trans-continental perspective, examining the interplay of Europe, Africa, and the Americas through the flow of goods, people, plants, animals, capital, and ideas. In this Very Short Introduction, Alan Taylor presents an engaging overview of the best of this new scholarship.
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Eye opening narrative
- By T.J. Dowling on 07-15-21
By: Alan Taylor
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Northern Ireland
- A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Edition
- By: Marc Mulholland
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 4 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Plantation of Ulster in the 17th century to the entry into peace talks in the late 20th century, the Northern Irish people have been engaged in conflict - Catholic against Protestant, Republican against Unionist. Marc Mulholland explores the pivotal moments in Northern Irish history - the rise of republicanism in the 1800s, Home Rule and the civil rights movement, the growth of Sinn Fein and the provisional IRA, and of the opposition, the DUP, led by Dr. Ian Paisley.
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Great introduction to Northern Ireland
- By EmilyK on 08-14-22
By: Marc Mulholland
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Nuclear Weapons
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Joseph M. Siracusa
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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This Very Short Introduction looks at the science of nuclear weapons and how they differ from conventional weapons. Tracing the story of the nuclear bomb, Joseph Siracusa chronicles the race to acquire the H-bomb, a thermonuclear weapon with revolutionary implications; and the history of early arms control, nuclear deterrence, and nonproliferation. He also tracks the development of nuclear weapons from the origins of the Cold War in 1945 to the end of Moscow-dominated Communism in 1991, and examines the promise and prospect of missile defense.
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Solid, brief primer in nuclear weapons
- By Joe on 06-22-24
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World War II
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Gerhard L. Weinberg
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Very Short Introduction, Gerhard L. Weinberg provides an introduction to the origins, course, and impact of the war on those who fought and the ordinary citizens who lived through it. Starting by looking at the inter-war years and the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, he examines how the war progressed by examining a number of key events, including the war in the West in 1940, Barbarossa, the German Invasion of the Soviet Union, the expansion of Japan's war with China, developments on the home front, and the Allied victory from 1944-45.
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Overdressed... and over here
- By Darwin8u on 03-12-19
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Logic
- A Very Short Introduction, 2nd Edition
- By: Graham Priest
- Narrated by: Kyle Tait
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Logic is often perceived as having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. In this lively and accessible introduction, Graham Priest shows how wrong this conception is. He explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic deals with issues ranging from the existence of God and the reality of time to paradoxes of probability and decision theory. Along the way, the basics of formal logic are explained in simple, non-technical terms, showing that logic is a powerful and exciting part of modern philosophy.
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A bit disappointing.
- By MarshallP1991 on 12-16-21
By: Graham Priest
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Geophysics
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: William Lowrie
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In this Very Short Introduction, William Lowrie describes the internal and external processes that affect the planet, as well as the principles and methods of geophysics used to investigate them. From analyses of Earth's deepest interior to measurements made from Earth-orbiting satellites, Lowrie shows how geophysical exploration is vitally important in the search for mineral resources and emphasizes our need to understand the history of our planet and the processes that govern its continuing evolution.
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Good book but I had to fact check it
- By River on 10-26-20
By: William Lowrie
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Volcanoes
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Michael J. Branney, Jan Zalasiewicz
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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This Very Short Introduction takes listeners into the inferno of a racing pyroclastic current, and the heart of a moving lava flow, as understood through the latest scientific research. Exploring how volcanologists forensically decipher how volcanoes work, Michael Branney and Jan Zalasiewicz explain what we do (and don't) understand about the fundamental mechanisms of volcanism, and consider how volcanoes interact with other physical processes on the Earth, with life, and with human society.
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A thorough short discussion on volcanoes
- By edward on 04-08-24
By: Michael J. Branney, and others