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Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes' Secret Plot to Capture Rome from the New Italian State
Based on a wealth of documents long buried in the Vatican archives, Prisoner of the Vatican tells the story of the Church's secret attempt to block the unification of Italy and seize control - not in ancient times, but in the late nineteenth century. For more than fifty years, the pope was a self-imposed prisoner within the Vatican walls, planning to flee Italy, to return only as the restored ruler of Rome and the Papal States. The scheme to dismantle the newborn Italian nation involved not only the cardinals and the Curia but also attempts to exploit the rivalries among France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and England.
David I. Kertzer (Author), Alan Sklar (Narrator)
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Progress and Perils in Daily Life in Ancient Rome
Would you like to learn about daily life in ancient Rome, but find conventional history books a bit boring? Are you looking for a more entertaining way to learn about Roman history, from the Republic to the Empire? Then Progress and Perils in Daily Life in Ancient Rome: An Entertaining Exploration of Roman History from the Beginning of the Republic to the Fall of the Empire is just the book for you. If you are a Monty Python fan, you will remember the most-often quoted line from the movie The Life of Brian: What have the Romans ever done for us? The satirical retort to the question was: “apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?” Using this quotation as our inspiration, we have an entertaining and sometimes irreverent look at the various forms of progress made in civilization in ancient Rome. We have a look at Roman sanitation, medicine, education, wine, bathing, sex, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system, and public health from an accessible, non-academic perspective in this book, as well as looking at some of the perils or downsides of these advances in civilization. We discuss the developments in these aspects of daily life for the time period from 753 BC, before the beginning of the Roman Republic, through to the end of the Roman Empire around 1200 years in 476 AD. Get a more lively and interesting experience of Roman history with this great book!
Veronica Ambrose (Author), Veronica Ambrose (Narrator)
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Projet MK Ultra, la manipulation mentale ultra secrète: Les plus grandes affaires d'espionnage
Le projet MK-Ultra, dévoilé en 1975, est le nom de code d'un projet secret illégal de la CIA des années 1950 à 1970 visant à développer les techniques de manipulation mentale. Il semble que ce projet ait connu plusieurs évolutions et ait vu le développement de sous-projets et des projets parallèles. D'une manière générale, ce projet repose sur les mécanismes de dissociation psychologique des sujets, que celle-ci soit induite volontairement ou déjà présente. Il s'agit dans le projet MK-Ultra d'utiliser cette dissociation pour provoquer des comportements. ' Le directeur adjoint de la CIA a révélé que plus de trente universités et institutions avaient participé à un large projet de tests et d'expérimentations qui comportait des tests de médicaments cachés sur des sujets non-volontaires de toutes les catégories sociales, hautes et basses, américains et étrangers. Plusieurs de ces tests consistaient à administrer du LSD sur des sujets ignorants dans diverses situations sociales.Voici l'histoire de cette opération secrète et illégale, qui a eu des conséquences tragiques, peu connue du grand public...
Frédéric Garnier (Author), Patrick Blandin (Narrator)
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Promise Me You'll Shoot Yourself: The Downfall of Ordinary Germans, 1945
Brought to you by Penguin. One of the last major stories on the Third Reich that remains largely untold is that of the extraordinary wave of suicides, carried out not just by much of the Nazi leadership, but by thousands of ordinary Germans, in the Second World War's closing period. Some of these were provoked by terror in the face of advancing Soviet troops or by personal guilt, but many could not be explained in such relatively straightforward terms. Florian Huber's remarkable book, a bestseller in Germany, confronts this terrible phenomenon. Other countries have suffered defeat, but not responded in the same way. What drove whole families, who in many cases had already withstood years of deprivation, aerial bombing and deaths in battle, to do this? In a brilliantly written, thoughtful and original work, Huber sees the entire project of the Third Reich as a sequence of almost overwhelming emotions and scenes for many Germans. He describes some of the key events which shaped the period from the First World War to the end of the Second, showing how the sheer intensity, glamour and ferocity of Hitler's regime swept along millions. For over twelve years a relentless and terrible drama shaped German life and its sudden end was, for thousands of people, simply impossible to absorb.
Florian Huber (Author), Sam Peter Jackson (Narrator)
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Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin de Siecle Paris
From the author of the acclaimed Queen of Fashion--a brilliant look at the glittering world of turn-of-the-century Paris through the first in-depth study of the three women Proust used to create his supreme fictional character, the Duchesse de Guermantes. Geneviève Halévy Bizet Straus; Laure de Sade, Comtesse de Adhéaume de Chevigné; and Élisabeth de Riquet de Caraman-Chimay, the Comtesse Greffulhe--these were the three superstars of fin-de-siècle Parisian high society who, as Caroline Weber says, "transformed themselves, and were transformed by those around them, into living legends: paragons of elegance, nobility, and style." All well but unhappily married, these women sought freedom and fulfillment by reinventing themselves, between the 1870s and 1890s, as icons. At their fabled salons, they inspired the creativity of several generations of writers, visual artists, composers, designers, and journalists. Against a rich historical backdrop, Weber takes the reader into these women's daily lives of masked balls, hunts, dinners, court visits, nights at the opera or theater. But we see as well the loneliness, rigid social rules, and loveless, arranged marriages that constricted these women's lives. Proust, as a twenty-year-old law student in 1892, would worship them from afar, and later meet them and create his celebrated composite character for The Remembrance of Things Past.
Caroline Weber (Author), Suzanne Toren (Narrator)
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Providence Lost: The Rise and Fall of Cromwell's Protectorate
'A compelling and wry narrative of one of the most intellectually thrilling eras of British history' The Guardian England, 1651. Oliver Cromwell has defeated his royalist opponents in two civil wars, executed the Stuart king Charles I, laid waste to Ireland, and crushed the late king's son and his Scottish allies. He is master of Britain and Ireland. But Parliament, divided between moderates, republicans and Puritans of uncompromisingly millenarian hue, is faction-ridden and disputatious. By the end of 1653, Cromwell has become 'Lord Protector'. Seeking dragons for an elect Protestant nation to slay, he launches an ambitious 'Western Design' against Spain's empire in the New World. When an amphibious assault on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1655 proves a disaster, a shaken Cromwell is convinced that God is punishing England for its sinfulness. But the imposition of the rule of the Major-Generals - bureaucrats with a penchant for closing alehouses - backfires spectacularly. Sectarianism and fundamentalism run riot. Radicals and royalists join together in conspiracy. The only way out seems to be a return to a Parliament presided over by a king. But will Cromwell accept the crown? Paul Lay narrates in entertaining but always rigorous fashion the story of England's first and only experiment with republican government: he brings the febrile world of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate to life, providing vivid portraits of the extraordinary individuals who inhabited it and capturing its dissonant cacophony of political and religious voices.
Paul Lay (Author), Gordon Griffin (Narrator)
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Putin's Wars and NATO's Flaws: Why Russia Invaded Ukraine
This book explores why there is a major war again in Europe. Putin's actions need to be understood if not forgiven. With the Ukraine conflict seen as a proxy war of NATO versus Russia, how likely is the fighting to spread? The author, a highly respected journalist and political commentator, explains why Russia invaded a sovereign neighbor. To what extent did NATO's expansion to Russia's borders in the aftermath of the Cold War provoke Putin? Did the West's recent humiliating defeats in the Middle East and South Asia encourage Putin to exploit what he saw as its decadent strategic weakness and lack of resolve? What were the reasons for Russia's savage behavior in Ukraine? How might the Ukraine war end and what will the post-bellum world look like? The war in Ukraine has had worldwide impact with cost of living, food and energy crises, and raised the risk of nuclear Armageddon by accident or intent. It examines the complex military and political issues in layman's language while the story is told as a compelling historical narrative. Professor Moorcraft, who has worked in Ukraine and has witnessed Russian troops in action in Afghanistan, is superbly qualified to write this work.
Paul Moorcraft (Author), Mike Cooper (Narrator)
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Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and then Took on the West
‘Meticulously researched and superbly written … The Putin book that we’ve been waiting for.’ Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland ‘Books about modern Russia abound … Belton has surpassed them all. Her much-awaited book is the best and most important on modern Russia … Hair-raising’ The Times A chilling and revelatory expose of the KGB’s renaissance, Putin’s rise to power, and how Russian black cash is subverting the world. In Putin’s People, former Moscow correspondent and investigative journalist Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and his entourage of KGB men seized power in Russia and built a new league of oligarchs. Through exclusive interviews with key inside players, Belton tells how Putin’s people conducted their relentless seizure of private companies, took over the economy, siphoned billions, blurred the lines between organised crime and political powers, shut down opponents, and then used their riches and power to extend influence in the West. In a story that ranges from Moscow to London, Switzerland and Trump’s America, Putin’s People is a gripping and terrifying account of how hopes for the new Russia went astray, with stark consequences for its inhabitants and, increasingly, the world.
Catherine Belton (Author), Dugald Bruce-Lockhart (Narrator)
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Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion
She ascended the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland in 1702, at age thirty-seven, Britain’s last Stuart monarch, and five years later united two of her realms, England and Scotland, as a sovereign state, creating the Kingdom of Great Britain. She had a history of personal misfortune, overcoming ill health (she suffered from crippling arthritis; by the time she became Queen she was a virtual invalid) and living through seventeen miscarriages, stillbirths, and premature births in seventeen years. By the end of her comparatively short twelve-year reign, Britain had emerged as a great power; the succession of outstanding victories won by her general, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, had humbled France and laid the foundations for Britain’s future naval and colonial supremacy. While the Queen’s military was performing dazzling exploits on the continent, her own attention—indeed her realm—rested on a more intimate conflict: the female friendship on which her happiness had for decades depended and which became for her a source of utter torment. At the core of Anne Somerset’s riveting new biography, published to great acclaim in England (“Definitive”—London Evening Standard; “Wonderfully pacy and absorbing”—Daily Mail), is a portrait of this deeply emotional, complex bond between two very different women: Queen Anne—reserved, stolid, shrewd; and Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough, wife of the Queen’s great general—beautiful, willful, outspoken, whose acerbic wit was equally matched by her fearsome temper. Against a fraught background—the revolution that deposed Anne’s father, James II, and brought her to power . . . religious differences (she was born Protestant—her parents’ conversion to Catholicism had grave implications—and she grew up so suspicious of the Roman church that she considered its doctrines “wicked and dangerous”) . . . violently partisan politics (Whigs versus Tories) . . . a war with France that lasted for almost her entire reign . . . the constant threat of foreign invasion and civil war—the much-admired historian, author of Elizabeth I (“Exhilarating”—The Spectator; “Ample, stylish, eloquent”—The Washington Post Book World), tells the extraordinary story of how Sarah goaded and provoked the Queen beyond endurance, and, after the withdrawal of Anne’s favor, how her replacement, Sarah’s cousin, the feline Abigail Masham, became the ubiquitous royal confidante and, so Sarah whispered to growing scandal, the object of the Queen's sexual infatuation. To write this remarkably rich and passionate biography, Somerset, winner of the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, has made use of royal archives, parliamentary records, personal correspondence and previously unpublished material. Queen Anne is history on a large scale—a revelation of a centuries-overlooked monarch.
Anne Somerset (Author), Hannah Curtis (Narrator)
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Queen Lucia: The BBC Radio 4 dramatisation
Barbara Jefford is the hilariously outrageous Lucia in this BBC Radio 4 dramatisation of the novel by E.F. Benson. Lucia is the uncrowned queen of 1920s provincial society, the Everest of social climbers and the most delicious of snobs. In the pastoral serenity of the village of Riseholme, Lucia and her unforgettable cronies face up to an Indian guru, spiritualism and a cultural usurper. E.F. Benson's wickedly witty satires on the rivalries of English middle-class life have elevated Lucia's extravagant exploits to cult comedy status.
Aubrey Woods, E F Benson (Author), , Barbara Jefford, Full Cast, Jonathan Cecil (Narrator)
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Queen of Our Times - Das Leben von Elizabeth II. (Ungekürzt)
Die aktuellste Biografie mit Exklusivmaterial aus den Royal Archives Schüchtern, aber mit stählernem Selbstbewusstsein. Unergründlich trotz eines Lebens in der Öffentlichkeit. Gläubig. Unsentimental. Neugierig. - Mit all diesen Begrifflichkeiten ließe sich Queen Elizabeth II. beschreiben. Eine Regentin, die mit stärkeren Veränderungen konfrontiert wurde als alle anderen royalen Staatsoberhäupter der englischen Geschichte. Dabei wurde sie nicht als Thronfolgerin geboren, ihr Leben wurde durch die Abdankung König Edwards VIII. unvermittelt in andere Bahnen gelenkt. So wurde aus der Nichte des Königs über Nacht eine junge Königin in spe. Seit ihrer Krönung 1952 hat sich die Queen als kluge und entschlossene Persönlichkeit erwiesen und ihr Volk souverän durch mehr als siebzig Jahre massiver Veränderungen geführt. Sie sah sich mit Verfassungskrisen konfrontiert, erhielt Morddrohungen, sah fünfzehn Premierminister und Premierministerinnen kommen und gehen, bezauberte Staatsoberhäupter aus aller Welt, wurde von den Medien gefeiert und kritisiert und lebte ein Leben im Dienst der Krone. Die jubelnden Mengen zu ihrem Platinjubiläum und die weltweite Trauer nach ihrem plötzlichen Tod kurz darauf zeigten deutlich, wie sehr Elizabeth II. verehrt wurde. Sie verkörperte über viele Jahre hinweg Beständigkeit in Zeiten des Wandels und galt vielen als Quelle von Mut und Zuversicht. Der führende Adelsexperte Robert Hardman schreibt kenntnisreich über royale Sternstunden, dunkle Krisen, Abdankung, Kriegsjahre, romantische Verwicklungen, Gefahren und Tragödien. Als erster Queen-Biograf überhaupt durfte er in den Royal Archives recherchieren; Hardman legt bisher unveröffentlichtes Schrift- und Bildmaterial vor und zitiert aus Gesprächen mit den engsten Angehörigen der Queen. Seite für Seite wird so die Chronologie eines ungewöhnlichen Lebenswegs offenbar. QUEEN OF OUR TIMES ist das intime Porträt einer Ausnahmepersönlichkeit, die unser aller Leben geprägt hat. Ein originelles, überraschendes Hörbuch.
Robert Hardman (Author), Alexander Gamnitzer (Narrator)
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Queen of Our Times: The Life of Elizabeth II
The definitive biography of Her Majesty The Queen by one of Britain’s leading royal authorities. 'This is a beautifully-crafted, deeply informed and rounded portrait of the gold standard monarch and the age to which she has given her name. Queen of Our Times has depth, feel and insight in abundance’ - historian, Peter Hennessy With original insights from those who know her best, new interviews with world leaders and access to unseen papers, bestselling author Robert Hardman explores the full, astonishing life of our longest reigning monarch in this compellingly authoritative yet intimate biography. Elizabeth II was not born to be queen. Yet from her accession as a young mother of two in 1952 to the age of Covid-19, she has proved an astute and quietly determined figure, leading her family and her people through more than seventy years of unprecedented social change. She has faced constitutional crises, confronted threats against her life, rescued the Commonwealth, seen her prime ministers come and go, charmed world leaders, been criticised as well as feted by the media, and steered her family through a lifetime in the public eye. Queen of Our Times is a must-read study of dynastic survival and renewal, spanning abdication, war, romance, danger and tragedy. It is a compelling portrait of a leader who remains as intriguing today as the day she came to the throne aged twenty-five.
Robert Hardman, Tbd (Author), Robert Hardman, TBD (Narrator)
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