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 Good Soldiers
Summary
It was the last-chance moment of the war. In January 2007, President George W. Bush announced a new strategy for Iraq. He called it "the surge". "Many listening tonight will ask why this effort will succeed when previous operations to secure Baghdad did not. Well, here are the differences," he told a skeptical nation. Among those listening were the young, optimistic Army infantry soldiers of the 2-16, the battalion nicknamed the Rangers. About to head to a vicious area of Baghdad, they decided the difference would be them. Fifteen months later, the soldiers returned home forever changed. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Finkel was with them in Bagdad almost every grueling step of the way. What was the true story of the surge? Was it really a success? Those are the questions he grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. Combining the action of Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down with the literary brio of Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, The Good Soldiers is an unforgettable work of reportage. And in telling the story of these good soldiers, the heroes and the ruined, David Finkel has also produced an eternal tale - not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.
©2009 Dave Finkel (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
First to Fly
Summary
If the Wright brothers' 1903 flights in Kitty Hawk marked the birth of aviation, World War I can be called its violent adolescence - a brief but bloody era that completely changed the way planes were designed, fabricated, and flown. The war forged an industry that would redefine transportation and warfare for future generations. In First to Fly, historian Charles Bracelen Flood tells the story of the men who were at the forefront of that revolution: the daredevil Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille. As citizens of a neutral nation from 1914 to early 1917, Americans were prohibited from serving in a foreign army, but many brave young souls soon made their way into European battle zones as ambulance drivers, nurses, and, more dangerously, soldiers in the French Foreign Legion. It was partly from the ranks of the latter group that the Lafayette Escadrille was formed in 1916 as the first and only all-American squadron in the French Air Service. Flying rudimentary planes against one-in-three odds of being killed, these fearless young men gathered reconnaissance and shot down enemy aircraft, participated in the Battle of Verdun, and faced off with the Red Baron. Drawing on rarely seen primary sources, Flood chronicles the startling success of that intrepid band and gives a compelling look at the rise of aviation and a new era of warfare.
©2015 Charles Bracelen Flood (P)2015 Tantor
The Civil War
Summary
This volume is a two-part history of the Civil War. Part I From 1861 to 1865 America was caught in the convulsions of war—the Civil War. No historical event, short of the American Revolution itself, has so deeply affected the United States. The Civil War is often called the War between the States by Southern historians, aptly illustrating the political question underpinning the war: Was the United States one nation, or were the United States a group of sovereign entities that could choose to disassociate? Both sides honored the same constitution, spoke the same language, and worshipped the same God. But the two could not agree on whether America was a union or a compact of states. Part II With the advent of war, the Confederate States of America faced serious problems. The Confederate population was 9.1 million compared to the Union’s 19.1 million. The South controlled only one quarter of America’s wealth. Its railroad mileage was only half that of the Union, and its navy was badly outnumbered. But the South was fighting a defensive war on its own soil, and military theorists agree that such a war requires a three-to-one superiority for an aggressor to win. Many believed the South could prevail. Nevertheless, on April 9, 1865, General Lee surrendered what remained of his army. But what had the North won? The United States of America was now one nation under God. But that nation was crippled by the economic costs of the war—wholesale destruction, inflation, poverty. The political costs were no less. Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated; Southern leaders were in jail; the federal government had swollen in size and power. Northern politicians then began to “reconstruct” the South, building state governments that would be loyal to the union. But the conquered South simmered with resentments that could not be legislated out of existence. Jeffrey Rogers Hummel is the author of Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men: A History of the American Civil War. He teaches economics and history at San José State University. Before joining the SJSU economics faculty, he lectured as an adjunct at Golden Gate University and Santa Clara University. Hummel served as a tank platoon leader in the US Army during the early seventies; was publications director for the Independent Institute in Oakland, California, in the late eighties; and was a National Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution for the 2001/02 academic year.
©1989 Carmichael & Carmichael / Knowledge Products (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle
Summary
Winner of the Seaborg Award A History Book Club Selection On October 8, 1862, Union and Confederate forces clashed near Perryville, Kentucky, in what would be the largest battle ever fought on Kentucky soil. The climax of a campaign that began two months before in Northern Mississippi, Perryville came to be recognized as the high water mark of the western Confederacy. Some said the hard-fought battle, forever remembered by participants for its sheer savagery and for their commanders' confusion, was the worst battle of the war, losing the last chance to bring the Commonwealth into the Confederacy and leaving Kentucky firmly under federal control. Although Gen. Braxton Bragg's Confederates won the day, Bragg soon retreated in the face of Gen. Don Carlos Buell's overwhelming numbers. Perryville: This Grand Havoc of Battle is the definitive account of this important conflict. While providing all the parry and thrust one might expect from an excellent battle narrative, the book also reflects the new trends in Civil War history in its concern for ordinary soldiers and civilians caught in the slaughterhouse. This book is published by University Press of Kentucky.
©2001 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks
Antoine-Henri Jomini
Summary
“War in its ensemble is not a science, but an art. Strategy, particularly, may indeed be regulated by fixed laws resembling those of the positive sciences, but this is not true of war viewed as a whole. Among other things, combats may be mentioned as often being quite independent of scientific combinations..." (Jomini) With the exception of Napoleon Bonaparte, few men were more influential on the military tactics and strategy of 19th century warfare than Antoine-Henri Jomini, yet the introduction for a 1947 English translation of Jomini’s Art of War noted, “The military world that today burns gun-powder at the altar of Clausewitzian doctrine has all but forgotten Antoine-Henri Jomini.” The author of that introduction, Lt. Col. J.D. Little of the US Marine Corps, was right then, and he remains correct today. While Carl von Clausewitz’s aphorisms are still used to support everything from military action to business management, the work of his contemporary writer Jomini has been all but forgotten. During the Napoleonic Era and throughout the 19th century, however, the situation was very different. Jomini was regarded as the preeminent strategist and writer of his generation, while Clausewitz was virtually unknown outside the General Staff of the Prussian Army. In the intervening period, Clausewitz has come to be regarded as the most important writer and strategic analyst of the period, whereas the writings of Jomini have been discarded and largely ignored. As a result, many military historians and strategists have only recently begun to understand how important Jomini was and how relevant his writings remain today. In lamenting what had happened to Jomini’s reputation, Little asserted, “No man in the history of war has exerted a greater influence on the development of modern warfare than Napoleon Bonaparte. No man has been more responsible for Napoleon’s influence as Antoine-Henri Jomini.” Again, Little had a point, because unlike Clausewitz, the writings of Jomini had a direct influence on the conduct of wars during the 19th century. While Clausewitz was not widely read outside Prussia (and later Germany) until the final years of the 19th century, few generals in Europe and America were unfamiliar with Jomini’s works, and many used his summary of the Art of War as their main guide to strategy and tactics. Why is it that Jomini has been forgotten while Clausewitz’s name is now far more famous than it ever was during his lifetime? One of the reasons is that Clausewitz attempted to develop a philosophy of war that went well beyond the mechanics of combat. Such a philosophy is timeless, precisely because it is not linked to the tactics or weapons of a particular period. This is made evident by the fact that as recently as the First Gulf War (1990-1991), senior military leaders in the coalition against Iraq were quoting Clausewitz in support of their strategy. Jomini, however, viewed warfare not as a philosophical excursive but as a science, with principles that could be derived from a study of the past masters of war and applied to any situation. This lacked the grand overview presented by Clausewitz, but it provided military men with a set of easily comprehensible rules of warfare. If Clausewitz was the master of strategy, Jomini was an early exponent of a tactical view of warfare, and as many military leaders came to understand in the chaos of battle, a simple set of rules is more easily applied than a grand philosophy. Antoine-Henri Jomini: The Life and Legacy of the Swiss General and His Famous Military Treatises About the Napoleonic Wars looks at the life and career of the military officer and highlights the most important parts of his timeless works.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
Flamethrower
Summary
Late in the Pacific War, as Americans were fighting their way to the home islands of the Japanese Empire, one of the fiercest battles of World War II was raging. The Japanese had created, perhaps, the best defended area anywhere on an island called Iwo Jima. Days into the bloody battle, casualties were high on both sides. United States Marines were taking an awful pounding out in the open from enemy-fortified positions. Imperial Japanese soldiers in pillboxes and bunkers knew that the greatest danger they faced was from a flamethrower if it could get near enough to hit them. Imagine a little guy strapping on a highly flammable 70-pound weapon, instantly drawing heavy enemy fire as he maneuvered close enough with a small team of Leathernecks to destroy a pillbox. Woody Williams did just that on the hellishly hot and sulfurous volcanic island of Iwo Jima, destroying Japanese emplacements against dire odds. He, along with numerous comrades, did it again and again, taking out hundreds of fortifications which had stalled their regiment’s advance to secure the islands airfields. The capture of Iwo Jima helped the powerful new B-29s have P-51 fighter-plane escorts to help the bombers pound Japan into submission. Iwo actually was a backup landing zone for the Enola Gay if she had difficulties delivering her atomic bomb on 6 August, 1945, at Hiroshima - a bomb American leaders hoped would bring Hirohito to his knees, begging for surrender terms so World War II would stop. Accomplished military historian Bryan Mark Rigg reconstructs Woody Williams’ remarkable story, from his youth on a dairy farm in West Virginia to his experiences as a Marine in Guadalcanal, Guam, and Iwo Jima. Using never-before-known documents and interviews, Rigg brings out new information about the Pacific War unknown until now. Rigg enables the listener to better appreciate the brave marines and their heroics.
©2020 Bryan Mark Rigg (P)2020 Bryan Mark Rigg
American Rifle
Summary
George Washington insisted that his portrait be painted with one. Daniel Boone created a legend with one. Abraham Lincoln shot them on the White House lawn. And Teddy Roosevelt had his specially customized. Now, in this first-of-its-kind audiobook, historian Alexander Rose delivers a colorful, engrossing biography of an American icon: the rifle. Drawing on the words of soldiers, inventors, and presidents, based on extensive new research, and encompassing the Revolution to the present day, American Rifle is a balanced, wonderfully entertaining history of this most essential firearm and its place in American culture. In the eighteenth century American soldiers discovered that they no longer had to fight in Europe's time-honored way. With the evolution of the famed "Kentucky" Rifle - a weapon slow to load but devastatingly accurate in the hands of a master - a new era of warfare dawned, heralding the birth of the American individualist in battle. In this spirited narrative, Alexander Rose reveals the hidden connections between the rifle's development and our nation's history. We witness the high-stakes international competition to produce the most potent gunpowder…how the mysterious arts of metallurgy, gunsmithing, and mass production played vital roles in the creation of American economic supremacy…and the ways in which bitter infighting between rival arms makers shaped diplomacy and influenced the most momentous decisions in American history. And we learn why advances in rifle technology and ammunition triggered revolutions in military tactics, how ballistics tests - frequently bizarre - were secretly conducted, and which firearms determined the course of entire wars. From physics to geopolitics, from frontiersmen to the birth of the National Rifle Association, from the battles of the Revolution to the war in Iraq, American Rifle is a must listen for history buffs, gun collectors, soldiers - and anyone who seeks to understand the dynamic relationship between the rifle and this nation's history.
©2008 Rosewriter Inc. (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Sons of Freedom
Summary
The "stirring", definitive history of America's decisive role in winning World War I (Wall Street Journal). The American contribution to World War I is one of the great stories of the 20th century, and yet it has all but vanished from view. Historians have dismissed the American war effort as largely economic and symbolic. But as Geoffrey Wawro shows in Sons of Freedom, the French and British were on the verge of collapse in 1918, and would have lost the war without the Doughboys. Field Marshal Douglas Haig, commander of the British Expeditionary Force, described the Allied victory as a "miracle" - but it was a distinctly American miracle. In Sons of Freedom, prize-winning historian Geoffrey Wawro weaves together in thrilling detail the battles, strategic deliberations, and dreadful human cost of the American war effort. A major revision of the history of World War I, Sons of Freedom resurrects the brave heroes who saved the Allies, defeated Germany, and established the United States as the greatest of the great powers. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 Geoffrey Wawro (P)2018 Hachette Audio
The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege
Summary
Historical accounts of major events have almost always relied upon what those who were there witnessed. Nowhere is this truer than in the nerve-shattering chaos of warfare, where sight seems to confer objective truth and acts as the basis of reconstruction. In The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege, historian Mark M. Smith considers how all five senses, including sight, shaped the experience of the Civil War and thus its memory, exploring its full sensory impact on everyone from the soldiers on the field to the civilians waiting at home. From the eardrum-shattering barrage of shells announcing the outbreak of war at Fort Sumter to the stench produced by the corpses lying in the midsummer sun at Gettysburg to the siege of Vicksburg, once a center of Southern culinary aesthetics and starved into submission, Smith recreates how the Civil War was felt and lived. Relying on firsthand accounts, Smith focuses on specific senses, one for each event, offering a wholly new perspective. At Bull Run the similarities between the colors of the Union and Confederate uniforms created concern over what later would be called "friendly fire" and helped decide the outcome of the first major battle simply because no one was quite sure they could believe their eyes. He evokes what it might have felt like to be in the HL Hunley submarine, in which eight men worked cheek by jowl in near-total darkness in a space 48 inches high and 42 inches wide. Often argued to be the first "total war", the Civil War overwhelmed the senses because of its unprecedented nature and scope, rendering sight less reliable and, Smith shows, forcefully engaging the nonvisual senses. Sherman's March was little less than a full-blown assault on Southern sense and sensibility, leaving nothing untouched and no one unaffected. Unique, compelling, and fascinating, The Smell of Battle, The Taste of Siege offers listeners a way to experience the Civil War with fresh eyes.
©2015 Mark M. Smith (P)2015 Audible Inc.
Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields
Summary
Travel through a pivotal time in American history. Jeff Shaara, America's premier Civil War novelist, gives a remarkable guided tour of the 10 Civil War battlefields every American should visit: Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg/Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, New Market, Chickamauga, the Wilderness/Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg/Appomattox. Shaara explores the history, the people, and the places that capture the true meaning and magnitude of the conflict and provides: Engaging narratives of the war's crucial battles Intriguing historical footnotes about each site Photographs of the locations - then and now Detailed maps of the battle scenes Fascinating sidebars with related points of interest From Antietam to Gettysburg to Vicksburg, and to the many poignant destinations in between, Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields is the ideal guide for casual tourists and Civil War enthusiasts alike.
©2007 Jeff Shaara (P)2007 Books on Tape
Six Victories
Summary
In October 1941, the British Admiralty based a surface strike force in Malta to attack Axis sea lanes between Italy and Africa. Aided by Ultra intelligence, submarines, and bombers based in Malta, this force dominated the Central Mediterranean. From the end of October through the middle of December 1941, less than a third of the supplies shipped from Italian ports arrived in Libya. Shortages of ammunition and fuel finally compelled the Afrika Korps to retreat 400 miles. Then, in the space of 30 hours, this all changed. First, Italian naval forces broke the blockade by fighting through a major convoy that arrived in time to blunt the British advance; next, the strike force plowed into a minefield laid by Italian cruisers; and finally, in a daring attack, Italian commandos crippled the Mediterranean Fleet's battleships in port. The swing in fortune was immediate and dramatic. Six Victories breaks new ground in the historiography of World War II. A compelling story, it relates lessons that are relevant today and is a must-listen for all who practice the art of power at sea and for those who want to understand the intricate and interrelated factors that are the foundations of military success.
©2019 Vincent P. O’Hara (P)2020 Tantor
Nashville SEAL
Summary
Nashville up-and-coming star Jameson Daniels has all the women and fame he can handle, covering up a secret past. A chance encounter with members of SEAL Team 3 changes the trajectory of his life and his willingness to confront his past. Lizzie Reeder has a secret she's hidden from the one man in the world who should know. Would telling him be an act of love or an act of desperation?
©2015 Sharon Hamilton (P)2015 Sharon Hamilton
The Rise of the G.I. Army, 1940-1941
Summary
The story of America's astounding industrial mobilization during World War II has been told. But what has never been chronicled before Paul Dickson's The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is the extraordinary transformation of America's military from a disparate collection of camps with dilapidated equipment into a well-trained and spirited army 10 times its prior size in little more than 18 months. From Franklin Roosevelt's selection of George C. Marshall to be Army Chief of Staff to the remarkable peace-time draft of 1940 and the massive and unprecedented mock battles in Tennessee, Louisiana, and the Carolinas by which the skill and spirit of the Army were forged and out of which iconic leaders like Eisenhower, Bradley, and Clark emerged, Dickson narrates America's urgent mobilization against a backdrop of political and cultural isolationist resistance and racial tension at home, and the increasingly perceived threat of attack from both Germany and Japan. An important addition to American history, The Rise of the G. I. Army, 1940-1941 is essential to our understanding of America's involvement in World War II.
©2020 Paul Dickson (P)2020 Tantor
Never in Finer Company
Summary
It was one of the most heroic events in American military history. Here is the larger-than-life story of World War I's "Lost Battalion" and the men who survived the ordeal, triumphed in battle, and fought the demons that lingered. In the first week of October, 1918, 600 men charged into the forbidding Argonne Forest. Against all odds, they surged through enemy lines - alone. They were soon surrounded and besieged. As they ran out of ammunition, water, and food, the doughboys withstood constant bombardment and relentless enemy assaults. Seven days later, only 194 soldiers from the original unit walked out of the forest. The stand of the US Army's "Lost Battalion" remains an unprecedented display of heroism under fire. Never in Finer Company tells the stories of four men whose lives were forever changed by the ordeal: Major Charles Whittlesey, a lawyer dedicated to serving his men at any cost; Captain George McMurtry, a New York stockbroker who becomes a tower of strength under fire; Corporal Alvin York, a country farmer whose famous exploits help rescue his beleaguered comrades; and Damon Runyon, an intrepid newspaper man who interviews the survivors and weaves their experiences into the American epic. Emerging from the patriotic frenzy that sent young men "over there," each of these four men trod a unique path to the October days that engulfed them - and continued to haunt them as they struggled to find peace. Uplifting and compelling, Never in Finer Company is a deeply moving and dramatic story on an epic scale. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2018 Edward G. Lengel (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Westmoreland's War
Summary
General William C. Westmoreland has long been derided for his failed strategy of "attrition" in the Vietnam War. Historians have argued that Westmoreland's strategy placed a premium on high "body counts" through a "big unit war" that relied almost solely on search and destroy missions. Many believe the US Army failed in Vietnam because of Westmoreland's misguided and narrow strategy. In a groundbreaking reassessment of American military strategy in Vietnam, Gregory Daddis overturns conventional wisdom and shows how Westmoreland did indeed develop a comprehensive campaign which included counterinsurgency, civic action, and the importance of gaining political support from the South Vietnamese population. Exploring the realities of a large, yet not wholly unconventional environment, Daddis reinterprets the complex political and military battlefields of Vietnam. Without searching for blame, he analyzes how American civil and military leaders developed strategy and how Westmoreland attempted to implement a sweeping strategic vision. Westmoreland's War is a landmark reinterpretation of one of America's most divisive wars, outlining the multiple, interconnected aspects of American military strategy in Vietnam-combat operations, pacification, nation building, and the training of the South Vietnamese armed forces. Daddis offers a critical reassessment of one of the defining moments in American history.
©2014 Oxford University Press (P)2018 Tantor
In Defense of Internment: The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the War on Terror
Summary
Everything you've been taught about the World War II "internment camps" in America is wrong: They were not created primarily because of racism or wartime hysteria They did not target only those of Japanese descent They were not Nazi-style death camps In her latest investigative tour-de-force, New York Times best-selling author Michelle Malkin sets the historical record straight - and debunks radical ethnic alarmists who distort history to undermine common-sense, national security profiling. The need for this myth-shattering book is vital. President Bush's opponents have attacked every homeland defense policy as tantamount to the "racist" and "unjustified" World War II internment. Bush's own transportation secretary, Norm Mineta, continues to milk his childhood experience at a relocation camp as an excuse to ban profiling at airports.
©2004 Michelle Maglalang Malkin (P)2012 Regnery Publishing
Bou Pilot
Summary
Drop into one man's world of transport flying at the height of the Vietnam War and experience the good, the bad, and the ugly - with character and compassion. Humorous, compassionate, and tragic day-to-day experiences of a transport pilot in combat. When Jon Drury was shipped to Vietnam with 90 percent of his graduating class, he was assigned to the short field C-7A Caribou made by De Havilland. His challenging mission: carry troops into combat, air drop live chickens in crates, ferry cows to Special Forces camps, and dodge .50 caliber fire. On the more compassionate side, Jon served the Vietnamese in civic action, drove an ambulance to a free dispensary, and escorted those killed in action on their final journeys home. "Jon's style of writing grabs the reader, holds their interest, and makes them want to read more about the deeds of the warriors called up on to fight a long, cruel, and frustrating war... Reading the stories brings out his flying skills, human compassion, and faith to a degree one might not expect from a warrior. These elements reflect the skills, passion, determination, and generosity of a man sent to war who found a deeper meaning inside himself than he anticipated." (E. Patrick Hanavan Jr., PhD, colonel, USAF (Ret.), chief test pilot, 483 Tactical Airlift Wing, Cam Ranh Bay, RVN, president, the C-7A Caribou Association)
©2018 Jon Ellis Drury (P)2018 Jon Ellis Drury
Issued to the Bride: One Sergeant for Christmas
Summary
Orphaned at seven, kicked out by his aunt and uncle at 16, Sergeant Emerson Myers gave up on family until General Augustus Reed chose him as his assistant, becoming as much a father-figure as a commanding officer. But when the general starts sending elite forces men home to marry his estranged daughters, Emerson's torn between relief at not being given such an irrevocable mission and dismay that the man never even considered him for the job. Wyoming Smith has watched with a mixture of wonder and horror as her best friend, Cass, and all Cass' sisters have married the warriors their father sent to them. Witnessing their happiness was hard enough when her life was on track, but now she's lost her job and her apartment, and she's accepted Cass' invitation to live at Two Willows, which means she has a front-row seat to five loving marriages - while remaining all alone. Emerson knows marriage isn't for him, and he's ready to recommit to his career in the army - but before he can, an explosion rips his life apart - and the general's. Wyoming knows everything will change now that the general is coming home to Two Willows. Will she have to leave? Or has the general had a bigger plan all along?
©2018 Cora Seton (P)2021 Tantor
Taken by the Lawman
Summary
She’s his boss. Can he handle her? Kiersten Cade has always been skilled at catching criminals, but finding Mr. Right? Not so much. Lately she’s been feeling a void that work no longer fills. Not getting any younger, she decides to steer her trajectory toward motherhood. She’s ready to take the next step into single parenthood when a dashing green-eyed lawman sends her life compass all out of whack. Agent Deegan Bronx is known for his cool hand and polished skills, but why is it that every time he gets around Kiersten, he’s a blubbering idiot? Not only is she his boss, but she thinks he’s incompetent. When they are partnered to find the monster wreaking havoc in Wyoming, he’s hell-bent on proving his capabilities. He finds outs she wants a baby, and he sees the perfect opportunity to show her he’s the best man for the job. Together they’ll face peril and deceit, but what neither of them expect is the danger brewing inside their hearts.
©2018 Rhonda Lee Carver (P)2019 Rhonda Lee Carver
Rise of an Empire
Summary
The true story behind the events in 300: Rise of an Empire, the sequel to Zack Snyder's 300 The action-filled movie 300 focused on Ancient Greece's epic battle of Thermopylae, in which King Leonidas led 300 Spartans into battle against Xerxes and his million-strong Persian forces. In the sequel, 300: Rise of an Empire, the action moves to the sea, covering 10 years starting with the Battle of Marathon and ending with naval engagement the Battle of Artemisium, which occurred the same day as Thermopylae. Rise of an Empire tells the story of the real men and events depicted in the movie, focusing on the Athenian general Themistocles, one of the world's greatest warriors. He became warlord of Greece, built their navy and, by uniting Greece to defeat Xerxes' fleet, enabled what we call western civilization. Packed with vivid detail, clashes of arms and ships, blood, and glory, Rise of an Empire tells a story even bigger than the big screen could contain. Both an essential listen for fans of the 300 movies and the Frank Miller graphic novels they're based on An insightful exploration of the leaders who feature in the film, their backgrounds, motivations, command decisions, struggles, victories, and defeats, from the Battle of Marathon through the Battles of Artemisium and Salamis: Xerxes, the Persian king determined to succeed where his father failed, and Themistocles, overcoming monumental hurdles to turn Athens into Ancient Greece's greatest sea power and leading city-state of the age A gripping narrative of the real-life naval battles of the first and second Persian invasions of Greece, with fascinating detail about the ships, the warriors and the tactics
©2013 Stephen Dando-Collins (P)2014 Audible, Inc.