Hugh Kermode has narrated 11 audiobooks on Listento.it by 6 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 12 ratings. The most-rated is The Age of Revolution.
The Age of Revolution
Summary
Eric Hobsbawm traces with brilliant anlytical clarity the transformation brought about in every sphere of European life by the Dual revolution - the 1789 French revolution and the Industrial Revolution that originated in Britain. This enthralling and original account highlights the significant 60 years when industrial capitalism established itself in Western Europe and when Europe established the domination over the rest of the world it was to hold for half a century.
©1962 Eric Hobsbawm (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK
Quantum
Summary
From Schrodinger's cat to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, this book untangles the weirdness of the quantum world. Quantum mechanics underpins modern science and provides us with a blueprint for reality itself. And yet it has been said that if you're not shocked by it, you don't understand it. But is quantum physics really so unknowable? Is reality really so strange? And just how can cats be half alive and half dead at the same time? Our journey into the quantum begins with nature's own conjuring trick, in which we discover that atoms - contrary to the rules of everyday experience - can exist in two locations at once. To understand this we travel back to the dawn of the 20th century and witness the birth of quantum theory, which over the next 100 years was to overthrow so many of our deeply held notions about the nature of our universe. Scientists and philosophers have been left grappling with its implications ever since. Read by Hugh Kermode.
©2003 Jim Al-Khalili (P)2016 Orion Publishing Group
The Age of Capital
Summary
The first and best major treatment of the crucial years 1848-1875 - a penetrating analysis of the rise of capitalism throughout the world. In the 1860s a new word entered the economic and political vocabulary of the world: 'capitalism'. The global triumph of capitalism is the major theme of history in the decades after 1848. It was the triumph of a society which believed that economic growth rests on competitive private enterprise, on success in buying everything in the cheapest market (including labour) and selling it in the dearest. An economy so based, and therefore nestling naturally on the sound foundations of a bourgeoisie composed of those whose energy, merit and intelligence had raised to their position and kept there, would - it was believed - create a world not only of suitably distributed material plenty but of ever-growing enlightenment, reason and human opportunity, an advance of the sciences and the arts: in brief, a world of continuous and accelerating material and moral progress.
©1975 Eric Hobsbawm (P)2020 Hachette Audio UK
The Age of Extremes
Summary
Dividing the century into the Age of Catastrophe, 1914-1950, the Golden Age, 1950-1973, and the Landslide, 1973-1991, Hobsbawm marshals a vast array of data into a volume of unparalleled inclusiveness, vibrancy, and insight, a work that ranks with his classics The Age of Empire and The Age of Revolution. In the short century between 1914 and 1991, the world has been convulsed by two global wars that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government. Communism became a messianic faith and then collapsed ignominiously. Peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers - and, increasingly leaders. Populations became literate even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. And the driving forces of history swung from Europe to its former colonies.
©1994 The Trustees of the Eric Hobsbawm Literary Estate (P)2020 Tantor
The Age of Empire
Summary
The splendid finale to Eric Hobsbawm's study of the 19th century, The Age of Empire covers the area of Western Imperialism and examines the forces that swept the world to the outbreak of World War One - and shaped modern society.
©1987 Eric Hobsbawm (P)1987 Hachette Audio UK
Myths and Legends
Summary
Discover the world's greatest myths and legends - from Greek mythology to Norse mythology - in this comprehensive guide. What did Japanese mythology say about the beginning of the universe? How did Oedipus become the classic tragic hero in Greek mythology? Who brought about the origin of death in Maori mythology? With vivid retellings of famous legends, Myths and Legends makes it easier than ever before to understand the stories that are central to every culture. Delve into the well-known tales of the ancient Greeks, which hold the key to such phrases as "Achilles' heel", as well as the lesser-known but richly colorful myths of Africa and the Americas. Explore global ideas such as fate and fortune and the underworld, and find out about the key characters - heroes, tricksters, and gods - that make up each myth system. Filled with the cultural and religious meanings behind each legend and the influence they have had both in their own time and in today's world, this audiobook is a must-have for all mythology enthusiasts.
©2019 Philip Wilkinson (P)2020 DK Audio
The Age of Empire
Summary
Eric Hobsbawm discusses the evolution of European economics, politics, arts, sciences, and cultural life from the height of the industrial revolution to the First World War. Hobsbawm combines vast erudition with a graceful prose style to re-create the epoch that laid the basis for the 20th century.
©1987 The Trustees of the Eric Hobsbawm Literary Estate (P)2020 Tantor
Liberty Bound
Summary
Society has turned on its head. The "free" hide behind fortifications, and the "imprisoned" roam the wild, barren land beyond. Finbarl-apcula guards the town of Athenia, an oasis in a parched, sparsely populated world. He keeps the citizens safe, ensures those who break the draconian laws lose their freedom, and protects what he prizes above all else: civilization. When Finbarl is made to lie to help convict a mother he once rescued from a bully, it delivers the first crack in his unquestionable faith in the system. As further lies and corruption are exposed, Finbarl's world crumbles, allowing him to finally see that "prison walls" exist everywhere - within himself, throughout society, and in the very landscape he calls home. No one is free, and the civilization he was willing to die for is at the root of the problem. Finbarl begins a thrilling adventure of twists, rebellion, danger, discovery, and tragedy to break the bonds imprisoning a world, himself, and the future. Will he find what he really treasures most: true freedom? In creating a dangerous but exciting inverse world, where the true meaning of freedom is explored and challenged, Wrey invites the listener to consider how their own society and the individuals within are inhibited and restricted by "walls" through fear and ignorance. Speculative fiction to inspire you to think again about the world of today. A book for our time. Winner of Literary Titan Silver Award.
©2020 Nathaniel M Wrey (P)2020 Nathaniel M Wrey
The Universe Speaks in Numbers
Summary
"These are brilliant successes of the mathematical approach, and Farmelo leads us through them adeptly, with a mixture of contemporary accounts and scientific insight." (Nature) How math helps us solve the universe's deepest mysteries One of the great insights of science is that the universe has an underlying order. The supreme goal of physicists is to understand this order through laws that describe the behavior of the most basic particles and the forces between them. For centuries, we have searched for these laws by studying the results of experiments. Since the 1970s, however, experiments at the world's most powerful atom-smashers have offered few new clues. So some of the world's leading physicists have looked to a different source of insight: modern mathematics. These physicists are sometimes accused of doing "fairy-tale physics", unrelated to the real world. But in The Universe Speaks in Numbers, award-winning science writer and biographer Farmelo argues that the physics they are doing is based squarely on the well-established principles of quantum theory and relativity, and part of a tradition dating back to Isaac Newton. With unprecedented access to some of the world's greatest scientific minds, Farmelo offers a vivid, behind-the-scenes account of the blossoming relationship between mathematics and physics and the research that could revolutionize our understanding of reality. A masterful account of the some of the most groundbreaking ideas in physics in the past four decades, The Universe Speaks in Numbers is essential listening for anyone interested in the quest to discover the fundamental laws of nature. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Graham Farmelo (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Friends
Summary
Friends matter to us, and they matter more than we think. The single most surprising fact to emerge out of the medical literature over the last decade or so has been that the number and quality of the friendships we have has a bigger influence on our happiness, health and even mortality risk than anything else except giving up smoking. Robin Dunbar is the world-renowned psychologist and author who famously discovered Dunbar's number: how our capacity for friendship is limited to around 150 people. In Friends, he looks at friendship in the round, at the way different types of friendship and family relationships intersect, or at the complex of psychological and behavioural mechanisms that underpin friendships and make them possible - and just how complicated the business of making and keeping friends actually is. Mixing insights from scientific research with first person experiences and culture, Friends explores and integrates knowledge from disciplines ranging from psychology and anthropology to neuroscience and genetics in a single magical weave that allows us to peer into the incredible complexity of the social world in which we are all so deeply embedded. Working at the coalface of the subject at both research and personal levels, Robin Dunbar has written the definitive book on how and why we are friends.
©2021 Robin Dunbar (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK
The Universe Speaks in Numbers
Summary
One of the great mysteries of science is that its fundamental laws are written in the language of mathematics. Graham Farmelo's thrilling new book shows how modern maths has helped physicists to rethink gravity, space, and time. The Universe Speaks in Numbers takes us on an adventure from the Enlightenment to the present with a vibrant cast of characters, illuminating the most exciting and controversial developments in contemporary thought. Always lively and authoritative, Farmelo navigates the listener through the huge imaginative leaps that are edging us towards a radically new conception of the nature of our universe. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio on our Desktop Site.
©2019 Graham Farmelo (P)2019 Faber Audio