Europe Audiobooks | Travel

The King and the Christmas Tree: A heartwarming story and beautiful festive gift for young and old a

'An unlikely hero has a master storyteller to tell his tale. The King and the Christmas Tree is a poignant Christmas treat.' Lucy Worsley, historian, broadcaster and author Every December, a huge Christmas tree arrives in Trafalgar Square. Bedecked in lights, it is a shimmering, festive beacon in the heart of London. But even more enchanting than the twinkling decorations and scented pine is the story behind the tree; a story of loyalty, friendship and resistance. On a cold evening in 1940, German warships made their way towards Oslo. It seemed inevitable that Norway, like so many other European nations, would soon submit to the Nazi regime. But the country's indomitable King Haakon VII refused to surrender. Making his escape through his country towards the safe haven of Britain, King Haakon became an icon of hope for his people. And so, over seventy years later, the tree in Trafalgar Square remains as an enduring gift of thanks from Norway to the people of Britain. In The King and the Christmas Tree historian A. N. Wilson artfully weaves together this tale of courage and friendship between nations. Richly illustrated and beautifully told, it is a delightful Christmas cracker for everyone, young and old alike.

A.N. Wilson (Author), Saul Reichlin (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and the German March to Global War

Brought to you by Penguin. This gripping book dramatizes the extraordinarily compressed and terrifying period between the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war on the United States. These five days transformed much of the world and have shaped our own experience ever since. Simms and Laderman's aim in the book is to show how this agonizing period had no inevitability about it and that innumerable outcomes were possible. Key leaders around the world were taking decisions with often poor and confused information, under overwhelming pressure and knowing that they could be facing personal and national disaster. And yet, there were also long-standing assumptions that shaped these decisions, both consciously and unconsciously. Hitler's American Gamble is a superb work of history, both as an explanation for the course taken by the Second World War and as a study in statecraft and political choices. © Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman (Author), Damian Lynch (Narrator)

Audiobook

Whose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past

Whose Middle Ages? is an interdisciplinary collection of short, accessible essays intended for the nonspecialist reader and ideal for teaching at an undergraduate level. Each of twenty-two essays takes up an area where digging for meaning in the medieval past has brought something distorted back into the present: in our popular entertainment; in our news, our politics, and our propaganda; and in subtler ways that inform how we think about our histories, our countries, and ourselves. Each author looks to a history that has refused to remain past and uses the tools of the academy to read and re-read familiar stories, objects, symbols, and myths. Whose Middle Ages? gives nonspecialists access to the richness of our historical knowledge while debunking damaging misconceptions about the medieval past. Myths about the medieval period are especially beloved among the globally resurgent far right, from crusading emblems on the shields borne by alt-right demonstrators to the on-screen image of a purely white European populace, defended from actors of color by Internet trolls. This collection attacks these myths directly by insisting that readers encounter the relics of the Middle Ages on their own terms. Each essay uses its author’s academic research as a point of entry and takes care to explain how the author knows what she or he knows and what kinds of tools, bodies of evidence, and theoretical lenses allow scholars to write with certainty about elements of the past to a level of detail that might seem unattainable. By demystifying the methods of scholarly inquiry, Whose Middle Ages? serves as an antidote not only to the far right’s errors of fact and interpretation but also to its assault on scholarship and expertise as valid means for the acquisition of knowledge.

Andrew Albin, David Perry, Geraldine Heng, Mary C. Erler, Nicholas L. Paul, Nina Rowe, Thomas O'donnell (Author), Linda Henning (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Legend of Robin Hood: A Short Story (Ungekürzt)

After Chris was asked to co-write a new musical 'The Legend of Robin Hood' he also decided to embark on an album project expanding the idea with this accompanying audio book which he wrote and recorded,and you can now hear the legendary story with him as the narrator. 'Come away with me on a journey back in time, back to the 12th Century and the reign of King Richard of England, Richard The Lionheart, Richard Coeur de Lion. It was a time of great disruption all over Europe and the Middle East, with endless battles and strife, Crusades and skirmishes, Castles and Kings. Into this world was born Robert of Loxley, to be known as Robin, the son of the Earl of Huntingdon, a boy who was to have one of the most enduring names in history....welcome to The Legend of Robin Hood!' - Chris de Burgh

Chris De Burgh (Author), Chris De Burgh (Narrator)

Audiobook

Liebe in Zeiten des Hasses - Chronik eines Gefühls 1929-1939 (Ungekürzt)

Als Jean-Paul Sartre mit Simone de Beauvoir im Kranzler-Eck in Berlin Käsekuchen isst, Henry Miller und Anaïs Nin wilde Nächte in Paris erleben, F. Scott Fitzgerald und Frida Kahlo sich in leidenschaftliche Affären stürzen, fliehen Bertolt Brecht und Helene Weigel ins Exil. Genau das ist die Zeit, in der die Nazis die Macht in Deutschland ergreifen, Bücher verbrennen und die Gewalt gegen die Juden beginnt. 1933 enden die 'Goldenen Zwanziger' mit einer Vollbremsung. In einem virtuosen Epochengemälde führt Florian Illies uns zurück in ein Jahrzehnt berstender politischer und kultureller Spannungen. Eine mitreißend erzählte Reise in die Vergangenheit, die sich wie ein Kommentar zu unserer verunsicherten Gegenwart liest: Liebe in den Zeiten des Hasses.

Florian Illies (Author), Stephan Schad (Narrator)

Audiobook

Als Deutschland erstmals einig wurde - Reise in die Bismarckzeit (Ungekürzt)

Durch die Zeit reisen mit Bruno Preisendörfer Als sich Wilhelm I. - von Bismarck dazu gedrängt - 1871 zum Kaiser krönen ließ, war 'sein' Berlin noch 'die einzige europäische Großstadt, in welcher wir tagtäglich an den Ufern stinkender Rinnsteine wandeln' - eine Kanalisation gab es nicht. Als Bismarck 1890 ging, waren 144 Kilometer an Kanälen gebaut und 584 Kilometer an Rohrleitungen verlegt. Was das für die Nasen der Bewohner bedeutete, kann man in diesem Hörbuch erfahren. Ähnlich ging es überall. In unglaublicher Geschwindigkeit wurden Fabriken gebaut, die Bevölkerung vervielfachte sich, das Gefälle zwischen reich und arm wuchs enorm. In Bruno Preisendörfers Zeitreise tafeln wir mit Fontane, gehen mit Marx zur Arbeiterversammlung und mit dem Kaiser zur Krönung.

Bruno Preisendörfer (Author), Julian Mehne (Narrator)

Audiobook

Gott der Barbaren

Über den Verlust unserer Gewissheiten in chaotischen Zeiten China, Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Eine christliche Aufstandsbewegung überzieht das Kaiserreich mit Terror und Zerstörung. Ein junger deutscher Missionar, der bei der Modernisierung des riesigen Reiches helfen will, reist voller Idealismus nach Nanking, um sich ein Bild von der Rebellion zu machen. Dabei gerät er zwischen die Fronten eines Krieges, in dem er am Ende alles zu verlieren droht, was ihm wichtig ist. An den Brennpunkten des Konflikts – in Hongkong, Shanghai, Peking – begegnen wir einem Ensemble so zerrissener wie faszinierender Persönlichkeiten: darunter der britische Sonderbotschafter, der seine inneren Abgründe erst erkennt, als er ihnen nicht mehr entgehen kann, und der zum Kriegsherrn berufene chinesische Gelehrte, der so mächtig wird, dass selbst der Kaiser ihn fürchten muss. In seinem packenden neuen Buch erzählt Stephan Thome eine Vorgeschichte unserer krisengeschüttelten Gegenwart. Angeführt von einem christlichen Konvertiten, der sich für Gottes zweiten Sohn hält, errichten Rebellen in China einen Gottesstaat, der in verstörender Weise auf die Terrorbewegungen unserer Zeit vorausdeutet. Ein großer und weitblickender Roman über religiösen Fanatismus, über unsere Verführbarkeit und den Verlust an Orientierung in einer sich radikal verändernden Welt.

Stephan Thome (Author), Johannes Steck (Narrator)

Audiobook

Empire of Destruction: A History of Nazi Mass Killing

The first integrative history of Nazi mass killing—showing how policies of mass murder were crucial to the regime’s strategy to win the war Nazi Germany killed approximately thirteen million civilians and other noncombatants in deliberate policies of mass murder, overwhelmingly during the war years. Almost half the victims were Jewish, systematically destroyed in the Holocaust, the core of the Nazis’ pan-European racial purification program. Alex Kay argues that the genocide of European Jewry can also be examined in the wider context of Nazi mass killing. For the first time, Kay considers Europe’s Jews alongside all other major victim groups: captive Red Army soldiers, the Soviet urban population, unarmed civilian victims of preventive terror and reprisals, the mentally and physically disabled, the European Roma, and the Polish intelligentsia. He shows how each of these groups was regarded by the Nazi regime as a potential threat to Germany’s ability to successfully wage a war for hegemony in Europe. This groundbreaking work combines the full quantitative scale of the killings with the individual horror.

Alex J. Kay (Author), Tom Lawrence (Narrator)

Audiobook

Barbie y el Club de Hermanas Detectives 3 - El monstruo marino secreto

Un día, mientras están haciendo deporte, Teresa y Nikki, las amigas de Barbie, ven a lo lejos en el mar... ¡un monstruo marino! Las dos van deprisa a Barbie para que, junto con la ayuda de sus hermanas y sus fieles cachorritas, averigüen de dónde ha salido el monstruo. ¡Una aventura emocionante de las hermanas detectives! ¡Vive aventuras geniales con Barbie y sus amigas! Resuelve misterios con puertas secretas, monstruos marinos y mensajes embotellados; atrapa a villanos actuando como una espía, canta en la banda de rock de Barbie, celebra el cumpleaños de Chelsea en Dreamtopia y viaja a islas tropicales y a planetas en galaxias lejanas. ¡Vamos allá! 'La muñeca de Mattel es un ícono de la moda, una aventurera y la mejor amiga de miles de niñas. Desde 1950 está presente en hogares de todo el mundo y ha protagonizado innumerables programas de televisión, películas y libros. La popular serie de Netflix «Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures» sigue las aventuras de Barbie, sus hermanas y Ken, su novio, en Los Ángeles y en sus viajes por el mundo en la caravana de Barbie. La hermana pequeña de Barbie, Chelsea, es la protagonista de Barbie Dreamtopia, una serie para las más pequeñas de la casa donde todas las hermanas conocen a sirenas y hadas en un reino mágico. En los últimos años, Barbie ha arrasado en YouTube con sus videoblogs. Habla sobre moda, su familia y de la vida en Malibú, pero también aborda temas más delicados como el racismo, la salud mental y la imagen corporal. La nueva misión de Barbie es inspirar a jóvenes de todo el mundo para que sueñen a lo grande. La reciente colección de muñecas para el empoderamiento incluye a Manasi Joshi, atleta paralímpica india, y la futbolista estadounidense Alex Morgan. La colección «Mujeres inspiradoras» homenajea a heroínas como Maya Angelou, Florence Nightingale o la astronauta Sally Ride. Barbie y sus marcas asociadas son propiedad de Mattel y se utilizan bajo licencia de Mattel Europa. © 2021 Mattel'

Mattel (Author), Vanessa Pérez Jurado (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Battle of Castle Itter: The History of World War II’s Strangest Skirmish

The battle for Berlin would technically begin on April 16, 1945, and though it ended in a matter of weeks, it produced some of the war’s most climactic events and had profound implications on the immediate future. By the time the fighting mostly came to an end on May 2, Hitler had already committed suicide and the chain of German surrenders in the field outside of Berlin took off like dominoes. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 7, and news of the final surrender of the Germans was celebrated as Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) on May 8, 1945. One of the most crucial aspects of the final fighting was that while some Germans gave up and others committed suicide, there were others holding out or trying to escape, and that produced one of the war’s most unusual scenes. World War II brought about the creation and breaking of a number of alliances, which meant German and Soviet soldiers coordinated together before bitterly fighting each other after Germany’s invasion of Russia in 1941. Similarly, Italian soldiers began the war fighting the Allies until, in July 1943, Mussolini was deposed and Italian soldiers found themselves fighting with the Allies against the Germans. But neither of those situations truly compares to a skirmish fought in early May 1945, which featured Americans and Germans fighting together for the first and only time. And as if that wasn’t unbelievable enough, they were fighting the Waffen-SS. At stake was an Austrian castle that had served as a prison for some of the most senior French prisoners of war, including two former Prime Ministers. The SS had been responsible for guarding the castle, but after the guards abandoned it with the war coming to an end, American and German soldiers who had already surrendered defended the prisoners at the site. Nonetheless, in early May, a Waffen-SS unit was detailed to retake the castle.

Charles River Editors (Author), Jim Johnston (Narrator)

Audiobook

TWO REVOLUTIONS AND THE CONSTITUTION: How the English and American Revolutions Produced the American

“Two Revolutions and the Constitution” describes how the American Constitution secured the gains of the American Revolution. It tells the story of how the American constitutional system drew on both Americans' experience of partial self-government in colonial America and their understanding of the British constitution. It also tells how, when they were drafting the Constitution, the Framers used what they had learned about effective constitutions since independence. The English Revolution and the American Revolution were both part of a great struggle between a new modern society, and the political relics of the medieval world. This audiobook describes how the English started that struggle, and the American Constitution completed it. “Two Revolutions and the Constitution demonstrates that the American constitutional system – federalism, checks and balances, etc. – drew on the colonists’ understanding of British laws and government, although the final product grew from what the Founders felt they had learned about effective governance in the course of the American Revolution and the desperate War of Independence. This important book teaches about the building blocks of history. It demonstrates how ideas spring from experience and events, and from what historical actors concluded were earlier mistakes, in this instance the presumed flaws in the first state and national constitutions.” — John Ferling, author of “Winning Independence: The Decisive Years of the Revolutionary War, 1778-1781 (2021)”

James D. R. Philips (Author), James D. R. Philips (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Teutonic Knights: A Military History

The Teutonic Knights were powerful and ferocious advocates of holy war. Their history is suffused with crusading, campaigning and struggle. Feared by their enemies but respected by medieval Christendom, the knights and their Order maintained a firm hold over the Baltic and northern Germany and established a formidable regime which flourished across Central Europe for 300 years.This major new book surveys the gripping history of the knights and their Order and relates their rise to power; their struggles against Prussian pagans; the series of wars against Poland and Lithuania; the clash with Alexander Nevsky's Russia; and the gradual stagnation of the order in the fourteenth century. The book is replete with dramatic episodes - such as the battle on frozen Lake Peipus in 1242, or the disaster of Tannenberg - but focuses primarily on the knights' struggle to maintain power, fend off incursions and raiding bands and to launch crusades against unbelieving foes. And it was the crusade which chiefly characterised and breathed life into this Holy Order. William Urban's narrative charts the rise and fall of the Order and, in an accessible and engaging style, throws light on a band of knights whose deeds and motives have long been misunderstood.

William Urban (Author), Brian Troxell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Europe Audiobooks in Travel