Audiobooks by Stanley Weintraub

A Christmas Far from Home: An Epic Tale of Courage and Survival during the Korean War

From an acclaimed historian comes the dramatic story of the Christmas escape of thousands of American troops overwhelmingly surrounded by the enemy in Korea’s harsh terrain. Just before Thanksgiving in 1950, five months into the Korean War, General MacArthur flew to American positions in the north and grandly announced an “end-the-war-by-Christmas” offensive despite recent intervention by Mao’s Chinese, who would soon trap tens of thousands of US troops poised toward the Yalu River border. Led by marines, an overwhelmed Tenth Corps evacuated the frigid, mountainous Chosin Reservoir fastness and fought a swarming enemy and treacherous snow and ice to reach the coast. Weather, terrain, Chinese firepower, and a four-thousand-foot chasm made escape seem impossible in the face of a vanishing Christmas. But endurance and sacrifice prevailed, and the last troopships weighed anchor on Christmas Eve. In the tradition of his Silent Night and Pearl Harbor Christmas, Stanley Weintraub presents another gripping narrative of a wartime Christmas season. “The tragic tale of how the arrogance of a general led to disastrous consequences for the American troops in North Korea in 1950…Weintraub expertly delineates the unraveling disaster for the entrapped, frozen, dispirited troops on the ground.”—Kirkus Reviews

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

Audiobook

11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944

11 Days in December tells the unforgettable story of one of the grimmest points of World War II and its Christmas Eve turn toward victory. In December 1944, the Allied forces thought their campaign for securing Europe was in its final stages. But Germany had one last great surprise attack still planned, leading to some of the most intense fighting in World War II: the Battle of the Bulge. After ten days of horrific weather conditions and warfare, General Patton famously asked God, "Sir, whose side are you on?" For the next four days, as the skies cleared, the Allies could fly again, the Nazis were contained, and the outcome of the war was ensured. Renowned historian and author Stanley Weintraub weaves together the stories of ordinary soldiers and their generals to recreate this dramatic, crucial narrative of a miraculous shift of luck in the midst of the most significant war of the modern era. "Listeners share the cold, loss, and sense of doubt plaguing the ordinary soldier….an unforgettable portrait of war."—AudioFile

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Patrick Cullen (Narrator)

Audiobook

Pearl Harbor Christmas: A World at War, December 1941

Christmas 1941 came little more than two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The shock-in some cases overseas, elation-was worldwide. While Americans attempted to go about celebrating as usual, the reality of the just-declared war was on everybody's mind. United States troops on Wake Island were battling a Japanese landing force and, in the Philippines, losing the fight to save Luzon. In Japan, the Pearl Harbor strike force returned to Hiroshima Bay and toasted its sweeping success. Across the Atlantic, much of Europe was frozen under grim Nazi occupation. Just three days before Christmas, Churchill surprised Roosevelt with an unprecedented trip to Washington, where they jointly lit the White House Christmas tree. As the two Allied leaders met to map out a winning wartime strategy, the most remarkable Christmas of the century played out across the globe. Pearl Harbor Christmas is a deeply moving and inspiring story about what it was like to live through a holiday season few would ever forget. "A minor genre, the day-by-day chronicle, receives a fine addition as veteran historian Weintraub devotes a chapter each to the last ten days of 1941 plus New Year's Day…Readers will enjoy his opinionated portraits of the allied leaders as they hammered out strategy, much of which was rendered irrelevant by subsequent events."-Publishers Weekly

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Final Victory: FDR's Extraordinary World War II Presidential Campaign

When the 1944 presidential election campaign geared up late that spring, Franklin D. Roosevelt had already been in office longer than any other president. Sensing likely weakness, the Republicans mounted an energetic and expensive campaign, hitting hard at FDR's liberal domestic policies and the ongoing cost of World War II. Despite gravely deteriorating health, FDR and his feisty running mate, the unexpected Harry Truman, campaigned vigorously against young governor Thomas E. Dewey of New York and old-line Ohio governor John Bricker. Roosevelt's charm and wit, as well as the military successes in Europe and the Pacific, contributed to his sweeping electoral victory. But the hard-fought campaign would soon take its toll on America's only four-term president. Preeminent historian and biographer Stanley Weintraub recaptures FDR's striking last campaign and the year's momentous events, from the rainy city streets where Roosevelt, his legs paralyzed by polio since 1922, rode in an open car, to the battlefronts where the commander-in-chief's forces were closing in on Hitler and Hirohito. Weintraub, as he has done in all his biographies, brings to life the man and his times, capturing those small but telling details that inform and delight. The result is unforgettable. "Weintraub, a historian and bestselling author, dissects Franklin D. Roosevelt's historic fourth and last presidential campaign...Historically satisfying, bringing the events to life with telling anecdotes (like Truman's terrifying, prescient 'nightmare that Roosevelt had died and he, Harry S. Truman, was now president'), Weintraub's book portrays a political icon determined to make his mark on America and the world in the twilight of his life."-Publishers Weekly

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Michael Kramer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Young Mr. Roosevelt: FDR’s Introduction to War, Politics, and Life

In Young Mr. Roosevelt Stanley Weintraub evokes Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political and wartime beginnings. An unpromising patrician playboy appointed assistant secretary of the Navy in 1913, Roosevelt learned quickly and rose to national visibility during World War I. Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 1920, he lost the election but not his ambitions. While his stature was rising, his testy marriage to his cousin Eleanor was fraying amid scandal quietly covered up. Even polio a year later would not suppress the ever indomitable Roosevelt and his inevitable ascent. Against the backdrop of a reluctant America’s entry into a world war and FDR’s hawkish build-up of a modern navy, Washington’s gossip-ridden society, and the nation’s surging economy, Weintraub summons up the early influences on the young and enterprising nephew of his predecessor, “Uncle Ted.”

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Victoria

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Donada Peters (Narrator)

Audiobook

General Sherman's Christmas: Savannah, 1864

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Ed Sala (Narrator)

Audiobook

Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce

In the beginning months of World War I, a very strange thing happened. After the fierce trench warfare of November and December, on Christmas Eve, 1914, the fighting spontaneously stopped. Men on both sides laid down their arms and came to celebrate Christmas with each other. They shared food parcels across the lines, sang carols together, and erected Christmas trees with candles. They buried the dead, exchanged presents, and even played soccer together.

Stanley Weintraub (Author), Edward Holland (Narrator)

Audiobook

11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944

11 Days in December tells the dramatic story of one of the grimmest points of World War II and its Christmas Eve turn toward victory. In December 1944, the Allied forces thought their campaign for securing Europe was in its final stages. But Germany had one last great surprise attack still planned, leading to some of the most intense fighting in World War II: the Battle of the Bulge. After ten days of horrific weather conditions and warfare, General Patton famously asked God, 'Sir, whose side are you on?' For the next four days, as the skies cleared, the Allies could fly again, the Nazis were contained, and the outcome of the war was ensured. Renowned historian and author Stanley Weintraub tells the remarkable story of the Battle of the Bulge as it has never been told before, from frozen foxholes to barn shelters to boxcars packed with wretched prisoners of war. Heweaves together the stories of ordinary soldiers and their generals to recreate this dramatic, crucial narrative of a miraculous shift of luck in the midst of the most significant war of the modern era.

Stanley Weintraub (Author), John Lescault (Narrator)

Audiobook