Audiobooks by Alexander Mikaberidze

The Louisiana Purchase: The Grand Bargain and the Making of America

"A true pivotal moment in American history, the Louisiana Purchase redefined the boundaries of the United States and recharted the course of its history. The story behind it transcends borders. The United States bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleonic France in 1803. The young nation more than doubled its size, absorbing the greater part of an entire continent in a single real estate transaction. This overlooks a critical feature of the purchase, however: the agreement signed by Thomas Jefferson did not grant the American republic the land; it merely allowed it to assume the authority to negotiate the acquisition of the land, which was still owned by Native Americans. The Louisiana Purchase was a founding event of what ultimately became the U. S.–Indian Treaty System, one that produced over two hundred Native American cessions between 1804 and 1970 and cost the United States billions of dollars. This provocative and engrossing audiobook examines what lay behind what eventually became one of the costliest undertakings in American history—not only in dollars but in lives displaced and cultures erased. How did it go from being a burden to a prize? Understanding the full significance of the Louisiana Purchase means expanding the narrative. The country's destiny was determined by men who had never walked the streets of New Orleans or gazed upon the majestic panoramas of the Rockies but who instead managed the finances of the world's empires. Territorial ambition remains a persistent feature in American politics. This audiobook compels us to appreciate the larger story of the purchase and its place in both national and global history."

Alexander Mikaberidze (Author), Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator)

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Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace

"He was the general who triumphed over Napoleon's Grande Armée during the Patriotic War of 1812, not merely restoring national pride but securing national identity. Many Russians consider Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Golenischev-Kutuzov the greatest figure of the 19th century, ahead of Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, even Tolstoy himself. As award-winning author Alexander Mikaberidze shows in this fascinating, often startling, and wholly humanizing new biography, Kutuzov's story is far more compelling and complex than the myths that have encased him. An unabashed imperialist who rose in the ranks through his victories over the Turks and the Poles, Kutuzov was also a realist and a skeptic about military power. Over his long career—marked equally by victory and defeat, embrace and ostracism—he grew to despise those whose concept of war had devolved to mindless attack. Here, at last, is Kutuzov as he really was—a master and survivor of intrigue, moving in and out of royal favor, committed to the welfare of those under his command, and an innovative strategist. Across the generations, portraits of Kutuzov have ranged from hagiography to dismissal, with Tolstoy's portrait of him in War and Peace perhaps the most indelible of all. This immersive biography returns a touchstone figure in Russian history to human scale."

Alexander Mikaberidze (Author), Daniel Henning (Narrator)

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The Napoleonic Wars

"In this compelling, hugely ambitious, and comprehensive work, Alexander Mikaberidze offers a full accounting of the wars that began during the Revolutionary Period in France and lasted at least until Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. Initially defensive, under Napoleon these wars became a means of empirebuilding on a global scale. Against the backdrop of war in Europe, European powers sought hegemony in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. In terms of their effects, direct and indirect, the Napoleonic Wars were the most transformational world events between the Reformation and the First World War, and their repercussions endure to this day. Mikaberidze’s book reveals the truly massive and cataclysmic scale of the Napoleonic Wars, showing how they encompassed political, cultural, diplomatic, and military events in almost every corner of the world. Moving region by region, it illuminates how geopolitical decision-making played out as these wars raged. In Egypt the Napoleonic Wars enabled the rise of Mehmed Ali and the emergence of a powerful state; in North America, the wars led directly to the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812, setting the stage for the rapid expansion of the United States and its growing influence; in South America, they inspired nationalliberation movements that ultimately ended Spanish colonial control. Everywhere, alliances shifted, monarchies were created and toppled, governments rose and fell, boundaries were drawn, redrawn, and transgressed. The Napoleonic Wars left no part of the globe untouched. Deeply researched, authoritative, and skillfully narrated, The Napoleonic Wars is both a signal achievement and a monumental contribution to our understanding of a crucial period in world history."

Alexander Mikaberidze (Author), Steven Crossley (Narrator)

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