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How Iceland Changed the World
- The Big History of a Small Island
- Narrated by: Einar Gunn
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
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Publisher's summary
"[A] joyously peculiar book." (The New York Times)
"Bjarnason’s intriguing book might be about a cold place, but it’s tailor-made to be read on the beach." (New Statesman)
The untold story of how one tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic has shaped the world for centuries.
The history of Iceland began 1,200 years ago, when a frustrated Viking captain and his useless navigator ran aground in the middle of the North Atlantic. Suddenly, the island was no longer just a layover for the Arctic tern. Instead, it became a nation whose diplomats and musicians, sailors and soldiers, volcanoes and flowers, quietly altered the globe forever. How Iceland Changed the World takes readers on a tour of history, showing them how Iceland played a pivotal role in events as diverse as the French Revolution, the Moon Landing, and the foundation of Israel. Again and again, one humble nation has found itself at the frontline of historic events, shaping the world as we know it, How Iceland Changed the World paints a lively picture of just how it all happened.
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Critic reviews
"A chronicle of those thousand-plus years is breezily and likably unfolded in Egill Bjarnason’s How Iceland Changed the World.” (Wall Street Journal)
“How Iceland Changed the World is not only surprising and informative. It is amusing and evocatively animates a place that I have been fascinated with for most of my life. Well worth the read!” (Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author)
“Egill Bjarnason has written a delightful reminder that, when it comes to countries, size doesn’t always matter. His writing is a pleasure to read, reminiscent of Bill Bryson or Louis Theroux. He has made sure we will never take Iceland for granted again.” (A.J. Jacobs, New York Times best-selling author of Thanks a Thousand and The Year of Living Biblically)
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Deep in the Arctic wilderness, Peter Freuchen awoke to find himself buried alive under the snow. During a sudden blizzard the night before, he had taken shelter underneath his dogsled and become trapped there while he slept. Now, as feeling drained from his body, he managed to claw a hole through the ice only to find himself in even greater danger: his beard, wet with condensation from his struggling breath, had frozen to his sled runners and lashed his head in place, exposing it to icy winds that needed only a few minutes to kill him. If Freuchen could escape that, he could escape anything.
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Amazingly in-depth look at an amazing person.
- By Dave on 06-18-23
By: Reid Mitenbuler
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Why the Dutch Are Different
- A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands
- By: Ben Coates
- Narrated by: Ciaran Saward
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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A personal portrait of a fascinating people, a sideways history, and an entertaining travelogue, Why the Dutch Are Different is the story of an Englishman who went Dutch. And loved it.
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Good Start, Then He Goes Dark
- By amazonnance on 12-17-21
By: Ben Coates
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Bending Adversity
- Japan and the Art of Survival
- By: David Pilling
- Narrated by: Tim Andes Pabon
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Bending Adversity, Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.
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Good book, but terribly read
- By Kallan Resnick on 10-24-14
By: David Pilling
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Amsterdam
- A History of the World's Most Liberal City
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this effortlessly erudite account, Russell Shorto traces the idiosyncratic evolution of Amsterdam, showing how such disparate elements as herring anatomy, naked Anabaptists parading through the streets, and an intimate gathering in a 16th-century wine-tasting room had a profound effect on Dutch - and world - history. Weaving in his own experiences of his adopted home, Shorto provides an ever-surprising, intellectually engaging story of Amsterdam from its golden age to the present.
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Worth Reading - Highly Recommended
- By Whit B on 05-12-14
By: Russell Shorto
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California
- A History
- By: Kevin Starr
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed author, historian, and Guggenheim Fellow Kevin Starr is a professor at the University of Southern California. His extensive knowledge shines through this concise, yet comprehensive, depiction of the most fascinating aspects in California's history. From its colonial beginnings through Governor Schwarzenegger's administration, the Golden State has become a uniquely American phenomenon that has enchanted people with the possibility of a better life.
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Interesting read, until it's not
- By MiamiMe on 03-27-18
By: Kevin Starr
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In Putin's Footsteps
- Searching for the Soul of an Empire Across Russia's Eleven Time Zones
- By: Nina Khrushcheva, Jeffrey Tayler
- Narrated by: Kathleen Gati
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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With exclusive insider status as Nikita Khrushchev’s great grand-daughter, and an ex-pat living and reporting on Russia and the Soviet Union since 1993, Nina Khrushcheva and Jeffrey Tayler offer a poignant exploration of the largest country on Earth through their recreation of Vladimir Putin’s fabled New Year’s Eve speech planned across all 11 time zones.
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Up to date assessment of Russia in 2019
- By Joseph C. Wilson on 04-10-19
By: Nina Khrushcheva, and others
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Land
- How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Land - whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city - is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing - and have done - with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
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Audiobook Version is the Best!
- By semarla on 01-31-21
By: Simon Winchester
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The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
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Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
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Monsoon
- The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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On the world maps common in America, the Western Hemisphere lies front and center, while the Indian Ocean region all but disappears. This convention reveals the geopolitical focus of the now-departed 20th century, but in the 21st century, that focus will fundamentally change. In this pivotal examination of the countries known as “Monsoon Asia”—which include India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Burma, Oman, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Tanzania—best-selling author Robert D. Kaplan explains how crucial this dynamic area has become to American power.
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A map is worth a thousand words ...
- By Loren on 06-03-12
By: Robert D. Kaplan
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Away Off Shore
- Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890
- By: Nathaniel Philbrick
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
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In his first book of history, Away Off Shore, New York Times best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond its charm, quaint local traditions, and whaling yarns, Philbrick explores the origins of Nantucket in this comprehensive history. From the English settlers who thought they were purchasing a "Native American ghost town" but actually found a fully realized society, the story of Nantucket is a truly unique chapter of American history.
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There once were some (wo)men in Nantucket...
- By Darwin8u on 02-03-19
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A Furious Sky
- The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
With A Furious Sky, Eric Jay Dolin has created a vivid, sprawling account of our encounters with hurricanes, from the nameless storms that threatened Columbus's New World voyages to the destruction wrought in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria. Weaving a story of shipwrecks and devastated cities, of heroism and folly, Dolin introduces a rich cast of unlikely heroes and puts us in the middle of the most devastating storms of the past, none worse than the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed at least 6,000 people, the highest toll of any natural disaster in American history.
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Good start but went political at the end.
- By thebreeze on 03-24-21
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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The Germans and Europe
- A Personal Frontline History
- By: Peter Millar
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on a lifetime living in and reporting on Germany and Central Europe, award-winning journalist and author Peter Millar tackles the fascinating and complex story of the people at the heart of our continent. Focussing on nine cities (only six of which are in the Germany of today), he takes us on a zigzag ride back through time via the fall of the Berlin Wall through the horrors of two world wars and the patchwork states of the Middle Ages to the splendour of Charlemagne and the fall of Rome.
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One of the best books I have listened to on here
- By Shaun on 05-17-18
By: Peter Millar
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1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War
- By: Charles Emerson
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 19 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Today, 1913 is inevitably viewed through the lens of 1914: as the last year before a war that would shatter the global economic order and tear Europe apart, undermining its global pre-eminence. Our perspectives narrowed by hindsight, the world of that year is reduced to its most frivolous features last summers in grand aristocratic residences or its most destructive ones: the unresolved rivalries of the great European powers, the fear of revolution, violence in the Balkans.
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Good book ruined by bad read
- By GANESHi on 08-02-13
By: Charles Emerson
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A Brief History of Japan
- Samurai, Shogun and Zen: The Extraordinary Story of the Land of the Rising Sun
- By: Jonathan Clements
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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With intelligence and wit, author Jonathan Clements blends documentary and storytelling styles to connect the past, present, and future of Japan, and in broad yet detailed strokes reveals a country of paradoxes: a modern nation steeped in ancient traditions; a democracy with an emperor as head of state; a famously safe society built on 108 volcanoes resting on the world's most active earthquake zone; a fast-paced urban and technologically advanced country whose land consists predominantly of mountains and forests.
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A Brief Review of the Book
- By Than on 12-07-19
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Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet. In concise chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before.
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Arctic Dreams
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This best-selling, groundbreaking exploration of the Far North is a classic of natural history, anthropology, and travel writing.
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What listeners say about How Iceland Changed the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Matthew Kissane
- 10-12-23
Iceland is pretty cool
This is a latitude of the globe I never thought I would want to visit. After listening to this book, I could hang out with the locals forever. I could deal with claustrophobia, six months of darkness, and volcano threats if I was in the company of Bjarnason’s wonderful neighbors.
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- M. T. P.
- 01-04-23
A good introduction to Iceland.
It is a very good introduction to history, geography and mentality the people of Iceland. With broad strokes the author is able to paint a humorous realistic picture of the country and its influence on world stage.
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- Karen Carlberg
- 10-24-23
Informative and entertaining
My only regret, after listening to this book, was that I did not listen to it prior to my trip to Iceland. Knowing the history of the country would have made it even better. The only reason I booked a trip to Iceland was to accommodate a friend who wanted to go there. She ended up dropping out of the trip but I went any way and was so happy I did. It’s a starkly beautiful country with an interesting culture. This book temps me to go back and see even more of it.
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- Gilbert M. Stack
- 08-23-24
A Fascinating Place
I have always been fascinated by Iceland and its role in creating important medieval literature like the Prose Edda. But it turns out I really didn't know very much about it. For example, I always think of it as very tiny, but it is actually half the size of the United Kingdom—roughly the size of the state of Ohio. And its people, location, and volcanoes have helped to shape the development of the world—all without a military.
If you study Early Modern European history, you have doubtless read about the Little Ice Age (an important cooling of global temperatures). I did not realize it resulted from volcanic eruptions in Iceland. Need a base to hold off Nazis in World War II? It turns out that Iceland was incredibly well positioned for such activity.
But more than that, Bjarnson helps the reader to get to know a rather unique people, how they won their independence, and their role in the modern world. It's a very interesting book.
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- Ian D. Jones
- 06-01-21
Brilliant
I will preface this review by stating that I spent 10 days on a small wooden sailboat in the fjords of East Greenland with the author (who at the time was one of the boats crew) and as such I wanted to enjoy the book-which I absolutely did. The long and storied history of Iceland is presented in both a factual and very humorous way. The author does a fabulous job detailing parts of Icelands history with their larger impacts on the world as well as how world events also influenced Iceland. The narration and flow of the book is superb. I often listen to audiobooks while cutting my grass and found myself enjoying the book so much that I stayed on my mower cutting a large swath of my yard twice.
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15 people found this helpful
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- mamax3
- 07-30-23
Good overview of Iceland history, politics, and mindset
I appreciated the approach of the book - identifying moments where Iceland had an impact on an important world event, and then building out from there chronologically. It was well researched but still efficient, and had bits of humor and insight throughout. I appreciated being able to listen to the book to learn more about how Icelandic is pronounced - reading it would not have felt so immersive.
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- IowaGreyhound
- 05-20-22
an inside view of Iceland
Interesting coverage if history, geography, economy and politics of ziceland by a native Icelanders. Led me to research more information about Iceland. wish I could visit. Recommend the book. The narrator dud a great job and pronounced Icelandic words smoithly.
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- Jo Penny
- 02-17-23
Love Iceland. Read this book
A wonderful read and full of honest information. A very good value and time well spent.
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- Bjorg M.
- 01-20-22
Fun and engaging
If you are looking for a very in depth narrative of Iceland this may not be for you, but I still recommend it, as the author found ways to make everything he talked about fun and interesting. Definitely covers a wide range of events and cool facts. Worth the read.
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- Bob Winter
- 10-03-23
Very informative and a fun read
I picked this book up because I read a review of it in a newspaper or a magazine. I was blown away by how important Iceland has been to the world. My two daughters visited there a few years ago and came back glowing about what they saw. Since my last name is WINTER, I don’t mind the snow, ice, and cold. This book got me interested in planning a trip soon.
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