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.

1,612 audiobooks
Cover art for The Dogs of War: 1861

The Dogs of War: 1861

Summary

In 1861, Americans thought that the war looming on their horizon would be brief. None foresaw that they were embarking on our nation's worst calamity, a four-year bloodbath that cost the lives of more than half a million people. But as eminent Civil War historian Emory Thomas points out in this stimulating and provocative book, once the dogs of war are unleashed, it is almost impossible to rein them in. In The Dogs of War, Thomas highlights the delusions that dominated each side's thinking. Lincoln believed that most Southerners loved the Union and would be dragged unwillingly into secession by the planter class. Jefferson Davis could not quite believe that Northern resolve would survive the first battle. Once the Yankees witnessed Southern determination, he hoped, they would acknowledge Confederate independence. These two leaders, in turn, reflected widely held myths. Thomas weaves his exploration of these misconceptions into a tense narrative of the months leading up to the war, from the "Great Secession Winter" to a fast-paced account of the Fort Sumter crisis in 1861. Emory M. Thomas's books demonstrate a breathtaking range of major Civil War scholarship, from The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience and the landmark The Confederate Nation, to definitive biographies of Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart. In The Dogs of War, he draws upon his lifetime of study to offer a new perspective on the outbreak of our national Iliad.

©2011 Emory M. Thomas (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Narrator: Peter Ganim
Category: History, Military
Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
Available on Audible
Cover art for Bushwhackers

Bushwhackers

Summary

Bushwhackers adds to the growing body of literature that examines the various irregular conflicts that took place during the American Civil War. Author Joseph M. Beilein Jr. looks at the ways in which several different bands of guerrillas across Missouri conducted their war in concert with their house- holds and their female kin who provided logistical support in many forms. Whether noted fighters like Frank James, William Clarke Quantrill, and "Bloody Bill" Anderson, or less well-known figures such as Clifton Holtzclaw and Jim Jackson, Beilein provides a close examination of how these warriors imagined themselves as fighters, offering a brand-new interpretation that gets us closer to seeing how the men and women who participated in the war in Missouri must have understood it. Beilein answers some of the tough questions: Why did men fight as guerrillas? Where did their tactics come from? What were their goals? Why were they so successful? Bushwhackers demonstrates that the guerrilla war in Missouri was not just an opportunity to settle antebellum feuds, nor was it some collective plummet by society into a state of chaotic bloodshed. Rather, the guerrilla war was the only logical response by men and women in Missouri, and one that was more in keeping with their worldview than the conventional warfare of the day. As guerrilla conflicts rage around the world and violence remains closely linked with masculine identity here in America, this look into the past offers timely insight into our modern world and several of its current struggles. The book is published by The Kent State University Press.

©2016 The Kent State University Press (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks

Narrator: Clyde Walker
Category: History, Military
Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Escape from Paris

Escape from Paris

Summary

This book is The Nightingale meets All the Light We Cannot See, only it's all true - a thrilling wartime adventure story of downed American aviators rescued by French resistance fighters, taken to Nazi-occupied Paris, and hidden under the very noses of the Gestapo  Escape from Paris is the true story of a small group of US aviators whose four B-17 Flying Fortresses were shot down over German-occupied France on a single, fateful day: July 14, 1943, Bastille Day. They were rescued by brave French civilians and taken to Paris for eventual escape out of France. In the French capital, where German troops walked on every street and Gestapo agents hid around every corner, the flyers met a brave Parisian resistance family living and working in the Hôtel des Invalides, a complex of buildings and military memorials, where Nazi officials had set up offices. Hidden in the complex the Americans, along with dozens of other downed Allied pilots and resistance operatives, hatched daring escape plots. The danger of discovery by the Nazis grew every day, as did an unlikely romance when one of the American airmen begins a star-crossed wartime romance with the twenty-two-year old daughter of the family sheltering him - a noir tale of war, courage and desperation in the shadows of the City of Light.  Based on official American, French, and German documents, histories, personal memoirs, and the author's interviews with several of the story's key participants, Escape from Paris crosses the traditional lines of World War II history with tense drama of air combat over Europe, the intrigue of occupied Paris, and courageous American and Allied pilots and French resistance fighters pitted against Nazi thugs. All of this set in one of the world's most beautiful and captivating cities. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Stephen Harding (P)2019 Da Capo Press

Category: History, Military
Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Saratoga Campaign

The Saratoga Campaign

Summary

The American Revolution is replete with seminal moments that every American learns in school, from the “shot heard ‘round the world” to the Declaration of Independence, but the events that led up to the fighting at Lexington and Concord were borne out of 10 years of division between the British and their American colonies over everything from colonial representation in governments to taxation, the nature of searches, and the quartering of British regulars in private houses. From 1764-1775, a chain of events that included lightning rods like the Townshend Acts led to bloodshed in the form of the Boston Massacre, while the Boston Tea Party became a symbol of nonviolent protest.  The political and military nature of the Revolutionary War was just as full of intrigue. While disorganized militias fought the Battles of Lexington and Concord, George Washington would lead the Continental Army in the field while men like Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia and Benjamin Franklin negotiated overseas in France. French forces would play a crucial role at the end of the war, and the Treaty of Paris would conclude the revolution with one last great surprise.  On October 7, 1777, Benedict Arnold rode out against orders and led an American assault against British forces led by General John Burgoyne in one of the climactic battles and ultimate turning point of the war at Saratoga. Near the end of the most important American victory of the revolution, Arnold’s leg was shattered by a volley that also hit his horse, which fell on the leg as well. Arnold would later remark that he wished the shot had hit him in the chest, and if it had, Benedict Arnold would be remembered as one of America’s greatest war heroes, second only to George Washington among the generals of the revolution. In fact, when Arnold was injured at the height of his success in October 1777, he had been the most successful leader of American forces during the war. Arnold had been instrumental in the seizure of Fort Ticonderoga in 1775, he constructed the first makeshift American navy to defend Lake Champlain and delay British campaigning in 1776, and he was the principal leader at Saratoga in 1777. Even his unsuccessful campaign to Quebec in the winter of 1775 is remembered primarily for the amazing logistical feats undertaken by Arnold and his men to even reach the target.  All of that was overshadowed by Arnold’s treacherous plot to turn over West Point to the British in 1780, but his controversial actions at Saratoga and the results may very well have saved the cause he subsequently betrayed.  By the time the decisive American victory was finished, Burgoyne had lost nearly 20 percent of his effective fighting during the battles at Saratoga, and after a few days his trapped army surrendered to the Americans. In December 1776, Benjamin Franklin was sent by Congress to France to attempt to secure a critically needed alliance. Franklin was an ideal choice for enlightened France, which revered Franklin for his scientific accomplishments and his known reputation as a brilliant man. Franklin had also been a diplomat before the revolution, spending several years in London on behalf of the colonies. However, the French refused to provide more than arms and money throughout 1777, until they learned in December 1777 about Saratoga and Burgoyne’s surrender. With that news, French King Louis XVI entered into a formal military alliance with the United States, and in February 1778, France joined the war.

©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem
Category: History, Military
Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Decision in Normandy

Decision in Normandy

Summary

Field Marshal Montgomery’s battle plan for Normandy, following the D-day landings on June 6, 1944, resulted in one of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War. Carlo D’Este’s acclaimed book gives the fullest possible account of the conception and execution of Montgomery’s plan, with all its problems and complexities. It brings to light information from diaries, papers, and letters that were not available in Montgomery’s lifetime and draws on interviews with senior officers who were involved in the campaign and have refrained from speaking out until now. This is military history at its most dramatic and destined to become the definitive account of the Normandy campaign. Carlo D’Este retired from the US Army in 1978 with the rank of lieutenant colonel to write full time. Among his books are Bitter Victory; Warlord: A Life of Churchill at War, 1874–1945; Patton: A Genius for War; World War II in the Mediterranean, 1942–1945; and Eisenhower: Allied Supreme Commander.

©1983 1994, 2004 by Carlo D’Este (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Narrator: Tom Weiner
Category: History, Military
Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Munich, 1938

Munich, 1938

Summary

On September 30, 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew back to London from his meeting at Munich with the German chancellor Adolf Hitler and was greeted with a hero's welcome. As he paused on the aircraft steps, he held aloft the piece of paper, bearing both his and the Fuhrer's signatures, that contained the promise that Britain and Germany would never go to war with each other again. Later that evening, from his upstairs window at 10 Downing Street, he told the ecstatic and thankful crowd that he had returned bringing "Peace with honor---Peace for our time." In this important reappraisal of the extraordinary events of 70 years ago, acclaimed historian David Faber traces the key incidents leading up to the meeting at Munich and its immediate aftermath. He describes Lord Halifax's ill-fated visit to Hitler; Chamberlain's secret negotiations with Mussolini, followed by the resignation of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden; and the Berlin scandal that rocked Hitler's regime. Faber takes us to Vienna for the Nazi Anschluss; to the Sudentenland, the mountainous border region of Czechoslovakia, where Hitler's puppets attempted to provide him with a pretext for war by inciting the minority German population to rebellion; and to Prague, where the Czechoslovak government desperately tried to head off the Fuhrer's warlike intentions. In Berlin, we witness Hitler inexorably preparing for war, even in the face of opposition from his own generals; and in London, we watch helplessly as Chamberlain seizes executive control from his own cabinet and makes one supreme effort after another to appease Hitler, culminating in his three remarkable flights to Germany. Drawing on a wealth of original archival material, including diaries and notes taken by Hitler and Chamberlain's translator, Faber's sweeping reassessment of the events of 1938 resonates with an insider's feel for the political infighting he uncovers.

©2008 David Faber (P)2009 Tantor

Narrator: Arthur Morey
Author: David Faber
Category: History, Military
Length: 19 hrs and 5 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Turtle

Turtle

Summary

At the onset of the American Revolution, the British expected to quell the rebellion quickly with a show of overwhelming force. In an experiment in asymmetric warfare, David Bushnell created the first submarine vessel designed specifically “for the destruction of vessels of war”. On a quiet September night in 1776, sergeant Ezra Lee maneuvered Bushnell’s strange little craft out from Manhattan and into the midst of the greatest naval fleet ever assembled in the Americas. Lee’s goal was to sink the British flagship HMS Eagle by attaching a powerful explosive to its hull. Although the mission was unsuccessful, Bushnell’s concept of submarine warfare was considered by George Washington to have been “an effort of genius”. More than two centuries later, under the direction of technical arts teacher Frederic J. Frese, students at Old Saybrook High School created a working replica of Bushnell’s submarine, facilitated through an education partnership with the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island, where Roy R. Manstan was a mechanical engineer and Navy trained diver. In Turtle: David Bushnell’s Revolutionary Vessel, the authors provide new insight into Bushnell’s “engine of devastation”, tracing the history of undersea warfare before Bushnell and the origin of the many innovations Bushnell understood would be necessary for conducting a covert submarine attack. The knowledge gained from testing the Turtle replica enabled the authors to speculate as to what America’s first submariner Ezra Lee experienced that September night and what may have caused the attack to fail. The book is published by Westholme Publishing. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. “Excellent.... A valuable contribution.” (Nautical Research) “Highly recommended.” (Choice) “An unusual maritime history book that is both engrossing and a pleasure to read.” (Northern Mariner)

©2010 Roy R. Manstan and Frederic J. Frese (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks

Narrator:
Category: History, Military
Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The California Trail

The California Trail

Summary

The Lewis and Clark expedition, notwithstanding its merits as a feat of exploration, was also the first tentative claim on the vast interior and the western seaboard of North America by the United States. It set in motion the great movement west that began almost immediately with the first commercial overland expedition funded by John Jacob Astor’s Pacific Fur Company and would continue with the establishment of the Oregon Trail and California Trail.  The westward movement of Americans in the 19th century was one of the largest and most consequential migrations in history, and among the paths that blazed west, the California Trail was one of the most well-known. The trail was not a single road but a network of paths that began at several “jumping off” points.  As it so happened, the paths were being formalized and coming into use right around the time gold was discovered in the lands that became California in January 1848. Located thousands of miles away from the country’s power centers on the East Coast at the time, the announcement came a month before the Mexican-American War had ended, and among the very few Americans that were near the region at the time, many of them were army soldiers who were participating in the war and garrisoned there. San Francisco was still best known for being a Spanish military and missionary outpost during the colonial era, and only a few hundred called it home. Mexico’s independence, and its possession of those lands, had come only a generation earlier. At the same time, the journey itself was fraught with risk. It’s easy for people with modern transportation to comfortably reminisce about the West, but many pioneers discovered that the traveling came with various kinds of obstacles and danger, including bitter weather, potentially deadly illnesses, and hostile Native Americans, not to mention an unforgiving landscape that famous American explorer Stephen Long deemed “unfit for human habitation”. Nineteenth-century Americans were all too happy and eager for the transcontinental railroad to help speed their passage west and render overland paths obsolete. One of the main reasons people yearned for new forms of transportation was because of the most notorious and tragic disaster in the history of westward travel. While people still romanticize the Wild West, many Americans are also familiar with the fate of the Donner Party, a group of 87 to 90 people heading for California who met with disaster in the Sierra Nevada mountain range during the winter of 1846-1847. The party knew the journey would take months, but early snowfalls in the mountains left dozens of people trapped in snow drifts that measured several feet, stranding them in a manner that made it virtually impossible for them to go any further for several weeks. The plight of the Donner Party made news across the nation, even before the surviving members were rescued and brought to safety, and by the time the doomed expedition was over, less than 50 of them made it to California. As writer Ethan Rarick summed it up, “More than the gleaming heroism or sullied villainy, the Donner Party is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous." The California Trail: The History and Legacy of the 19th Century Routes That Led Americans to the Golden State examines how the various paths were forged, the people most responsible for them, and the most famous events associated with the trail’s history. You will learn about the California Trail like never before.

©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors

Narrator: Colin Fluxman
Category: History, Military
Length: 1 hr and 47 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for What If Alexander the Great Had Lived?

What If Alexander the Great Had Lived?

Summary

In the 19th century, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle famously wrote that history is “the biography of great men", popularizing the “Great Man” theory that the course of history is shaped by a select few heroic individuals. While historians and others continue to debate the accuracy of the Great Man theory of history, there is no question that the course of history is permanently altered by decisive moments in time, where a different result would have produced drastically different outcomes. As a result, while some of history’s most famous people and events have been permanently etched into the world’s collective imagination, there is a flip side to that coin: Just how differently would history have turned out if certain events never took place? Charles River Editors’ “What If” alternative history series examines some of these people and events, profiling what happened in reality and how things might have been drastically different otherwise. Over the last 2,000 years, ambitious men have dreamed of forging vast empires and attaining eternal glory in battle, but of all the conquerors who took steps toward such dreams, none were ever as successful as antiquity’s first great conqueror. Leaders of the 20th century hoped to rival Napoleon’s accomplishments, while Napoleon aimed to emulate the accomplishments of Julius Caesar. Caesar himself found inspiration in Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE), the Macedonian king who managed to stretch an empire from Greece to the Himalayas in Asia by the age of 30. It took less than 15 years for Alexander to conquer much of the known world. In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great was on top of the world. Never a man to sit on his hands or rest upon his laurels, Alexander began planning his future campaigns, which may have included attempts to subdue the Arabian Peninsula or make another incursion into India. But fate had other plans for the young Macedonian king. Alexander died of still unknown causes at the height of his conquests, when he was still in his early 30s. Although his empire was quickly divided, his legacy only grew, and Alexander became the stuff of legends even in his own time. Alexander was responsible for establishing 20 cities in his name across the world, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, and he was directly responsible for spreading Ancient Greek culture as far east as modern-day India and other parts of Asia. For the ancient world, Alexander became the emblem of military greatness and accomplishment. It was reported that many of Rome’s greatest leaders, including Pompey the Great, Augustus, and Caesar himself all visited Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria - a mecca of sorts for antiquity’s other leaders. Thus, while it could be said that Alexander’s empire continued on through its successors, and that the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedonia, Seleucia, Pergamon, and Ptolemaic Egypt shaped the course of Western history in the centuries that followed and spread Greek culture throughout the known world, their divisions and animosities also weakened them and made them easier to conquer. One by one, they would fall to Rome. But what if Alexander had not died in Babylon years before anyone expected to lose him? How would the world have changed had Alexander remained sole king of the Macedonian Empire and lived long enough to designate an heir? Would history eventually have progressed essentially as it did, or would the world look vastly different? What if Alexander the Great Had Lived?: An Alternative History of the Macedonian King and His Empire profiles Alexander’s life and examines how events may have gone differently if Alexander had survived.

©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors

Category: History, Military
Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Fighter Group

Fighter Group

Summary

Jay A. Stout breaks new ground in World War II history with this gripping account of one of the war’s most highly decorated American fighter groups. Stout combines the storytelling gifts and careful research for a seasoned historian with the combat experience of a former fighter pilot to tell the remarkable story of the 352nd Fighter Group. This isn’t just the story of a single fighter group; it’s the story of how the United States won the air war over Europe.

©2012 Jay A. Stout (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

Narrator: Donald Corren
Category: History, Military
Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Tales from the Captain's Log

Tales from the Captain's Log

Summary

For centuries, ships' commanders kept journals that recorded their missions. These included voyages of discovery to unknown lands, engagements in war and sea and general trade. Many of their logs, diaries and letters were lodged at The National Archives and give a vivid picture of the situations that they encountered. Entries range from Captain James Cook's notes of his discovery of the South Pacific and Australia, to logs of the great naval battles, such as Waterloo and Trafalgar. From the ships that attempted to stop piracy in the Caribbean, to the surgeons who recorded the health of the men they tended and naturalists who noted the exotic plants and animals they encountered, comes a fascinating picture of life at sea.

©2017 The National Archives (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Narrator: Mark Topping
Category: History, Military
Length: 5 hrs and 35 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Dawn's Early Light

Dawn's Early Light

Summary

"I'm not a hero." Cam Warren is back from duty in Iraq. He's haunted by what he's seen, and the only thing he wants is to be normal again - especially when he sees Hayley Arsenault, the girl he left behind when he went off to war. But how does a scarred soldier learn to let in love? BookShots Flames Original romances presented by James Patterson Novels you can devour in a few hours Impossible to stop listening

©2017 Jessica Scott and James Patterson (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Narrator: Christie Moreau
Category: Romance, Military
Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Open Cockpit

Open Cockpit

Summary

Thanks to a broken leg during flight school, Arthur Stanley Gould Lee gained valuable additional time flying trainers before he was posted to France during World War I. In November 1917, during low level bombing and strafing attacks, he was shot down three times by ground fire. He spent eight months at the front and accumulated 222 hours of flight time in Sopwith Pups and Camels during a staggering 118 patrols - being engaged in combat 56 times. He lived to retire from the RAF as an air vice-marshal in 1946. Author of three books, this is by far his best. Lee puts you in the cockpit in a riveting account of life as a fighter pilot at the front. At times humorous and dramatic, this thoughtful, enlightening, true account is a classic to be ranked with Winged Victory by W. V. Yeates, also published by Grub Street.

©2013 Grub Street Ltd (P)2015 Grub Street Ltd

Narrator: Roger Davis
Category: History, Military
Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Whole Again

Whole Again

Summary

John Lawrence loved Vicki Masterson his entire life. They grew up together. But it wasn’t meant to be. After John is disabled in Iraq, that couldn’t be more obvious. He struggles to start a new career while dealing with a prosthetic leg. Vicki recovers from divorce along with her own paralyzing self-doubt.  Enter "Growing Strong", Vicki’s grandmothers landscaping business and a new start for both of them.  Can they can get over themselves and their own insecurities to build a life together?

©2018 Colleen S. Laughlin (P)2019 Colleen S Laughlin

Narrator: Meghan Kelly
Category: Romance, Military
Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for His Sweetness

His Sweetness

Summary

I am so in love with you, Charlie, I can't see straight.   Deck: Ex-commando Deck Johnston has a busy life. He is the boss of a successful construction company. The cofounder and sergeant at arms of the Wounded Souls MC. And he is a single father to a three-year-old blue-eyed, raven-haired princess - who has a liking for guns, camouflage, pink tutus, and cursing.  Deck's life is full, and he isn't looking for anything more. That is, until a sweet ballet dancer who happens to be his daughter's daycare teacher comes along and knocks the weapon specialist on his ass.  Charlotte: Charlotte Jackson's life is not going the way she expected. An injury ended her dancing career a decade too early. She is in debt to her cold-hearted family, she drives a POS car, lives in apartment the size of a shoebox, and owns an abnormally large white cat that hates her and everyone else.    She didn't expect to fall for the father of her favorite daycare student. A tall, muscled alpha former soldier with the bluest eyes she has ever seen. With one look into his sapphire eyes, her life was turned upside down.   On their way to love, will Deck trust Charlotte with the other piece of his heart: his daughter? Will he let her help him overcome the PTSD ravaging him from his years of deployment? Will Charlotte find the love she has always craved and finally get her very own happily-ever-after about which she has always dreamed?   Contains mature themes.

©2018 Leah Sharelle (P)2019 Tantor

Category: Romance, Military
Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Great Rescue

The Great Rescue

Summary

Published in commemoration of the centennial of America's entry into World War I, the story of the USS Leviathan, the legendary liner turned warship that ferried US soldiers to Europe - a unique war history that offers a fresh, compelling look at this epic time. When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, the new German luxury ocean liner SS Vaterland was interned in New York Harbor, where it remained docked for nearly three years - until the United States officially entered the fight to turn the tide of the war. Seized by authorities for the US Navy once war was declared in April 1917, the liner was renamed the USS Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson and converted into an armed troop carrier that transported thousands of American Expeditionary Forces to the battlefields of France. For German U-Boats hunting Allied ships in the treacherous waters of the Atlantic, no target was as prized as the Leviathan, carrying more than 10,000 Doughboys per crossing. But the Germans were not the only deadly force threatening the ship and its passengers. In 1918 a devastating influenza pandemic - the Spanish flu - spread throughout the globe, predominantly striking healthy young adults, including soldiers. Peter Hernon tells the ship's story across multiple voyages and through the experiences of a diverse cast of participants, including the ship's captain, Henry Bryan; General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force; Congressman Royal Johnson, who voted against the war but enlisted once the resolution passed; Freddie Stowers, a young black South Carolinian whose heroism was ignored because of his race; Irvin Cobb, a star war reporter for the Saturday Evening Post; and Elizabeth Weaver, an army nurse who saw the war's horrors firsthand as well as a host of famous supporting characters, including a young Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Thoroughly researched, dramatic, and fast paced, The Great Rescue is a unique look at the Great War and the diverse lives it touched.

©2017 Peter Hernon (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

Narrator: Stephen Hoye
Author: Peter Hernon
Category: History, Military
Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for The Chisholm Trail

The Chisholm Trail

Summary

The Lewis and Clark Expedition, notwithstanding its merits as a feat of exploration, was also the first tentative claim on the vast interior and the western seaboard of North America by the United States. It set in motion the great movement west that began almost immediately with the first commercial overland expedition funded by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company and would continue with the establishment of the Oregon Trail and California Trail. The westward movement of Americans in the 19th century was one of the largest and most consequential migrations in history, but the journey itself was fraught with risk. It's easy for people with modern transportation to comfortably reminisce about the West, but many pioneers discovered that the traveling came with various kinds of obstacles and danger, including bitter weather, potentially deadly illnesses, and hostile Native Americans, not to mention an unforgiving landscape that famous American explorer Stephen Long deemed "unfit for human habitation". Ninteenth century Americans were all too happy and eager for the transcontinental railroad to help speed their passage west and render overland paths obsolete. Around the time that the Civil War ended in 1865, the open ranges of south Texas were full of the cattle known as longhorns. Hundreds of thousands of the distinctive steer, with their horns spanning as much as seven feet from tip to tip, roamed free on the range, so cattle ranchers took advantage of the bounty and claimed the wild longhorns as their own. With a beef shortage on the East Coast, the demand for cattle was high, so the ranchers just needed to get the cattle north from Texas to the nearest railroad. Tennessee native Jesse Chisholm was a trader, not a cattleman, but the trail he blazed from his trading post in Wichita, Kansas, to the Red River in Texas became crucial to cattle drivers. The trail was straight, with few river crossing and no large hills to navigate, and in some spots it was over 400 yards wide. This made the Chisholm Trail ideal for both trade wagons and driving cattle. Between 1867 and 1872, over one million head of cattle were herded from Texas to Kansas, where they were then loaded onto a train and shipped east. In due time, cattle drives became a hallmark sight of the West, and they've frequently been depicted in modern media alongside typical Western images such as cowboys, saloons, mining towns, and Native Americans. Thus, even as the existence of paths like the Chisholm Trail proved brief, the Chisholm Trail provided a vital link in the cattle industry in a pivotal point in American history, ensuring it remains intimately associated with the legends of the Old West. The Chisholm Trail: The History and Legacy of 19th Century America's Most Famous Cattle Drive Route examines how the various paths were forged, the people most responsible for them, and the most famous events associated with the trail's history. You will learn about the Chisholm Trail like never before.

©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors

Narrator: Bill Hare
Category: History, Military
Length: 1 hr and 48 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Through Five Administrations

Through Five Administrations

Summary

Fifty years of service at the White House in various capacities, including bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln, William H. Crook's memoir brings an astonishing array of personal details of life in the executive mansion. His sensitive observations of Lincoln are especially moving. A well-known figure in Washington, Crook knew every president from Lincoln until Crook's death in 1915. He was a keen observer and his stories will entertain and sometimes surprise you. Here are also stories of presidents Andrew Johnson, Rutherford B. Hayes, and James Garfield. A friend of Ulysses S. Grant, a guest at the White House wedding of Grant's daughter, Nellie, he also tells stories of racing with Grant in buggies.

Public Domain (P)2017 Big Byte Books

Narrator: Brian V. Hunt
Category: History, Military
Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Winter War

Winter War

Summary

Discover the remarkable history of the Winter War.... Free BONUS Inside!  The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union was a match-up between a mighty, powerful, aggressive nation and its smaller and weaker neighbor. Throughout its history, Finland had learned that in order to survive as a nation, it was obliged to dodge, when possible, the threat of neighboring countries that possessed more people, resources, and ambition than the small country locked in between. As a predatory threat to its borders, the Winter War was nothing new to Finnish security; what was new, however, was that Finland did not immediately capitulate to the massive Soviet force.  Lasting 105 days, the fighting saw the Finns mount an unexpectedly vigorous defense against the Soviets in a contest that the Russians had confidently believed would be over in a couple of weeks. The Finns, fighting without significant help from either Scandinavian or European sources, used their country’s rugged terrain and brutal winter weather to severely test the unprepared Soviets.  In the end, their valiant effort was no match for the overwhelming advantages that the Soviets enjoyed in equipment and troops, and the Finns had no choice but to accept the Soviet terms before a peace agreement was signed. Wary of Russian aggression and determined to find a protector, the Finns would turn to Germany as an ally, a decision which seemed wise in 1940, given the ease with which Germany had conquered Poland.  Other than that, the brief altercation between Soviet Russia and Finland might have been no more than a minor blip on the panoramic screen of the global war to come. But the Winter War had a significance that extended beyond the boundaries of the Finnish battle sites. As Adolf Hitler watched the action, he perceived that Soviet weakness and European apathy would allow him to advance, uncontested, in Nazi Germany’s quest to dominate the map and the future of the continent. As for the Finns, they lost land to the Soviets, but they maintained their independence. Perhaps they emerged victorious after all.  Discover a plethora of topics such as  Reluctant Neighbors Creating a Reason for War Preparing to Defend Their Homeland The Molotov Cocktail Weathering the Winter War Turning the Tide to Soviet Triumph And much more! So if you want a concise and informative book on the Winter War, simply scroll up and click the "Buy" button for instant access!

©2020 Hourly History (P)2021 Hourly History

Narrator: Jason Zenobia
Category: History, Military
Length: 1 hr and 9 mins
Available on Audible
Cover art for Antietam: Military Accounts of the Bloodiest Battle in American History

Antietam: Military Accounts of the Bloodiest Battle in American History

Summary

The Battle of Antietam, (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg), was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek. The battle was the culmination of Robert E. Lee's Maryland campaign in which Lee attempted to take the war to the North. The first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Union soil, it was and remains, the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, claiming a staggering 23,000 casualties. The savage battle was not a clear victory for either side, though turning back the Confederate invasion gave Abraham Lincoln the "victory" he wanted before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. These are detailed, firsthand military accounts of the logistics of the battle, by both the Union and Confederate men who fought it.

©2012 Wetware Media (P)2012 Wetware Media

Available on Audible