Hilaire Belloc has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is The Great Heresies.
The Great Heresies
Summary
Hilaire Belloc examines the five most destructive heretical movements to have affected Christian civilization: Arianism, Mohammedanism (Islam), Albigensianism (Cathar), the Reformation (Protestant), and the modern phase. Belloc describes how these movements began, how they spread, and how they continued to influence the world up until the time of his writing (1936). The chapter on Islam is especially relevant today; in it Belloc accurately predicts the renewal of jihadist aggression towards western civilization.
©2015 Cavalier Books (P)2016 Cavalier Books
The Servile State
Summary
“To control the production of wealth is to control human life itself.” In this 1912 classic, wide-ranging polemicist Hilaire Belloc presents a new economic history of Europe and makes his case for "Distributism", the author’s answer to the instability of capitalism and the stringency of socialism. Belloc outlines the major economic transitions through the history of the West, arguing that the civilization began as servile and dependent upon slavery and only emerged with the advent of the Christian faith. The Middle Ages are highlighted as the optimal condition, marked by a fair distribution of property. According to Belloc, distributism failed as a result of the government’s dissolution of monasteries, which led to the development of the unstable capitalist and socialist states. Largely regarded as one of Belloc’s most compelling works, and certainly one of the more controversial, The Servile State serves as a paragon in unconventional thinking and Belloc’s signature lucid prose.
Public Domain (P)2018 New Classic Books
The Crusades: The World's Debate
Summary
Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) - one of the most prominent Catholic authors of his time - gives a common-sense explanation of why the Crusades were necessary and why they ultimately failed. He argues that the personal and strategic failings of the First Crusade's leaders led to the establishment of a state that could not be sustained and that the absence of such a state left Europe vulnerable to Islamic aggression for centuries afterward. Writing in 1937, following the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Belloc believed that the West had finally gained the advantage over its mortal foe; however, he also includes a prophetic warning concerning the eventual resurgence of Islam and its enduring desire to destroy Christendom.
©2018 Cavalier Books (P)2018 Cavalier Books
Joan of Arc
Summary
One of the most artful narratives ever written concerning the life of "The Maid". Hilaire Belloc writes with a familiarity only possessed by those with an intimate knowledge of the facts. A Catholic, of both French and English descent; Belloc clearly had an emotional affinity for this episode in the long struggle between the two nations.
©2014 Cavalier Books (P)2014 Cavalier Books