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 Tuskegee Airmen
Summary
The United States has no shortage of famous military units, from the Civil War's Iron Brigade to the 101st Airborne, but one would be hard pressed to find one that had to go through as many hardships off the field as the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American fighter pilots who overcame Jim Crow at home and official segregation in the military to serve their country in the final years of World War II. In fact, it required a concerted effort by groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the extreme circumstances brought about by World War II that the military eventually decided to establish the "Tuskegee Experiment". The black crews trained at Tuskegee before being sent overseas, and even then, they faced discrimination from those who didn't trust them to do more than escort bombers flown by white pilots.
©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors
Braddock's Defeat
Summary
On July 9, 1755, British and colonial troops under the command of General Edward Braddock suffered a crushing defeat to French and Native American enemy forces in Ohio Country. Known as the Battle of the Monongahela, the loss altered the trajectory of the Seven Years' War in America, escalating the fighting and shifting the balance of power. An unprecedented rout of a modern and powerful British army by a predominantly Indian force, Monongahela shocked the colonial world - and planted the first seeds of an independent American consciousness. The culmination of a failed attempt to capture Fort Duquesne from the French, Braddock's Defeat was a pivotal moment in American and world history. While the defeat is often blamed on blundering and arrogance on the part of General Braddock - who was wounded in battle and died the next day - David Preston's gripping new work argues that such a claim diminishes the victory that Indian and French forces won by their superior discipline and leadership. In fact the French Canadian officer Captain Beaujeu had greater tactical skill, reconnaissance, and execution, and his Indian allies were the most effective and disciplined troops on the field. Preston also explores the long shadow cast by Braddock's defeat over the 18th century and the American Revolution two decades later. The campaign had been an awakening to empire for many British Americans, spawning ideas of American identity and anticipating many of the political and social divisions that would erupt with the outbreak of the revolution. Braddock's Defeat was the defining generational experience for many British and American officers, including Thomas Gage, Horatio Gates, and, perhaps most significantly, George Washington. A rich battle history driven by a gripping narrative and an abundance of new evidence, Braddock's Defeat presents the fullest account yet of this defining moment in early American history.
©2015 David L. Preston (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Vietnam War: A History from Beginning to End
Summary
The Vietnam War remains one of the most iconic events of the 20th century. In the United States, it polarized public opinion and changed foreign policy. It destroyed the presidency of Lyndon Johnson and was the catalyst for a massively impactful protest movement. More importantly, in Vietnam, as well as surrounding areas, it caused untold destruction, death, and suffering. Inside you will haer about... Vietnam’s Past Exit the French The United States and Ngo Dinh Diem The Resistance War Against America Begins “Americanization” The American Home Front Vietnamization and President Nixon The End of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath Millions of Vietnamese and Cambodian people were killed, and many - including Americans - remain missing. Its origins lie in Europe’s colonial conquests, and its legacies endure to this day. Listen to this comprehensive, concise history of the Vietnam War.
©2016 Hourly History (P)2018 Hourly History
The Library of Congress Timeline of the Civil War
Summary
The Library of Congress Timeline of the Civil War is an authoritative and engaging narrative of the domestic conflict that determined the course of American history. A detailed chronological timeline of the war captures the harrowing intensity of nineteenth-century warfare in firsthand accounts from soldiers, nurses, and front-line journalists. Listeners will be enthralled by speech drafts in Lincoln's own hand, quotes from the likes of Frederick Douglass and Robert E. Lee, and portraits of key soldiers and politicians who are not covered in standard textbooks. The timeline's exciting new source material and lucid organization will give Civil War enthusiasts a fresh look at this defining period in our nation's history.
©2011 Margaret E. Wagner (P)2015 Hachette Audio
The War for the Seas
Summary
A bold and authoritative maritime history of World War II which takes a fully international perspective and challenges our existing understanding Command of the oceans was crucial to winning World War II. By the start of 1942 Nazi Germany had conquered mainland Europe, and Imperial Japan had overrun Southeast Asia and much of the Pacific. How could Britain and distant America prevail in what had become a "war of continents"? In this definitive account, Evan Mawdsley traces events at sea from the first U-boat operations in 1939 to the surrender of Japan. He argues that the Allied counterattack involved not just decisive sea battles, but a long struggle to control shipping arteries and move armies across the sea. Covering all the major actions in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as those in the narrow seas, this book interweaves for the first time the endeavors of the maritime forces of the British Empire, the United States, Germany, and Japan, as well as those of France, Italy, and Russia.
©2019 Evan Mawdsley (P)2020 Tantor
The Right Form of War
Summary
This audiobook is intended to give a generic picture of the military organization, armor, weaponry, etc. of the legions, with emphasis on the late Republican (Civil War) and early Empire period. This study also inevitably leads directly to the conflict between Republican and Imperial concepts of government. The listener will find that neither form of government was without its hubris, violence, bloodshed, and injustices. The one consistent factor working in the background that gave rise to this transformation was the legion. The legions had slowly passed from the defense of the Republic to a force that threatened it from within, its soldiers being more loyal to its generals than to its form of government. Warfare has been conducted from before the beginnings of recorded history. The difference between prehistoric and ancient warfare is less one of technology than of organization. This warfare was up close and bloody. Panic was the great threat on the ancient battlefield, and maintaining the right form of war was very important. Cassius Dio reports that ancient warfare took many forms: “Skirmisher contended with skirmisher, heavy infantry fought similarly armed opponents, while cavalry clashed with cavalry. Another contest put the Roman archers against the barbarian chariots. The barbarians would launch their chariots at the Romans, throwing them into disorder only themselves to be forced back by arrows, since the charioteers generally fought without armor. Here a horseman cut down foot soldiers, there a troop of foot soldiers hauled down a rider. Some Romans would advance against the chariots in close formation, and others would be scattered by them; sometimes the [enemy] would close with the archers and rout them, while others skipped aside from the arrows at a distance.” In all cases, it was essential the army keep its momentum and its order, aided by the cavalry, who charged to break the enemy where the resistance appeared stiffest. No ancient army, even that of Rome, was effective in retreat. Augustus Caesar ruled Rome as sole emperor for 41 years (27 BC to AD 14) and is reputed to have said on his deathbed: “I found Rome made of brick and I leave it in marble.” Yet this was not achieved without much patience and effort. With Rome's schedule of Republican civil wars at an end, Augustus was able to create a standing army for the empire, fixed at 28 legions of about 170,000 soldiers, supported by numerous auxiliary units recruited from conquered areas of the world. When August died, there were a mere handful of persons throughout the empire who had known any other ruler, any other form of government, or any other military force. The Republic was a vague memory, the kingdom a decrepit myth, and the Empire a shining city at the center of the world.
©2014 James M. Volo (P)2018 James M. Volo
Guts and Glory: Walker
Summary
You can lie down and give up, or you can rise and keep going.... Walker’s been living life by this motto since the age of 20 when the girl he planned his future with shattered his heart and left a hole in his soul. His time in the military, and current job at In the Shadows Security, have kept him moving but he’s always felt the ache of that loss. From the outside Ellie McMaster has led a seemingly perfect life, big house, rich adoring husband, fancy cars. But it’s all been a huge lie, one that started 19 years ago when she walked away from her first love and the boy who stole her heart. Now time has run out for her and with nowhere to go and nothing left to lose she’ll have to face down the pain of the past in hopes of saving her future. But Trace Walker isn’t the carefree teenager she remembers, he’s now a muscle-bound titan with nothing but hurt and anger shining in his blue eyes. His time in the Army as a Night Stalker wasn’t easy, and he didn’t return home whole. Will he open himself up again and face the risks that come with having Ellie back in his life, back in his heart? Can this be their shot at a happily ever after, or their final goodbye? Note: Walker is the fourth book of the Guts and Glory series, a six-book spin-off from my Dirty Angels MC series. While it’s recommended to listen to both series in order, each book can be listened to as a stand-alone. As with all my books, this has an HEA, no cliffhanger or cheating.
©2019 Jeanne St. James (P)2020 Jeanne St. James
Lincoln's Last Speech
Summary
What did Abraham Lincoln envision when he talked about "reconstruction"? Assassinated in 1865, the president did not have a chance to begin the work of reconciling the North and South nor to oversee reconstruction as an official postwar strategy. Yet his final speech, given to thousands gathered in the rain outside the White House on April 11, 1865, gives a clear indication of what Lincoln's postwar policy might have looked like - one that differed starkly from what would emerge in the tumultuous decade that followed. In Lincoln's Last Speech, renowned historian and author Louis P. Masur offers insight into this critical address and its vision of a reconstructed United States. Coming two days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox and a week after the fall of Richmond, Lincoln's speech was expected to be a victory oration. Instead he looked to the future, discussing how best to restore the seceded states to the national government and even endorsing limited black suffrage. Delving into the language and arguments of Lincoln's last address, Masur traces the theme of reconstruction as it developed throughout his presidency, starting with the very earliest days of the war. Masur illuminates the evolution of Lincoln's thinking and the national debate around reconstruction, touching on key moments such as the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction on December 8, 1863, and Lincoln's pocket veto of the Wade-Davis bill in July 1864. He also examines social reconstruction, including the plight of freed men and the debate over the place of blacks in society, and considers the implications of Lincoln's speech after April 1865, when Andrew Johnson assumed office and the ground was laid for the most radical phases of the postwar policy. A nuanced study of Lincoln's views on national reconciliation, this work gives us a better understanding of the failures that occurred with postwar reconstruction.
©2015 Louis P. Masur (P)2016 Wetware Media
Lincoln's Lie
Summary
A thrilling dive into the little-known, darker side of a revered president’s history, Lincoln’s Lie untangles the threads behind a mysterious 1864 newspaper article to reveal how Lincoln manipulated the media during the Civil War, shining new light onto today’s issues of fake news and presidential conflict with the press. In 1864, during the bloodiest days of the Civil War, two newspapers published a call, allegedly authored by President Lincoln, for the immediate conscription of 400,000 more Union soldiers. New York streets erupted in pandemonium. Wall Street markets went wild. When Lincoln sent troops to seize the newspaper presses and arrest the editors, it became clear: The proclamation was a lie. Who put out this fake news? Was it a Confederate spy hoping to incite another draft riot? A political enemy out to ruin the president in an election year? Or was there some truth to the proclamation - far more truth than anyone suspected? Unpacking this overlooked historical mystery for the first time, journalist Elizabeth Mitchell takes listeners on a dramatic journey from newspaper offices filled with heroes and charlatans to the haunted White House confinement of Mary Todd Lincoln, from the packed pews of the celebrated preacher Reverend Henry Ward Beecher’s Plymouth Church to the War Department offices in the nation’s capital and a Grand Jury trial. In Lincoln’s Lie, Mitchell brings to life the remarkable story of the manipulators of the news and why they decided to play such a dangerous game during a critical period of American history. Her account of Lincoln’s troubled relationship to the press and its role in the Civil War is one that speaks powerfully to our current political crises: fake news, profiteering, Constitutional conflict, and a president at war with the press.
©2020 Elizabeth Mitchell (P)2020 Audible, Inc.
The Sea Rover's Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630-1730
Summary
Successful sea rovers were careful practitioners of a complex profession that sought wealth by stratagem and force of arms. Drawn from the European tradition, yet of various races and nationalities, they raided both ship and town throughout much of the world from roughly 1630 until 1730. Using a variety of innovative tactics and often armed with little more than musket and grenade, many of these self-described "soldiers and privateers" successfully assaulted fortifications, attacked shipping from small craft, crossed the mountains and jungles of Panama, and even circumnavigated the globe. Successful sea rovers were often supreme seamen, soldiers, and above all, tacticians. It can be argued that their influence on certain naval tactics is felt even today. The Sea Rover's Practice is the only audiobook that describes in exceptional detail the tactics of sea rovers of the period - how they actually sought out and attacked vessels and towns. Accessible to both the general and the more scholarly listener, it will appeal not only to those with an interest in piracy and in maritime, naval, and military history, but also to mariners in general, tall-ship and ship-modeling enthusiasts, tacticians and military analysts, listeners of historical fiction, writers, and the adventurer in all of us. The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2005 Potomac Books, Inc. (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
Playing Dirty
Summary
Playing dirty has never been this much fun. Cassie I'm a career woman. I wear success like a second skin, and I'm rarely satisfied with anything less than the best. This includes my love life. If you want to date me, you better bring your A game because I don't play with the B team. The only type of commitment I'm interested in is the one I have with my career. There is no man strong enough to tame me. Bold enough to rattle me. Or confident enough to win my heart. But then again, I have never met a man like Luke Rivas. Luke Cassie is one feisty, fiery, demanding woman, who has enough confidence to intimidate even the bravest of men. She's driven, ambitious, and clearly has no interest in anything more than a casual fling. But here's the thing. I want her, and once I have her, there will be nothing casual about it. I will crack through that tough exterior she wears so well and bend her into submission. I'll make her break every one of her own damn rules just for me. And in order to accomplish just that...I'm willing to play dirty. Contains mature themes.
©2018 Tess Summers (P)2021 Tantor
Landing in Hell
Summary
On September 15, 1944, the United States invaded the tiny Pacific island of Peleliu, located at the Southern end of the Palau Islands. Boasting a large airfield from which the Americans could mount bomber campaigns, Peleliu was a strategically essential part of Gen. MacArthur's long-awaited liberation of the Philippines. With the famed 1st Marine Division making the amphibious assault, Pacific High Command was confident that victory would be theirs in just a few days. They were drastically wrong. A mere week after landing, having sustained terrific losses in fierce combat, the 1st Marine Regiment was withdrawn. The entire division would be out of action for six months after sustaining the highest unit losses in Marine Corps history. This audiobook analyzes the many things that went wrong in the Battle for Peleliu and in doing so corrects several earlier accounts of the campaign. It includes a comprehensive account of the presidential summit that determined the operation, details of how new weapons were deployed, a new enemy strategy, and command failure in what became the most controversial amphibious operation in the Pacific during WWII.
©2018 Peter Margaritis (P)2020 Tantor
Mr. Wilson's War
Summary
Beginning with the assassination of McKinley and ending with the defeat of the League of Nations by the United States Senate, the 20-year period covered by John Dos Passos in this lucid and fascinating narrative changed the whole destiny of America. This is the story of the war we won and the peace we lost, told with a clear historical perspective and a warm interest in the remarkable people who guided the United States through one of the most crucial periods. Foremost in the cast of characters is Woodrow Wilson, the shy, brilliant, revered, and misunderstood "schoolmaster", whose administration was a complex of apparent contradictions. Wilson had almost no interest in foreign affairs when he was first elected, yet later, in proposing the League of Nations, he was to play a major role in international politics. During his first summer in office, without any previous experience in banking, he pushed through the Federal Reserve Bank Act, perhaps his most lasting contribution. Reelected in 1916 on the rallying cry, "He kept us out of war," he shortly found himself and his country inextricably involved in the European conflict.
©1962 John Dos Passos; Copyright renewed 1990 by Elizabeth Dos Passos (P)2019 Tantor
American Legends: The Life of Frederick Douglass
Summary
A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, listeners can get caught up on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute. And they can do so while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. With the possible exception of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., no African American has been more instrumental in the fight for minorities' civil rights in the United States than Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895), an American social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman. His list of accomplishments would be impressive enough even without taking into account the fact that he was born into slavery. It's believed his father was a white man, even perhaps his master Aaron Anthony. When Douglass was about 12, his slaveowner's wife, Sophia Auld, began teaching him the alphabet in defiance of the South's laws against teaching slaves how to read. When her husband Hugh found out, he was furious, reminding her that if the slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. Those words would prove prophetic. Douglass is noted as saying that "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom". He took that advice to heart, teaching himself how to read and write with his knowledge of the alphabet. On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped slavery, traveling by boat to Delaware, Philadelphia, and finally New York, all in the span of a day. Douglass found a "...new world had opened upon [him]".
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
Operation Backhander
Summary
A gripping insight into the war for New Guinea and the operation for Cape Gloucester. Determined to capture a pivotal island in their war against the Japanese, the US 1st Marine Division was faced with a challenging task: to land on the fortified peninsula of Cape Gloucester and capture its two vital airfields. Taking the peninsula and the island of New Britain would give them a vital stepping stone in their campaign to push the Japanese out of New Guinea and the Bismarck Sea. Struggling through difficult terrain and enemy ambushes, the marines fought their way to the heart of the peninsula and captured the airfields. Offering a fascinating insight into the often-gruesome battles which marked the Pacific Theater, Operation Backhander presents a captivating account of the Allies’ struggle against the Japanese army. A must-listen for fans of WW2 Pacific naval history books, this riveting book sheds light on the campaign to capture Cape Gloucester, giving a day-by-day look into the beach landings, the skirmishes, and the months-long operation to force the Japanese into retreat and take this pivotal stepping stone for themselves.
©2020 Griffin Smith (P)2020 Griffin Smith
The Divine Space Pirates
Summary
This bundle includes: The Heights of Perdition The Breadth of Creation The Price of Paradise Her eyes met his, and Aerie felt the last ounce of any front she could have mustered against her feelings fall away. She liked him. Against her better judgment, her father’s wishes, and her nation’s orders, she liked him.... I was right about him, she thought ruefully. He was dangerous, in all the wrong ways. Aerie St. Cloud spent her life under the regime of the United Revolutionary States, working toward the day she would earn her place in the Military Academy at New Hope - and the affection and acceptance of her family unit. But when she is accidentally captured by the fearsome space pirate, Captain Chainsword, Aerie finds herself in the center of conflicts between her worlds and her heart. Driven by vengeance, Exton Shepherd never set out to save anyone. As he circles the world in his pirated starship, the Perdition, he only sees his father's ghost lurking around every corner and looming darkness on the horizon. When Aerie tumbles into his life, he finds he is not able to ignore her - or the ongoing war between the URS and the dissenters - any longer. As Aerie and Exton's destinies intertwine, the world increasingly falls apart as family revelations, political coups, and military forces complicate their relationship. Will love be enough to save them - and others - from certain destruction? Will their love be the force that holds everything together, or will it be the end of everything?
©2016 Christina Johnson (P)2021 C. S. Johnson
American Sniper: Chuck Mawhinney
Summary
In 1991, Chuck Mawhinney was reluctantly dragged out of anonymity when it was revealed that he held the record among United States Marine Corps snipers with over 103 confirmed kills. This story takes a look at the mindset and philosophy of an American Sniper as he is thrown into Arizona territory (named as such because of its numerous Wild West style firefights) at the height of the Vietnam War.
©2015 Richard Lyle (P)2015 Richard Lyle
Reconstruction Era: A History from Beginning to End
Summary
The American Civil War, fought from 1861 to 1865, produced casualties and destruction on an unprecedented scale. Up to 800,000 soldiers were killed, and huge swathes of the American south were devastated. However, although the defeat of the Confederate States and the end of the war brought peace of a sort, it left many unresolved issues. The period following the end of the Civil War has become known as the Reconstruction Era, and during this time there were efforts to achieve two separate goals: to reintegrate the former rebel southern states fully into the Union and to achieve not only the abolition of slavery - which had been a war aim for the north - but also the emancipation and granting of civil rights to freed slaves. Inside you will listen about: The End of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War Radical Reconstruction Carpetbaggers and Scalawags The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan Corruption and Recession And much more! The Reconstruction Era proved almost as divisive as the Civil War itself - the freeing of slaves threatened to undermine the very basis of society and many southerners resisted. For some in the north, the unwillingness of people in the south to adopt new laws and new ways of life seemed to negate the whole point of the war. After all, what was the point of fighting and winning a war if the very things that were fought for failed to happen? The Reconstruction Era was a period of turmoil and change in the United States, and it ended not with a complete victory for either side but with a compromise which satisfied no-one. However, this period did pave the way for important changes which came much later. This is the complex and sometimes confusing story of the Reconstruction Era.
©2019 Hourly History (P)2019 Hourly History
The Anatomy of a Traitor: A History of Espionage and Betrayal
Summary
In this compelling investigation, Michael Smith explores the critical moment in a spy's life: that split-second decision to embrace a double life. Through in-depth insider knowledge, he also uncovers new and unknown cases, including ISIS, President Trump's links with Russia and Edward Snowden's role as a whistle-blower to offer compelling psychological portraits of these men and women, homing unerringly on the fault lines and shady corners of their characters, their weaknesses and their strengths, the lies they tell other people, and the lies they always end up telling themselves.
©2017 Michael Smith (P)2017 Oakhill Publishing
The Remains of Company D
Summary
Haunted by an ancestor’s tale of near death on a distant battlefield, James Carl Nelson set out in pursuit of the scraps of memory of his grandfather’s small infantry unit. Years of travel across the world led to the retrieval of unpublished personal papers, obscure memoirs, and communications from numerous doughboys as well as original interviews of the descendents of his grandfather’s comrades in arms. The result is a compelling tale of battle rooted in new primary sources, and one man’s search for his grandfather’s legacy in a horrifying maelstrom that is today poorly understood and nearly forgotten. The Remains of Company D follows the members of Company D, 28th Infantry Regiment, United States First Division, from enlistment to combat to the effort to recover their remains, focusing on the three major battles at Cantigny, Soissons, and in the Meuse-Argonne, and the effect these horrific battles had on the men. This is an important and powerful tale of the different destinies, personalities, and motivations of the men in Company D and a timeless portrayal of men at war.
©2009 James Carl Nelson (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.