Pandora’s Box
A History of the First World War
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Pandora’s Box
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Narrated by:
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David de Vries
About this listen
In this monumental history of the First World War, Germany's leading historian of the 20th century's first great catastrophe explains the war's origins, course, and consequences. With an unrivaled combination of depth and global reach, Pandora's Box reveals how profoundly the war shaped the world to come.
Jörn Leonhard treats the clash of arms with a sure feel for grand strategy, the everyday tactics of dynamic movement and slow attrition, the race for ever more destructive technologies, and the grim experiences of frontline soldiers. But the war was much more than a military conflict, or an exclusively European one. Leonhard renders the perspectives of leaders, intellectuals, artists, and ordinary men and women on diverse home fronts as they grappled with the urgency of the moment and the rise of unprecedented political and social pressures. And he tells how the entire world came out of the war utterly changed.
Postwar treaties and economic turbulence transformed geopolitics. Old empires disappeared or confronted harsh new constraints, while emerging countries struggled to find their place in an age of instability. At the same time, sparked and fueled by the shock and suffering of war, radical ideologies in Europe and around the globe swept away orders that had seemed permanent, to establish new relationships among elites, masses, and the state. Heralded on its publication in Germany as a masterpiece of historical narrative and analysis, Pandora's Box makes clear just what dangers were released when the guns first fired in the summer of 1914.
©2018 the President and Fellows of Harvard College (P)2018 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Pandora’s Box
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. J. Brown
- 20-07-19
Extraordinary achievement.
The best analysis of the socio-economic and political impact of WW1 in a single volume. Opens up the Eastern Front for those overly familiar with the Western Front.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Belfastconfetti
- 24-11-23
Interesting, informative, thought-provoking.
A new - to me - perspective on the Great War by a distinguished German historian. It's been beautifully translated and its well read.
I found it fascinating and have listened to it through twice. I then bought the book and read it as well.
I'm not sure that this is actually the best overall work of history that I've read or listened to - but it's certainly one of the best.
Very, very highly recommended.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- dave
- 29-02-20
superb
Brilliant. Probably the best history of World War 1.
The American accent of the reader somehow conveys a neutrality that the the text has.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 15-08-23
An excelent listen
So far, the best and most extensive book on the social economic aspects of WW1.
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- T. J. Gluckman
- 05-04-24
Great bk fusing story w/ clear theory explaining
I have listened to many history audio books (9 bks by Max Hastings, Evans, Macmillan, M. Gilbert, C. Andrew, Forczyk etc etc) totalling over 500 hrs. But this in my opinion, is the finest bc unlike all the others it not only tells the story but combines the narrative with a clear and convincing theoretical explanation of the social movements and changes which underlay the 'story'.But do not fear that the text will lose itself in abstruse theory of L:eft or Right; it is always plausible and not written with a hidden agenda.
This book is about WW1 so after listening, I'd recommend Margaret Macmillan's 'The Peacemakers' about the various treaties (Versailles, Sevres etc) which tried but failed to sort out the various conflicts & struggles for statehood. WW1 redesigned world maps more than any other single conflict in history, and it was illuminating to read about the genesis of the many states that came into being after 1918 e.g. Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,
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- Asta Rootsi
- 26-09-20
Best book on WWI for those interested more in what what going on around the battlefield
I have read/listened to a great number of books on this topic, but this is by far the best I have encountered. First of all, because it connects the events with the intellectual history and how ideas were born out of the experience of war and in all theatres. It looks chronologically through the years and dwells only enough on the actual fighting, concentrating more on the impact on the home societies and aforementioned ideas. This war’s impact was so much greater than the actual fighting or the individual experience and this book captures this aspect brilliantly.
The narration is also brilliant, making it difficult to put the book down.
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4 people found this helpful