Showing results by author "The History Hour" in All Categories

The very first democracy in the world found its origins in Ancient Greece. The most exquisite art and architecture of the world had its origins there. While education had its roots in many cultures after the Bronze Age, education found its flowering in the rise of some of greatest literature ever written. From the very small country of Greece came the development of the higher sciences. Even the most celebrated of sports events, the Olympics, started in a small city-state of Athens.

Ancient Rome covers Roman civilization from the founding of the city of Rome to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, encompassing the Roman Kingdom, Roman Republic, and Roman Empire, until the fall of the Western empire. In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to the classical republic, and then to an increasingly autocratic empire.

The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screen fold books, of which only three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual calendars and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest instances of the explicit zero in the world.

Almost everyone has heard Martin Luther King’s name. He organized and led marches in support of African Americans’ rights. King was against racial discrimination and segregation. This was the era when, in the South, Whites and African Americans were divided in everything - schools, churches, neighborhoods, and even hospitals.

Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors and, in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.

Most typical people will look up to Presidents of our country like they are above us, on a pedestal. Maybe not so much today as they did in Lincoln’s time, but today we have so much media to broadcast their sins and shortcomings at a minute notice. In this audiobook, you will be able to find out about his lowly beginnings, about his family, how they had to move so often when he was but a lad, how badly he wanted to attend school, and how he finally met and married Mary Todd. You will find out about them having four children and what the future held for each of them.

The Crusades were a series of holy wars fought between Christians and Muslims over the ownership of certain holy sites held sacred by the Muslims, Christians, and Jews. These wars were bloody, violent, and cataclysmic. What caused them, and how did they happen? You’ll listen about: East meets West, the Crusaders, Crusader kingdoms and new venues, life as a Crusader, side Campaigns, war unending, sputtering little Crusades, the end of Holy War in the Holy Land, and much more!

Was Walt Disney a purveyor of homely patriotic values or a representative of American imperialism? He could be said to be the quintessential American. He came from a family of immigrants, he worked his way to the top, and he always had a story to tell. The main theme always running through Disney productions was that of the underdogs and misfits trying to make it against seemingly insurmountable odds.

Seen as a strong-willed, tenacious leader who saved the United States from the Great Depression and the death and destruction that could have been through World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt solidified the nation's place as a world superpower. As a dominant leader of his party, he built the New Deal Coalition, which realigned American politics into the Fifth Party System.

Adolf "Adi" Hitler’s birth was unremarkable, as was his carefree boyhood and troubled teenage years. A talented artist but a lazy pupil who hated following rules, how did a school dropout who had failed an entrance exam to one of the most prestigious art schools - twice - and had been a constant pain to his teachers end up as the leader of the largest political party, then the Chancellor, and lastly, the dictator of Germany?

In this one-hour history book, discover the US Presidents from the 18th century. It all started with Georges Washington, the first American President and John Adams, the second US President. Discover how these Founding Fathers of the U.S.A. became presidents, the main events of their presidency, and their impact on America and World’s history!

In this history book, discover the US Presidents from the 19th century, the main events of their presidency, their legacy, and impact on America’s history! In this book, we present a full century of American presidents — from Thomas Jefferson to William McKinley — in chronological order. Free from any political affiliation or ideological bias, these biographies allow you to experience in full all of their triumphs and tragedies, agendas, and accomplishments.

Did Christopher Columbus discover America or a route to the Far East? He was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonist who had a singular goal toward which he was driven. His courage was astounding, as he and his three small ships set sail across the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus and his men took precarious and dangerous journeys toward a blue horizon. All they had to depend upon were nautical charts, an astrolabe, and a quadrant. The maps he used were developed by more ancient astronomers such as Ptolemy and Eratosthenes – men who had never sailed the great sea.

Was Joan of Arc accused because she was a woman? Then why did so many fierce and battle-hardened male warriors line up their troops behind her? Yet, not even one of her soldiers, be they longbowmen, cavalry riders, knights, artillerymen, and nobles, ran from the command of a woman. Instead, they marveled at her as she mounted the ladders to a heavily defended castle, right along with the men, shot arrows, thrust spears, and galloped on her great white steed along with the best of them. She was wounded twice and yet did not shirk from battle.

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. At age 43, he became the youngest man to be elected as U.S. president as well as being the first (and only) Roman Catholic to occupy that office. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the state crime, but he was never prosecuted.

As you begin to listen to this audiobook, you will undoubtedly feel that Queen Marie Antoinette and King Louise XVI led spoiled lives. You will be right in what you think; but you will also find out that with their parents arranging their marriages at a very young age, neither of them was ever able to experience the feelings of young love. You will see what horrors and terrors that Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, their children, and Louis’ sister had to suffer through for four years before their deaths.

Has Ivan Chetvyorty been a wicked and ruthless leader? Has his nation suffered as he pursued his own corrupted agendas? Surely, though, none comes close to the violent, lascivious, vengeful reign of Ivan Chetvyorty Vasilyevich, born to the Rurik Dynasty in the Grand Duchy of Muscovy. Indeed, this man’s period in power was one of the longest in Russian history, lasting more than half a century.

There are many tales of his military might and strong character, there are those who see Ernesto “Che” Guevara as a hero and the greatest socialist mind of his time, but there are those who see him as a ruthless military leader who executed people without trials and who violated several human rights. Very few men have been subject to as much mysticism and admiration as Ernesto Guevara. His image has been used as the symbol for revolution, freedom, and rebellion in every corner of the world.

Vlad III, known as Vlad the Impaler was voivode of Wallachia three times. The tales about the burning of the lazy, the poor, and the lame at Vlad's order and the execution of the woman who had made her husband too short a shirt can also be found among the German and Slavic anecdotes. Books describing Vlad's cruel acts were among the first best sellers in the German-speaking territories.

Was Don Juan an unconquerable womanizer and a philanderer whose life choices were driven by his loins, not his mind? A rich man of noble blood, indeed. But also, a scoundrel of the highest order. Still, not every story sees him as such. Some say he is more victim than culprit, others that there is nothing wrong with enjoying life, provided doing so harms no one and nobody is induced to do something they would rather not. Our challenge is to find out exactly what kind of man Don Juan really was. The answer might surprise us.