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The Abyss
- Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
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The Abyss
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Publisher's summary
Bestselling author Max Hastings offers a welcome re-evaluation of one of the most gripping and tense international events in modern history—the Cuban Missile Crisis—providing a people-focused narrative that explores the attitudes and conduct of Russians, Cubans, Americans, and a terrified world that followed each moment as it unfolded.
In The Abyss, Max Hastings turns his focus to one of the most terrifying events of the mid-twentieth century—the thirteen days in October 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Hastings looks at the conflict with fresh eyes, focusing on the people at the heart of the crisis—America President John F. Kennedy, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and a host of their advisors.
Combining in-depth research with Hasting’s well-honed insights, The Abyss is a human history that unfolds on a wide, colorful canvas. As the action moves back and forth from Moscow to Washington, DC, to Havana, Hastings seeks to explain, as much as to describe, the attitudes and conduct of the Soviets, Cubans, and Americans, and to recreate the tension and heightened fears of countless innocent bystanders whose lives hung in the balance. Reflecting on the outcome of these events, he reveals how the aftermath of this momentous crisis continues to reverberate today.
Powerful, and riveting, filled with compelling detail and told with narrative flair, The Abyss is history at its finest.
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- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
- Length: 31 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 420
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 363
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Story5 out of 5 stars 361
From one of our finest military historians, a monumental work that shows us at once the truly global reach of World War II and its deeply personal consequences.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb
- By David on 04-05-21
By: Max Hastings
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Winston's War
- Churchill, 1940-1945
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Robin Sachs
- Length: 25 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 326
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 276
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 274
A vivid and incisive portrait of Winston Churchill during wartime from acclaimed historian Max Hastings, Winston’s War captures the full range of Churchill’s endlessly fascinating character. At once brilliant and infuriating, self-important and courageous, Hastings’s Churchill comes brashly to life as never before. Beginning in 1940, when popular demand elevated Churchill to the role of prime minister, and concluding with the end of the war, Hastings shows us Churchill at his most intrepid and essential, when, by sheer force of will, he kept Britain from collapsing.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A very different Churchill
- By Mike From Mesa on 10-03-13
By: Max Hastings
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Operation Chastise
- The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack of World War II
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 96
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
The attack on Nazi Germany’s dams on May 17, 1943, was one of the most remarkable feats in military history. The absurdly young men of the Royal Air Force’s 617 Squadron set forth in cold blood and darkness, without benefit of electronic aids, to fly lumbering heavy bombers straight and level towards a target at a height above the water less than the length of a bowling alley. Yet this story has never been told in full. Max Hastings takes us back to the May 1943 raid to reveal how the truth of that night is considerably different from the popularized account most people know.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Wish He Had Stuck to the Core Story
- By John on 06-22-20
By: Max Hastings
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The Korean War
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 341
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 256
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 255
It was the first war we could not win. At no other time since World War II have two superpowers met in battle. Max Hastings, preeminent military historian, takes us back to the bloody, bitter struggle to restore South Korean independence after the Communist invasion of June 1950.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inspiring and Hard Hitting
- By David Ewing on 08-06-07
By: Max Hastings
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Road to Disaster
- A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam
- By: Brian VanDeMark
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 23 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 82
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 76
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Story5 out of 5 stars 76
Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite many words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent and previously successful men stumbled so badly. That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Vietnam Veteran
- By Jim Rollins on 04-02-19
By: Brian VanDeMark
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Vietnam
- An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,671
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,469
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,460
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the US in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A more nuanced view than Ken Burns' companion book
- By Vu on 10-21-18
By: Max Hastings
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One Minute to Midnight
- Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War
- By: Michael Dobbs
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 880
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 738
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 733
In October 1962, at the height of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union appeared to be sliding inexorably toward a nuclear conflict over the placement of missiles in Cuba. Veteran Washington Post reporter Michael Dobbs has pored over previously untapped American, Soviet, and Cuban sources to produce the most authoritative book yet on the Cuban missile crisis.
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4 out of 5 stars
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On the verge of annihilation.
- By MikeCG on 01-22-09
By: Michael Dobbs
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Nuclear Folly
- A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
- By: Serhii Plokhy
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story5 out of 5 stars 71
Nearly 30 years after the end of the Cold War, today's world leaders are abandoning disarmament treaties, building up their nuclear arsenals, and exchanging threats of nuclear strikes. To survive this new atomic age, we must relearn the lessons of the most dangerous moment of the Cold War: the Cuban missile crisis. Serhii Plokhy offers an international perspective on the crisis, tracing the tortuous decision-making that produced and then resolved it, which involved John Kennedy and his advisers, Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro, and their commanders on the ground.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Must Read
- By Robert from Brookline on 08-22-21
By: Serhii Plokhy
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Cuba Libre!
- Che, Fidel, and the Improbable Revolution That Changed World History
- By: Tony Perrottet
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 171
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 150
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Story5 out of 5 stars 150
Historian and journalist Tony Perrottet chronicles the events of the Cuban Revolution and the figures at the center of the guerrilla uprising: Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, and the scrappy band of rebel men and women who followed them.
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4 out of 5 stars
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HUGE anti-commie here...
- By Don C. on 10-22-21
By: Tony Perrottet
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Operation Biting
- The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler's Radar
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2
Operation Biting retells this dramatic operation through a gallery of amazing characters from Winston Churchill, who promoted the raid, to Lord Mountbatten, who commanded Combined Operations, to the brave unsung commandos who fought their way through enemy territory. A cliffhanger of a story that ratchets the suspense to the last moment, Operation Biting sheds new light on an exciting and little-known chapter of the Second World War.
By: Max Hastings
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Khrushchev
- The Man and His Era
- By: William Taubman
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 34 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Story5 out of 5 stars 27
The definitive biography of the mercurial Soviet leader who succeeded and denounced Stalin. Nikita Khrushchev was one of the most complex and important political figures of the twentieth century. Ruler of the Soviet Union during the first decade after Stalin's death, Khrushchev left a contradictory stamp on his country and on the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Remarkable story That very few people know of
- By Zaidan on 03-21-23
By: William Taubman
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1917
- Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 323
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 280
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 276
In this incisive, fast-paced history, New York Times best-selling author Arthur Herman brilliantly reveals how Lenin and Wilson rewrote the rules of modern geopolitics. Through the end of World War I, countries marched into war only to increase or protect their national interests. After World War I, countries began going to war over ideas. Together, Lenin and Wilson unleashed the disruptive ideologies that would sweep the world, from nationalism and globalism to Communism and terrorism, and that continue to shape our world today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another book you wish was part of every university world history curriculum
- By Bruno Carleston on 11-26-18
By: Arthur Herman
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Max Hastings on War
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 17
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 12
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 12
Hastings has been a life-long student of warfare, a ‘chronicler of conflict’, working first as a foreign correspondent on battlefields, then as a prolific prize-winning historian of the 20th century’s greatest struggles. He has now been studying warfare for over fifty years, published thirty books, and given hundreds of talks and lectures. Here are thirteen of the best. Addressing questions of truth versus myth and revisiting many last-generation narratives, Hastings leads us through the most important conflicts in recent times.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Career Summary of Hastings’ Work
- By David A on 10-04-22
By: Max Hastings
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Operation Pedestal
- The Fleet that Battled to Malta, 1942
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, John Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
Renowned historian Max Hastings recreates one of the most thrilling events of World War II: Operation Pedestal, the British action to save its troops from starvation on Malta - an action-packed tale of courage, fortitude, loss, and triumph against all odds.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sir Max Hastings at his best
- By J.Brock on 10-27-22
By: Max Hastings
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To Run the World
- The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power
- By: Sergey Radchenko
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 30 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall0 out of 5 stars 0
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Performance0 out of 5 stars 0
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Story0 out of 5 stars 0
In this new history of the conflict that defined the postwar era, Sergey Radchenko provides a deep dive into the psychology of the Kremlin's decision-making. He reveals how the Soviet struggle with the United States and China reflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution. This tension drove Soviet policies from Stalin's postwar scramble for territory to Khrushchev's reckless overseas adventurism and nuclear brinksmanship, Brezhnev's jockeying for influence in the third world, and Gorbachev's failed attempts to reinvent Moscow.
By: Sergey Radchenko
What listeners say about The Abyss
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- JudieBee
- 08-29-24
Factual, modern retelling of this nightmare I lived through.
Narrator was MOST excellent! Story kept me very involved. Particularly good is this modern, fully research story that includes previously classified documents. Fascinating.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 05-31-23
Max NEVER Disappoints!
Content, perspective and insights are excellent as is the writing, pace. An enlightening listen that will amaze and terrify.
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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
- Lucky Six
- 05-19-23
Must read.
Classic on strategic patience, risk and leadership during a deadly crisis. Lessons endure up to today.
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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
- Ira S. Saposnik
- 09-27-23
Brilliant.
No better book on this topic. Great detail you won’t go to jail for checking the mail if you go by rail or sail in a gale it’s quite a take it’s the final nail in the hail at Yale without kale without wail without a vail but you won’t get bail
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- Amazon Customer
- 11-27-22
Great Read 👍
loved it. The Narrator was spot on..perfect for the story. very engaging reading. recommended
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Andrew Paul Betson
- 03-31-23
Solid storytelling of a grave time
Hastings emphasizes the roles of 3.5 national leaders on the crisis. JFK’s Castro’s and Khrushchev’s already well known, the addition of MacMillian is interesting. His handling of the US joint chiefs is trite in my opinion. I would have also appreciated if Hastings spent more time on how JFK dismantled Ike’s NSC apparatus and its effect on White House decisions.
Typical great prose and a good balance of application to todays events.
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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
- Eoghan Patrick Grey
- 07-05-23
One of his best
Big fan of Hastings and this is one of his best, just behind his Vietnam War book and the voice actor choice was inspired.
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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
- Keith M.
- 12-03-22
Many lessons for today
Max Hastings does an amazing job presenting the crisis that put the world on a trajectory of mutual annihilation. It should be essential reading for both our school history curriculum and for those wielding power in this world
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2 people found this helpful
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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
- Faycal Ikhouane
- 07-16-23
Intense
Vivid account of the Cuban-missiles crisis of 1962 including voice recordings of some of the main actors in the drama. What really impressed me is that medium position military-men could have started on their own decision events that could have led to a nuclear response of the superpowers.
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1 person found this helpful
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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
- John Ray
- 06-03-24
Highly recommend
The Abyss is an excellent analysis of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. It does a very commendable job making clear that the fundamental dangers of that period are still present and are possibly greater today.
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