-
The Pursuit of Glory
- The Five Revolutions That Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 35 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
The New York Times best-selling volume in the Penguin History of Europe series
Between the end of the Thirty Years' War and the Battle of Waterloo, Europe underwent an extraordinary transformation that saw five of the modern world's great revolutions - scientific, industrial, American, French, and romantic. In this much-admired addition to the monumental Penguin History of Europe series, Tim Blanning brilliantly investigates the forces that transformed Europe from a medieval society into a vigorous powerhouse of the modern world. Blanning renders this vast subject immediate and absorbing by making fresh connections between the most mundane details of life and the major cultural, political, and technological transformations that birthed the modern age.
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Celebrated historian John Hirst offers a fascinating exploration of the qualities that made Europe a world-changing civilization. The Shortest History of Europe begins with a rapid overview of European civilization, describing its birth from an unlikely mixture of classical learning and Christianity and German warrior culture. Over the centuries, this unstable blend produced highly distinctive characters - pious knights and belligerent popes, and beyond - and its coming apart provided the dynamic of European history in modern times.
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Political Cheap Shots Instead of History
- By Anonymous User on 08-25-24
By: John Hirst
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Superpower Interrupted
- The Chinese History of the World
- By: Michael Schuman
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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This global history as the Chinese would write it gives brilliant and unconventional insights for understanding China's role in the world, especially the drive to "Make China Great Again." In this colorful, informative story filled with fascinating characters, epic battles, influential thinkers, and decisive moments, we come to understand how the Chinese view their own history and how its narrative is distinctly different from that of Western civilization.
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Nice overview
- By Matthew G. Towner on 08-12-20
By: Michael Schuman
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The Outline of History
- Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind
- By: H. G. Wells
- Narrated by: Bernard Mayes
- Length: 44 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Having coined the phrase "the war that will end war," H. G. Wells was disillusioned by the World War I peace settlement. Convinced that humanity needed to awaken to the instability of the world order and remember lessons from the past, the author of science-fiction classics set out to write about history. Wells hoped to remind mankind of its common past, provide it with a basis for international patriotism, and guide it to renounce war.
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Loved it
- By Eric on 05-07-15
By: H. G. Wells
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Medieval Europe
- By: Chris Wickham
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The millennium between the breakup of the western Roman Empire and the Reformation was a long and hugely transformative period - one not easily chronicled within a single book. Yet distinguished historian Chris Wickham has taken up the challenge in this landmark book, and he succeeds in producing the most riveting account of medieval Europe in a generation.
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Wow! Outstanding Work on the Period
- By Dane Maralason on 01-15-19
By: Chris Wickham
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The Greeks
- A Global History
- By: Roderick Beaton
- Narrated by: Anna Crowe
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, laid the foundation for much of modern science, the arts, politics, and law. But the influence of the Greeks did not end with the rise and fall of this classical civilization. As historian Roderick Beaton illustrates, over three millennia Greek speakers produced a series of civilizations that were rooted in southeastern Europe but again and again ranged widely across the globe.
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An Ethnography of the Greeks
- By gmurphy92 on 03-27-22
By: Roderick Beaton
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Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
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Hard to take a break from it!
- By Mariano's Music on 12-09-21
By: Dan Jones
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The Fall of Rome
- And the End of Civilization
- By: Bryan Ward-Perkins
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Fall of Rome, eminent historian Bryan Ward-Perkins argues that the "peaceful" theory of Rome's "transformation" is badly in error. Indeed, he sees the fall of Rome as a time of horror and dislocation that destroyed a great civilization, throwing the inhabitants of the West back to a standard of living typical of prehistoric times. Attacking contemporary theories with relish and making use of modern archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans.
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best book ever on Fall of Rome
- By james m. on 01-30-22
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The Invention of Sicily
- A Mediterranean History
- By: Jamie Mackay
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Sicily has always acted as a gateway between Europe and the rest of the world. Fought over by the Phoenicians and Greeks, the Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, and the Spanish and the French for thousands of years, Sicily became a unique melting pot where diverse traditions merged, producing a unique heritage and singular culture. In this fascinating account of the island from the earliest times to the present day, author and journalist Jamie Mackay leads us through this most elusive of places.
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Wonderful overview of Sicily
- By jay lazier on 01-28-24
By: Jamie Mackay
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The English and Their History
- By: Robert Tombs
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 43 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Tombs' momentous The English and Their History is both a startlingly fresh and a uniquely inclusive account of the people who have a claim to be the oldest nation in the world. The English first came into existence as an idea, before they had a common ruler and before the country they lived in even had a name. They have lasted as a recognizable entity ever since, and their defining national institutions can be traced back to the earliest years of their history.
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Should be called, The English and their politics
- By Mary Elizabeth Reynolds on 08-24-16
By: Robert Tombs
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Few, if any, 20th-century political leaders have enjoyed greater popularity among their own people than Hitler did in the decade or so following his rise to power in 1933. The personality of Hitler himself, however, can scarcely explain this immense popularity or his political effectiveness in the 1930s and '40s. His hold over the German people lay rather in the hopes and perceptions of the millions who adored him. Based largely on the reports of government officials, party agencies, and political opponents, Kershaw's study charts the creation, growth, and decline of the Hitler myth.
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Not a study of Hitler Charismatic Authority
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Heart of Europe
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Story
The Holy Roman Empire lasted 1,000 years, far longer than ancient Rome. Yet this formidable dominion never inspired the awe of its predecessor. Voltaire quipped that it was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. Yet as Peter H. Wilson shows, the Holy Roman Empire tells a millennial story of Europe better than the histories of individual nation-states.
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Mixed feelings on this one.
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What listeners say about The Pursuit of Glory
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- thomas johnson
- 09-21-20
Thorough, detailed and enjoyable
I liked this book and its chronological description and detailed knowledge of this interesting time in history
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- James F. McConnell
- 12-07-23
Comprehensive treatment of the period
This is the nonpareil history of this period (1648-1815). The breadth, depth, and scope of coverage makes it the standard work for this generation of historians. The volume is brilliantly written, comprehensively inclusive, and eminently readable.
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- Michael Kurtz
- 12-12-22
Great help for this ap euro teacher
Appreciate his breakdown of the most into themes and then presented chronologically in a listenable way
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- DJ
- 06-20-23
A Fine, (but Repetitive) Book; Excellent Narration
T.CW. Blanning’s “The Pursuit of Glory,” his history of Europe from 1648 to 1815, and a component of the excellent Penguin History of Europe series, is a fine book: Blanning is a talented writer, and he brings a degree of emotion, and even at times humor, to his comprehensive review of the period from the Peace of Westphalia, concluding the Thirty Years War, to the Congress of Vienna, which brought the Napoleonic Wars to a close. However, the structure of the book, organized around themes, rather than chronology, makes the repetition of facts inevitable. This is exacerbated by Blanning’s tic of repeating certain phrases, often multiple times within the same chapter (I cringed each time I read “…but here one example will have to suffice”). Further, while the text is not intended to be a military history, the absence of information about many key aspects of the numerous wars of this era is glaring. Finally, Blanning defines “Europe” quite narrowly, so the roles for of, for example, the Ottoman and Russian Empires, as well as the American Revolution, are given short shrift, to the extent that the book at times reads like a history of western and central Europe.
The narration, by Cameron Stewart, is uniformly excellent. You captures the spirit of the text, and in some ways of the time, very well.
“The Pursuit of Glory” is certainly worth the considerable time that must be invested in its reading, but be aware in making the journey that you will be crossing the same roads many times.
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- Dolly S.
- 10-31-23
Fantastic history
Exceptionally well written; very clear and always engaging. The early chapters on communication and transportation were particularly informative and original. Narration is superb.
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- James McDermott
- 04-09-24
So much detail!
It’s a great overview of this time period but some of the details on roads and palaces was a bit boring.
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- Santiago Vega
- 08-03-21
Pretty good, be critical
It’s pretty informative and decently structured, but the treatment of Napoleon was so one-dimensional and inflected with such bitterness, blemished by outdated stereotypes, that it seriously makes me question the author’s honesty and bias regarding his treatment of other subjects on which I am less well read.
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