Great Cities
Their History and Culture
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Great Cities
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Narrated by:
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Tim Rumboll
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By:
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DK
About this listen
Delve into the social and cultural history of 100 of the world's most important cities.
From the first towns in Mesopotamia to today's global metropolises, cities have marked the progress of civilization. Great Cities offers a rich historical overview of each featured city.
The latest title in the series style of Artists, Writers, Philosophers, and Composers, this lavish audiobook goes under the skin of cities both ancient and modern - from Persepolis and Tikal, Paris and Vienna to Prague, Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Dubai. Which ancient civilization founded the precursor to Mexico City? Why was Venice the gateway to the East? What was the Belle Epoque? Which was the first city to build sewers? Great Cities takes you there, and tells you all this and more.
A book not just about history but also about art, architecture, commerce, and politics, Great Cities provides a fascinating insight into what has shaped the places where we live. Perfect for history, geography, and arts enthusiasts.
©2021 DK (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 88
This global history as the Chinese would write it gives brilliant and unconventional insights for understanding China's role in the world, especially the drive to "Make China Great Again." In this colorful, informative story filled with fascinating characters, epic battles, influential thinkers, and decisive moments, we come to understand how the Chinese view their own history and how its narrative is distinctly different from that of Western civilization.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Nice overview
- By Matthew G. Towner on 08-12-20
By: Michael Schuman
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History of the Philippines
- A Captivating Guide to Philippine History
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 4 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 59
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 54
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
Discover the fascinating Philippines in this captivating audiobook on its history, from the origins of the archipelago’s first peoples until modern times. The Philippines is possibly the most intriguing nation of maritime Southeast Asia. The archipelago has almost 8,000 islands that form the apex of the Coral Triangle of the Asian Pacific, as well as abundant marine life that constitutes almost half of this magnificent area’s oceanic megadiversity.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Horrible…dated “history” from the perspective of colonizers
- By Ericka Black on 06-29-23
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Metropolis
- A History of the City, Humankind's Greatest Invention
- By: Ben Wilson
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 138
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 138
In a captivating tour of cities famous and forgotten, acclaimed historian Ben Wilson tells the glorious, millennia-spanning story how urban living sparked humankind's greatest innovations.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Sorry that I can’t rate it higher
- By BCM on 12-28-20
By: Ben Wilson
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The Invention of Sicily
- A Mediterranean History
- By: Jamie Mackay
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Sicily has always acted as a gateway between Europe and the rest of the world. Fought over by the Phoenicians and Greeks, the Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, and the Spanish and the French for thousands of years, Sicily became a unique melting pot where diverse traditions merged, producing a unique heritage and singular culture. In this fascinating account of the island from the earliest times to the present day, author and journalist Jamie Mackay leads us through this most elusive of places.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful overview of Sicily
- By jay lazier on 01-28-24
By: Jamie Mackay
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Palestine
- A Four Thousand Year History
- By: Nur Masalha
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
This rich and magisterial work traces Palestine's millennia-old heritage, uncovering cultures and societies of astounding depth and complexity that stretch back to the very beginnings of recorded history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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More political manifesto than history book
- By Peter Deane on 12-06-22
By: Nur Masalha
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India
- A Captivating Guide to the History of India, the East India Company and Dutch East India Company
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Randy Whitlow
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
This three-in-one audiobook includes three books on the captivating history of India. The first book covers the history of India from the ancient times to the modern era. The second book focuses on the East India Company, and the third book is about the Dutch East India Company. Learn more about India with this audiobook.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding
- By Willow on 05-11-20
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Powers and Thrones
- A New History of the Middle Ages
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 24 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,675
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,445
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,439
When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era—and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names—from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet Muhammad and Eleanor of Aquitaine—Dan Jones charges through the history of the Middle Ages. Powers and Thrones takes listeners on a journey through an emerging Europe, the great capitals of late Antiquity, as well as the influential cities of the Islamic West.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Hard to take a break from it!
- By Mariano's Music on 12-09-21
By: Dan Jones
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The Greeks
- A Global History
- By: Roderick Beaton
- Narrated by: Anna Crowe
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek city-states, led by Athens and Sparta, laid the foundation for much of modern science, the arts, politics, and law. But the influence of the Greeks did not end with the rise and fall of this classical civilization. As historian Roderick Beaton illustrates, over three millennia Greek speakers produced a series of civilizations that were rooted in southeastern Europe but again and again ranged widely across the globe.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Ethnography of the Greeks
- By gmurphy92 on 03-27-22
By: Roderick Beaton
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Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali
- Musa’s Development of Timbuktu and His Legacy as the Richest Man in the World
- By: Jason Watson
- Narrated by: Cassius Bunyan
- Length: 1 hr and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4 out of 5 stars 36
Africa in the 13th century lay in ruins due to countless civil wars and the ensuing famine. Amid the hopelessness arose a man who began to rebuild the ravaged diaspora. He instituted a government that was so efficient at managing the country of Mali that soon it was the most progressive nation on the continent. Not long after, one by one, the neighboring countries began to join the fold, until all of West Africa constituted a single empire.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Someone published their high school book report
- By Rory Stennett on 11-12-24
By: Jason Watson
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The Germans and Europe
- A Personal Frontline History
- By: Peter Millar
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Story4 out of 5 stars 37
Based on a lifetime living in and reporting on Germany and Central Europe, award-winning journalist and author Peter Millar tackles the fascinating and complex story of the people at the heart of our continent. Focussing on nine cities (only six of which are in the Germany of today), he takes us on a zigzag ride back through time via the fall of the Berlin Wall through the horrors of two world wars and the patchwork states of the Middle Ages to the splendour of Charlemagne and the fall of Rome.
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5 out of 5 stars
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One of the best books I have listened to on here
- By Shaun on 05-17-18
By: Peter Millar
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A Brief History of Korea
- Isolation, War, Despotism and Revival: The Fascinating Story of a Resilient But Divided People
- By: Michael J. Seth
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
Korea was one of the last countries in Asia to be visited by Westerners, and its borders have remained largely unchanged since it was unified in the seventh century. Though it is one of the world's oldest and most ethnically homogeneous states, Korea was not born in a vacuum. Geographically isolated, the country was heavily influenced by powerful China and was often used as a bridge to the mainland by Japan. Calling themselves as "a shrimp among whales", Koreans borrowed elements of government, culture, and religion, all the while fiercely fighting to maintain independence.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Loved the historical context but ..
- By Kathy on 01-06-20
By: Michael J. Seth
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 148
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story4 out of 5 stars 121
To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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Vanished Kingdoms
- The Rise and Fall of States and Nations
- By: Norman Davies
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 30 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 231
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 187
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 185
There is something profoundly romantic about lost civilizations. Davies peers through the cracks in the mainstream accounts of modern-day states to dazzle us with extraordinary stories of barely remembered pasts, and of the traces they left behind. This is Norman Davies at his best: sweeping narrative history packed with unexpected insights. Vanished Kingdoms will appeal to all fans of unconventional and thought-provoking history, from listeners of Niall Ferguson to Jared Diamond.
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3 out of 5 stars
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needs a good editor.
- By Ryan Anderson on 09-25-21
By: Norman Davies
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Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World
- By: Philip Matyszak
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 291
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 247
This thorough guide explores those civilizations that have faded from the pages of our textbooks but played a significant role in the development of modern society. Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World covers the Hyksos to the Hephthalites and everyone in between, providing a unique overview of humanity's history from approximately 3000 BCE-550 CE. Each entry exposes a diverse culture, highlighting their important contributions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Gripping and seamless
- By Mike Heim on 05-13-21
By: Philip Matyszak
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God's Shadow
- Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Alan Mikhail
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 16 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 228
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 192
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 190
Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. Yet, despite its towering influence and centrality to the rise of our modern world, the Ottoman Empire's history has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and even suppressed in the West. Now Alan Mikhail presents a vitally needed recasting of Ottoman history, retelling the story of the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520).
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1 out of 5 stars
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Entertaining narrative, but poor scholarship
- By Yosemite on 09-15-20
By: Alan Mikhail
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The Ottomans
- Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs
- By: Marc David Baer
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 175
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 147
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic Asian antithesis of the Christian European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans’ multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe’s heart. Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans’ remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great except for pronunt of Turkish names
- By Anonymous User on 11-04-22
By: Marc David Baer