Tom Brokaw has narrated 7 audiobooks on Listento.it by 2 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is The Greatest Generation.
The Greatest Generation
Summary
The instant classic that changed the way we saw World War II and an entire generation of Americans, from the beloved journalist whose own iconic career has lasted more than 50 years. In this magnificent testament to a nation and her people, Tom Brokaw brings to life the extraordinary stories of a generation that gave new meaning to courage, sacrifice, and honor. From military heroes to community leaders to ordinary citizens, he profiles men and women who served their country with valor, then came home and transformed it: Senator Daniel Inouye, decorated at the front, fighting prejudice at home; Martha Settle Putney, one of the first black women to serve in the newly formed WACs; Charles Van Gorder, a doctor who set up a MASH-like medical facility in the middle of battle, then opened a small clinic in his hometown; Navy pilot and future president George H. W. Bush, assigned to read the mail of the enlisted men under him, who says that in doing so he “learned about life”; and many other laudable Americans. To this generation that gave so much and asked so little, Brokaw offers eloquent tribute in true stories of everyday heroes in extraordinary times. Praise for The Greatest Generation: “Moving... a tribute to the members of the World War II generation to whom we Americans and the world owe so much.” (The New York Times Book Review) “Full of wonderful, wrenching tales of a generation of heroes. Tom Brokaw reminds us what we are capable of as a people. An inspiring read for those who wish their spirits lifted.” (Colin L. Powell) “Offers welcome inspiration... It is impossible to read even a few of these accounts and not be touched by the book’s overarching message: We who followed this generation have lived in the midst of greatness.” (The Washington Times) “Entirely compelling.” (The Wall Street Journal)
©1998 Tom Brokaw
An Album of Memories
Summary
In this memorable audio, history comes alive and is preserved in people's own words through reflections on World War II. A young soldier writes his parents about the horrors he witnessed firsthand at Buchenwald. A black nurse tells of her encounter with wartime segregation. Other members of the Greatest Generation describe their war - in such historic episodes as the D-Day invasion, the Battle of the Bulge, and the dropping of the bomb on Nagasaki - as well as their lives on the home front. Starting with the Depression and Pearl Harbor, moving on through the war years in Europe, in the Pacific, and at home, this unique audiobook preserves a people's rich historical heritage and the legacy of a nation's heroism in war and its courage in peace.
©2001 Tom Brokaw (P)2001 Random House, Inc.
A Long Way from Home
Summary
In this beautiful collection of memories and reflections, Tom Brokaw speaks of growing up in the American heartland and of the people, the culture, and the values that have shaped his life. He describes his childhood and youth in South Dakota from 1940 to 1960 and his parents' early lives during the '20s and '30s. Brokaw also reflects on the American experience, as he has lived and observed it, during the central decades of the 20th century. Born near Bristol, South Dakota, in 1940, Tom loved to talk from an early age. His first public performance was at the age of four: "My father stood at the back of the hall and held up a silver dollar. If he could hear my every word, he said, I would get that silver dollar." After the war, the family moved to Pickstown, a new town built on the Missouri River to house workers constructing the Fort Randall Dam. The move to Pickstown became a pivotal decision in the Brokaws' lives, as the family began to live out the American dream of community, relative economic security, middle-class pleasures, and, for the Brokaw sons, a good education, American Legion baseball teams in the summer, and a boy's life outdoors. When Tom was 15, the Brokaws moved to Yankton, and there two events occurred that were to shape Tom Brokaw's life: To earn money after school, and influenced by his mother's daily devotion to the Today show with Dave Garroway and The Huntley-Brinckley Report, Brokaw got a job at the local radio station, spinning the new rock-n-roll records; and he met Meredith Auld, a classmate at Yankton High, who would eventually become his wife. As he describes his pilgrimage, Brokaw also reflects on what brought him and so many Americans to lead lives that are a long way from home, yet are forever affected by it.
©2002 Tom Brokaw (P)2002 Random House Inc., Random House Audio, a Division of Random House Inc.
The Greatest Generation Speaks
Summary
New York Times best seller A powerful selection of the letters Tom Brokaw received in response to his towering number-one best seller The Greatest Generation. “When I wrote about the men and women who came out of the Depression, who won great victories and made lasting sacrifices in World War II and then returned home to begin building the world we have today - the people I called the Greatest Generation - it was my way of saying thank you. But I was not prepared for the avalanche of letters and responses touched off by that book. I had written a book about America, and now America was writing back.” -Tom Brokaw In the phenomenal best seller The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw paid affecting tribute to those who gave the world so much - and who left an enduring legacy of courage and conviction. The Greatest Generation Speaks collects the vast outpouring of letters Brokaw received from men and women eager to share their intensely personal stories of a momentous time in America’s history. Some letters tell of the front during the war, others recall loved ones in harm’s way in distant places. They offer first-hand accounts of battles, poignant reflections on loneliness, exuberant expressions of love, and somber feelings of loss. As Brokaw notes, “If we are to heed the past to prepare for the future, we should listen to these quiet voices of a generation that speaks to us of duty and honor, sacrifice and accomplishment. I hope more of their stories will be preserved and cherished as reminders of all that we owe them and all that we can learn from them.”
©1999 Tom Brokaw (P)1999 Random House, Inc.
The Time of Our Lives
Summary
A conversation about America: who we are, where we've been, and where we need to go now, to recapture the American dream. Tom Brokaw, known and beloved for his landmark work in American journalism and for the New York Times best-sellers The Greatest Generation and Boom!, now turns his attention to the challenges that face America in the new millennium, to offer reflections on how we can restore America’s greatness. “What happened to the America I thought I knew?” Brokaw writes. “Have we simply wandered off course, but only temporarily? Or have we allowed ourselves to be so divided that we’re easy prey for hijackers who could steer us onto a path to a crash landing? ... I do have some thoughts, original and inspired by others, for our journey into the heart of a new century.” Rooted in the values, lessons, and verities of generations past and of his South Dakota upbringing, Brokaw weaves together inspiring stories of Americans who are making a difference and personal stories from his own family history, to engage us in a conversation about our country and to offer ideas for how we can revitalize the promise of the American Dream. Inviting us to foster a rebirth of family, community, and civic engagement as profound as the one that won World War II, built our postwar prosperity, and ushered in the Civil Rights era, Brokaw traces the exciting, unnerving changes in modern life - in values, education, public service, housing, the Internet, and more - that have transformed our society in the decades since the age of thrift in which he was raised. Offering ideas from Americans who are change agents in their communities, in The Time of Our Lives, Brokaw gives us, a wise, honest, and wide-ranging book, a nourishing vision of hopefulness in an age of dimished expectations.
©2011 Random House Audio (P)2011 Tom Brokaw
War Letters
Summary
In 1998, Andrew Carroll founded the Legacy Project with the goal of remembering Americans who have served this nation and preserving their letters for posterity. Since then, more than 50,000 war letters discovered in basements, attics, scrapbooks, and old trunks have poured in from around the country. The best of these letters are assembled in this extraordinary collection, offering unprecedented insight into the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Vietnam, Korea, the Cold War, the Persian Gulf, and even the fighting in Somalia and the Balkans.Featured here are dramatic accounts of combat written immediately after the most ferocious battles American troops have ever faced; poignant expressions of love by homesick husbands and sweethearts; humorous anecdotes and gripes about insufferable conditions; thoughtful recollections on the nature of warfare; and perhaps most devastating, a startling number of last letters, heartfelt messages penned just hours before the sender was killed.These historic letters capture the full fury and intensity of warfare, and they reveal in vivid detail what the servicemen and women of this nation have experienced and sacrificed on the front lines. War Letters is a lasting tribute to those who have fought for this country, and celebrates the enduring power and lyricism of personal letters.Read by an all-star cast, including Joan Allen, Michael Beach, Tom Brokaw, Hope Davis, Robert Foxworth, Lukas Haas, Edward Herrmann, Rob Lowe, Julianna Margulies, Giovanni Ribisi, Campbell Scott, John Slattery, Eric Stoltz, David Strathairn, Noah Wyle, and Steve Zahn.
©2001 Andrew Carroll, All Rights Reserved (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc., All Rights Reserved
The Fall of Richard Nixon
Summary
Best-selling author Tom Brokaw brings listeners inside the White House press corps in this up-close and personal account of the fall of an American president. In August 1974, after his involvement in the Watergate scandal could no longer be denied, Richard Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office in anticipation of certain impeachment. The year preceding that moment was filled with shocking revelations and bizarre events, full of power politics, legal jujitsu, and high-stakes showdowns, and with head-shaking surprises every day. As the country’s top reporters worked to discover the truth, the public was overwhelmed by the confusing and almost unbelievable stories about activities in the Oval Office. Tom Brokaw, who was then the young NBC News White House correspondent, gives us a nuanced and thoughtful chronicle, recalling the players, the strategies, and the scandal that brought down a president. He takes listeners from crowds of shouting protesters to shocking press conferences, from meetings with Attorney General Elliot Richardson and White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, to overseas missions alongside Henry Kissinger. He recounts Nixon’s claims of executive privilege to withhold White House tape recordings of Oval Office conversations; the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and his replacement by Gerald Ford; the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; how in the midst of Watergate Nixon organized emergency military relief for Israel during the Yom Kippur War; the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that required Nixon to turn over the tapes; and other insider moments from this important and dramatic period. The Fall of Richard Nixon allows listeners to experience this American epic from the perspective of a journalist on the ground and at the center of it all. Praise for The Fall of Richard Nixon "A divided nation. A deeply controversial president. Powerful passions. No, it’s not what you’re thinking, but Tom Brokaw knows that the past can be prologue, and he’s given us an absorbing and illuminating firsthand account of how Richard Nixon fell from power. Part history, part memoir, Brokaw’s book reminds us of the importance of journalism, the significance of facts, and the inherent complexity of power in America." (Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Soul of America)
©2019 Tom Brokaw (P)2019 Random House Audio