The Pentagon
A History
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The Pentagon
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Narrated by:
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Paul Heitsch
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By:
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Steve Vogel
About this listen
The creation of the Pentagon in 17 whirlwind months during World War II is one of the great construction feats in American history, involving a tremendous mobilization of manpower, resources, and minds. In astonishingly short order, Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell conceived and built an institution that ranks with the White House, the Vatican, and a handful of other structures as symbols recognized around the world. Now veteran military reporter Steve Vogel reveals for the first time the remarkable story of the Pentagon's construction, from its dramatic birth to its rebuilding after the September 11 attack.
The Pentagon's post-World War II history is told through its critical moments, including the troubled birth of the Department of Defense during the Cold War, the tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the tumultuous 1967 protest against the Vietnam War. The pivotal attack on September 11 is related with chilling new detail, as is the race to rebuild the damaged Pentagon, a restoration that echoed the spirit of its creation.
This study of a single enigmatic building tells a broader story of modern American history, from the eve of World War II to the new wars of the 21st century. Steve Vogel has crafted a dazzling work of military social history.
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Checkpoint Charlie
- The Cold War, the Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
- By: Iain MacGregor
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce Lockhart
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
A powerful, fascinating, and groundbreaking history of Checkpoint Charlie, the famous military gate on the border of East and West Berlin where the US confronted the USSR during the Cold War.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Hard to follow
- By J.Brock on 03-07-21
By: Iain MacGregor
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Countdown 1945
- The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World
- By: Chris Wallace, Mitch Weiss
- Narrated by: Chris Wallace
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,210
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,882
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,868
April 12, 1945: After years of bloody conflict in Europe and the Pacific, America is stunned by news of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s death. In an instant, Vice President Harry Truman, who has been kept out of war planning and knows nothing of the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop the world’s first atomic bomb, must assume command of a nation at war on multiple continents—and confront one of the most consequential decisions in history. Countdown 1945 tells the gripping true story of the turbulent days, weeks, and months to follow.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Chris Wallace killed it!
- By Gaming Pancakes on 06-11-20
By: Chris Wallace, and others
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Checkmate in Berlin
- The Cold War Showdown That Shaped the Modern World
- By: Giles Milton
- Narrated by: Giles Milton
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 179
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Story5 out of 5 stars 147
From a master of popular history, the lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II as it’s never been told before.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent history of the early days of the Cold War
- By Matt on 08-28-21
By: Giles Milton
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The Apocalypse Factory
- Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
- By: Steve Olson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 101
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
It began with plutonium, the first element ever manufactured in quantity by humans. Fearing that the Germans would be the first to weaponize the atom, the United States marshaled brilliant minds and seemingly inexhaustible bodies to find a way to create a nuclear chain reaction of inconceivable explosive power. In a matter of months, the Hanford nuclear facility was built to produce and weaponize the enigmatic and deadly new material that would fuel atomic bombs.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Lacking in many aspects
- By ATM on 08-27-20
By: Steve Olson
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The Arsenal of Democracy
- FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War
- By: A. J. Baime
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,559
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,413
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,411
The Arsenal of Democracy tells the incredible story of how Detroit answered the call, centering on Henry Ford and his tortured son Edsel, who, when asked if they could deliver 50,000 airplanes, made an outrageous claim: Ford Motor Company would erect a plant that could yield a “bomber an hour”. Critics scoffed: Ford didn’t make planes; they made simple, affordable cars. But bucking his father’s resistance, Edsel charged ahead.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Misleading title
- By Kindle Customer on 12-01-14
By: A. J. Baime
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There Will Be Fire
- Margaret Thatcher, the IRA, and Two Minutes That Changed History
- By: Rory Carroll
- Narrated by: John Keating
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
A bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded at 2:54 a.m. on October 12, 1984. It was the last day of the Conservative Party Conference at the Grand Hotel in the coastal town of Brighton, England. Rooms were obliterated, dozens of people wounded, five killed. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was in her suite when the explosion occurred; had she been just a few feet in another direction, flying tiles and masonry would have sliced her to ribbons. As it was, she survived—and history changed.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A Very British Point of View
- By CaitB on 07-25-23
By: Rory Carroll
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The Accidental President
- Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World
- By: A. J. Baime
- Narrated by: Tony Messano
- Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,269
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,973
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,965
The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman's first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional
- By Jean on 11-14-17
By: A. J. Baime
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A Pretext for War
- 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies
- By: James Bamford
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
This book says outright what many have merely hinted at: that President George W. Bush knowingly misused the findings of the erroneous and incompetent U.S. intelligence community to provide a pretext for war with Iraq. The author hones in on the systematic weaknesses of the intelligence agencies that caused them to ignore the crucial signs leading up to the attacks of 9/11.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A must read before you vote
- By FGP on 09-30-04
By: James Bamford
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The Hidden Nazi
- The Untold Story of America’s Deal with the Devil
- By: Dean Reuter, Colm Lowery, Keith Chester
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 503
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 450
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 450
Sidekick to SS Chief Heinrich Himmler and supervisor of Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun, General Hans Kammler was responsible for the construction of Hitler's slave labor sites and concentration camps. He personally altered the design of Auschwitz to increase crowding, ensuring that epidemic diseases would complement the work of the gas chambers. Why has the world forgotten this monster? Kammler was declared dead after the war. But the aide who testified to Kammler's supposed "suicide" never produced the general's dog tags or any other proof of death.
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1 out of 5 stars
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10 minutes of content hidden in a 12+ hour book
- By Scott G on 10-21-19
By: Dean Reuter, and others
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Fallout
- The Hiroshima Cover-Up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World
- By: Lesley M.M. Blume
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 276
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 232
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 234
Just days after the United States decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. But even before the surrender, the US government and military had begun a secret propaganda and information suppression campaign to hide the devastating nature of these experimental weapons. The cover-up intensified as Occupation forces closed the atomic cities to Allied reporters, preventing leaks about the horrific long-term effects of radiation that would kill thousands during the months after the blast.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Required reading (listening, too)!
- By Michael Griffin on 08-13-20
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Imperial Life in the Emerald City
- By: Rajiv Chandrasekaran
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 888
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 530
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Story4 out of 5 stars 537
The Washington Post's former Baghdad bureau chief, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, takes us into the Green Zone, headquarters for the American occupation in Iraq. In this bubble separated from wartime realities, the task of reconstructing Iraq is in the hands of 20-somethings chosen for their Republican Party loyalty. They pursue irrelevant neoconservative solutions and pie-in-the-sky policies instead of rebuilding looted buildings and restoring electricity, angering the locals and fueling the insurgency.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A stunning work and performance
- By Rick Grant on 04-25-07
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Ordinary Heroes
- A Memoir of 9/11
- By: Joseph Pfeifer
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 360
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 318
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Story5 out of 5 stars 318
When Chief Joe Pfeifer led his firefighters to investigate an odor of gas in downtown Manhattan on the morning of 9/11, he had no idea that his life was about to change forever. A few moments later, he watched as the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Pfeifer, the closest FDNY chief to the scene, spearheaded rescue efforts on one of the darkest days in American history.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An amazing account
- By Anonymous User on 09-09-21
By: Joseph Pfeifer
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Road to Surrender
- Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II
- By: Evan Thomas
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 129
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 113
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Story5 out of 5 stars 113
So begins this suspenseful, impeccably researched history that draws on new access to diaries to tell the story of three men who were intimately involved with America’s decision to drop the atomic bomb—and Japan’s decision to surrender. They are Henry Stimson, the American Secretary of War, who oversaw J. Robert Oppenheimer under the Manhattan Project; Gen. Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, head of strategic bombing in the Pacific, who supervised the planes that dropped the bombs; and Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Why they decided to drop the atomic bombs
- By William R. Todd-Mancillas (Name includes hyphen and capitalized M). on 08-08-23
By: Evan Thomas
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109 East Palace
- Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos
- By: Jennet Conant
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 289
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 197
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 196
They were told as little as possible. Their orders were to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report for work at a classified Manhattan Project site, a location so covert it was known to them only by the mysterious address: 109 East Palace.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great Listen
- By John H. Davis III on 10-22-05
By: Jennet Conant
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Red Line
- The Unraveling of Syria and America's Race to Destroy the Most Dangerous Arsenal in the World
- By: Joby Warrick
- Narrated by: Barrett Leddy
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 94
In 2012, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was clinging to power in a vicious civil war. When intelligence revealed that the dictator might resort to using chemical weapons, Pres. Obama warned that doing so would cross “a red line”. Assad did it anyway, killing hundreds of civilians and forcing Obama to decide if he would mire America in another unpopular war. When Russia offered to broker the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons, Obama leapt at the out. So begins an electrifying race to find, remove, and destroy 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in the midst of a raging civil war.
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3 out of 5 stars
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An excellent story for Three Quarters of the Book
- By D. MacLean on 05-11-21
By: Joby Warrick
What listeners say about The Pentagon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- R. Williams
- 07-21-22
Fascinating details!
Excellent documentation of remarkable history! Full of irony and inside connection with the characters and the building.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eric G.
- 02-02-23
Motivational and complete
Incredible dialogue and story line that really breathes life into the building. Anyone that works in the Pentagon will find a refreshing motivation.
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