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 Weight of Vengeance
Summary
In early 1815, Secretary of State James Monroe reviewed the treaty with Britain that would end the War of 1812. The United States Navy was blockaded in port; much of the army had not been paid for nearly a year; the capital had been burned. The treaty offered an unexpected escape from disaster. Yet it incensed Monroe, for the name of Great Britain and its negotiators consistently appeared before those of the United States. "The United States have acquired a certain rank amongst nations, which is due to their population and political importance," he brazenly scolded the British diplomat who conveyed the treaty, "and they do not stand in the same situation as at former periods." Monroe had a point, writes Troy Bickham. In The Weight of Vengeance, Bickham provides a provocative new account of America's forgotten war, underscoring its significance for both sides by placing it in global context. The Napoleonic Wars profoundly disrupted the global order, from India to Haiti to New Orleans. Spain's power slipped, allowing the United States to target the Floridas; the Haitian slave revolt contributed to the Louisiana Purchase; fears that Britain would ally with Tecumseh and disrupt the American northwest led to a pre-emptive strike on his people in 1811. This shifting balance of power provided the United States with the opportunity to challenge Britain's dominance of the Atlantic world. And it was an important conflict for Britain as well. Powerful elements in the British Empire so feared the rise of its former colonies that the British government sought to use the War of 1812 to curtail America's increasing maritime power and its aggressive territorial expansion. And by late 1814, Britain had more men under arms in North America than it had in the Peninsular War against Napoleon, with the war with America costing about as much as its huge subsidies to European allies. Troy Bickham has given us an authoritative, lucidly written global account that transforms our understanding of this pivotal war.
©2012 Oxford University Press (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
The Greeks
Summary
This compelling reference presents the history of ancient Greece - the culture that brought us democracy, the Olympics, Socrates, and Alexander the Great - through gripping stories: the rise and fall of the phenomenal empire, the powerful legacy left by ancient Greece for the modern world, and the new discoveries shedding light on these ancient people who are still so much with us. Greek art and architecture dominate our cities; modern military strategists still study and employ Hellenic war tactics; Greek poetry, plays, and philosophy are widely read and enjoyed; and science, mathematics, medicine, and astronomy all build on the fundamentals of early Greek thinking. Gain fascinating insights into Greek island living, ancient social networking, and the extreme priority Greeks placed on athletic competition. Learn of spectacular discoveries such as buried palaces, the Uluburun Shipwreck, and the earliest writing ever found in Europe. A stunning treasure, this uniquely comprehensive and accessible history of ancient Greece is perfect for anyone interested in the origins of our modern world.
©2016 Diane Harris Cline (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Landing on the Edge of Eternity
Summary
When Company A of the US 116th Regiment landed on Omaha Beach in D-Day's first wave on June 6, 1944, it lost 96 percent of its effective strength. Sixteen teams of US engineers arriving in the second wave were unable to blow the beach obstacles, as first wave survivors were still sheltering behind them. This was the beginning of the historic day that Landing on the Edge of Eternity narrates hour by hour. Mustered on their troop transport decks at 2 a.m., the American infantry departed in landing craft at 5 a.m. Skimming across high waves, deafened by immense broadsides from supporting battleships and weak from seasickness, they caught sight of land at 6:15. Eleven minutes later, the assault was floundering under intense German fire. Two and a half hours in, General Bradley, commanding the landings aboard USS Augusta, had to decide if to proceed or evacuate. On June 6, 1944, there were well over 2,400 casualties on Omaha Beach - easily D-Day's highest death toll. The Wehrmacht thought they had bludgeoned the Americans into bloody submission, yet by mid-afternoon, the American troops were ashore. Why were the casualties so grim, and how could the Germans have failed? Juxtaposing the American experience, Robert Kershaw draws on eyewitness accounts, memories, letters, and post-combat reports to expose the true horrors of Omaha Beach.
©2018 Robert Kershaw (P)2019 Tantor
The Discoverers
Summary
Daniel J. Boorstin, former librarian of the Library of Congress, gives a fascinating history of world civilization. From astronomical development, microscopes, telescopes, medicine, vaccines, genetics and map-making, the author delves into the discoveries of our world and the freedoms those discoveries bestowed. With the breadth and depth of this study, Boorstin relieves the world of its fictitious beliefs and encourages a more modern and scientific approach to the world around us. Discovery is not the main event: convincing people to accept the facts as a new way of life is the key to the growth of mankind.
©1985 Daniel J. Boorstin (P)2003 Phoenix
Heartbreak Warfare
Summary
Briggs, Remember when we parted ways in Germany? It was the day I broke your heart. What you didn't know was that I was breaking mine too. I thought they'd be enough - my husband and my son. That I'd get home and everything would go back to the way it was...before the war. Before the ambush. Before you. But, no matter how hard I try, I can't erase the trauma we shared. I can't seem to forget the way my heart beat in time with yours. The truth is, I'm lost without you. I thought the nightmare was over when they pulled us from that hole in the ground, but nothing could have prepared me for the war I'd face at home. I know it's selfish of me to ask, but, please, I have to see you one last time.... All my love, Scottie Contains mature themes
©2018 Heather M. Orgeron and Kate Stewart (P)2019 Tantor
The Ghost Army of World War II
Summary
In the summer of 1944, a handpicked group of young GIs - including such future luminaries as Bill Blass, Ellsworth Kelly, Arthur Singer, Victor Dowd, Art Kane, and Jack Masey - landed in France to conduct a secret mission. Armed with truckloads of inflatable tanks, a massive collection of sound-effects records, and more than a few tricks up their sleeves, their job was to create a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German army as their audience. From Normandy to the Rhine, the 1,100 men of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, conjured up phony convoys, phantom divisions, and make-believe headquarters to fool the enemy about the strength and location of American units. Between missions, the artists filled their duffel bags with drawings and paintings and dragged them across Europe. Every move they made was top secret, and their story was hushed up for decades after the war's end. The Ghost Army of World War II is the first publication to tell the full story of how a traveling road show of artists wielding imagination, paint, and bravado saved thousands of American lives.
©2015 Rick Beyer and Elizabeth Sayles (P)2016 Audible, Inc.
Vulcan 607
Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of Vulcan 607 by Rowland White, read by Roy McMillan. It was to be one of the most ambitious operations since 617 Squadron bounced their revolutionary bombs into the dams of the Ruhr Valley in 1943.... When Argentine forces invaded the Falklands in the early hours of 2 April 1982, Britain's military chiefs were faced with a real-life Mission Impossible. Its opening shot, they decided, would be Operation Black Buck: to strike a body blow at the occupying army and make them realise that nothing was safe - not even Buenos Aires.... The idea was simple: to destroy the vital landing strip at Port Stanley. The reality was more complicated. The only aircraft that could possibly do the job was three months from being scrapped, and the distance it had to travel was 4,000 miles beyond its maximum range. It would take 15 Victor tankers and 17 separate in-flight refuellings to get one Avro Vulcan B2 over the target and give its crew any chance of coming back alive. Yet less than a month later, a formation of elderly British jets was launched from a remote island airbase to carry out the longest-range air attack in history. At the tip of the spear was a single aircraft, six men, and 21 thousand-pound bombs, facing a hornet's nest of modern weaponry: the radar-guided guns and missiles of the Argentine defences. There would be no second chances. It was the end of an era - the last time the RAF flew heavy bombers into combat before they were replaced by their digital, fly-by-wire, laser-guided successors. There were many who believed it couldn't be done. Drawing on extensive interviews with the combatants, Falklands residents and British High Command, and with unprecedented access to contemporary military records, Rowland White takes us, for the first time, to the beating heart of the legendary raid. Vulcan 607 is a story of ingenuity, courage and sheer bloody-mindedness that's destined to become a classic.
©2010 Rowland White (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks
![Cover art for Inventing Japan [Modern Library Chronicles]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51efoHgX5HL._SL500_.jpg)
Inventing Japan [Modern Library Chronicles]
Summary
LA Times Book Award winner and expert on the past and present Japan, Ian Buruma examines the transformation of a country. Following Japan's history from its opening to the West in 1853 to its hosting of the 1964 Olympics, Buruma focuses on how figures such as Commodore Matthew Perry, Douglas MacArthur, and Emperor Mitsushito helped shape this complex country.
©2002 Ian Buruma (P)2002 Recorded Books
When Tigers Ruled the Sky
Summary
From the acclaimed author of Hit the Target and Big Week, an in-depth account of the legendary World War II combat group the Flying Tigers. In 1940 Pearl Harbor had not yet happened, and America was not yet at war with Japan. But China had been trying to stave off Japanese aggression for three years - and was desperate for aircraft and trained combat pilots. General Chiang Kai-shek sent military aviation advisor Claire Chennault to Washington, where President Roosevelt was sympathetic but knew he could not intervene overtly. Instead he quietly helped Chennault put together a group of American volunteer pilots. This was how the 1st American Volunteer Group - more commonly known as the Flying Tigers - was born. With the trademark smiling shark jaws on their P-40 fighters, these army, navy, and marine pilots became a sensation as they fought for the Chinese. Those who initially doubted them were eventually in awe as they persevered over Rangoon despite being outnumbered 14-1 by Japanese aircraft; as they were described by Madame Chiang Kai-shek as her "little angels" and by a Chinese foreign minister as "the soundest investment China ever made"; and as they ultimately destroyed hundreds of Japanese planes while losing only a dozen of their own in combat. Two of their veterans would later earn the Medal of Honor, and as a group the Flying Tigers managed to rack up a better record than any other air wing in the Pacific Theater. When Tigers Ruled the Sky is a thrilling and triumphant account of their courage and their legacy.
©2016 American Graphic Systems, Inc. (P)2016 Recorded Books
Playing with Temptation
Summary
Temptation has never been so hot.... When Raina Beck is given an invitation to The Players Club, all she wants is a night of decadence with a gorgeous, sexy stranger. The seductive, mysterious man she meets fulfills her deepest desires and most erotic fantasies, giving her a night she'll never forget. But forgetting him isn't quite so easy. Logan Cruz prefers his women submissive and compliant in the bedroom...everything the independent Raina is not. Yet from the first moment he lays eyes on her, he's determined to make Raina his. Despite her resistance. When Logan is assigned to protect Raina from a stalker, everything between them changes. Sex becomes more than just physical, and emotions run deep. Falling in love was never on Raina's agenda, but can she let go of the past and surrender the one thing he wants the most...her heart?
©2015 Janelle Denison, Inc. (P)2017 Janelle Denison, Inc.
The Button
Summary
Since the Truman administration, America has been one "push of a button" away from nuclear war - a decision that rests solely in the hands of the president. Without waiting for approval from Congress or even the secretary of defense, the president can unleash America's entire nuclear arsenal. From authors William J. Perry, secretary of defense in the Clinton administration, and Tom Z. Collina, the director of policy at Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation in Washington, DC, The Button recounts the terrifying history of nuclear launch authority, from the faulty 46-cent microchip that nearly caused World War III to president Trump's tweet about his "much bigger & more powerful" button. Perry and Collina share their firsthand experience on the front lines of the nation's nuclear history and provide illuminating interviews with former president Bill Clinton, former secretary of defense Jim Mattis, Congressman Adam Smith, Nobel Peace Prize winner Beatrice Fihn, senior Obama administration officials, and many others. Written in an accessible and authoritative voice, The Button reveals the shocking tales and sobering facts of nuclear executive authority throughout the atomic age, delivering a powerful condemnation against ever leaving explosive power this devastating under any one person's thumb.
©2020 William J. Perry and Tom Z. Collina (P)2020 Kalorama
Gettysburg: The Last Invasion
Summary
From the acclaimed Civil War historian, a brilliant new history–the most intimate and richly readable account we have had–of the climactic three-day battle of Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), which draws the reader into the heat, smoke, and grime of Gettysburg alongside the ordinary soldier, and depicts the combination of personalities and circumstances that produced the greatest battle of the Civil War, and one of the greatest in human history. Of the half-dozen full-length histories of the battle of Gettysburg written over the last century, none dives down so closely to the experience of the individual soldier, or looks so closely at the sway of politics over military decisions, or places the battle so firmly in the context of nineteenth-century military practice. Allen C. Guelzo shows us the face, the sights, and the sounds of nineteenth-century combat: the lay of the land, the fences and the stone walls, the gunpowder clouds that hampered movement and vision; the armies that caroused, foraged, kidnapped, sang, and were so filthy they could be smelled before they could be seen; the head-swimming difficulties of marshaling massive numbers of poorly trained soldiers, plus thousands of animals and wagons, with no better means of communication than those of Caesar and Alexander. What emerges is an untold story, from the trapped and terrified civilians in Gettysburg’s cellars to the insolent attitude of artillerymen, from the taste of gunpowder cartridges torn with the teeth to the sounds of marching columns, their tin cups clanking like an anvil chorus. Guelzo depicts the battle with unprecedented clarity, evoking a world where disoriented soldiers and officers wheel nearly blindly through woods and fields toward their clash, even as poetry and hymns spring to their minds with ease in the midst of carnage. Rebel soldiers look to march on Philadelphia and even New York, while the Union struggles to repel what will be the final invasion of the North. One hundred and fifty years later, the cornerstone battle of the Civil War comes vividly to life as a national epic, inspiring both horror and admiration.
©2013 Allen C. Guelzo (P)2013 Random House
21 Months, 24 Days
Summary
21 Months, 24 Days is an engaging memoir of a blue-collar kid turned soldier. Threatened by the draft in the late 60s, he enlisted in the Army to avoid becoming a grunt, yet ended up one anyway. He endured a grueling war in Vietnam and then returned to a country too angry to care. While his journey took unexpected turns, his choices got him there, so he did his best to react positively and keep moving forward. Udden delivers his story in a comfortable, friendly style. He conveys the experiences of basic training, advanced infantry training, and what it was like to live, work, guard, patrol, and fight in the jungle. The listener will feel the adrenalin rush of a firefight, the thrill of a wild ride dangling below a helicopter, and the humor in celebrating his 21st birthday on a firebase. You will live through his journey exactly as he experienced it.
©2015 Richard Udden (P)2017 Richard Udden
Stay: An Enemies to Lovers, Stand-Alone Romance
Summary
Stephen Hastings is a control freak. He's arrogant. He's smart as a whip and sexy AF. He has too much money. He's bossy, and he's usually right. All I saw were his clear blue eyes, tight butt, and ripped torso. I gladly handed him my V-card that night, 10 years ago. I was so stupid. I swore I'd never be that stupid again... Emmy Barton works for a dry cleaner? Yes, that Emmy Barton - long, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, pretty smile... Sexy little body. Smart mouth. She was the only girl who interested me, but I was leaving to be an officer in the Navy. Now I'm home, running my business. My life is perfectly ordered until I bump into her, divorced and struggling to make ends meet. I hate seeing her like this. I hate that she married Burt "The Dick" Dickerson. What an a--hole. She says she hates me, but when we fight, it's all heat and lust. I won't leave her this way. She will let me help her and her son. She will stay... It's a thin line between love and hate, and this line is on fire. Stay is a stand-alone enemies-to-lovers, second-chance, marriage of convenience romance. No cheating. No cliffhangers.
©2019 TLM Productions LLC (P)2019 TLM Productions LLC
American Civil War: A History from Beginning to End
Summary
Beginning with the birth of the nation, slavery divided and caused conflict for the United States of America, worsening during the country's early decades as the practice became more economically vital. Finally, in 1861, the American Civil War erupted after the election of President Abraham Lincoln. Never acknowledging the South’s right to secede, Lincoln and the North fought the South through four long, bloody, destructive years; much longer than anyone thought the war would last. Inside you will hear about.... America in the Antebellum Era Secession and the first shots Early battles and the turning point: April 1861-July 1863 The United States and the Confederacy Women and blacks in the war Military events, 1863-1865: The war ends Reconstruction The Legacy of the Civil War By 1865, more than 700,000 American soldiers and civilians were dead (including Lincoln himself), a race of people had been freed from bondage, and an entire country needed to rebuild. The Civil War is of such crucial importance to the history of the United States not just because of these factors, but also because its legacy still lives on.
©2016 Hourly History (P)2017 Hourly History
Swift Boats at War in Vietnam
Summary
Developed specifically for the Vietnam War (and made famous by the 2004 presidential campaign), Swift Boats were versatile craft "big enough to outrun anything they couldn't outfight" but too small to handle even a moderate ocean chop, too loud to sneak up on anyone, and too flimsy to withstand the mildest of rocket attacks. This made more difficult an already tough mission: navigating coastal waters for ships and sampans smuggling contraband to the Viet Cong, disrupting enemy supply lines on the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta, and inserting SEALs behind enemy lines. The stories in this book cover the Swift Boats' early years, which saw search-and-inspect operations in Vietnam's coastal waters, and their later years, when the Swift Boats' mission shifted to the Mekong Delta's labyrinth of 3,000 miles of rivers, streams, and canals. This is an intimate, exciting oral history of Swift Boats at war in Vietnam.
©2017 Guy Gugliotta, John Yeoman, and Neva Sullaway (P)2018 Tantor
Yugoslavia: The History of the Eastern European Nation from Its Founding to Its Breakup
Summary
Yugoslavia was arguably one of the most unusual geopolitical creations of the 20th century. The Yugoslav state had never existed in any historical sense, and the ties that bound together its constituent peoples were tenuous at best. Although nominally all “Slavs,” the country was an amalgamation of languages, alphabets, cultures, religions, and traditions, which ensured its short existence was littered with splits, conflicts, and shocking violence. In a sense, it’s somewhat surprising that it lasted as long as it did. In the wake of World War I, as the political boundaries of Europe and the Middle East were redrawn, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, initially known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, came into existence with a monarch as its head of state. Confirmed at the 1919 Versailles Conference, the “first” Yugoslavia was a particularly fragile enterprise, and there was almost constant tension between the majority Serbs and the other Yugoslav nationalities, especially the Croats. As a result, the Kingdom was a land of political assassinations, underground terrorist organizations, and ethnic animosities. In 1929, King Alexander I suspended democracy and ruled as a dictator until he himself was assassinated in 1934. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was particularly vulnerable to the forces that engulfed the rest of Europe at the end of the 1930s, including fascism and communism. When the Axis forces attacked in 1941, the country quickly capitulated and was dismembered by the Nazis and their allies. A separate Croatian state was formed, led by Ante Paveli, who committed some of the worst crimes and human rights abuses of the war. The Balkan region was virtually emptied of its Jewish population, victims of the Nazi Holocaust. During his reign, Tito managed to quash the intense national feelings of the diverse groups making up the Yugoslavian population, and he did so through several methods. He managed to successfully play the two superpower rivals, the United States and Soviet Union, off against each other during the Cold War, and in doing so, he maintained a considerable amount of independence from both, even as he additionally received foreign aid to keep his regime afloat. All the while he remained defiant, once penning a legendary letter to Joseph Stalin warning the Soviet dictator, “To Joseph Stalin: Stop sending people to kill me! We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle... If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send a very fast working one to Moscow and I certainly won't have to send another.” Internal issues plagued the country in its final years and Tito had tinkered with Yugoslavia’s constitution on several occasions. His final attempt, in 1974, saw the partial separation of Kosovo - crucial in the Serb national story - from the rest of Serbia.
©2018 Charles River Editors (P)2018 Charles River Editors
Mission: Her Freedom
Summary
A badass combat medic will do anything to save her friend and teammate, but on the run from some very bad guys, she starts to look at her tattooed tech geek friend in a very different way. Former naval intelligence officer Brooks Jameson might have lots of muscles and ink, but he’s a proud geek. He loves computers and his job - taking care of all things tech for his covert, black ops team of badasses: Team 52. But when he finds himself snatched off a Las Vegas street and in the hands of some very bad people who are after a powerful, dangerous artifact, he knows he’s in a fight for survival. Then, his teammate Callie Kimura - gorgeous and way-out-of-his-league - strides through the door to rescue him. Callie’s childhood and career in the Air Force taught her to never risk loving anyone, because losing them leaves you bleeding. She has everything she needs as the medic for Team 52, and when Brooks gets abducted, she’ll do anything to get her friend back. But when they end up on the run together, Callie starts to see the hunky geek in a very different light. As Callie and Brooks battle to stop a deadly artifact being used in an evil plan, they ignite a scorching desire that shocks them both. But some scars - and the demons that made them - run deep, and Brooks knows he’ll need all his intelligence, patience, and love to convince the beautiful combat medic to let her heart be free.
©2019 Anna Hackett (P)2020 Anna Hackett
Les secrets du IIIe Reich
Summary
Une plongée au cœur de l'histoire secrète du IIIe Reich et de ses dignitaires à travers la résolution de quelques grandes énigmes. Ce recueil propose au lecteur un voyage exceptionnel dans les coulisses de l'Allemagne nazie, en éclairant sept de ses rouages les plus mystérieux. Grâce à leur talent de conteurs et à l'exhaustivité de leur enquête, les auteurs éclairent d'une lumière nouvelle l'un des moments les plus ahurissants du XXe siècle. Le mystère des origines ; L'éloquence conquérante ; Une boîte de scorpions ; L'homme à femmes ; La Santana d'Hitler ; "Werwolf", les "loups-garous" d'Hitler ; Le fantôme errant de Martin Bormann.
©2017 / 2019 Perrin (P)2020 Lizzie, un département d'Univers Poche, Paris