Europe Audiobooks | Travel

-Este audiolibro está narrado en castellano. 'No hemos sido capaces de descubrir una pequeña evidencia tangible de la muerte de Hitler.' - DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER El 30 de abril de 2015 se celebran 70 años del suicidio de Hitler. Pero, ¿murió Hitler realmente en el búnker? Sus restos jamás se encontraron... Eric Frattini ha accedido a numerosos testimonios y documentación de la época que muestran la incertidumbre sobre su muerte y las pistas sobre la supuesta huida de Hitler y su esposa, Eva Braun, poniéndolas por vez primera a la vista de los lectores. El autor ha tenido acceso a más de 2.000 páginas de documentos que hablan sobre la huida de Hitler en los archivos del FBI, CIA, MI6, OSS, KGB, FSB y CEANA (Comisión de Esclarecimiento de Actividades Nazis en Argentina). Será solo cuestión del lector decidir si el hombre más odiado del mundo acabó sus días de un disparo en la sien en un oscuro despacho del búnker o en una confortable casa en algún paraje perdido de la Patagonia argentina.

Eric Frattini (Author), Arturo Lopez, Arturo López (Narrator)

Audiobook

War of the Sicilian Vespers, The: The History and Legacy of Sicily’s Rebellion against the French in

However diverse Sicily might be, it is also paradoxically considered to be an emblem of Italy itself, a paradox it shares with Naples. In fact, Frederick II was the last ruler of a fully autonomous Sicily, and his son, Manfred (r. 1254-1258), was the final Norman ruler in Sicily. Manfred met his death heroically on the battlefield, fighting the army of Charles of Anjou after Charles was made King of Rome by the Vatican in 1266. Charles chose Naples as the capital of his lands, and this created tensions between his people and the Sicilians, culminating with a rebellion known as the Sicilian Vespers of 1282. According to legend, the rebellion started after a French soldier harassed a Sicilian woman on Easter Sunday outside the Church of Santo Spirito. When it came about, the rebellion inaugurated a period of anarchy in Sicily, and for a time was unclear who would take the crown. Two warring factions, the Aragonese and the Angevins, competed for the crown for 90 years, to the detriment of all involved. At one point, there were two different kings of Sicily, one from each side, and it was not until 1372 that peace was finally reached and the Aragonese were awarded rule of Sicily. As a result of all this geopolitical turmoil, Sicily’s status in the world was greatly diminished. Spain was on the rise, and even if Palermo received certain bureaucratic dispensations, nothing would shift the center of power back into Sicily’s orbit. In the wake of the infighting, Sicily was affected by other major geopolitical events elsewhere. When Constantinople fell in 1453, the ascent of the Ottoman Turks meant that Sicily was constantly being threatened. Pirates and corsairs from North Africa continued to besiege the coastal towns, and the island became an important staging ground for those trying to counter the Muslims.

Charles River Editors (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Glasgow Girl at War: The new heartwarming saga from the author of the G.I. Bride

Previously published as The Quality of Mercy. 1930s Scotland. Growing up in a convent in Glasgow, Ferelith Gallagher dreams of bigger and better things. With no money behind her, and no family to speak of, she travels to Edinburgh to study to be a lawyer - a brave choice for a woman in the 1930s. And when she falls in love with a young fellow student, she thinks she's finally found a home. But after a brief and disastrous marriage, Ferelith swears she is through with love, and buries herself in her studies, striving to become the first female senior advocate in Scottish history. But when she finally meets a man she knows she could be happy with, Ferelith finds herself torn between love and her career. When war breaks out, she knows life will never be the same again . . .

Eileen Ramsay (Author), Helen Mcalpine (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Murder on Yarmouth Sands

Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer of 957 short stories and over 170 novels. He is widely recognized as one of the most prolific writers of his age. 'The Murder on Yarmouth Sands' is a true crime story. Towards the end of the Boer War, the body of a woman was discovered on Yarmouth Sands. She had been strangled by a mohair bootlace. There are only two clues to the crime...and the police set out to follow them up....

Edgar Wallace (Author), Cathy Dobson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Scotch-Irish, The: The History and Legacy of the Ethnic Group in America

“Scotch-Irish” is an American term that became popular in the latter 1800s, referring to the largely Protestant immigrants to the United States originating in the northern Irish province of Ulster. The majority of Scotch-Irish were people intentionally settled in Ulster as a counter to the native Catholic Irish, who immigrated to Ulster from the lowlands of Scotland and the borderlands between England and Scotland. The Ulster settlers were a solution to depopulation caused by the wars in Ireland, and it was hoped that the Protestant settlers would counterbalance the habitually rebellious Catholic Irish. The regions they came from had a history of violence and poverty. The heritage of violence was thought to have prepared them for withstanding Irish disorder, and poverty made migration to Ulster an attractive proposition. They were deliberately selected by various proprietors, landowners, and King James (1601-1623). The large number of Ulster immigrants to British American colonies in the 1700s were usually simply called “Irish,” but modern historians prefer the term Scots-Irish, on the grounds that “Scotch” refers to whiskey. This is unnecessarily pedantic, not to mention that Scotch-Irish is deeply embedded in the history books and in American tradition. During the colonial era, it is estimated that some 200,000 Scotch-Irish migrated to the mainland colonies. How many may have migrated to Canada (British after 1763) or various Caribbean colonies is not well-known. The colonies, particularly Pennsylvania, attracted the Scotch-Irish for several reasons, the most important of which was the ready availability of farmable land, but also, there was no established church (the official and politically dominant religion in Ireland was the Church of England) that discriminated against dissenters such as the Presbyterians.

Charles River Editors (Author), Daniel Houle (Narrator)

Audiobook

Landru, the Bluebeard of France

William Le Queux (1864 - 1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer, diplomat, traveller, flying buff and wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available. He was phenomenally successful as a novelist and short story writer, and many of his tales are based on his own exploits, albeit vastly exaggerated. He is widely recongnized as one of the first creators of the spy story genre, in which his diplomatic background, familiarity with European high society and his interest in technology combined to create a rich tapestry for his intrigues. The true crime story of Henri Désiré Landru, master of murder and the art of making love, captivated the whole of Europe for almost two years. Landru is known to have murdered at least a dozen women for their savings and their furniture. Moreover, the uncanny fascination which he held for his victims from the moment he fixed them with his strangely compelling eyes, has never been properly explained.

William Le Queux (Author), Cathy Dobson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Varangian Guard, The: The History and Legacy of the Byzantine Empire’s Elite Mercenary Unit

The Byzantine Empire was the heir to two great cultures that cradled and nurtured European civilization: Greece and Rome. Constantinople, now called Istanbul, became a center of power, culture, trade, and technology poised on the edges of Europe and Asia, and its influence was felt not only throughout Europe but the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and the Far East. Coins dating from the reign of Emperor Justinian I (r.527-565) have been found in southern India, and Chinese records show that the “Fulin,” as the Chinese named the Byzantines, were received at court as early as 643 CE. For a thousand years, the Byzantine Empire protected Europe from the Islamic Arab Empire, allowing it to pursue its own destiny. Finally, Byzantium was a polyglot society in which a multitude of ethnic groups lived under the emperor prizing peace above war, an inspiration surely for the modern age when divisive nationalism threatens to dominate society once more. The Byzantines relied heavily on mercenaries, and the Hetairoi or foreign soldiers formed an important and often vital component of the army. The ability to call upon warriors from many nations demonstrated the power and wealth of the emperor, so they were recruited as much for prestige as for military utility. The most famous of the foreign units was without question the Varangian Guard. The Varangians came from the land in Eastern Europe known in the Middle Ages as Rus, which is now part of modern Russia and Ukraine. They were descendants of Viking warriors from Sweden who came to rule the waterways and population of Russia. Varangian mercenaries were fighting for the Byzantines by the 10th century, and in 988 they formed a permanent elite guard for the emperor. They took an oath of allegiance to him and served directly under the Acolyte or Akolouthos, who was usually of Byzantine origin. They also assumed responsibilities for the security of Constantinople.

Charles River Editors (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Albigensian Crusade, The: The History and Legacy of the Catholic Campaign against the Cathars in Fra

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, when Western Europe was governed by a Germanic warrior-caste, the theory of a just and virtuous war took root. The Roman Church enhanced its authority by sanctifying oaths taken for just military purposes, and Bishop Anselm of Lucca (d. 1086) was the first to suggest that military action for the cause of religion could remit sin. At the Council of Clermont in July 1095, Pope Urban II canonized religious war by urging Western Europe's nobility to take up arms in defense of the Byzantine Empire against the Muslims, thus launching the Crusades. Religious military orders such as the Knights of Saint John, the Templars, and the Hospitallers arose, ostensibly founded to protect the weak and the sick but also to extend the boundaries of Christianity and the power of the Church. In Europe, the knight, originally a mounted warrior, became a consecrated soldier of Christ, dedicated to the defense of the Church by solemn vows made before an altar. It was not long before the concept of the holy crusade was applied beyond the holy land. The conflict between the Christian states and the Muslim Moors in the Iberian Peninsula became a holy war, as did the forced settlement of Pagan Slav lands on Germany's eastern frontier. At the beginning of the 13th century, the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights of Livonia began the conquest of heathen Baltic lands while Sweden invaded Finland. Naturally, the question remained concerning the use of arms against other Christians. Eastern Christians did not acknowledge the Pope's supremacy, and many held that it was lawful for him to declare a crusade to bring schismatics back to the obedience of Rome. When the “heresy” of Catharism began to take root in southeastern France toward the end of the 12th century, both Church and State considered the use of force to extirpate it.

Charles River Editors (Author), Daniel Houle (Narrator)

Audiobook

I, Napoleon (Autobiographical One-Man-Play of Napoleon Bonaparte)

'I, NAPOLEON' is a One Man Theater Play, written by David Serero, about Napoleon Bonaparte's life. Under the form of an autobiography, one of the greatest historical figures of all time, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) tells his story from his birth to his death, to the audience of 2020. Starring French actor David Serero as Napoleon Bonaparte. Performed in English language.

David Serero (Author), David Serero (Narrator)

Audiobook

Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia: A Pocket Guide to Russian History

“Russia’s colorful history,” suggests American writer and Russian historian, Jennifer Eremeeva, “should ideally be experienced on a huge, 3D IMAX screen, with the surround sound booming and a jumbo bucket of popcorn in your lap.” In Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia: A Pocket Guide to Russian History, Eremeeva distills thirteen centuries of Russia’s complex history into entertaining chapters that guide the reader effortlessly from the emerging Russian state in the ninth century through the aftermath of the 2014 Annexation of Crimea. This is the perfect primer for those embarking on a visit to Russia or an exploration of the country’s rich literature and culture. The updated third edition includes access to extensive companion web pages, reading lists, and sightseeing suggestions to enhance readers’ exploration of the world’s largest country. Praise for Have Personality Disorder, Will Rule Russia from readers: “After reading the book, I had a greater understanding and appreciation for the places and sights I saw and learned about on my trip.” “This is a great brief history of Russia! I was able to understand all of it and it was fascinating, not a dry history book at all. Makes me want to delve more into Russian history.” “A sometimes rollicking, always tongue-in-cheek examination of Russian/Soviet history (rarely a rollicking subject) by an American who has lived there as an insider for decades.”

Jennifer Eremeeva (Author), Jennifer Eremeeva (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Forgotten Hero: Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish Humanitarian Who Rescued 30,000 People from the Nazi

In one of the most amazing rescues of WWII, the Swedish head of the Red Cross rescued more than 30,000 people from concentration camps in the last three months of the war. Folke Bernadotte did so by negotiating with the enemy-shaking hands with Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Gestapo. Time was of the essence, as Hitler had ordered the destruction of all camps and everyone in them. A Forgotten Hero chronicles Folke's life and extraordinary journey, from his family history and early years to saving thousands of lives during WWII and his untimely assassination in 1948. A straightforward and compelling narrative, A Forgotten Hero sheds light on this important and heroic historical figure.

Shelley Emling (Author), Julian Elfer (Narrator)

Audiobook

Emperor: A New Life of Charles V

The life of Emperor Charles V (1500-1558), ruler of Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and much of Italy and Central and South America, has long intrigued biographers. But the elusive nature of the man (despite an abundance of documentation), his relentless travel and the control of his own image, together with the complexity of governing the world's first transatlantic empire, complicate the task. Geoffrey Parker, one of the world's leading historians of early modern Europe, has examined the surviving written sources in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish, as well as visual and material evidence. He explores the crucial decisions that created and preserved this vast empire, analyzes Charles's achievements within the context of both personal and structural factors, and scrutinizes the intimate details of the ruler's life for clues to his character and inclinations. The result is a unique biography that interrogates every dimension of Charles's reign and views the world through the emperor's own eyes.

Geoffrey Parker (Author), Nigel Patterson (Narrator)

Audiobook

Europe Audiobooks in Travel