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Iron Curtain
- The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 26 hrs and 39 mins
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Publisher's summary
In the long-awaited follow-up to her Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag, acclaimed journalist Anne Applebaum delivers a groundbreaking history of how Communism took over Eastern Europe after World War II and transformed in frightening fashion the individuals who came under its sway.
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete. She draws on newly opened East European archives, interviews, and personal accounts translated for the first time to portray in devastating detail the dilemmas faced by millions of individuals trying to adjust to a way of life that challenged their every belief and took away everything they had accumulated. Today the Soviet Bloc is a lost civilization, one whose cruelty, paranoia, bizarre morality, and strange aesthetics Applebaum captures in the electrifying pages of Iron Curtain.
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- By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Nora Seligman Favorov - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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This essential biography, by the author most deeply familiar with the vast archives of the Soviet era, offers an unprecedented, fine-grained portrait of Stalin, the man and dictator. Without mythologizing Stalin as either benevolent or an evil genius, Khlevniuk resolves numerous controversies about specific events in the dictator's life while assembling many hundreds of previously unknown letters, memos, reports, and diaries into a comprehensive, compelling narrative of a life that altered the course of world history.
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Loved it, but wouldn't want to live it
- By Neil on 01-12-20
By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, and others
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Year Zero
- A History of 1945
- By: Ian Buruma
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Year Zero is a landmark reckoning with the greatdrama that ensued after war came to an end in 1945. One world had ended and anew, uncertain one was beginning. Regime change had come across Asia and all of continental Europe. It was the greatest global powervacuum in history, and out of the often vicious power struggles thatensued emerged the modern world as we know it.
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Great historical overview
- By marykk on 10-14-13
By: Ian Buruma
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A Thousand Hills
- Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
- By: Stephen Kinzer
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Paul Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee. He and a group of comrades, determined to force their way back home after a generation of exile, designed one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine war. Then, after taking power, they amazed the world by stabilizing and reviving their devastated country.
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Best Most Comprehensive Work on Rwanda
- By Greg on 07-30-10
By: Stephen Kinzer
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Great Catastrophe
- Armenians and Turks in the Shadow of Genocide
- By: Thomas de Waal
- Narrated by: David Rapkin
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The destruction of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16 was the greatest atrocity of World War I. Around one million Armenians were killed, and the survivors were scattered across the world. Although it is now a century old, the issue of what most of the world calls the Armenian Genocide of 1915 is still a live and divisive issue that mobilizes Armenians across the world, shapes the identity and politics of modern Turkey, and has consumed the attention of U.S. politicians for years.
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- By shaq on 02-26-19
By: Thomas de Waal
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The Death of Democracy
- Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic
- By: Benjamin Carter Hett
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In this dramatic audiobook, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. Benjamin Carter Hett is one of America’s leading scholars of 20th-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of the feckless politicians of the Weimar Republic show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it.
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I can't trust the author's account of these events
- By Example: Mark Twain on 11-10-19
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The Invention of Russia
- From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- By: Arkady Ostrovsky
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation.
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Sad Story of Russia's Abandonment of Liberalism
- By Amazon Customer on 10-03-16
By: Arkady Ostrovsky
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The Holocaust
- A New History
- By: Laurence Rees
- Narrated by: Eric Vale
- Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Laurence Rees has spent 25 years meeting the survivors and perpetrators of the Third Reich and the Holocaust. In this sweeping history, he combines this testimony with the latest academic research to investigate how history's greatest crime was possible. Rees argues that while hatred of the Jews was at the epicenter of Nazi thinking, we cannot fully understand the Holocaust without considering Nazi plans to kill millions of non-Jews as well.
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FANTASTIC BOOK, BUT HORRIBLE READING
- By Aspen on 08-31-17
By: Laurence Rees
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Lenin
- The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror
- By: Victor Sebestyen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Aris
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new research, including the diaries, memoirs, and personal letters of both Lenin and his friends, Victor Sebestyen's unique biography - the first in English in nearly two decades - is not only a political examination of one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century but a portrait of Lenin the man. Unexpectedly, Lenin was someone who loved nature, hunting, and fishing and could identify hundreds of species of plants, a despotic ruler whose closest ties and friendships were with women.
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Lenin totally took an extra piece of that cake.
- By John Gathly on 05-14-19
By: Victor Sebestyen
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Israel
- A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world's attention, aroused its imagination, and, lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future? We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel's people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions.
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Excellent, mildly but honestly biased, terrible narration
- By Schaq on 04-01-17
By: Daniel Gordis
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Stalinist Tyranny
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Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945
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Great book, but not terrific listening
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What listeners say about Iron Curtain
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ryan
- 01-19-19
Communism is just as Evil as Facism (NAZIsm)
Another great take down of the Evils of big government, of community over individual, of planned vs free market. As if the body wasn't enough, the Epilogue made for a great final ko punch.
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3 people found this helpful
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- E. Marlowe
- 04-20-19
Great book but East European names get butchered
This is a great narrative history of the Stalinist era in Eastern Europe. It’s sad, though, that the reader repeatedly mispronounces German and Hungarian words. Not her fault, but still...
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeff Lacy
- 08-26-19
Clear and rich and mined
Clearly written, rich in detail, and mined with interviews, new available archival documents, and citing secondary authorities, Applebaum provides a significant classic on the USSR imposition of power over Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Hungary, and East Germany. A finalist for the National Book Award (she won it earlier with her very compelling book, GULAG), IRON CURTAIN is engaging and memorable. For those interested in USSR or European history this is essential reading.
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- Candace
- 07-06-15
Excellent And Helpful
Excellent review with facts interspersed with real, personal stories including some from the author's experience.
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- Cort Johnson
- 10-21-23
Fascinating
Superb overview of the devastation Stalinism wreaked upon all aspects of society in Eastern Europe after WWII. Well written and well read. Really it’s required reading or listening for anyone interested in what Communism was - what we’re seeing in Putin’s turn towards authoritarianism and his anti west stance. History, unfortunately for Russia (and Ukraine) is repeating itself.
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- Igor R. Efimov
- 05-24-13
Reliving the cold war...
What did you love best about Iron Curtain?
An insightful, well researched book. I grew up in a Siberian "closed" town in 1970s, which was build by Gulag prisoners before I was born. I spent my childhood behind three rows of barbed wires and had a happy childhood in this Soviet version of "gated community", which was not on the map. Interestingly, my home town Zheleznogorsk is still not on the map - Google maps missed it for some reason. My small town produced refined plutonium and spy satellites. In nearly 30 years I lived in the USSR before moving to the USA, I had no idea what was happening outside USSR, not only in the capitalist West, but even in the socialist East. We just never had a chance and thus did not even dream about traveling the world, until Soviet Union collapsed and suddenly everything become possible. Now I am trying to catch up with all the missed opportunities - and travel 30-40 times a year.
Book is a bit single sided though. I wish I could discuss it with the author. I live in Missouri now, not too far from Westminster College in Fulton MO, where the famous "Iron Curtain" speech was delivered by Winston Churchill in 1946. A week later the transcript of this speech was on Stalin's desk and infuriated him. It prompted Stalin to approve plans for building my home town among a network of similar "closed" cities of Siberia and for establishing my Alma mater - Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology - the best STEM school in former Soviet Union, which trained many outstanding physicists. It is impossible to go back in time, but what would have been without this speech? I am far from thinking that Stalin would have been different, but historical dynamics might have been not so dramatic in 1946 and on after the speech.
It is sad that the responsibility for rape of Eastern Europe by Stalin's Soviet Union is not acknowledged by the current Russian government, as it was by Germany. Without such a moral statement there will be no reconciliation.
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23 people found this helpful
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- Nate the Grate
- 02-25-13
Those that do not learn from history...
Would you listen to Iron Curtain again? Why?
Are we doomed to repeat it? The importance of the subject makes it worth the time investment. I wish it was part of everyone's education.
What did you like best about this story?
The frightening insights into state-ism. There really is no difference between them and any other group of fanatics who believe that their worldview should be forced on others, and the unbelievers should be shot. I learned a lot. I understand their mindset / paradigm better now.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-21-21
A very solid introduction to Eastern Europe
Anne Applebaum manages to deliver a very solid introduction into the Eastern Europe's post WW II history. A period just as interesting as overlooked. The book offers a very multifaceted story encompassing various themes and subjects which at the end manage to create a very precise outline of the region in these times. Strongly recommend to any English speaker who wishes to know more about the region or technicalities and deficiencies of the Soviet system. Applebaum accurately portrays the destruction brought upon countries of Europe by socialism and debunks the so called "democratic socialism". The narrator does mostly a good job with Polish and German names, a huge improvement over the disastrous mispronunciation of the Gulag.
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- Thomas Dorazio
- 07-04-22
Would like more…
This book goes to 1956 chronologically. I will find 1956-1986 to be even more interesting and I’m currently looking for a book like this that continues the historical narrative. I learned quite a bit from listening to this book. The only criticism I have is that I would’ve liked more information on how the main countries’ secret police apparatus really worked. The author explains how the Party dismantled its opposition with arrests, harassment, intimidation, ethnic cleansing and relocation. I would’ve liked to have learned more detail, if possible, about the specific tactics used to infiltrate opposition groups, how informant networks worked, and what percentage of the population were informants and how much of the economy was dedicated to spying on their own people.
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- Shawna Hanley
- 02-01-24
Really great
The details were excellent, great coverage of those times. Anne always nails it, and she did it again
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