Michael Shelden has 5 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 59 ratings. The most-rated is Une Terre promise (A Promised Land).
Une Terre promise (A Promised Land)
Summary
Un récit fascinant et profondément intime de l'histoire en marche, par le président qui nous a insufflé la foi dans le pouvoir de la démocratie. Dans le premier volume passionnant et très attendu de ses mémoires présidentiels, Barack Obama raconte l'histoire de son improbable odyssée, de jeune homme en quête d'identité à dirigeant du monde libre, retraçant de manière singulièrement détaillée et personnelle son éducation politique et les moments emblématiques du premier mandat de sa présidence (2008-2012). En se retournant sur l'histoire de sa présidence, Barack Obama propose une exploration unique et pénétrante de l'amplitude phénoménale mais aussi des limites du pouvoir présidentiel, ainsi qu'un témoignage singulier sur les ressorts de la politique intérieure et de la diplomatie internationale. Il évoque en toute franchise les forces d'opposition qui se sont dressées contre lui, sur le front domestique comme à l'étranger. Ce livre puissant et magnifiquement écrit est l'expression de la conviction profonde de Barack Obama : la démocratie n’est pas un don du ciel mais un édifice, fondé sur l'empathie et la compréhension mutuelle, que nous bâtissons ensemble, jour après jour. En bonus : la préface lue par Barack Obama lui-même, en anglais, vous est proposée après la préface en français.
©2020 Barack Obama / Librairie Arthème Fayard (P)2020 Audiolib
George Orwell: A Sage for All Seasons
Summary
George Orwell was more than just a writer. He was a political and social sage who valued, above all else, individual freedom. His works aren’t just entertainment - they’re cautionary tales and red flags of warning. And if we ever hope to understand threats to freedom and how to stop them, we must learn from them. In these 24 lectures, learn how the man born as Eric Blair forged himself into a writer of international importance and renown. Mixing historical inquiry, literary analysis, and cultural biography, Professor Shelden gets at the truth of British life in the opening decades of the 20th century. These lectures cover the creation, reception, and implication of Orwell’s major works, from Burmese Days and Homage to Catalonia to Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Embark on a chronological journey through Orwell’s life and times, from his youth in Edwardian England to his formative experiences at boarding school (captured in the brilliant essay, “Such, Such Were the Joys”) to his being shot through the neck by a sniper while serving as a freedom fighter against the forces of General Franco. Along the way, examine the experiences - and the people - Orwell drew upon when forging himself into a writer and a citizen of the world. Here, in one comprehensive package, is a compendium of all Orwell’s many personas: the writer brave enough to speak truth to power, the soldier willing to sacrifice his life for others, the citizen willing to expose the injustices, and the sage for freedom-loving civilizations everywhere. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 The Great Courses (P)2020 The Teaching Company, LLC
England, the 1960s, and the Triumph of the Beatles
Summary
How did four young men from a faded old seaport in Northern England lead such an epic musical and cultural revolution? Why could the story of the Beatles only have happened in such a charged decade? What remains to be said about this British band that hasn’t been said before? Questions like these lie at the beating heart of these 12 lessons that offer a fresh look at how this celebrated band became one of the most compelling voices against the status quo. Taking you deeper than any simple music survey, Professor Shelden zeroes in on the cultural backstory of how the Beatles emerged as a worldwide phenomenon. Using the advantages of hindsight, recent scholarship, and interviews with key figures, he reconstructs an incredible period in sonic and social history for both dedicated Beatlemaniacs and new listeners alike. Giving equal weight to the Beatles’ early years as they do to the apex of their career and eventual dissolution, these lectures invite you on a whirlwind adventure that reveals the evolution of a band like no other - from school kids to musicians to pop phenomenon to film stars to artists inevitably drawn in separate directions. They also offer eye-opening cultural insights into some of the band’s greatest hits, including “Yesterday”, “Back in the USSR”, and “Do You Want to Know a Secret?” An eclectic blend of cultural history, biography, and music history, this series is your chance to discover how the Beatles became one of the most compelling voices against the status quo. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2020 The Great Courses
How Winston Churchill Changed the World
Summary
Great Britain’s most celebrated statesman, Winston Churchill, didn’t just live history - he made it. In these 24 lectures that unfurl like a great story, enjoy a thorough, multifaceted exploration of Churchill’s life, accomplishments, complexities, and legacies. Guiding you chronologically through the life and times of this master statesman, Professor Shelden takes you from the dawn of Churchill’s political career to his final years in a much-changed geopolitical landscape. You’ll examine Churchill’s beginnings as a young liberal statesman, his rise to the Admiralty and his relentless push for an imposing naval force, his fight against the Nazis, his equally dramatic postwar career suspended between two different cold wars (against the Soviets and Britain’s Labour party), and more. You’ll also get fascinating insights into Churchill’s iconic public speeches, his philosophies of freedom and history, and his early realizations of the dangers of both Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia. But these lectures never shy away from examining how Churchill’s preference for the backward glance of history occasionally distorted his view of the future, leading to missteps and disasters, including his failure to understand the rise of independence movements in the British colonies and his controversial World War II bombing campaigns in German cities like Dresden. Poet, historian, statesman, soldier, prime minister, husband - Churchill played many roles throughout his life. And these lectures bring them all together to create a fascinating, multilayered biography. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 The Great Courses (P)2018 The Teaching Company, LLC
Young Titan
Summary
In modern memory, Winston Churchill remains the man with the cigar and the equanimity among the ruins. Few can remember that at the age of 40 he was considered washed up, his best days behind him. In Young Titan, historian Michael Shelden has produced the first biography focused on Churchill’s early career, the years between 1901 and 1915 that both nearly undid him but also forged the character that would later triumph in the Second World War.
©2013 Michael Shelden (P)2013 Recorded Books