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American Caesar
- Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 31 hrs and 53 mins
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Strange Person
- By Mark on 11-25-14
By: John Toland
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Alone
- Britain, Churchill, and Dunkirk: Defeat into Victory
- By: Michael Korda
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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An epic of remarkable originality, Alone captures the heroism of World War II as movingly as any book in recent memory. Bringing to vivid life the world leaders, generals, and ordinary citizens who fought on both sides of the war, Michael Korda, the best-selling author of Clouds of Glory, chronicles the outbreak of hostilities, recalling as a prescient young boy the enveloping tension that defined pre-Blitz London, and then as a military historian the great events that would alter the course of the 20th century.
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Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-11-17
By: Michael Korda
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Partners in Command
- George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace
- By: Mark Perry
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 17 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book ever to explore the relationship between George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower, Partners in Command eloquently tackles a subject that has eluded historians for years. As Mark Perry charts the crucial impact of this duo on victory in World War II and later as they lay the foundation for triumph in the Cold War, he shows us an unlikely, complex collaboration at the heart of decades of successful American foreign policy - and shatters many of the myths that have evolved about these two great men and the issues that tested their alliance.
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Engrossing
- By Jean on 03-02-21
By: Mark Perry
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Churchill
- Walking with Destiny
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 50 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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When we seek an example of great leaders with unalloyed courage, the person who comes to mind is Winston Churchill: the iconic, visionary war leader immune from the consensus of the day, who stood firmly for his beliefs when everyone doubted him. But how did young Winston become Churchill? What gave him the strength to take on the superior force of Nazi Germany when bombs rained on London and so many others had caved? In this landmark biography of Winston Churchill based on extensive new material, the true genius of the man, statesman, and leader can finally be fully understood.
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Superb Biography
- By Jean on 03-03-19
By: Andrew Roberts
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Brute
- The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine
- By: Robert Coram
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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From the earliest days of his 34-year military career, Victor "Brute" Krulak displayed a remarkable facility for applying creative ways of fighting to the Marine Corps. He went on daring spy missions, was badly wounded, pioneered the use of amphibious vehicles, and masterminded the invasion of Okinawa. In Korea, he was a combat hero and invented the use of helicopters in warfare.
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Leaves a deep impression while also entertaining
- By PaulaD on 04-26-15
By: Robert Coram
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Patton, Montgomery, Rommel
- Masters of War
- By: Terry Brighton
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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In the Second World War, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany each produced one land-force commander who stood out from the rest: George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. All were arrogant, publicity seeking, and personally flawed, yet each possessed a genius for command and an unrivaled enthusiasm for combat.
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Excellent ... Patton, Montgomery, Rommel
- By John VandenBrook on 01-10-10
By: Terry Brighton
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MacArthur at War
- World War II in the Pacific
- By: Walter R. Borneman
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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World War II changed the course of history. Douglas MacArthur changed the course of World War II. Macarthur at War goes deeper into this transformative period of his life than previous biographies, drilling into the military strategy that Walter R. Borneman is so skilled at conveying and exploring how personality and ego translate into military successes and failures.
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An interesting, but flawed, history
- By Mike From Mesa on 07-29-16
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Top notch
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David Halberstam, an avid sports writer with an investigative reporter’s tenacity, superbly details the end of the 15-year reign of the New York Yankees in October 1964. That October found the Yankees going head-to-head with the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series pennant. Expertly weaving the narrative threads of both teams’ seasons, Halberstam brings the major personalities on the field - from switch-hitter Mickey Mantle to pitcher Bob Gibson - to life. Using the teams’ subcultures, Halberstam also analyzes the cultural shifts of the '60s.
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an excellent baseball book
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What listeners say about American Caesar
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Bebe
- 10-05-13
Best biography
I've listened to many biographies, and this one is the best. I'd never thought much about MacArthur before I listened to this book. I'd just thought he was an egotistical old general. Now I know that he was one of the towering figures of the last century. If you are interested in WWII, the Korean War, or a history of Japan, you need to listen to this book.
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- Remy LeClair
- 04-17-20
Loved it!
A true American hero in all senses of the word.
I wish he would have punched that coward Truman in the face.
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- David M Dewhirst
- 04-14-18
Masterfully written and narrated.
Manchester is, of course, a genius. This book joins his works on Churchill and the Middle Ages as a beautiful literary tribute to their subjects and the craft. Manchester’s prose is perhaps the greatest of the American 20th Century.
He was aided by extraordinary subject matter. The General deserves volumes, and only Manchester could do him justice in one.
Gardner does really well narrating. He fits the time and subject matter, particularly as the narrative rolls into WWI and beyond.
Great read!
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- Michael
- 02-25-23
Great Read
It was great hearing information about so many important historic events through an important person that was there for all of those events.
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- Chase Lehrman
- 03-03-23
A biography with great historical context
The author did a wonderful job of positioning the history into what is happening and how MacArthur would feel about it.
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- Mr.BNatural
- 02-01-24
Mesmerizing
I picked this up for sale mainly because I love Grover Gardner. I ended up listening to the majority of this tome when I was hiking across Scotland and I could not possibly love it more. It was awfully educational for me and with my favorite narrator at the helm it was like a free Harvard lecture series. I wish there were more titles like this.
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- Piper
- 05-19-24
Engaging
Very informative — obviously a lot of work went into this book. For my taste, I would have preferred a strict adherence to reporting and none of the author’s opinions. The book was written in the 1970’s, from a comfortable, middle class, lifestyle. The author had been involved in World War II, in the Pacific, 30 years earlier. It seems obvious to me, at least, that this experience and the intervening years could not help but color his views.
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- Barry
- 08-18-12
Thorough and detailed
MacArthur deserves to be better remembered. He's in jeopardy of being recalled merely as the guy Truman had to fire for insubordination. But he was a complex character: arrogant, brilliant, the consummate military commander, perennial outsider. Eventually, the powers that be found a proper use for him, keeping the Japanese busy while they focused on Europe. MacArthur was understandably a little paranoid given the way he was treated, but whether he ever understood how he was being used is a mystery this book never answers. Maybe it cannot be answered. The book is comprehensive in its scope, and the author works hard not to draw inferences unsupported by his sources. This is the virtue of good biography and also its shortcoming. Because why do we read biography if not to understand what the subject was thinking or feeling? For all the documentation about MacArthur and all the witnesses who knew him, there just isn't that much information about his internal life. Of course, MacArthur had a vested interest in cultivating his own version of himself. Manchester does about as well as anyone could in reconstructing MacArthur.
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9 people found this helpful
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- kimberly n. abrams
- 02-24-20
They don’t come like him anymore
My father, being a Marine veteran of World War II, had nothing good to say about MacArthur. I found out later that most Marines who served in that war shared his views. Based on his opinion alone, I disliked MacArthur, though I didn’t know why exactly.
While there are a couple of incidents in the book that reflect why the Marines couldn’t stand him, one being his refusal to award the 6th Marines a unit decoration while awarding one to the Army for the same action for the reason that the Marines already had enough decorations, I don’t understand the animosity. According to Manchester, he didn’t have much to do with the Marines except for one or two combined operations in the SW Pacific and at Inchon in the Korean War. I was intrigued to learn that he was very careful of his men’s lives and that it was Nimitz that was less so of the Marine lives, frequently ordering frontal assaults with inadequate softening bombardments, not to mention poorly supplying them for the task at hand. It was a great source of frustration to the Marines, when sharing space with GIs that the latter was so profusely supplied with eguipment, gear, food and luxuries when they themselves were near starvation and in rags.
All that aside, I have gained a huge appreciation of MacArthur. I agree with Manchester’s assertion that truly great men have great egos to match. But I really got the sense that he not only loved his job, but that he loved and deeply cared for HIS people, whether GI’s, Philippinos, the Japanese, the Corps at West Point.
This book convinced me he was a GOOD man, an excellent general and an exemplary leader. Seriously flawed, yes, but worthy of the adulation he craved. Well done.
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- Heather Smith
- 06-19-22
Very interesting
This was a great book about a man an important time if history. Very long, but interesting the whole way through
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