Listen free for 30 days
-
Fateful Choices
- Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941
- Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards
- Length: 24 hrs and 53 mins
- Categories: History, Military
People who bought this also bought...
-
The Pursuit of Power
- Europe 1815-1914
- By: Richard J Evans
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 41 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about 19th-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic change. The aim of this audiobook is to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes.
-
-
Very, very interesting.
- By M on 17-07-17
-
Enemy at the Gates
- The Battle for Stalingrad
- By: William Craig
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On August 5, 1942, giant pillars of dust rose over the Russian steppe, marking the advance of the 6th Army, an elite German combat unit dispatched by Hitler to capture the industrial city of Stalingrad and press on to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The Germans were supremely confident; in three years, they had not suffered a single defeat. The Luftwaffe had already bombed the city into ruins. German soldiers hoped to complete their mission and be home in time for Christmas.
-
-
Stalingrad, you can't tear your ears away.
- By qwerty on 11-02-16
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
Outstanding Military History
- By Stephen on 02-08-17
-
A Brief History of the Cold War
- Brief Histories
- By: John Hughes-Wilso
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cold War was an undeclared war, fought silently and carefully between ideological opponents armed with the most fearsome weapons mankind has ever seen. Hughes-Wilson takes a cool look at this war, from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR thereafter. He examines the suspicion and paranoia - on both sides - of the greatest stand-off in history.
-
-
A Highly Partisan History
- By Anonymous User on 26-04-19
-
Hunting Evil
- By: Guy Walters
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, some of the highest ranking Nazis escaped from justice, Aided and abetted by the Vatican, they travelled down secret 'rat lines' and were taken in by shady Argentine secret agents. Vengeful Holocaust survivors and inept politicains attempted to bring them to justice and there were daring plots to kidnap or assassinate the fugititives.
-
-
'Excellent Listening'
- By R. Chichester on 24-09-11
-
Centuries of Change
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Mike Grady, Ian Mortimer
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a contest of change, which century from the past millennium would come up trumps? Imagine the Black Death took on the female vote in a pub brawl, or the Industrial Revolution faced the Internet in a medieval joust - whose side would you be on? In this hugely entertaining book, celebrated historian Ian Mortimer takes us on a whirlwind tour of Western history, pitting one century against another in his quest to measure change.
-
-
Though provoking approach to history
- By Kirstine on 28-11-17
-
The Pursuit of Power
- Europe 1815-1914
- By: Richard J Evans
- Narrated by: Napoleon Ryan
- Length: 41 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Pursuit of Power draws on a lifetime of thinking about 19th-century Europe to create an extraordinarily rich, surprising and entertaining panorama of a continent undergoing drastic change. The aim of this audiobook is to reignite the sense of wonder that permeated this remarkable era, as rulers and ruled navigated overwhelming cultural, political and technological changes.
-
-
Very, very interesting.
- By M on 17-07-17
-
Enemy at the Gates
- The Battle for Stalingrad
- By: William Craig
- Narrated by: David Baker
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On August 5, 1942, giant pillars of dust rose over the Russian steppe, marking the advance of the 6th Army, an elite German combat unit dispatched by Hitler to capture the industrial city of Stalingrad and press on to the oil fields of Azerbaijan. The Germans were supremely confident; in three years, they had not suffered a single defeat. The Luftwaffe had already bombed the city into ruins. German soldiers hoped to complete their mission and be home in time for Christmas.
-
-
Stalingrad, you can't tear your ears away.
- By qwerty on 11-02-16
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
Outstanding Military History
- By Stephen on 02-08-17
-
A Brief History of the Cold War
- Brief Histories
- By: John Hughes-Wilso
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Cold War was an undeclared war, fought silently and carefully between ideological opponents armed with the most fearsome weapons mankind has ever seen. Hughes-Wilson takes a cool look at this war, from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR thereafter. He examines the suspicion and paranoia - on both sides - of the greatest stand-off in history.
-
-
A Highly Partisan History
- By Anonymous User on 26-04-19
-
Hunting Evil
- By: Guy Walters
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 18 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the end of the Second World War, some of the highest ranking Nazis escaped from justice, Aided and abetted by the Vatican, they travelled down secret 'rat lines' and were taken in by shady Argentine secret agents. Vengeful Holocaust survivors and inept politicains attempted to bring them to justice and there were daring plots to kidnap or assassinate the fugititives.
-
-
'Excellent Listening'
- By R. Chichester on 24-09-11
-
Centuries of Change
- By: Ian Mortimer
- Narrated by: Mike Grady, Ian Mortimer
- Length: 16 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a contest of change, which century from the past millennium would come up trumps? Imagine the Black Death took on the female vote in a pub brawl, or the Industrial Revolution faced the Internet in a medieval joust - whose side would you be on? In this hugely entertaining book, celebrated historian Ian Mortimer takes us on a whirlwind tour of Western history, pitting one century against another in his quest to measure change.
-
-
Though provoking approach to history
- By Kirstine on 28-11-17
-
Britain's War
- Volume 2, A New World, 1942-1947
- By: Daniel Todman
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 49 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A triumph of narrative, empathy and research, as gripping in its handling of individual witnesses to the war - those doomed to struggle with bombing, rationing, exhausting work and above all the absence of millions of family members - as of the gigantic military, social, technological and economic forces that swept the conflict along. It is the definitive account of a drama which reshaped our country.
-
-
Answers the question of why Churchill lost the peace
- By Mr Andrew J Walley on 06-04-20
-
Crimea
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrated by: Malk Williams
- Length: 20 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The terrible conflict that dominated the mid-19th century, the Crimean War, killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It was a war for territory, provoked by fear that if the Ottoman Empire were to collapse then Russia could control a huge swathe of land from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf. But it was also a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populist and ever more ferocious belief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land.
-
-
Great listen overall
- By Fingers on 31-01-19
-
Nemesis
- The Battle for Japan, 1944-45
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Stewart Cameron
- Length: 29 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With an introduction read by Max Hastings. A companion volume to his best-selling ‘Armageddon’, Max Hastings’ account of the battle for Japan is a masterful military history. Featuring the most remarkable cast of commanders the world has ever seen, the dramatic battle for Japan of 1944-45 was acted out across the vast stage of Asia: Imphal and Kohima, Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima, Okinawa and the Soviet assault on Manchuria.
-
-
Brilliant as usual
- By Jim on 02-11-14
-
Hitler’s British Traitors
- By: Tim Tate
- Narrated by: Tim Tate
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing on hundreds of declassified official files - many of them previously unpublished - Tim Tate uncovers the largely unknown history of more than 70 British traitors who were convicted, mostly in secret trials, of working to help Nazi Germany win the war, and several hundred British Fascists who were interned without trial on evidence that they were working on behalf of the enemy. Four were condemned to death; two were executed.
-
-
The other side of the WWII legend.
- By Mary Carnegie on 31-08-19
-
The Vanquished
- Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923
- By: Robert Gerwarth
- Narrated by: John Banks
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the Western allies, 11 November 1918 has always been a solemn date - the end of fighting which had destroyed a generation and a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of their principal enemies: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe, this was a day with no meaning, as a continuing nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed country after country. In this highly original, gripping book, Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War.
-
-
excellent summary
- By Elaine on 04-01-17
-
The Colditz Story
- By: P.R. Reid
- Narrated by: Tim Woodward
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Colditz - the dreaded POW camp was supposed to be impregnable. It was the German fortress from which there was no escape. It had been escape-proof in the 1914-18 war and was to be again in the Second World War, according to the Germans... This is the true story that has passed into legend: the story of the incredible courage and daredevil ingenuity of those who refused to admit defeat - those who burrowed, leapt and ran their way to freedom.
-
-
Ordinary men in an extraordinary situation
- By Charlie on 06-06-11
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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....
-
-
AWFUL boring dry and colourless
- By Sam on 17-11-11
-
1177 B.C.
- The Year Civilization Collapsed
- By: Eric H. Cline
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh’s army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians.
-
-
Brilliant book: shame about the narrator.
- By M. R. Frost on 24-04-14
-
The Sleepwalkers
- By: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Peter Silverleaf
- Length: 22 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The moments that it took Gavrilo Princip to step forward to the stalled car and shoot dead Franz Ferdinand and his wife were perhaps the most fateful of the modern era. An act of terrorism of staggering efficiency, it fulfilled its every aim: it would liberate Bosnia from Habsburg rule, and it created a powerful new Serbia, but it also brought down four great empires, killed millions of men and destroyed a civilization. What made a seemingly prosperous and complacent Europe so vulnerable to the impact of this assassination?
-
-
Ruined by Narration
- By Jock on 23-01-18
-
D DAY Through German Eyes
- The Hidden Story of June 6th 1944
- By: Holger Eckhertz
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Almost all accounts of D-Day are told from the Allied perspective, with the emphasis on how German resistance was overcome on June 6, 1944. But what was it like to be a German soldier in the bunkers and gun emplacements of the Normandy coast, facing the onslaught of the mightiest seaborne invasion in history? What motivated the German defenders, what were their thought processes - and how did they fight from one strong point to another, among the dunes and fields, on that first cataclysmic day?
-
-
FAKE
- By philip on 02-05-19
-
Stalin
- New Biography of a Dictator
- By: Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Nora Seligman Favorov - translator
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Not bad, but...
- By Alan Myers on 11-06-19
-
Britain's War
- Volume 1, Into Battle, 1937-1941
- By: Daniel Todman
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 35 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The most terrible emergency in Britain's history, the Second World War, required an unprecedented national effort. An exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found itself much diminished amongst the victors. The outcome of the war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe.
-
-
Dreadful Narration
- By G. Williams on 10-04-20
Summary
Ian Kershaw's Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-41 offers a penetrating insight into a series of momentous political decisions that shaped the course of the Second World War.
The hurricane of events that marked the opening of the Second World War meant that anything could happen. For the aggressors there was no limit to their ambitions; for their victims a new Dark Age beckoned. Over the next few months their fates would be determined.
In Fateful Choices Ian Kershaw re-creates the 10 critical decisions taken between May 1940, when Britain chose not to surrender, and December 1941, when Hitler decided to destroy Europe's Jews, showing how these choices would recast the entire course of history.
Ian Kershaw (b. 1943) was Professor of Modern History at the University of Sheffield from 1989 to 2008 and is one of the world's leading authorities on Hitler. His books include The "Hitler Myth"; his two-volume biography Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris and Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis; and Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions That Changed the World, 1940-1941. He was knighted in 2002.
Critic reviews
"A splendidly lucid and impeccably argued exposition of the greatest political decisions of the Second World War." (Max Hastings)
"A compelling re-examination of the conflict...Kershaw displays here those same qualities of scholarly rigour, careful argument and sound judgement that he brought to bear so successfully in his life of Hitler." (Richard Overy)
More from the same
What listeners say about Fateful Choices
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Olivier
- 11-04-16
Fantastic Narrator, Barnaby Edwards
Incredibly detailed, sometimes to a fault. Arguable choice of the 10 decisions that Changed the World, with a big US emphasis. Still, overall, excellent material.
But, what I really want to stress is the fantastic job done by the narrator, Barnaby Edwards. I have listened to dozens of history books, most over the 15 hour mark, and enjoyed most of them, but rarely has the narrator made such a mark on me.
Barnaby Edwards reading is fast, but unfaltering. One does not feel rushed, but one feels that the reading speed is almost at the level of silent reading, with no loss to intelligibility. I would guess that, read by anyone else, the 25 hours of the book would have stretched by 1 or 2 hours.
Last, but certainly not least, Barnaby Edwards' pronunciation of the foreign names of a language I know (French, Italian and German) is excellent, neigh faultless. So many good books are massacred by readers who cannot pronounced foreign names that this deserves a special mention.
PS: I am not related to Barnaby Edwards in any manner.
23 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr
- 12-01-20
An illuminating analysis of WW2s turning points.
I have read a lot of books about the WW2 era in my time, and it is a rare pleasure when one really enhances my understanding of what happened and why.
I think the great value of a book like this is to remind us that the issues leaders have to contend with are always much clearer in hindsight than they were at the time, and we should be very careful before passing simplistic judgements of "so-and-so should have done x not y". With the exception of the Holocaust, which remains utterly inexplicable outside of Nazi ideology, all the decisions have at least *some* logic to them within the context of the geo-politics of the time, however absurd those decisions may seem subsequently.
Kershaw also warns against putting too much emphasis on the personality of the men in key positions. Although he certainly accepts that individuals do matter and they were not simply pawns of fate, he also reminds us that the major factors influencing their decisions would have applied whoever was in the hot seat at the time. It is also striking how unified the power-elites often were in their choices, no matter what they may have written after the war to try and excuse themselves. There was for example, surprisingly little opposition in the Japanese ruling class to the assumption that imperial expansion must continue, even at the cost of war with a vastly more powerful enemy. No one seriously proposed reigning in their expansion even temporarily, to avoid a wider conflict.
The author also has the good manners to add a final chapter that summarizes and discusses the main ground he has covered. Which is something I always appreciate at the end of a long, fact-heavy book.
I have a suspicion that Ian Kershaw quite likes counter-factual speculation, but also worries he might not be taken seriously if he does any. At various points in this fascinating tome, he flirts with alternative possible scenarios, only to quickly tell himself off for doing so and remind the reader that it's not what proper historians should be doing. For some reason I found that rather endearing.
The narrator is good too. Clear, and well paced.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mcsmall
- 03-08-18
Ian Kershaw:Excellent As Usual
Professor Sir Ian Kershaw is an outstanding scholar, but this is a slight deviation from his usual style.It is nonetheless well researched and brilliantly written
The narration assisted in providing clarity for the listener
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Luc S.
- 21-06-19
Good and bad moments
This is not Ian Kershaw’s best book.
Some good moments where followed by bad chapters, being an avid reader of multiple books about WW II there where few surprises.
Kershaw’s explanation of some of the choices where not up to the standard that I expect from the writer of some of the real classics of WW II literature.
The narration by Barnaby Edwards was spot on though and helped me through some of the difficult moments of the book.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mr Peter Antony Clark
- 23-09-17
Brilliant
This is a stunning examination of WW11 and the choices that were made and the reasoning behind them. Puts the great conflict in a real context that will help the reader to more fully understand the war and it's futility
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Thomas J Bachrach
- 24-07-19
Kershaw shows his usual quality
Edwards is a great narrator.
I felt Kershaw repeated himself a fair amount without reason several times, but overall his writing is the historiography-shaping quality belied by his reputation. Also, the frequent belittling of counterfactual history was also unnecessary.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S Jones
- 05-01-18
Challenge your beliefs
Loved it. Opens your eyes to the complexities of the war situation and the importance of the leaders, their personalities and beliefs. Makes it clear there were other choices but highlights the ways in which these decisions were at times almost inevitable.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- TIM JARVIS
- 27-04-16
Superb History
An excellent analysis of what happened in WW2 by examining critically what might have been and what other options were available to the key players.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Colette
- 20-02-21
I wish Audible would use the chapter headings
I wish Audible would use the chapter headings. The book is a great investigation of complex decision making processes. Narration was perfect.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 04-04-21
Tediously Repetitive
Took a long time to say nothing new. Was rather relieved when it was over
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Athanasios Hristoulas
- 27-04-20
excellent evaluation of events
excellent evaluation of events that could have changed the course of the war. my favorite is Mussolini s mess when he tried to invade Greece