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.
Battle Cry of Freedom
Summary
James M. McPherson, professor emeritus of U.S. history at Princeton, is one of the foremost scholars of the Civil War. In this informative and meticulously researched masterpiece, he clarifies the differing ways of life and philosophy that led to this shattering conflict. Abraham Lincoln wondered whether in a free government the minority have the right to break up the government. Jefferson Davis felt forced to take up arms to guarantee his states rights. McPherson merges the words of these men and other political luminaries, housewives, and soldiers from both armies with his own concise analysis of the war to create a story as compelling as any novel. Battle Cry of Freedom vividly traces how a new nation was forged when a war both sides were sure would amount to little dragged for four years and cost more American lives than all other wars combined. Narrator Jonathan Davis powerful reading brings to life the many voices of the Civil War.
©2003 James Macpherson (P)2020 Recorded Books, Inc.
The World War 1 Trivia Book
Summary
Welcome to World War I, formerly known as the “Great War”, where men fought and died in trenches and did whatever they could to avoid chemical weapon attacks. You may have read a few things about World War One or remember some things from your history classes, but this book is here to help fill in the blanks. Get ready to learn all about World War One, from the ideologies and complex geo-political alliances that led to war, to how average soldiers tried to deal with life in the trenches. This book will bring to life some of the most important battles, but it will also go far beyond that to how the war ended and how it continued to linger on for many, especially those with PTSD.
You’ll learn:
What roles did nationalism, colonialism, and the European alliance structure play in the start of the war?
Who thought that trench warfare was a good idea?
Why did the Germans wear those spiked helmets?
How did chemical warfare get introduced and what role did it play?
How did the rise of communism seriously affect the course of the war?
Each chapter of our trivia books is broken up into 15 short sections that will introduce you to major players, major ideas, and sometimes weird stories. Unlike your high school history teacher, we’re not going to put you to sleep with the names of a million generals, or an endless line of dates, but instead we’ll show you the war from a series of different perspectives and themes. To go along with the 15 short breakdowns of the war, every chapter also ends with 20 fun facts or bits of trivia, and five questions to test your knowledge on World War One.
So put on your pickelhaube, man the trenches, and get ready to learn....
©2019 LAK Publishing (P)2019 LAK Publishing
Night Hunters: The AC-130s and Their Role in US Airpower
Summary
In Night Hunters, air power historian William P. Head provides the first detailed study of the development and deployment of the AC-130 gunship. While other airframes and other types of close air support (CAS) and interdiction weapon systems preceded or flew with the AC-130s, this four-engine cargo airframe proved to be not only the longest serving fixed-wing gunship but also the most effective by far.
During the Vietnam War, the US military developed new tactics and weapons systems to counter a diversity of enemy tactics and geographic features, the difficult climate, and the shifting diplomatic context. One of the most important was the development of the AC-130. Its ability to transport heavier payloads at higher altitudes across longer distances made it the logical choice to be the final Vietnam-era fixed-wing gunship and the only one that continues to fly missions in the 21st century. In addition, it employed many of the most advanced weapons, sensors, targeting devices, and fire control systems of the 1970s or of any era.
By recounting both the technical development and the combat operations of the plane, and by looking at the proposed alternatives for its use in the War on Terror, Night Hunters offers a clear view of the role of gunships and of close air support in US wars. In today’s never-ending brushfire wars, the AC-130s continue to uphold their reputation for excellence.
The book is published by Texas A&M University Press.
©2014 William P. Head (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
The Godfrey Diary of the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Summary
Lieutenant Edward Settle Godfrey was commander of K Company of the 7th Cavalry in the battalion of Captain Frederick Benteen. Godfrey was a central figure in the Reno-Benteen defense over the 25th and 26th of June, 1876. He kept a diary of the Yellowstone Expedition against the Sioux from May 17 to September 24. The diary reveals anecdotes and observations of General Custer's mood and behavior before the fight on June 25th, as well as the desperate story of survival experienced by the battalions under Reno and Benteen. It also contains fascinating details about how the cavalry moved, camped, and relaxed during the days leading up to the fight. In 1892, (then Captain) Godfrey wrote what became a very famous and widely-read article for Century Magazine about the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Both of these documents are cited by most serious Custer books..
Public Domain (P)2017 Big Byte Books
The Chickamauga Campaign
Summary
From mid-August to mid-September 1863, Union major general William S. Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland maneuvered from Tennessee to north Georgia in a bid to rout Confederate general Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee and blaze the way for further Union advances. Meanwhile, Confederate reinforcements bolstered the numbers of the Army of Tennessee, and by the time the two armies met at the Battle of Chickamauga, in northern Georgia, the Confederates had gained numerical superiority. Although the Confederacy won its only major victory west of the Appalachians, it failed to achieve the truly decisive results many high-ranking Confederates expected. In The Chickamauga Campaign, Steven E. Woodworth assembles eight thought-provoking new essays from an impressive group of authors to offer new insight into the complex reasons for this substantial, yet ultimately barren, Confederate victory.
©2010 Board of Trustees, Southern Illinois University (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks
Nelson's Trafalgar
Summary
An explosive chronicle of history's greatest sea battle, from the coauthor of Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History In the tradition of Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, Nelson's Trafalgar presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world's most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy, under Lord Horatio Nelson, dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon. The Battle of Trafalgar comes boldly to life in this definitive work that recreates those five momentous, earsplitting hours with unrivaled detail and intensity.
©2004 Roy Adkins (P)2021 Tantor
The Battle of Ezra Church and the Struggle for Atlanta
Summary
Fought on July 28, 1864, the Battle of Ezra Church was a dramatic engagement during the Civil War's Atlanta campaign. Confederate forces under John Bell Hood desperately fought to stop William T. Sherman's advancing armies as they tried to cut the last Confederate supply line into the city. Confederates under General Stephen D. Lee nearly overwhelmed the Union right flank, but Federals under General Oliver O. Howard decisively repelled every attack. After five hours of struggle, 5,000 Confederates lay dead and wounded while only 632 Federals were lost. The result was another major step in Sherman's long effort to take Atlanta. Detailing Stephen D. Lee's tactical missteps and Howard's vigilant leadership, Hess challenges many common misconceptions about the battle. Richly narrated and drawn from an array of unpublished manuscripts and firsthand accounts, Hess' work sheds new light on the complexities and significance of this important engagement both on and off the battlefield.
©2015 Earl J. Hess (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Slavery and the Civil War: What Your History Teacher Didn't Tell You
Summary
Nothing in American history has ever equaled the death and destruction of the intense and bloody warfare of 1861-1865 between Americans. Given the size of the population at the time, that period is unmatched in the scale of military mobilization, in the destruction of property on our own soil, and in the casualties, not only of soldiers but of Southern civilians, Black and White. For later generations, such a horror must have the comfort of a moral justification. We fall back on righteousness and romanticism: The war must have been a noble and necessary crusade carried out against evil people who refused to give up their slaves. But is this true? Did those men in blue really sacrifice their lives for the freedom and equality of Black Americans? Did those men in gray give their lives so that some could continue to hold Black Americans in slavery? Garry Bowers, with 20 years teaching experience in Alabama public schools tackles this great question with information, reason, and courage. Shotwell is proud to publish this work for the use of students and teachers.
©2019 Garry Bowers (P)2020 Shotwell Publishing LLC
Bones of My Grandfather
Summary
A grandson’s quest to bring a fallen war hero home. In November 1943, Marine 1st Lt. Alexander Bonnyman Jr. was mortally wounded while leading a successful assault on critical Japanese fortifications on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa. But it was not until August 2015 that he was finally laid to rest. Bonnyman Jr. was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor and Purple Heart for his heroic actions during the bloody battle, which would ultimately claim the lives of almost 2,000 Marines and 5,000 Japanese soldiers. But the lieutenant, along with hundreds of other Marines, was buried in an unmarked grave. He was left behind and his remains never recovered. More than seventy years later, Bonnyman Jr.'s grandson, Clay Bonnyman Evans, took up the search for his grandfather and those other Marines left behind. In Bones of My Grandfather, Evans tells the story of his mission against all odds. His journey began at home, where research into his grandfather’s past uncovered a flawed hero with a checkered past at odds with the narrative he’d been told. Abroad, his first visits to Tarawa would be fruitless, frustrated by nature, bureaucratic red tape, and the US government's own stagnant search for the Marines. But with the help of archaeologist Kristin Baker and Mark Noah, a former pilot who leads international efforts to locate lost American servicemen as part of his History Flight charitable foundation, Evans accomplished his mission. On May 29, 2015, Clay Bonnyman Evans exhumed the bones of his grandfather. More than seventy years after giving his life for his country, a World War II hero was finally buried alongside his family in Texas.
©2018 Clay Bonnyman Evans (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.
Cultures of War
Summary
Over recent decades, John W. Dower, one of America’s preeminent historians, has addressed the roots and consequences of war from multiple perspectives. In War Without Mercy, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, he described and analyzed the brutality that attended World War II in the Pacific, as seen from both the Japanese and the American sides. Embracing Defeat, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, dealt with Japan's struggle to start over in a shattered land in the immediate aftermath of the Pacific War, when the defeated country was occupied by the U.S.-led Allied powers. Turning to an even larger canvas, Dower now examines the cultures of war revealed by four powerful events: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq in the name of a war on terror. The list of issues examined and themes explored is wide-ranging: failures of intelligence and imagination, wars of choice and "strategic imbecilities", faith-based secular thinking as well as more overtly holy wars, the targeting of noncombatants, and the almost irresistible logic - and allure - of mass destruction. Dower's new work also sets the U.S. occupations of Japan and Iraq side by side in strikingly original ways. One of the most important books of this decade, Cultures of War offers comparative insights into individual and institutional behavior and pathologies that transcend "cultures" in the more traditional sense and that ultimately go beyond war-making alone.
©2010 John W. Dower (P)2010 Tantor
Setting the Rising Sun
Summary
By the summer of 1945, Adm. Bull Halsey's US Third Fleet had fought its way far enough in the Pacific that its carrier-based fighters could launch attacks on Japan itself in preparation for the invasion of the home islands, planned for the fall of 1945. This mission US Navy fighters, fighter-bombers, dive-bombers, and torpedo-bombers - Hellcats, Avengers, Helldivers, and more - carried out with a vengeance, striking airfields, industrial targets, and coastal facilities while flying into the teeth of Japanese air defenses. Meanwhile, the fleet's aircraft continued to attack the Japanese navy (sinking a submarine from the air, attacking - but not sinking - the famous battleship Nagato, and attacking other ships), interdict enemy merchant shipping, and defend against kamikaze attacks on Third Fleet. As late as the morning of August 15 - the day the ceasefire took effect (before the formal signing on September 2) - the fighters saw hard fighting, downing Japanese fighters making last-ditch, almost literally last-minute attacks on the US fleet. Numerous books have covered the American bomber war against Japan in World War II, from the Doolittle Raid to Curtis Lemay's strategic bombing campaign, the firebombing of Tokyo, and the dropping of the atomic bombs. But other than memoirs and bit parts in air war histories, fighter and fighter-bomber operations have received short shrift. Setting the Rising Sun corrects that oversight, zooming in on fighters during the war's final two months. In this carefully researched narrative history, Kevin Mahoney recounts this vital period of the Pacific War with drama and attention to detail. He draws on both American and Japanese perspectives to reconstruct intense combat missions and place them in the context of a war that was hurtling toward its conclusion in two mushroom clouds in Japan.
©2019 Rowman & Littlefield (P)2019 Rowman & Littlefield
The Hidden History of America at War
Summary
Multi-million-copy best-selling historian Kenneth C. Davis sets his sights on war stories in The Hidden History of America at War. In prose that will remind you of "the best teacher you ever had" (People Magazine), Davis brings to life six emblematic battles, revealing untold tales that span our nation's history, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq. Along the way, he illuminates why we go to war, who fights, the grunt's-eye view of combat, and how these conflicts reshaped our military and national identity. From the Battle of Yorktown (1781), where a fledgling America learned hard lessons about what kind of military it would need to survive, to Fallujah (2004), which epitomized the dawn of the privatization of war, The Hidden History of America at War takes listeners inside the battlefield, introducing them to key characters and events that will shatter myths, misconceptions, and romanticism, replacing them with rich insight.
©2015 Kenneth C. Davis (P)2015 Random House Audio
The Most Desperate Acts of Gallantry
Summary
On June 25, 1876, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led the 7th U.S. Cavalry into the valley of the Little Bighorn. By sunset, Custer and five of his companies lay dead - killed in battle against Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Through the passage of time, Custer’s last fight has come to overshadow the rest of his military career, which had its brilliant beginning in the American Civil War. Plucked from obscurity by Maj. Gen. George McClellan, Custer served as a staff officer through the early stages of the war. His star began to rise in late June, 1863, when he catapulted several grades to brigadier general and was given brigade command. Shortly thereafter, at Gettysburg and Buckland Mills, he led his men - the Wolverines - in some of the heaviest cavalry fighting of the Eastern Theater. At Yellow Tavern, Custer’s assault broke the enemy line, and one of his troopers mortally wounded the legendary Confederate cavalryman, J.E.B. Stuart. At Trevilian Station, his brigade was nearly destroyed. At Third Winchester, he participated in an epic cavalry charge. Elevated to lead the Third Cavalry Division, Custer played a major role at Tom’s Brook and, later, at Appomattox, which ultimately led to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. Historian Daniel T. Davis, a long-time student of George Custer, has spent countless hours walking and studying the battlefields where Custer fought in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. In The Most Desperate Acts of Gallantry, he chronicles the Civil War experiences of one of the most recognized individuals to emerge from that tragic chapter in American history.
©2019 Daniel Davis (P)2019 Savas Beatie
Civil War Stories
Summary
Stories from - and about - a nation divided. At The Washington Post, the Civil War has held an enduring fascination for both readers and writers. Raging from 1861-1865, the Battle Between the States has left a lasting imprint on the United States' collective psyche for 150 years. Civil War Stories: A 150th Anniversary Collection aggregates historical data with contemporary reflections, as journalists and historians put the bloody war into context: A timeline of Lincoln's candidacy and what may have happened if he had lost the election An ode to West Virginia, which abandoned Virginia rather than secede from the Union The obstacles faced by emancipated slaves Women in the federal workforce and disguised as men on the battlefields The modern anti-slavery crusade of Frederick Douglass' great-great-great-grandson Personal stories of tragedy and triumph still resonate today. From biographical histories to examinations of the war's legacies, Civil War Stories: A 150th Anniversary Collection is a unique compilation of stories of when our nation was divided.
©2013 The Washington Post (P)2014 Audible Inc.
On to Petersburg
Summary
With On to Petersburg, Gordon C. Rhea completes his much-lauded history of the Overland Campaign, a series of Civil War battles fought between Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in southeastern Virginia in the spring of 1864. On to Petersburg follows the Union army's movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant's three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general's primary goal was not - as often supposed - to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee's army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chains. While Grant struggled at times to communicate strategic objectives to his subordinates and to adapt his army to a faster-paced, more flexible style of warfare, Rhea suggests that the general successfully shifted the military landscape in the Union's favor.
©2017 Louisiana State University Press (P)2017 Tantor
Hard Protector
Summary
I didn't want to need him so much. I knew he would protect me, and when he touched me, I didn't want him to stop! Becca My whole life, people told me I grew up spoiled and sheltered, always at the disposal of my billionaire father. After a while, I started to believe them. They said I never wanted or needed anything except daddy’s approval. They didn’t know what it was like to live with him. Then, daddy gets himself kidnapped. It is up to me to keep Foster Trucking and Shipping running. My father’s captors are demanding thousands in ransom, and I realized I couldn’t do it all on my own. Despite our explosive past and all the mistakes I made with his heart, I had to call Blake Snyder, not knowing if he would help me or not. Blake Being an ex-Delta Force operations specialist and private investigator specializing in hostage negotiation meant I was no fool. I was highly trained to keep my cool no matter how high the stakes or the pressure. Yet, when it comes to Becca Foster and her chestnut brown eyes, all my cool went out the window. The spoiled socialite was gorgeous and dynamite in the sack.
©2019 Jillian Riley (P)2019 Jillian Riley
Masked
Summary
When the masks come off, they know it's real. Dan Colton was once the CIA's golden boy - a get-things-done cowboy who believed it was better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission. But performing the devil's work was easier when he had the face of an angel - a damn good asset to have whether he was charming agency superiors...or training submissives in his dark dungeon role-plays. But that face was taken away, disfigured in a fire during an act of bravery. Tess Lesange, known around the CIA's Vegas office as "The Laser", has only one Achilles' heel - the brooding agent who once wouldn't give her the time of day. Since Dan Colton's accident, they've become friends, even trusting each other with some of their kinkier secrets. What are friends for, right? Wrong. Still seeking the submissive dream, Tess takes matters into her own hands and journeys in disguise to one of the desert's most elicit kink clubs. When the Dominant she meets is beneath a mask and wielding a familiar voice, she wonders if karma has conspired to fulfill her deepest fantasies...and how high a price she'll have to pay for it to come true. Is she willing to sacrifice the friendship she's built with Dan for one unforgettable night in his dungeon?
©2018 Angel Payne (P)2018 Brilliance Audio, Inc.
Slaughter at the Chapel
Summary
The Battle of Ezra Church was one of the deadliest engagements in the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War and continues to be one of the least understood. Both official and unofficial reports failed to illuminate the true bloodshed of the conflict: one of every three engaged Confederates was killed or wounded, including four generals. Nor do those reports acknowledge the flaws - let alone the ultimate failure - of Confederate commander John Bell Hood's plan to thwart Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's southward advance. In an account that refutes and improves upon all other interpretations of the Battle of Ezra Church, noted battle historian Gary Ecelbarger consults extensive records, reports, and personal accounts to deliver a nuanced hour-by-hour overview of how the battle actually unfolded. His narrative fills in significant facts and facets of the battle that have long gone unexamined, correcting numerous conclusions that historians have reached about key officers' intentions and actions before, during, and after this critical contest. Slaughter at the Chapel is the most comprehensive treatment of the Battle of Ezra Church yet written, as powerful in its implications as it is compelling in its moment-to-moment details. The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press.
©2016 University of Oklahoma Press (P)2017 Redwood Audiobooks
One Hundred Victories
Summary
Based on unique inside access, the author of the New York Times best seller Masters of Chaos explains how special operations forces are reshaping the U.S. military In One Hundred Victories, acclaimed military expert Linda Robinson shows how the special operations forces are - after a decade of intensive combat operations - evolving to become the go-to force for operations worldwide. Robinson has spent much of the last two years in Afghanistan studying the evolution of special ops in their largest and longest deployment since Vietnam. She has lived in mud-walled compounds in the mountains and deserts of insurgent-dominated regions, and obtained exclusive, sustained access to special ops missions, troops, and commanders. She shows the gritty reality of the challenges they undertake, and the constant danger in which they operate. In Afghanistan, SOF have not only faced a determined foe, but also had run-ins with the CIA, found themselves unsupported by conventional forces, and been under constant shellfire from Pakistanis across the border. Incorporating on-the-ground reporting and interviews with key players inside the national defense community, Robinson shows how the special operations are becoming the future of U.S. military strategy.
©2013 Linda Robinson (P)2013 Random House Audio
Mourning Lincoln
Summary
Through deep and thoughtful exploration of diaries, letters, and other personal writings penned during the spring and summer of 1865, Martha Hodes, one of our finest historians, captures the full range of reactions to the president's death - far more diverse than public expressions would suggest. She tells a story of shock, glee, sorrow, anger, blame, and fear. "'Tis the saddest day in our history", wrote a mournful man. It was "an electric shock to my soul", wrote a woman who had escaped from slavery. "Glorious News!" a Lincoln enemy exulted. "Old Lincoln is dead, and I will kill the goddamned Negroes now", an angry White Southerner ranted. For the Black soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts, it was all "too overwhelming, too lamentable, too distressing" to absorb. There are many surprises in the story Hodes tells, not least the way in which even those utterly devastated by Lincoln's demise easily interrupted their mourning rituals to attend to the most mundane aspects of everyday life. There is also the unexpected and unabated virulence of Lincoln's Northern critics and the way Confederates simultaneously celebrated Lincoln's death and instantly - on the very day he died - cast him as a fallen friend to the defeated White South. Hodes brings to life a key moment of national uncertainty and confusion, when competing visions of America's future proved irreconcilable and hopes for racial justice in the aftermath of the Civil War slipped from the nation's grasp. Hodes masterfully brings the tragedy of Lincoln's assassination alive in human terms - terms that continue to stagger and rivet us 150 years after the event they so strikingly describe.
©2015 Martha Hodes. Published by Yale University Press. Recorded by arrangement with Martha Hodes, c/o The Strothman Agency. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books