Europe Audiobooks | Travel

Spanish Civil War: History of the War in Spain between 1936-1939 Explained

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. The Spanish Civil War spanned from 1936 to 1939 and was a domestic conflict in Spain. The Nationalists, comprising Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists, rallied around General Francisco Franco and sought to overthrow the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, forming an alliance with communists and syndicalist anarchists. The war garnered various interpretations globally, seen as a class struggle, a clash between dictatorship and democratic republicanism, and a power struggle between fascism and communism. Claude Bowers, the U.S. ambassador to Spain during World War II, even referred to it as a 'dress rehearsal.' The Nationalists emerged victorious in early 1939 and dominated Spain until Franco's death in November 1975. The conflict began with a pronunciamiento against the Republican government, led by General Emilio Mola with General José Sanjurjo as a figurehead. President Manuel Azaña headed the coalition of Republicans, backed by communist and socialist parties in the Cortes. Supporting the Nationalist faction were CEDA, monarchists (including Alfonsists and conservative Carlists), and the fascist political party Falange Española de las JONS. Franco eventually emerged as the dominant leader of the Nationalists after the demise of Sanjurjo, Emilio Mola, and Manuel Goded Llopis.

Kelly Mass (Author), Digital Voice Matt G (Narrator)

Audiobook

[German] - Krieg und Sühne: Der lange Kampf der Ukraine gegen die russische Unterdrückung

Welche Mythen den Krieg in der Ukraine am Leben erhalten Mythen haben Russlands Krieg gegen die Ukraine den Boden bereitet. Von der Erfindung eines geeinten russischen Volks durch den deutschen Mönch Innozenz Giesel bis zum Narrativ einer russischen Krim – russische Propaganda nimmt die Ukraine und ihre Geschichte seit Jahrzehnten in Geiselhaft. In seinem die Jahrhunderte umspannenden Buch führt uns Mikhail Zygar zu den Ursprüngen von Russlands Imperialismus – und weist so den Weg aus seinen zerstörerischen Wahnvorstellungen.

Mikhail Zygar (Author), Erich Wittenberg (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Mudlark's Treasures: London in Fragments

Mudlarking enthusiast Ted Sandling takes us on a riveting journey along the Thames foreshore and back into the past. 'A beautiful book.' Daily Mail 'Exhilaratingly curious.' Evening Standard 'Gripping.' Spectator 'Brilliant.' Penelope Lively 'Indefatigably researched.' Country Life 'Wonderful, quirky.' Tracy Chevalier Mudlarking, the act of searching the Thames foreshore for items of value, has a long tradition in London. In the late 18th and 19th centuries, mudlarks were small boys grubbing a living from scrap. Modern-day mudlark Ted Sandling shares his passion for unearthing relics of the past from the banks of the Thames and describes his fifty most evocative finds. From Roman tiles to elegant Georgian pottery, these objects create a mosaic of everyday London life through the centuries, touching on the journeys, pleasures, vices and industries of a world city. This book celebrates the beauty of small things, and the intangible connection that found objects give us to the past. The Thames presents treasures with a delightful serendipity: it gives up a hundred random objects, and it is up to the finder to discover their stories. That is the joy of mudlarking: that after every trip to the river you know more than you did before. Chance connections with something that was once treasured, that was once lost and has now been found again. Even the meanest broken fragments tells a story of this great city. 'The significance of these fragments lies in the stories they tell us about the everyday lives of the people to whom there are no monuments or blue plaques.' TLS A fully illustrated edition of this book is also available under the title LONDON IN FRAGMENTS: A Mudlark's Treasures.

Ted Sandling (Author), Ted Sandling (Narrator)

Audiobook

Out of the Darkness: The Germans, 1942-2022

Brought to you by Penguin. A Telegraph and Der Spiegel Book of the Year Sueddeutsche Zeitung's Number One Most Important Political Book of 2023 Die Zeit, ZDF, Deutschlandfunk, taz Number One, Best Non-Fiction Books December 2023 and January 2024 A groundbreaking new history of the people at the centre of Europe, from the Second World War to today In 1945, Germany lay in ruins, morally and materially. The German people stood condemned by history, responsible for a horrifying genocide and a war of extermination. But by 2015 Germany looked to many to be the moral voice of Europe, welcoming almost one million refugees. At the same time, it pursued a controversially rigid fiscal discipline and made energy deals with a dictator. Many people have asked how Germany descended into the darkness of the Nazis, but this book asks another vital question: how, and how far, have the Germans since reinvented themselves? Trentmann tells the dramatic story of the Germans from the middle of the Second World War, through the Cold War and the division into East and West, to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunited nation's search for a place in the world. Their journey is marked by extraordinary moral struggles: guilt, shame and limited amends; wealth versus welfare; tolerance versus racism; compassion and complicity. Through a range of voices - German soldiers and German Jews; environmentalists and coal miners; families and churches; volunteers, migrants and populists - Trentmann paints a remarkable and surprising portrait over 80 years of the conflicted people at the centre of Europe. © Frank Trentmann 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2024

Frank Trentmann (Author), Patty Nieman (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Gallic Wars: History of the Battles against the Romans

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. The Gallic Wars took place between 58 and 50 BC, and they were led by Julius Caesar, a Roman general, against the Gallic people residing in present-day France, Belgium, and parts of Germany. The Gallic, Germanic, and Britonic tribes valiantly defended their homelands against the aggressive Roman expansion. The critical Battle of Alesia in 52 BC proved decisive, resulting in a resounding victory for the Romans and the eventual annexation of Gaul into the Roman Republic. Although the Gallic force was formidable, internal divisions among the Gallic tribes played to Caesar's advantage. Gaulish chieftain Vercingetorix's attempt to unite the tribes came too late to thwart Caesar's advancements. While Caesar framed the invasion as a defensive measure, historians generally agree that his primary motivations were to advance his political career and settle his debts. Nevertheless, Rome valued Gaul as a strategic military stronghold, considering that native tribes in the region had previously attacked the Roman Republic. The conquest of Gaul allowed Rome to secure the natural frontier of the Rhine River.

Kelly Mass (Author), Digital Voice Matt G (Narrator)

Audiobook

State and Revolution

Lenin's original work on class-based revolution. In 1917, in the midst of two revolutions, Vladimir Ilich Lenin fled Russia for fear of persecution by the government. While in exile, he began work on one of his most important works, State and Revolution, an attempt to resurrect the purity of Marx's and Engels's socialist teachings, which Lenin claimed were subsumed and weakened by reformists who reduced the 'great revolutionaries' into 'harmless icons.' In State and Revolution, Lenin posits that the traditional role of the state in society is to maintain the control of the powerful, thus enabling the rich to exploit the poor. Because the ruling class will never willingly give up their political influence, social democracy-including parliamentary elections-is a false promise, and only results in a new crop of rich overlords lining up to 'repress and crush the people.' The sole way to bring true freedom and self-determination to all citizens, and throw off the 'yoke of capitalism,' is through Communist revolution-to 'smash the state.' As a result, the state would 'wither away,' and its bureaucrats would perform the will of the proletariat. This seminal work provides a practical application of socialist principles and it has greatly influenced theories of global capitalist development. Italian philosopher Lucio Colletti called State and Revolution 'Lenin's greatest contribution to political theory.' This audio edition is deftly narrated by Peter Coates.

Vladimir Ilich Lenin (Author), Peter Coates (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Italian] - Minimo Ottocento

Luciano Luciani (Author), Sandra Tedeschi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Towton and Bosworth: The History of the Wars of the Roses’ Most Important Battles

Today, roses are a sign of love and luxury, but for over 30 years, they provided the symbols for two houses at war for control of the English throne. Thousands of people died and many more were injured fighting beneath the white rose of York and the red rose of Lancaster, and the noble families ruling England tore each other apart in a struggle that was as bitter as it was bloody. Though what followed was a period of strong rule under the Tudors monarchs, it ultimately came at a terrible cost, and even then, it was through Elizabeth of York that the Tudor line received its legitimacy. After all, while Henry VII won his throne in battle, Elizabeth of York was the daughter of King Edward IV of England, a Yorkist monarch. Despite their limited social and economic impact, the political and personal dramas of the Wars of the Roses have ensured that they are well remembered and still part of the popular imagination. The most famous depictions of the period came from Shakespeare, whose earliest plays included Richard III and the three parts of Henry VI. Naturally, Shakespeare dramatized the tensions of what he presented as hugely destructive events, and his account, which showed the damage done by corruption and weak rule, and which turned Richard III into a popular villain, aimed to please the Tudor dynasty still in power at the time. Of course, it also played to a popular interest in high drama and the sort of personal and political conflicts that lay at the heart of the war. Indeed, the Wars of the Roses were perfect material for a drama about greed, power and ambition, and many others followed Shakespeare's example. From Henry Payne's painting of a Shakespearean scene in which the two sides of the war are picked to John Everett Millais's mournful portrait of the Princes in the Tower, these pictures often evoke the tension and sorrow of the period, bringing it dramatically to life.

Charles River Editors (Author), Victoria Woodson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Steppe Nomads: The History of the Different Nomadic Groups and Their Raids into Europe

Though history is usually written by the victors, the lack of a particularly strong writing tradition from the Mongols ensured that history was largely written by those who they vanquished. Because of this, their portrayal in the West and the Middle East has been extraordinarily (and in many ways unfairly) negative for centuries, at least until recent revisions to the historical record. The Mongols have long been depicted as wild horse-archers galloping out of the dawn to rape, pillage, murder and enslave, but the Mongol army was a highly sophisticated, minutely organized and incredibly adaptive and innovative institution, as witnessed by the fact that it was successful in conquering enemies who employed completely different weaponry and different styles of fighting, from Chinese armored infantry to Middle Eastern camel cavalry and Western knights and men-at-arms. Geographically the Tatars descend from several parts of Asia, particularly Central Asia, but the Crimean region has been the nexus of several great power rivalries and numerous conflicts. Yet the Crimean Tatars endured through many of these, aligning themselves with a number of larger powers and developing a reputation as fearsome warriors. Today the Tatars are mainly linked with and live in the Volga region of the Russian Federation. Indeed, Tatarstan is a republic in modern Russia. The “Volga Tatars” are perhaps the best known of the peoples known as Tatars and today number about 5 million people. Before the Mongols rode across the steppes of Asia and Eastern Europe, the Cumans were a major military and cultural force that monarchs from China to Hungary and from Russia to the Byzantine Empire faced, often losing armies and cities in the process. The Cumans were a tribe of Turkic nomads who rode the steppes looking for plunder and riches, but they rarely stayed long after they got what they wanted.

Charles River Editors (Author), Bill Caufield (Narrator)

Audiobook

Edinburgh

Presented by one of the legends of Edinburgh's cultural scene Richard Demarco, Edinburgh Through the Ages takes the listener on an historical and artistic journey around Scotland's great capital city. Starting with the development of the city as a bronze age settlement on the castle rock and on through the dangerous political climate of the 16th century, Edinburgh Through the Ages also shows how the city came of age during the Scottish 'enlightenment' becoming a hotbed of artistic and philosophical achievement as figures such as Allan Ramsey jr. and intellectuals like David Hume won it the title of 'the Athens of the Nort’. Edinburgh has also bequeathed more than its fair share of scientific inventions on the world from the pneumatic tyre to the television and the Forth Bridge which holds the title of the greatest engineering achievement of its time. Edinburgh Through the Ages examines the huge architectural legacy of a city which moved American President Thomas Jefferson to describe its New Town as one of the wonders of the age. The sporting life of the city is also examined, from the great rivalry between Hibs & Hearts to the hallowed turf of the Murrayfield rugby fortress as well as the legacy of having held two Commonwealth Games. Richard Demarco's own unique insights and astonishing knowledge of his home town will reveal the heart and soul of this most complex and beautiful of capital cities.

Richard Demarco (Author), Richard Demarco (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cardiff: Through The Ages

Roy Noble (Author), Roy Noble (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Defeat of the Damned: The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, Dece

One of the most notorious yet least understood body of troops that fought for the Third Reich during World War II was the infamous Sondereinheit Dirlewanger, or the 'Dirlewanger Special Unit.' Formed initially as a company-sized formation in June 1940 from convicted poachers, it served under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger, one of the most infamous criminals in military history. After assisting in putting down the Warsaw Uprising during 1944, by November of that year it had been enlarged and retitled as the 2. SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger. One month later, it fought one of its most controversial actions near the town of Ipolysag, Hungary. As a result of its overly hasty and haphazard deployment, lack of heavy armament, and a confusing chain of command, it was virtually destroyed by two Soviet mechanized corps. Consequently, the Wehrmacht leadership blamed Dirlewanger and the performance of his troops for the encirclement of the Hungarian capital of Budapest that led to the annihilation of its garrison two months later. The brigade's defeat at Ipolysag also led to its compulsory removal from the front lines and its eventual shipment to a rest area where it would be completely rebuilt. Despite its lackluster performance, the brigade was rebuilt again but never recovered from the thrashing it received at the hands of the 6th Guards Army.

Douglas E. Nash Sr., Douglas E. Nash, Sr. (Author), David Stifel (Narrator)

Audiobook

Europe Audiobooks in Travel