
The Liberation of Paris
How Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and von Choltitz Saved the City of Light
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Narrated by:
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Fred Sanders
About this listen
Prize-winning and best-selling historian Jean Edward Smith tells the dramatic story of the liberation of Paris during World War II - a triumph that was achieved through the remarkable efforts of Americans, French, and Germans, all racing to save the city from destruction.
Following their breakout from Normandy in late June 1944, the Allies swept across Northern France in pursuit of the German army. The Allies intended to bypass Paris and cross the Rhine into Germany, ending the war before winter set in. But as they advanced, local forces in Paris began their own liberation, defying the occupying German troops.
Charles de Gaulle, the leading figure of the Free French government, urged General Dwight Eisenhower to divert forces to liberate Paris. Eisenhower’s most senior staff recommended otherwise, but Ike wanted to help position de Gaulle to lead France after the war. And both men were concerned about partisan conflict in Paris that could leave the communists in control of the city and the national government, perhaps even causing a bloodbath like the Paris Commune. Neither man knew that the German commandant, Dietrich von Choltitz, convinced that the war was lost, dissembled and schemed to surrender the city to the Allies intact, defying Hitler’s orders to leave it a burning ruin.
In The Liberation of Paris, Jean Edward Smith puts this dramatic event in context, showing how the decision to free the city came at a heavy price: It slowed the Allied momentum and allowed the Germans to regroup. After the war, German generals argued that Eisenhower’s decision to enter Paris prolonged the war for another six months. Was Paris worth this price? Smith answers this question in his superb, dramatic history of one of the great events of World War II - published 75 years after the liberation.
©2019 Jean Edward Smith (P)2019 Simon & Schuster AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Lincoln's Lieutenants
- The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: James Conlan
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The high command of the Army of the Potomac was a changeable, often dysfunctional band of brothers, going through the fires of war under seven commanding generals in three years, until Grant came east in 1864. The men in charge all too frequently appeared to be fighting against the administration in Washington instead of for it, increasingly cast as political pawns facing down a vindictive congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.
By: Stephen W. Sears
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Sheridan’s Secret Mission
- How the South Won the War After the Civil War
- By: Robert Cwiklik
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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An impeccably researched, character-driven narrative history recounting the fascinating late-Reconstruction Era mission of General Philip Sheridan, a Union hero dispatched to the South 10 years after the Civil War to protect the rights of newly freed black men, who were under siege by violent paramilitary groups like the White league intent on erasing their postwar gains.
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Great history book, not so great editing
- By Bailesie on 03-06-24
By: Robert Cwiklik
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First Freedom
- By: David Harsanyi
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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For America, the gun is a story of innovation, power, violence, character, and freedom. From the founding of the nation to the pioneering of the West, from the freeing of the slaves to the urbanization of the 20th century, our country has had a complex and lasting relationship with firearms. Now, in First Freedom, nationally syndicated columnist and veteran writer David Harsanyi explores the ways in which firearms have helped preserve our religious, economic, and cultural institutions for more than two centuries.
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A Must-Read/Must-Listen
- By Nathan on 01-22-19
By: David Harsanyi
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No Bullet Got Me Yet
- By: John Stansifer
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Father Emil Kapaun, a humble priest, went far beyond the call of duty during World War II and the Korean War. Often found with the combat medics on the front lines, unarmed, ministering to the wounded, and known for his intense devotion to the soldiers whom he called “my boys,” Kapaun became the most decorated chaplain in US military history, awarded a Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross and the Legion of Merit.
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Must Read for Catholics, Americans, and Military Personnel
- By Thomas on 12-27-24
By: John Stansifer
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Stolen
- The Astonishing Odyssey of Five Boys Along the Reverse Underground Railroad
- By: Richard Bell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Philadelphia, 1825: Five young, free Black boys fall into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slavers in the US. Lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay, they are instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives. Over four long months, their kidnappers drive them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys form a tight brotherhood as they struggle to free themselves and find their way home.
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Should have been a fact based novel
- By Cate F. on 01-11-21
By: Richard Bell
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The Berlin Wall
- August 13, 1961 - November 9, 1989
- By: Frederick Taylor
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 21 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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On the morning of August 13, 1961, the residents of East Berlin found themselves cut off from family, friends, and jobs in the West by a tangle of barbed wire that ruthlessly split a city of four million in two. Within days the barbed-wire entanglement would undergo an extraordinary metamorphosis: It became an imposing 103-mile-long wall guarded by 300 watchtowers. A physical manifestation of the struggle between Soviet Communism and American capitalism that stood for nearly 30 years, the Berlin Wall was the high-risk fault line between East and West.
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Thorough and lively
- By Faycal Ikhouane on 07-31-23
By: Frederick Taylor
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Palestine 1936
- The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict
- By: Oren Kessler
- Narrated by: Shawn K. Jain
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In spring 1936, the Holy Land erupted in a rebellion that targeted both the local Jewish community and the British Mandate authorities. The Great Arab Revolt would last three years, cost thousands of lives, and cast the trajectory for the Middle East conflict. The revolt was the crucible in which Palestinian identity coalesced, uniting all in a single struggle for independence. Yet the rebellion would ultimately turn on itself. British forces' aggressive counterinsurgency took care of the rest, finally quashing the uprising on the eve of World War II.
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Who is this narrator?
- By Rachel S. on 09-23-24
By: Oren Kessler
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The Ship of Dreams
- The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era
- By: Mr. Gareth Russell
- Narrated by: Jenny Funnell
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In this original and meticulously researched narrative history, the author of the “stunning” (The Sunday Times) Young and Damned and Fair uses the sinking of the Titanic as a prism through which to examine the end of the Edwardian era and the seismic shift modernity brought to the Anglo-American world.
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One of my favorites
- By M. M. Jones on 04-13-20
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Sailing the Graveyard Sea
- The Deathly Voyage of the Somers, the U.S. Navy's Only Mutiny, and the Trial That Gripped the Nation
- By: Richard Snow
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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On December 16, 1842, the US brig-of-war Somers dropped anchor in the New York Harbor at the end of a voyage intended to teach a group of adolescents the rudiments of naval life. But this routine exercise ended in catastrophe. Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie came ashore claiming he had prevented a mutiny that would have left him and his officers dead. Some of the thwarted mutineers were being held under guard, but three had already been hanged at sea.
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the day to day brutality
- By L. Lombard on 01-15-24
By: Richard Snow
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Control
- The Dark History and Troubling Present of Eugenics
- By: Adam Rutherford
- Narrated by: Greg Patmore
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Control is a book about what geneticist Adam Rutherford calls “a defining idea of the twentieth century.” Inspired by Darwin’s ideas about evolution, eugenics arose in Victorian England as a theory for improving the British population, and quickly spread to America. With disarming wit and scientific precision, Rutherford explains why eugenics still figures prominently in the twenty-first century, despite its genocidal past. And he confronts insidious recurring questions, revealing the intellectual bankruptcy of the idea, and the scientific impossibility of its realization.
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Excellent 2023 update on genetics
- By Roy on 01-11-25
By: Adam Rutherford
What listeners say about The Liberation of Paris
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 11-21-23
Fast paced, incredibly interesting and informative
This book was fascinating to me. Ms Smith is not only a good historical researcher, but she can write so well. To get a glimpse into the some of the motivations of, and interactions between, WW2’s major personalities who shaped the liberation of Paris - priceless. I now want to read more about Eisenhower especially, and DeGaul, and (I have to go back to see the German’s name in print). And the narration also perfect in that I just heard the story, no distraction by unnecessary inflections or droning (bored voice) etc. I am hoping this author has other books because I value her approach to history. I like that she draws parallels between specific actions by DeGaul, or Eisenhower to, for example, Ulysses S Grant in America’s civil war…There is info about Churchill and Roosevelt as pertains to liberating Paris. Loved this book!
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- An Alexandria music lover
- 09-11-19
A great story, told with authority
Those who've read "Is Paris Burning?" a 1965 best-seller by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, will not be surprised by the outcome of this story. Paris is liberated by the Americans, by the French army, and by its own citizens, and it is not blown up or burned down in the process. Still, it's worthwhile hearing the story told with authority and precision by a first-rate historian. It's an exciting story and an inspiring one. It's probably safe to say that for many of the participants on the Allied side who were in Paris while it was happening or being celebrated, it was one of the highlights of their lives. The disagreements and debates among the Allied leaders -- de Gaulle, Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower -- are interesting, but the mystery here is the behavior of von Choltitz and his immediate German superiors in France. Why did they disobey der Fuhrer's direct orders to destroy the place, and how did they get away with their disobedience? Full marks to Jean Edward Smith for telling a gripping story, and to Fred Sanders for narrating it so ably.
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4 people found this helpful