A Crack in the Edge of the World - Simon Winchester - Audio Book

A Crack in the Edge of the World - Simon Winchester : Simon Winchester vividly brings to life the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of Americas relentless western expansion.

In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of other towns were overcome by an earthquake registering 8.25 on the Richter scale, resulting from a rupture in the San Andreas fault. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25, 000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.

As a trained geologist, Simon Winchester knows very well about what he is talking and his way to explain this earthquake in this audio book is clear and precise. Remarkable.

Ambassador in Paris: The Reagan Years - Evan Galbraith - Audio Book

Ambassador in Paris: The Reagan Years - Evan Galbraith : Evan Galbraith represented America in Paris for four years during Reagan's administration. He paints a vivid picture of the life of an American ambassador in the grand and glamorous city of Paris.

Notwithstanding his popularity as a host (he opened up the U.S. embassy to more than 75,000
guests at over 500 events during his stay), Galbraith was often controversial. On one occasion,
he refused to board France's ultramodern train with Transportation Minister Charles Fiterman
because he was a Communist Party member.

The way Evan Galbraith explains its own story is funny and colorful.It is interesting to discover
throughout this audio book the "hidden" face of a "public" man.

The Great Bridge - David McCullough - Audio Book

The Great Bridge - David McCullough : first published in 1972, The Great Bridge is the classic account of one of the greatest engineering feats of all time—the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

In the years around 1870, the concept of building a great bridge to span the East River between the cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the pyramids. Throughout the fourteen years of the bridge's construction, the odds against its successful completion seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives were lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle: it is a sweeping narrative of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or obstructing this great enterprise.

This audio book is considered as "a monument" in the litterature. And...it is !

Long Walk To Freedom - Nelson Mandela - Audio Book

Long Walk To Freedom - Nelson Mandela : Nelson Mandela is one of the great moral and political leaders of our time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. Since his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela has been at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.

Like Nelson Mandela himself this book will remain in our memories and in modern history as unforgettable and as a huge lesson of hope.

Citizen Soldiers - Stephen E. Ambrose - Audio Book

Citizen Soldiers - Stephen E. Ambrose : Citizen Soldiers opens on June 7, 1944, on the Normandy beaches, and ends on May 7, 1945. From the high command on down to the enlisted men, Stephen E. Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from men on both sides who were there. He recreates the experiences of the individuals who fought the battles, the women who served, and the Germans who fought against us.

Ambrose reveals the learning process of a great army -- how to cross rivers, how to fight in snow or hedgerows, how to fight in cities, how to coordinate air and ground campaigns, how to fight in winter and on the defensive, how citizens become soldiers in the best army in the world.

A masterpiece. What else to say apart : listen to this audio book.

Truman - David McCullough - Audio Book

Truman - David McCullough : The life and times of the thirty-third President of the United States, Truman provides a deeply moving look at an extraordinary, singular American.

From Truman's small-town, turn-of-the-century boyhood and his transforming experience in the face of war in 1918, to his political beginnings in the powerful Pendergast machine and his rapid rise to prominence in the U.S. Senate, McCullough shows a man of uncommon vitality and strength of character. Here too is a telling account of Truman's momentous decision to use the atomic bomb and the weighty responsibilities that he was forced to confront on the dawning of a new age.

In this audio book the adaptation of Truman life is one of the greatest ever written about him.

Bound for Canaan - Fergus M. Bordewich - Audio Book

Bound for Canaan - Fergus M. Bordewich : An important book of epic scope on America's first racially integrated, religiously inspired movement for change.The true story of the Underground Railroad is much more morally complex and politically divisive than even the myths suggest.
Against a backdrop of the country's westward expansion arose a clash of values that evolved into a fierce fight for nothing less than the country's soul. Beginning six decades before the Civil War, freedom-seeking blacks and courageous whites worked together to save tens of thousands of lives, often at the risk of great physical danger to themselves. Not since the American Revolution had the country engaged in an act of such vast and profound civil disobedience that not only
challenged prevailing mores but also subverted federal law.


By listening to this audio book, you will realise that Bound for Canaan shows why it was the Underground Railroad and not the civil rights movement that gave birth to this country's first movement for social change.

Dr Crippen: The ultimate crime of passion - Full Cast Production - Audio Book

Dr Crippen: The ultimate crime of passion - Full Cast Production : The tale of Dr. Crippen bears all the trademarks of the classic English whodunit. It is a thrilling tale of death, love, sin and virtue. While stereotypical in nature, it is set apart from the ordinary by the motive of its crime, Freudian in nature and, in fact, reminiscent of the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome that fascinated period writers.

"There are two sides of the story - the physical, which is sordid, dreadful and revolting, and the spiritual, which is good and heroic," writes Filson Young, editor for the "Notable British Trial Series," which published the Trial of Hawley Harvey Crippen a decade after the sensational murder and subsequent trial occurred. "Such a story can only be understood by the aid of the imagination; and it should remind us, in the judgments we pass on our fellow men, never to forget the dual nature of the human character and the mystery in virtue of which acts of great moral obliquity may march with conduct above the ordinary standards."

In the past century and at the beginning of this one there have been and there are such frightful crimes and in this audio book Filson Young describesd this particular crime very tactfully and avoids all the traps aiming at a melodramatisation.

Victorian London - Liza Picard - Audio Book

Victorian London - Liza Picard : The years 1840 to 1870 were years of dramatic change and achievement in London. As suburbs expanded and roads multiplied, the city was ripped apart to build railway lines and stations. Many practical innovations, such as flushing lavatories,
underground railways, umbrellas and letter-boxes, were introduced.

But there was also appalling poverty and exploitation and, for the labouring classes, pay was
pitifully low, the hours long and job security non-existent.

When we listen to this audio book it reminds us of what Charles Dickens already wrote about England and London. Its a real introspection about the splendour and misery of that extraordinary period. Just go for it.

The Island Race - Sir Winston Churchill - Audio Book

The Island Race - Sir Winston Churchill : Here is a history of Britain by one of its finest statesmen, a man who had himself crucially shaped events during perhaps the greatest crisis of modern times. Churchill's resonant prose brings to vivid and compelling life the political, constitutional and military landmarks of our history: his purpose, to show that a sense of how man may live decently and democratically grew from the heritage of these islands.

Churchill's literary career began with campaign reports and after his retirement from office, Churchill wrote a History of the English-speaking Peoples.

Queen Elizabeth II conferred on Churchill the dignity of Knighthood and invested him with the insignia of the Order of the Garter in 1953.

What else to say ? Just listen to this audio book.

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc - Douglas Brinkley - Audio Book

The boy of Pointe du Hoc - Douglas Brinkley: "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war. " --- Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984, Normandy, France.

Based upon recently released documents, The Boys of Pointe du Hoc is the first in-depth, anecdotal remembrance of these fearless Army Rangers. With brilliant deftness, Brinkley moves between two events four decades apart to tell the dual story of the making of Reagan's two uplifting 1984 speeches, considered by many to be among the best orations the Great Communicator ever gave.

Acclaimed historian and New York Times bestselling author of Tour of Duty Douglas Brinkley brings the riveting account of the brave U. S. Army Rangers who stormed the coast of Normandy on D-Day and the President, forty years later, who paid them homage.

Even if one think he knows a lot about this particular moment of World War II will be surprised of the amount of new material contains in this audio book.

Founding Mothers - Cokie Roberts - Audio Book

Founding Mothers - Cokie Roberts:
Cokie Roberts's #1 New York Times bestseller "We Are Our Mothers Daughters" examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values."

Her second bestseller, "From This Day Forward", written with her husband, Steve Roberts, described American marriages throughout history. Now Cokie returns with Founding Mothers, an intimate look at the passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families and country proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it.

Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Eliza Pinckney, Mary Bartlett and Martha Washington -- proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might have never survived.

The role of all mothers, of all women who fought to enable us to be what we are today was never so well described as in this audio book and I learn as well a lot about America's "pionneers".

England's Queen Elizabeth I - An Audio Book That Reveals A Lot

England's Queen Elizabeth I - this book is full of surprises. The narrator of this audio book makes the middle ages come to life like I've never heard before:

An abused child, yet confident of her destiny to reign, a woman in a man’s world, passionately sexual yet – she said – a virgin, Elizabeth I was to be famed as England’s most successful ruler. This absorbing new book, by concentrating on the early years from her birth in 1533 to her accession in 1558, shows how her experiences of danger and adventure formed her remarkable character and shaped her opinions and beliefs.

An audio document that is a must for anbody interested in the history of the english kingdom.

The Civil War - Fredericksburg to Meridian

The Civil War - Fredericksburg to Meridian is an audio book that tells the story about the almost continual confrontation of great armies. For the fourth time, the Army of the Potomac (now under the control of Burnside) attempts to take Richmond, resulting in the blood-bath at Fredericksburg. Then Joe Hooker tries again, only to be repulsed at Chancellorsville as Stonewall Jackson turns his flanka bitter victory for the South, paid for by the death of Lees foremost lieutenant.

In the West, during the six-month standoff that followed the shock of Murfreesboro in the central theater, one of the most complex and determined sieges of the war has begun. Here Grants seven relentless efforts against Vicksburg show Lincoln that he has at last found his killer-general, the man who can face the arithmetic. With Vicksburg finally under siege, Lee again invades the North. The three-day conflict at Gettysburg receives book-length attention in a masterly treatment of a key great battle, not as legend has it but as it really was, before it became distorted by controversy and overblown by remembered glory.

History Audio Books - A Great Way To Listen To History

I've just discovered a much better way to "read" history books: I am listening to them !

Having a narrator make texts come alive : it's like cinema for the head. I you haven't tried it you really should.

My first audio book found me : surfing and looking for new books to buy. I found the Audio Books Corner Store, a book shop that only sells downloadlable audio books.