The Military category has 1,612 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 5,283 ratings. The most-rated is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
The Battle of Fredericksburg
Summary
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought in December 1862 in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia. The battle, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Major General Burnside and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, was part of the Union Army's futile frontal attacks against entrenched Confederate defenders on the heights behind the city. Union casualties were more than twice as heavy as those suffered by the Confederates.
Public Domain (P)2019 Museum Audiobooks
Wicked Choice
Summary
Rachel Hart and I are nothing more than teammates. As mercenaries for hire with the elite Jameson Group, we have each other’s backs in the most dangerous of circumstances. But after a mission gone deadly wrong, we do something we’ve never done before. We cross the professional line and take comfort in one another’s arms. One night of passion turns our lives upside down with a pregnancy neither of us expected, and one that Rachel clearly never wanted. But I am a family man through and through, and I’m determined to raise my child, with or without Rachel by my side. The only common thread Rachel and I have is our membership at The Wicked Horse, a sex club that lets us fulfill our dirtiest fantasies with one another. As we become more intimately entwined, I find myself falling for Rachel more and more. Our wicked nights together make us so much more than teammates. And when faced with losing everything, I have to hope that Rachel realizes the most difficult choices are actually the easiest ones to make.
©2017 Sawyer Bennett (P)2017 Sawyer Bennett
A History of Britain, Volume 2
Summary
Simon Schama's sweeping history of Britain breathes life into our past centuries, vividly depicting exactly what life was like for our ancestors and how their experiences have shaped modern British culture and identity. An informative and entertaining mixture of anecdote and analysis, Schama's work offers a real insight into what it is to be British.
©2014 Audible, Inc. (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
Inside the Nazi War Machine
Summary
In January of 1940, France possessed the most powerful army in Europe. Under orders of the Fuhrer, the German General Staff reluctantly drew up a lackluster plan of invasion. Yet it was the audacious scheme of three of Hitler’s top generals that brought down France’s military force, Rather than simply move troops to engage the enemy, for the first time they would unleash the tank and drive straight into the heart of their foe. Inside the Nazi War Machine explores how this new tactic – the blitzkrieg – gave control of Europe to the brutal Nazi regime and set the stage for World War II.
©2010 Bevin Alexander (P)2010 Oasis Audio
Nothing Like It in the World
Summary
Nothing Like It in the World is the story of the men who built the transcontinental railroad. In Ambrose's hands, this enterprise comes to life. The U.S. government pitted two companies - the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads - against each other in a race for funding, encouraging speed over caution. As its peak the work force approached the size of Civil War armies, with as many as 15,000 workers on each line. The surveyors, the men who picked the route, lived off buffalo, deer, and antelope. In building a railroad, there is only one decisive spot - the end of the track. Nothing like this great work had ever been seen in the world when the last spike - a golden one - was driven in Promontory Peak, Utah, in 1869, as the Central Pacific and Union Pacific tracks were joined. Ambrose writes with power and eloquence about the brave men - the famous and the unheralded, ordinary men doing the extraordinary - who accomplished the spectacular feat that made the continent into a nation.
©2000 Stephen E. Ambrose (P)2000 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1945 (Polish Edition)
Summary
No longer war, but not yet peace. A fascinating journey through 12 months of fear, hope, euphoria, and disappointment. A journalistic story about the most dramatic year of the 20th century. Grzebalkowska examines the fate of the last living witnesses of that time. She gives voices to the victims, but also the oppressors, especially when she can use them to show the post-war blending of roles and fates. 1945: War and Peace won the 2016 Nike Literary Audience Award. Please note: This audiobook is in Polish.
©2018 Magdalena Grzebalkowska (P)2019 Agora S.A.
Clash of the Carriers
Summary
The incredible true story of the most spectacular aircraft-carrier battle in history - World War II's Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. In June, 1944, American and Japanese carrier fleets made their way toward one another in the Philippine Sea. Their common objective: the strategically vital Marianas Islands. During two days of brutal combat, the American and Japanese carriers dueled, launching wave after wave of fighters and bombers against one another. By day and night, hundreds of planes filled the skies. When it was over, the men of the American Fifth Fleet had claimed more than 400 aerial-combat victories, and three Japanese carriers lay on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Here is the true account of those great and terrible days - by those who were there, in the thick of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. Drawing upon numerous interviews with American and Japanese veterans as well as official sources, Clash of the Carriers is an unforgettable testimonial to the bravery of those who fought and those who died in a battle that will never be forgotten.
©2005 Barrett Tillman (P)2018 Tantor
Harriet Tubman
Summary
At age six the sharp bite of a whip taught Harriet Tubman (1820-1913) what it meant to be a slave. The other slaves scoffed when Harriet resolved to escape north someday. Little did they know that this girl would one day lead hundreds of slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Even huge rewards for her capture - dead or alive - did not stop Harriet from risking her life again and again in the fight for liberty as the nation spiraled into the Civil War. Whether running from slave hunters, advising generals, or improving condition in war hospitals, remarkable Harriet Tubman would not be satisfied until every person could experience true freedom.
©2013 YWAM Publishing (P)2013 YWAM Publishing
Iron Dawn
Summary
From acclaimed popular historian Richard Snow comes the thrilling story of the naval battle that changed the Civil War and the future of all sea power. No single sea battle has had more far-reaching consequences than the one fought in the harbor at Hampton Roads, Virginia, in March 1862. The Confederacy, with no fleet of its own, built an iron fort containing 10 heavy guns on the hull of a captured Union frigate named the Merrimack. The North got word of the project when it was already well along, and, in desperation, commissioned an eccentric inventor named John Ericsson to build the Monitor, an entirely revolutionary iron warship - at the time, the single most complicated machine ever made. Abraham Lincoln himself was closely involved with the ship's design. Rushed through to completion in just 100 days, it mounted only two guns, but they were housed in a shot-proof revolving turret. The ship hurried south from Brooklyn (and nearly sank twice on the voyage), only to arrive to find the Merrimack had destroyed half the Union fleet and would be back to finish the job the next day. When she returned, the Monitor was there. She fought the Merrimack to a standstill and saved the Union cause. As soon as word of the battle spread, Great Britain - the foremost sea power of the day - ceased work on all wooden ships. A thousand-year-old tradition ended, and the path to the naval future opened. Iron Dawn is the irresistible story of these incredible, intimidating war machines. Historian Richard Snow brings to vivid life the tensions of the time, explaining how wooden and ironclad ships worked, maneuvered, battled, and sank. This full account of the Merrimack and Monitor has never been told in such immediate, compelling detail.
©2016 Richard Snow (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Berlin at War
Summary
In Berlin at War, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse provides a magnificent and detailed portrait of everyday life at the epicenter of the Third Reich. Berlin was the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played out. It was the backdrop for the most lavish Nazi ceremonies, the site of Albert Speer's grandiose plans for a new "world metropolis", and the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism. Berlin was the place where Hitler's empire ultimately met its end, but it suffered mightily through the war as well. Not only was the city subjected to the full wrath of the Soviet ground offensive and siege in 1945, but it also found itself a prime target for the air war, attracting more raids, more aircraft, and more tonnage than any other German city. In Berlin at War, acclaimed historian Roger Moorhouse provides a magnificent and detailed portrait of everyday life at the epicenter of the Third Reich. Berlin was the stage upon which the rise and fall of the Third Reich was most visibly played out. It was the backdrop for the most lavish Nazi ceremonies, the site of Albert Speer's grandiose plans for a new "world metropolis", and the scene of the final climactic battle to defeat Nazism. Berlin was the place where Hitler's empire ultimately met its end, but it suffered mightily through the war as well. Not only was the city subjected to the full wrath of the Soviet ground offensive and siege in 1945, but it also found itself a prime target for the air war, attracting more raids, more aircraft, and more tonnage than any other German city. Combining groundbreaking research with a gripping narrative, Moorhouse brings all of the complexity and chaos of wartime Berlin to life. Berlin at War is the incredible story of the city - and people - that saw the whole of this epic conflict, from start to finish.
©2010 Roger Moorhouse (P)2017 Tantor
The Gamble
Summary
Fiasco, Thomas E. Ricks's #1 New York Times best seller, transformed the political dialogue on the war in Iraq - The Gamble is the next news-breaking installment. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can. He examines the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began. Since early 2007, a new military order has directed American strategy. Some top U.S. officials now in Iraq actually opposed the 2003 invasion, and almost all are severely critical of how the war was fought from then through 2006. At the core of the story is General David Petraeus, a military intellectual who has gathered around him an unprecedented number of officers with both combat experience and Ph.D.s. The Gamble offers news breaking information, revealing behind-the-scenes disagreements between top commanders. We learn that almost every single officer in the chain of command fought the surge. Many of Petraeus's closest advisers went to Iraq extremely pessimistic, doubting that the surge would have any effect, and his own boss was so skeptical that he dispatched an admiral to Baghdad in the summer of 2007 to come up with a strategy to replace Petraeus's. That same boss later flew to Iraq to try to talk Petraeus out of his planned congressional testimony. For Petraeus, prevailing in Iraq means extending the war. Thomas E. Ricks concludes that the war is likely to last another five to ten years - and that that outcome is a best case scenario. His stunning conclusion, stated in the last line of the book, is that "the events for which the Iraq war will be remembered by us and by the world have not yet happened".
©2009 Penguin Audiobooks (P)2009 Thomas E. Ricks
The Fighting Bunch
Summary
The incredible, untold story of the WWII vets who overthrew their corrupt hometown government - the only successful armed rebellion on US soil since the War of Independence. Corrupt politician Paul Cantrell was in complete control of McMinn County, Tennessee, his whims enforced by the violent Sheriff Pat Mansfield and his deputies. On Election Day, Cantrell and the sheriff seized the ballot boxes and brought them to the jail "to be counted" in secret. Soldiers came home from World War II to find their community in the grips of this corrupt political machine. These veteran soldiers, who became known as "The Fighting Bunch", armed themselves and lay siege to the jail as the National Guard closed in. After six hours of gunfire and dynamite blasts, Boss Cantrell and Sheriff Mansfield fled the state. The deputies surrendered. The ballot boxes were opened and counted. The GI slate was elected, and the story buried. This episode in US history has never been more relevant but has never been fully told. After years of research, including exclusive interviews with the remaining witnesses, archival radio broadcast and interview tapes, scrapbooks, letters, and diaries, author Chris DeRose has reconstructed one of the seminal - yet untold - events in American election history.
©2020 Chris DeRose (P)2020 Tantor
The Leadership of Ulysses S. Grant
Summary
Prior to his service in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant exhibited few characteristics indicating that he would be an extraordinary leader. His performance as a cadet was mediocre, and he finished in the bottom half of his class at West Point. However, during his early service in the Civil War, most notably at the battles of Shiloh and Vicksburg, Grant proved that he possessed an uncommon drive. When it was most crucial, Grant demonstrated his integrity, determination, and tactical skill by taking control of the Union troops and leading his forces to victory.
A General Who Will Fight is a detailed study of leadership that explores Grant's rise from undisciplined cadet to commanding general of the United States Army. Some experts have attributed Grant's success to superior manpower and technology, to the help he received from other Union armies, or even to a ruthless willingness to sacrifice his own men. Harry S. Laver, however, refutes these arguments and reveals that the only viable explanation for Grant's success lies in his leadership skill, professional competence, and unshakable resolve. Much more than a book on military strategy, this innovative volume examines the decision-making process that enabled Grant both to excel as an unquestioned commander and to win.
The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky. The audiobook will be published by University Press Audiobooks.
"This is an extraordinary book covering the leadership style of General U.S. Grant during the American Civil War." (Lone Star Book Review)
"Incisive and inspirational tour of how Grant became Grant." (American History Magazine)
"This book is a readable, moving, and inspiring story of one of America's greatest generals." (Civil War Book Review)
©2013 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
Under the Red Sea Sun
Summary
A gripping first-hand description of the salvage operations at the port of Massawa on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the early days of World War II. When forced from the region, Italian troops had scuttled many ships to block the important harbour, which was vital to the British war effort. Ellsberg, an American salvage officer, was placed in charge and a small group of workers under his direction accomplished an almost Herculean task with virtually no resources. The book paints a realistic picture of confusion and incompetence in the early days of the war.
©1946 Edward E. Pollard and Ann P. Heilakka (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Midnight in the Pacific
Summary
A sweeping narrative history - the first in over 20 years - of America's first major offensive of World War II, the brutal, no-quarter-given campaign to take Japanese-occupied Guadalcanal. From early August until mid-November of 1942, US marines, sailors, and pilots struggled for dominance against an implacable enemy: Japanese soldiers, inculcated with the bushido tradition of death before dishonor, avatars of bayonet combat - close-up, personal, and gruesome. The glittering prize was Henderson Airfield. Japanese planners knew that if they neutralized the airfield, the battle was won. So did the marines who stubbornly defended it. The outcome of the long slugfest remained in doubt under the pressure of repeated Japanese air, land, and sea operations. And losses were heavy. At sea, in a half-dozen fiery combats, the US Navy fought the Imperial Japanese Navy to a draw, but at a cost of more than 4,500 sailors. More American sailors died in these battles off Guadalcanal than in all previous US wars, and each side lost 24 warships. On land, more than 1,500 soldiers and marines died, and the air war claimed more than 500 US planes. Japan's losses on the island were equally devastating - starving Japanese soldiers called it "the island of death". But when the attritional struggle ended, American marines, sailors, and airmen had halted the Japanese juggernaut that for five years had whirled through Asia and the Pacific. Guadalcanal was America's first major ground victory against Japan and, most importantly, the Pacific War's turning point. Published on the 75th anniversary of the battle and utilizing vivid accounts written by the combatants at Guadalcanal, along with marine corps and army archives and oral histories, Midnight in the Pacific is both a sweeping narrative and a compelling drama of individual marines, soldiers, and sailors caught in the crosshairs of history. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2017 Joseph Wheelan (P)2017 Hachette Audio
The Things Our Fathers Saw
Summary
At the height of World War II, LOOK Magazine profiled a small American community for a series of articles portraying it as the wholesome, patriotic model of life on the home front. Decades later, author Matthew A. Rozell tracks down over 30 survivors who fought the war in the Pacific, from Pearl Harbor to the surrender at Tokyo Bay. The book resurrects firsthand accounts of combat and brotherhood, of captivity and redemption, and the aftermath of a war that left no American community unscathed. Here are the stories that the magazine could not tell, from a vanishing generation speaking to America today. It is up to us to remember - for own sakes, as much as theirs.
©2015 Matthew A. Rozell (P)2017 Tantor
Countdown to Pearl Harbor
Summary
A fascinating look at the twelve days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—the warnings, clues and missteps—by a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter. In Washington, DC, in late November 1941, admirals compose the most ominous message in Navy history to warn Hawaii of possible danger, but they write it too vaguely. They think precautions are being taken, but never check to see if they are. A key intelligence officer wants more warnings sent, but he is on the losing end of a bureaucratic battle and can’t get the message out. American sleuths have pierced Japan’s most vital diplomatic code, and Washington believes it has a window on the enemy’s soul - but it does not. In a small office at Pearl Harbor, overlooking the battleships at the heart of America’s seafaring power, the Commander of the Pacific Fleet tries to figure out how much danger he really faces. His intelligence unit has lost track of Japan’s biggest aircraft carriers, but assumes they are resting in a port far away. The admiral thinks Pearl is too shallow for torpedoes, so he never puts up a barrier. As he frets, a Japanese spy is counting the warships in the harbor and reporting to Tokyo. There were false assumptions, and racist ones: The Japanese aren’t very good aviators and they don’t have the nerve or the skill to attempt a strike so far from their home. There were misunderstandings, conflicting desires, painful choices. And there was a naval officer who, on his very first mission as captain of his very first ship, did exactly the right thing. His warning could have averted disaster, but his superiors reacted too leisurely. Japanese planes arrived moments later. Twomey’s telescoping of the twelve days leading to the attack unravels the crucial characters and moments, and produces an edge-of-your seat drama with fascinating details about America at this moment in its history. By the end, the reader understands how assumption is the root of disaster, and how sometimes a gamble pays off.
©2016 Steve Twomey. All rights reserved. (P)2016 Simon & Schuster
Mike Hoare's Adventures in Africa
Summary
Go with Mike on foot accros Basutoland; by motorbike from Cape Town to Cairo; to sea in a 36-foot ketch; into the Kalahari desert - and more. In the final chapter he describes how he and his wife move to an Edenic island in the Okovanga delta, and the terrible and wonderful events that took place there.
©2010 Mike Hoare (P)2012 Mike Hoare
Conflict
Summary
In June 1950 Communist forces poured across the 38th Parallel (the arbitrary, militarily indefensible line of latitude separating the Communist North from the independent Republic of Korea) to unite the country by force. Three bloody, bitter years of fighting ensued during which the seesawing fortunes of this frustrating war thwarted North Korea's ambitions while treating the ill-equipped, overconfident UN peacekeeping forces, mostly Americans, no less harshly. Conflict examines the war in all its military, political, and human dimensions: the battles at Pusan Perimeter, at Inchon, at Chosin Reservoir, at Heartbreak Ridge; significant figures like Syngman Rhee, Kim Il Sung, Ridgway, MacArthur, and Truman; controversies like MacArthur's dismissal, the difficulties of P.O.W. exchanges, and charges of brainwashing and germ warfare; as well as penetrating analyses of the performance of the American soldier, and the war's effect on the U.S. military and our national psyche. As such, Conflict stands as an unsurpassed, vivid contribution to history.
©1962, 1990 Robert Leckie (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
A Terrible Glory
Summary
A rousing and meticulously researched account of the notorious Battle of Little Big Horn and its unforgettable cast of characters from Sitting Bull to Custer himself. In June of 1876, on a desolate hill above a winding river called "the Little Bighorn", George Armstrong Custer and all 210 men under his direct command were annihilated by almost 2,000 Sioux and Cheyenne. The news of this devastating loss caused a public uproar, and those in positions of power promptly began to point fingers in order to avoid responsibility. Custer, who was conveniently dead, took the brunt of the blame. The truth, however, was far more complex. A Terrible Glory is the first audiobook to relate the entire story of this endlessly fascinating battle and the first to call upon all the significant research and findings of the past 25 years - which have changed significantly how this controversial event is perceived. Furthermore, it is the first to bring to light the details of the US Army cover-up - and unravel one of the greatest mysteries in US military history. Scrupulously researched, A Terrible Glory will stand as a landmark work. Brimming with authentic detail and an unforgettable cast of characters - from Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse to Ulysses Grant and Custer himself - this is history with the sweep of a great novel. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2008 James Donovan (P)2019 Hachette Audio