Titans of History
The Giants Who Made Our World
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Narrated by:
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Steve West
About this listen
In this inspiring, horrifying, and accessible collection of short, entertaining, and vivid life stories, Simon Sebag Montefiore - one of our preeminent historians and a prizewinning writer - presents the giant characters who have changed the course of world history.
These titans of history - encompassing queens, empresses, and actresses, kings, sultans, and conquerors, as well as prophets, artists, courtesans, psychopaths, and explorers - lived lives of astonishing drama, courage and adventure, debauchery and slaughter, virtue and crime. The subjects range widely throughout time and geography from Buddha and Genghis Khan to Nero and Churchill; from Catherine the Great and Anne Frank to Toussaint l’Ouverture and Martin Luther King; from Mozart to Mao; from Jesus Christ and Shakespeare to Einstein and Elvis. Through these lives, Montefiore recounts the most momentous world events - from ancient times to the Crusades, the Holocaust, and the Gulf Wars.
These are the historical figures everyone should know and the stories we should never forget.
©2017 Simon Sebag Montefiore (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Entertaining and informative. Full of offbeat, fascinating detail.” (Sunday Telegraph)
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“We do not shudder at the depths to which men and women throughout history have sunk, but experience a piquant relish.... [A] book that reminds us how thin the veneer of civilisation is.” (The Times (London))
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- A Concise Biography
- By: David A. Bell
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 4 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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David Bell emphasizes the astonishing sense of human possibility that Napoleon represented. Bell emphasizes the importance of the French Revolution in understanding Napoleon's career. The revolution made possible the unprecedented concentration of political authority that Napoleon accrued. Without the political changes brought about by the revolution, Napoleon could not have fought his wars. Without the wars, he could not have seized and held onto power. Though his virtual dictatorship betrayed the ideals of liberty and equality, his life and career were revolutionary.
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Perfect introduction to Napoleon
- By DJP on 10-17-20
By: David A. Bell
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Ancient Rome
- The Rise and Fall of An Empire
- By: Simon Baker
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 17 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of the greatest empire the world has ever known. Simon Baker charts the rise and fall of the world's first superpower, focusing on six momentous turning points that shaped Roman history. Welcome to Rome as you've never seen it before - awesome and splendid, gritty and squalid. From the conquest of the Mediterranean beginning in the third century BC to the destruction of the Roman Empire at the hands of barbarian invaders some seven centuries later, we discover the most critical episodes in Roman history.
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Clear and dramatic
- By Tad Davis on 08-01-17
By: Simon Baker
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The Shortest History of China
- From the Ancient Dynasties to a Modern Superpower: A Retelling for Our Times
- By: Linda Jaivin
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From kung-fu to tofu, tea to trade routes, sages to silk, China has influenced cuisine, commerce, military strategy, aesthetics, and philosophy across the world for thousands of years. Chinese history is nothing if not messy. Heroes are also villains; prosperity mingles with violence; cultural vibrancy coexists with censorship and repression. Modern China is seen variously as an economic powerhouse, an icon of urbanization, a propaganda state, and an aggressive superpower seeking world domination.
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Loved it!
- By Emma on 10-23-24
By: Linda Jaivin
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Sicily
- An Island at the Crossroads of History
- By: John Julius Norwich
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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"Sicily," said Goethe, "is the key to everything." It is the largest island in the Mediterranean, the stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the link between the Latin West and the Greek East. Sicily's strategic location has tempted Roman emperors, French princes, and Spanish kings. The subsequent struggles to conquer and keep it have played crucial roles in the rise and fall of the world's most powerful dynasties.
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DISAPPOINTING
- By SRdto on 11-22-16
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Our Oriental Heritage
- The Story of Civilization, Volume 1
- By: Will Durant
- Narrated by: Robin Field
- Length: 50 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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Wonderful
- By Michael on 11-30-13
By: Will Durant
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Antony & Cleopatra
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In this remarkable dual biography of the two great lovers of the ancient world, Adrian Goldsworthy goes beyond myth and romance to create a nuanced and historically acute portrayal of his subjects, set against the political backdrop of their time. A history of lives lived intensely at a time when the world was changing profoundly, this audiobook takes listeners on a journey that crosses cultures and boundaries, from ancient Greece and ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire.
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Very good
- By Kdmd on 02-23-16
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The Story of Russia
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story of Russia is about how the Russians defined themselves―and repeatedly reinvented such definitions along the way. Moving from Russia’s agrarian beginnings in the first millennium to subsequent periods of monarchy, totalitarianism, and perestroika, all the way up to Vladimir Putin and his use of myths of Russian history to bolster his regime, celebrated historian Orlando Figes examines the ideas that have guided the country’s actions.
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Almost perfect…
- By Samantha Dispenzieri on 02-21-23
By: Orlando Figes
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The History of the Ancient World
- From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome
- By: Susan Wise Bauer
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 26 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history. This narrative history employs the methods of "history from beneath" - literature, epic traditions, private letters, and accounts - to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled.
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An Historic Achievement
- By Ellen S. Wilds on 04-25-14
By: Susan Wise Bauer
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the British Empire
- By: H. W. Crocker III
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Nothing offends liberals more than Western imperialism—it is racism, sexism, and chauvinism all in one. And of course the epitome of Western imperialism is the British Empire, covering at its height a quarter of the globe’s surface and ruling a quarter of the world’s population. Here, best-selling author H. W. Crocker III exposes how the British Empire was actually one of the greatest establishers and defenders of freedom in history.
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More Propaganda than History
- By Mike on 10-21-19
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Napoleon
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Johnson's book is a refreshing return to a concept whose time has come once again: the Great Man theory of biography. It serves as "the greatest possible refutation of those who hold that events are governed by forces, classes, economics, and geography rather than the powerful wills of men and women". Napoleon truly was the Great Man of his age, a towering and terrible genius who managed to conquer the Continent.
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Not your standard biography
- By Mark Grannis on 04-24-05
By: Paul Johnson
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The Medici
- Power, Money, and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance
- By: Paul Strathern
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Against the background of an age that saw the rebirth of ancient and classical learning, Paul Strathern explores the intensely dramatic rise and fall of the Medici family in Florence as well as the Italian Renaissance, which they did so much to sponsor and encourage. Interwoven into the narrative are the lives of many of the great Renaissance artists with whom the Medici had dealings, including Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Donatello as well as scientists like Galileo and Pico della Mirandola.
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Fun Story Bad History
- By Elizabeth Barrett on 05-09-16
By: Paul Strathern
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What listeners say about Titans of History
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jared Davis
- 11-11-22
Disagree with some of the author's picks
I enjoyed hearing about the more well-known personages rather than the truly obscure ones.
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- J.Brock
- 06-16-19
Surprising Delight
This book is incredible. I wasn’t sure what to think when I read some of the initial reviews. However, I love Simon Sebag Monrefiore, so even if it is a mediocre outing, it will still be good. Well this is delightful. It’s broken up into short chapters of various historical titans throughout history. Some of the picks are very interesting, but that’s what makes it so fun. It’s not at all what you expect. And there isn’t a theme in the picks, which adds further intrigue. Steve West provides exceptional narration and pacing.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Narada
- 11-24-18
Party line history
The main plus of this book is the number of "titans" covered (though the selection is very questionable). The main minus is, first, the shallowness of each biography and second the completely orthodox viewpoint of each life. Some examples: the Roman emperors Caligula and Nero would, first, not really be titans in anyone's book, and secondly their evils are almost certainly greatly exaggerated (as pointed out by that revisionist Gibbon). The Borgias have been unjustly maligned (perhaps because they were Spaniards in Italy, and have always maintained a close relationship with Spanish interests), most of the aspersion cast against them are just that, and Alexander VI seemed generally a quite good and tolerant Pope, much better than his successors [who got to write the history]. Mohammed is described in the book as a saint (which he was extremely far from, according to the Hadith - he was clearly a brutal warlord). Genghis Khan (who brought a lot of good along with the not-so-good into the world) is, again, pastiched as a villain, while the vast majority of Muslim figures are praised to high heaven. Genghis' conquests would not have been possible without Subutai, who is not mentioned at all.
Moving on, of the US founding fathers, amazingly, Ben Franklin (certainly a giant in a number of domains) is not accorded a biography. Lincoln is given the usual hagiographic treatment. Stalin and Beria (certainly not saints) are tarred with Khruschev's brush (Beria was actually a far more positive figure, and even Stalin was not a cartoon villain). Mussolini, until his disastrous alliance with Hitler was far more benign than such pillars of democracy as Woodrow Wilson and FDR.
JFK is credited with handling the Cuban missile crisis (which his administration caused, thus almost plunging the planet into a nuclear war), while the far more influential (in both good and bad ways) president Nixon is not accorded a bigorgaphy. Mohammed Ali is, though.
Anyway, this is the standard center left tripe - no wonder Sebag Montefiore is a friend of both Prince Charles and David Cameron (two useful idiots).
Verdict: avoid.
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21 people found this helpful
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- az-joe
- 01-22-22
Fun romp through history
I have read everything by this author and have never been disappointed. Wonderful capsules of history of all the famous people. Lot of neat information and I’m sure a wealth of information you didn’t know. If you’re a history buff you will like this book.
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- brian
- 10-17-18
Short, but well researched.
These short little articles on various politicians, writers, and others are good starting points for research. The author, noted for his works on the USSR has researched these people rather well. Narration needs more work however.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Elias Cohen
- 01-10-21
fantastic short stories on historical figures
loved this audiobook. Montefiore is a top scholar and knows how to communicate. FANTASTIC!!!!! RECOMEND
short stories on most well known historical figures makes this large tome very easily digestible this was in my opinion a very well done audiobook.
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- Helen Bragina
- 12-02-23
Collection of historical figures
Great recap of so many relevant people in history. I couldn’t wait to hear about the next person while listening.
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- Luke
- 02-17-19
I would love to read the "Good Titans of History"
I would love to read the "Good Titans of History" ... Next time please choose only titans that were "pure, clean and holy" ...
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1 person found this helpful
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- Charlie
- 01-13-19
Pushing the Bounds of Non-Fiction
I like the concept of writing a brief synopsis on various "Titans of History," but in reality the format is not very engaging. I also felt as though some of the author's summaries were biased. He paints..."Oliver Cromwell's place in history as a man of conscious, fearless leadership, military brilliance, piety and severity." But in reality he was a military dictator, responsible for genocidal acts in Ireland and Scotland. Many parallels between Cromwell and military dictators Mussolini and Hitler. So I was shocked by the author's summary until I read his background; now the favoritism makes sense.
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5 people found this helpful
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- marisa rios
- 01-10-19
Hit and miss
I would fast forward through the people I had no interest in. But listened intently to the good ones.
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2 people found this helpful