Simon Barber has narrated 5 audiobooks on Listento.it by 4 authors. The most-rated is England in the Age of Shakespeare.
The Corporation That Changed the World
Summary
The English East India Company was the mother of the modern multinational. Its trading empire encircled the globe, importing Asian luxuries such as spices, textiles, and teas. But it also conquered much of India with its private army and broke open China's markets with opium. The Company's practices shocked its contemporaries and still reverberate today. The Corporation That Changed the World is the first book to reveal the Company's enduring legacy as a corporation. This expanded edition explores how the four forces of scale, technology, finance, and regulation drove its spectacular rise and fall. For decades, the Company was simply too big to fail, and stock market bubbles, famines, drug-running, and even duels between rival executives are to be found in this new account. For Robins, the Company's story provides vital lessons on both the role of corporations in world history and the steps required to make global business accountable today.
©2012 Nick Robins (P)2017 Nick Robins
A History of Britain
Summary
"A journey through the events of the postwar years that makes the outcome of Britain’s Brexit referendum much easier to comprehend.” (Julian Lewis, member of Parliament). In 2016, Britain stunned itself and the world by voting to pull out of the European Union, leaving financial markets reeling and global politicians and citizens in shock. But was Brexit really a surprise, or are there clues in Britain’s history that pointed to this moment? In A History of Britain: 1945 to Brexit, award-winning historian Jeremy Black reexamines modern British history, considering the social changes, economic strains, and cultural and political upheavals that brought Britain to Brexit. This sweeping and engaging book traces Britain’s path through the destruction left behind by World War II, Thatcherism, the threats of the IRA, the Scottish referendum, and on to the impact of waves of immigrants from the European Union. Along the way, Black overturns many conventional interpretations of significant historical events, provides context for current developments, and encourages the listener to question why we think the way we do about Britain’s past. The book is published by Indiana University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "Jeremy Black is a superlative guide to modern British history." (Michael Gove, member of parliament of the United Kingdom) "Professor Black demonstrates an enviable ability to communicate the most complex events incisively and economically." (Julian Lewis, member of parliament of the United Kingdom, chairman, House of Commons Defense Committee)
©2017 Jeremey Black (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
Daoism Explained: From the Dream of the Butterfly to the Fishnet Allegory
Summary
Hans-Georg Moeller has achieved the perfect blend with Daoism Explained. It is both a fascinating introduction on Daoist thought as well as an original and insightful contribution to Eastern philosophy. This book will take the place of The Tao of Pooh by Hoff. Like that book, Doaism Explained offers a comprehensive presentation of Daoist philosophy that is interesting and easy to follow. The study sheds new light on many Doaist allegories by showing how modern translations often concealed the wit and humor of the Chinese original or imposed alien philosophical frameworks on them. It attempts to take away the metaphysical and Christian disguises with which Daoist philosophy has been obscured by Western interpretations in the past 100 years. The book is published by Open Court. The audiobook will be published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2004 Carus Publishing Company (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
Sassoon: The Worlds of Philip and Sybil
Summary
Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), a glamorous and well-known figure in Britain for the first four decades of the 20th century, was the most eligible bachelor and the greatest host of his time. He attained prominence in the art world, high society, and politics. In contrast, his sister Sybil (1894-1989) lived a much more private life. Yet she was fascinating in her own right, marrying into the grandest level of the English aristocracy, restoring Houghton - formerly the house of Sir Robert Walpole - to magnificence and serving in the high command of the Women's Royal Naval Service during both World Wars. In this analysis, historian Peter Stansky brings the Sassoons and their period into sharp focus. He also explores what their experience reveals about the nature of English life, particularly at the highest reaches, and its relation to wealth, power, politics, Jewishness, and art. Audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2003 Peter Stansky (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
England in the Age of Shakespeare
Summary
How did it feel to hear Macbeth’s witches chant of “double, double toil and trouble” at a time when magic and witchcraft were as real as anything science had to offer? How were justice and forgiveness understood by the audience who first watched King Lear; how were love and romance viewed by those who first saw Romeo and Juliet? In England in the Age of Shakespeare, Jeremy Black takes readers on a tour of life in the streets, homes, farms, churches, and palaces of the Bard’s era. Panning from play to audience and back again, Black shows how Shakespeare's plays would have been experienced and interpreted by those who paid to see them. From the dangers of travel to the indignities of everyday life in teeming London, Black explores the jokes, political and economic references, and small asides that Shakespeare’s audiences would have recognized. These moments of recognition often reflected the audience’s own experiences of what it was to, as Hamlet says, “grunt and sweat under a weary life". Black’s clear and sweeping approach seeks to reclaim Shakespeare from the ivory tower and make the plays’ histories more accessible to the public for whom the plays were always intended. The book is published by Indiana University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2019 Jeremy Black (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks