Churchill's Shadow
The Life and Afterlife of Winston Churchill
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Keeble
About this listen
Winston Churchill is generally considered one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century, revered for his opposition to appeasement, his defiance in the face of German bombing of England, his political prowess, and his memorable speeches. He became the savior of his country, as prime minister during the most perilous period in British history, World War II, and is now perhaps even more beloved in America than in England.
And yet Churchill was also very often in the wrong: He brazenly contradicted his own previous political stances, was a disastrous military strategist, and inspired dislike and distrust through much of his life. Before 1939 he doubted the efficacy of tank and submarine warfare, opposed the bombing of cities only to reverse his position, shamelessly exploited the researchers and ghostwriters who wrote much of the journalism and the books published under his name, and had an inordinate fondness for alcohol that once found him drinking whiskey before breakfast. When he was appointed to the cabinet for the first time in 1908, a perceptive journalist called him "the most interesting problem of personal speculation in English politics".
This revelatory book takes on Churchill in his entirety, separating the man from the myth that he so carefully cultivated, and scrutinizing his legacy on both sides of the Atlantic.
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First Principles
- What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation's founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders' thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works—among them the Iliad, Plutarch's Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero.
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Excellent book, opinionated epilogue.
- By Noetic Seeker on 01-23-21
By: Thomas E. Ricks
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Hitler's True Believers
- How Ordinary People Became Nazis
- By: Robert Gellately
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Understanding Adolf Hitler's ideology provides insights into the mental world of an extremist politics that, over the course of the Third Reich, developed explosive energies culminating in the Second World War and the Holocaust. Too often the theories underlying National Socialism or Nazism are dismissed as an irrational hodgepodge of ideas. Yet that ideology drove Hitler's quest for power in 1933, colored everything in the Third Reich, and transformed him, however briefly, into the most powerful leader in the world.
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Fascinating listen
- By Amy Neff on 12-15-22
By: Robert Gellately
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Europe's Last Summer
- By: David Fromkin
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The early summer of 1914 was the most glorious Europeans could remember. But, behind the scenes, the most destructive war the world had yet known was moving inexorably into being, a war that would continue to resonate into the 21st century. The question of how the Great War of 1914 began has long vexed historians. In a gripping narrative, Fromkin shows that hostilities were started deliberately and that two wars were waged, one serving as pretext for the other.
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A different take on the events leading to the Great War
- By Chris on 09-04-20
By: David Fromkin
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Churchill
- The Prophetic Statesman
- By: James C. Humes
- Narrated by: Matthew Brenher
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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James C. Humes reveals the astonishingly accurate predictions of Britain's most famous prime minister and how his critics' perceptions of them shaped his political career. Who could have foreseen the start of World War I twenty-five years before the assassination of a Serbian archduke plunged Europe into war? Who could have predicted the rise of al-Qaeda nearly eight decades before anyone had heard of Osama bin Laden? Winston Churchill did.
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The voice in the wilderness--Are we listening yet?
- By Jean on 12-16-12
By: James C. Humes
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JFK
- Coming of Age in the American Century, 1917-1956
- By: Fredrik Logevall
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 29 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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By the time of his assassination in 1963, John F. Kennedy stood at the helm of the greatest power the world had ever seen, a booming American nation that he had steered through some of the most perilous diplomatic standoffs of the Cold War. Born in 1917 to a striving Irish American family that had become among Boston’s wealthiest, Kennedy knew political ambition from an early age, and his meteoric rise to become the youngest elected president cemented his status as one of the most mythologized figures in American history.
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Excellent Portrait of JFK & His Times
- By John David on 12-14-20
By: Fredrik Logevall
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Crucible
- The Long End of the Great War and the Birth of a New World, 1917-1924
- By: Charles Emmerson
- Narrated by: Charles Emmerson
- Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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In Petrograd, a fire is lit. The Tsar is packed off to Siberia. A rancorous Russian exile returns to proclaim a workers' revolution. In America, black soldiers who have served their country in Europe demand their rights at home. An Austrian war veteran trained by the German army to give rousing speeches against the Bolshevik peril begins to rail against the Jews. A solar eclipse turns a former patent clerk into a celebrity. An American reporter living the high life in Paris searches out a new literary style.
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Splendid in all respects
- By Paul Custer on 02-11-20
By: Charles Emmerson
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The Treaty of Versailles: A Captivating Guide to the Peace Treaty That Ended World War 1 and Its Impact on Germany and the Rise of Adolf Hitler
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Though the men of Versailles (and they were overwhelmingly men) had arrived in Paris to put an end to World War I, by the time the conference ended, the main goal of the diplomats and national leaders had turned into ending wars for all time. Obviously, that did not work, and as a matter of fact, the end result of the Paris Peace Conference - the Treaty of Versailles - would likely cause more wars than any of its authors could have possibly dreamed of, including World War II.
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Good Introduction
- By Jean AR on 06-15-20
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Three Days at the Brink
- FDR’s Daring Gamble to Win World War II
- By: Bret Baier, Catherine Whitney
- Narrated by: Bret Baier
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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From the number-one best-selling author of Three Days in Moscow and anchor of Fox News Channel’s Special Report with Bret Baier, a gripping history of the secret meeting that set the stage for victory in World War II - the now-forgotten 1943 Tehran Conference, where Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin plotted the war's endgame, including the D-Day invasion.
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A history lesson and SO much more
- By ScottG on 11-18-19
By: Bret Baier, and others
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Oblivion or Glory
- 1921 and the Making of Winston Churchill
- By: David Stafford
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an engaging and original account of 1921, a pivotal year for Winston Churchill that had a lasting impact on his political and personal legacy. After the tragic consequences of his involvement in the catastrophic Dardanelles Campaign of World War I, Churchill’s political career seemed over. He was widely regarded as little more than a bombastic and unpredictable buccaneer until, in 1921, an unexpected inheritance heralded a series of events that laid the foundations for his future success.
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Great explanation if this great m Chirchill’s an
- By David Hitchins on 10-25-20
By: David Stafford
What listeners say about Churchill's Shadow
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Flash
- 11-23-22
Meh, with a few gold nuggets
Not a pleasant read for Churchill fans but tolerable for those that want a nuanced contrarian view to balance their outlook. The three biggest indictments are Churchill was racist but that indictment applies to most Western Leaders regardless of political leanings. The author attempts to levy the charge by standards of Churchill's own time but makes no compelling argument to that end. The second indictment that his political positions and party changed as his perceived political opportunities did. Really? Political elites sometimes adapt their positions to political tides, blunder, and maneuver to make money and avoid taxes. Say it isn't so . Nevertheless, there is some value in pointing out that History's Giants are human and flawed and not the mythical figures we tend to make them. But again no compelling argument that anyone else in Churchills position would inevitably have done better is offered. Finally, the one indictment that does have considerable merit is the misapplication of Churchill's legacy --his shadow--by subsequent political elites especially the abuse and misuse of the Munich (appeasement) analogy. The author analyzes many in the subsequent decades and makes a compelling point that Churchills shadow in these cases backfired with disastrous consequences. Wheatcroft rightly suggests Churchill himself might cringe at how his legacy has been appropriated.
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- Norm the Nonfiction Reader
- 04-12-22
A well balanced telling of the impact of Churchill
Basically this book pulls no punches while describing the actual actions of Winston Churchill, the good and the ugly. It shows how the myth of Churchill has been used by both the English and the Americans to promote their own political agendas all the way through the Trump attempt to prevent President Biden from being seated as the legally elected President in January of 2021.
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- Regina
- 12-16-24
Extraordinary, highly engaging work of historical scholarship.
This is a masterpiece of historical scholarship with well founded opinionated views that change our understanding of many events and personalities. The reader does a marvelous job of expressing many nuances in the voice of Churchill utterances and those of many others. Written with wit, wisdom, and an impressive flair of vocabulary. The scope of history is wide and the new understandings it brings to the man and his milieu and his impact is extraordinary. A literary and historical work that will last for ages.
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- J. G.
- 11-02-21
Respectful but not reverential
It is sometimes tricky to sparse historical figures from their legend. In the modern psyche, Churchill is as much if not more myth as he is a historical figure. In contrast to more reverential biographies, this book depicts Churchill as a man with biases, courage, failures, and some successes. Since we’re so primed to expect glowing accounts of the legend, this book, despite the author’s evident respect for the man, can come across as an indictment. It is not so much an indictment as it is a fair accounting of the titular man.
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- SaavyConsumer
- 12-13-21
A solid, yet, wonderfully written book.
Wheatcroft wrote, what I hoped, most biographers would write about anyone. Winston Churchill is two individuals in one person. There is Churchill the fictional character and Churchill the person; this biography was about the latter with a denunciation of the former.
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- Arlene
- 01-30-22
A few facts and a quote in context, would be nice.
I have read number of books recounting many aspects of Churchill's life in politics and war. This one is absurd, with so few substantiating facts, continuous innuendo and endless out of context quotes, none of which he even attempts to verify the context. Some quote are as much as 300 years before the man's time with little attempt to brig relevance tothe quote. Faulting Churchill in the 30's for his failure to perfectly predict every European event leading to the Second World War stretched credulity, particularly with him getting so much of it right when no one else did. The book is nothing more than an envious socialist's ramblings and determination to sully Churchill's image in every way possible. I could not finish it.
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- 63Cobra
- 05-26-24
Leftist Negativity
Overall, I disliked what is a thinly disguised, long, leftist rant, attempting to influence current politics.
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- Michael G Pollack
- 06-13-22
Cynical and negatively biased perspectives
Far from a balanced view. Cynical and negatively biased perspectives on politicians, Americans, Churchill’s legacy and the Great man himself. Inflammatory viewpoints on events and leaders portrayed as facts. Condescending attitudes throughout, that at times made it difficult to push through to the end.
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2 people found this helpful