Showing results by narrator "Colin Fluxman" in All Categories

The life of Augustus is historically important because his leadership marked out a new era in the story of the Roman world, an era that would see the expansion of the Roman Empire across the Mediterranean and beyond. Tiberius is remembered, if he is remembered at all, for his bad behavior. He spent much of his rule on a Greek island surrounded by every pleasure that his diseased flesh could dream of, abandoning his empire to scandal and intrigue.

If you want to discover the captivating history of Medieval England and Magna Carta, then get England in the Middle Ages - a set of two books about England during the Middle Ages and the influence of the Magna Carta.

The life of Sir Francis Drake, or, more precisely, the tale of it, is one of those prime examples that history is written by the winners. Drake was the most famous sailor of the Elizabethan era, and he has long been considered a hero by the English. His successes against the Spanish as a captain and a privateer were legendary, and Drake was celebrated for fighting the Queen's enemies, sinking their ships, and capturing the treasure that would otherwise be used to finance attacks on England.

Learn more about the two main pantheons of gods, the Aesir and the Vanir, and the Jotnar. Discover how the Norse world was created and the fascinating history of each god through archaeological and etymological sources.

Yugoslavia was arguably one of the most unusual geopolitical creations of the 20th century. The Yugoslav state had never existed in any historical sense, and the ties that bound together its constituent peoples were tenuous at best. Although nominally all “Slavs,” the country was an amalgamation of languages, alphabets, cultures, religions, and traditions, which ensured its short existence was littered with splits, conflicts, and shocking violence. In a sense, it’s somewhat surprising that it lasted as long as it did.

The reign of the Khmer Rouge, a Cambodian communist regime, began on April 7, 1975 as Khmer Rouge militants entered the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, ultimately gaining control and forcing out its residents. For the next four years, the regime would remain in power and commit what is now referred to as the Cambodian Genocide. Their reign would result in economic turmoil, cultural destruction, and mass death, impacting Cambodia to this day.

Learn about one of the largest people groups in Africa! The Yorubas are an interesting people with a rich cultural heritage that can be traced back to many centuries ago. The history of the Yorubas is one of Africa’s most researched and analyzed histories due to the high level of literacy among the Yoruba. They have a system of government that ensures the proper running of the community and the education of their young. The Yorubas are located in West Africa, with the majority of the population found in southwestern Nigeria.

This audiobook takes you on an exciting journey into the past to uncover the story of the Denisovans. Hidden deep in the Denisova Cave in Siberia, their remains went unnoticed for centuries. But when scientists discovered them, it changed what we knew about human history.

England is an ancient land steeped in history and tradition, filled with prehistoric ruins, majestic castles, and a countryside sculpted from millennia of human habitation. Thus, it is not surprising that many believe England is a land filled with ghosts. The Ghosts of London: A Collection of Ghost Stories from the British Capital offers a sampling of the many strange ghost stories and unexplained phenomena that make London such an intriguing place.

The tank was first developed by the British and French during World War I as a means to break the deadlock on the Western Front. More so than any previous war, the balance of power lay with the defense, as machine guns, trenches, bunkers, barbed wire, and rapid-firing rifles all made frontal assaults on established positions prohibitively costly. In the closing months of the war, the tank partially evened up that balance, even as the war’s commanders initially proved unsure of how to use them.

Although Genoa cannot compete in the popular imagination with some of Italy’s more famous cities, this busy port town perched above the sea once boasted a powerful empire that rivaled that of Venice. It also lasted for roughly the same time period, rising in the early Middle Ages and coming to an end at the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte near the end of the 18th century. Today, historians are starting to correct the imbalance that has focused on Venice, Florence, and Rome, and new histories are gradually introducing Genoa to the world, even as much remains to be uncovered.

Fidel Castro is one of the most influential and controversial men of the last 50 years, equally revered and reviled by people across the globe. To the West, Castro has long been one of the prominent faces of Communism, and the main reason Cuba has been ostracized by many liberal democracies, particularly the United States. On the other hand, Castro has been admired by those who despised capitalism, and despite the fact the political platform Castro advocated has been almost universally repudiated and only maintains a weak hold even in Cuba.

Castles have always fascinated people. They speak of a bygone time when gallant knights faced each other in mortal combat to win a lady’s favor, and they bring up images of the chivalry and monarchs of old. In countless romance novels and movies, castles have been the backdrop for sweeping drama, romance, and adventure. But castles have also become centers for stories of paranormal activity, with ghosts replaying the dreadful events that threw them into their unwanted afterlives.

Europe’s attempts to appease Hitler failed, as Nazi Germany swallowed up Austria and Czechoslovakia by 1939. The straw that broke the camel's back, however, was Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1 of that year. Two days later, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany, and World War II had begun in earnest. Of course, as most people now know, the invasion of Poland was merely the preface to the Nazi blitzkrieg of most of Western Europe.The narrative is that the British stood alone in 1940 against the Nazi onslaught....

Different branches of the same religion are the exception more than the rule, and they have had a profound impact upon history. The schism between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches influenced relationships between nations across Europe, and religious intolerance based on different Christian faiths led to persecution and outright violence across the continent for centuries.

In fact, of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, only about 40 were fleeing England for religious reasons. And if you want to learn more fascinating facts about this cultural icon, pay attention.... The Reformation brought sweeping changes across Europe. In England, that led to the formation of a small congregation of radicals known as the Separatists. These were ordinary farmers and craftsmen who simply didn’t believe in the Anglican Church, and they found themselves hounded out of their own country like criminals.

Modern Latvia: The History and Legacy of Latvia’s Struggle for Independence in the 20th Century examines the geopolitics of the region, Latvia’s place in it, and the most important events in Lithuania’s recent history.

Since the early days of human warfare, which may date back to the Stone Age, combatants have sought to gain an advantage through the acquisition of secret information. With the growth of technology, a parallel advantage was sought through the application of numerous types of torture. In the 19th century, the concept of manipulation was added to military tactics, an attempt to influence the minds of assassins, double agents, and world leaders alike to act against their natures.

In the 18th century, Italy was still divided into smaller states, but differently than during medieval times when the political entities were independent and were flourishing economic and cultural centers almost unrivaled in Europe. The events of 1848-1849 began to pull the peninsula together, however. The Unification of Italy: The History of the Risorgimento and the Conflicts that Unified the Italian Nation chronicles the turbulent events and wars that unified Italy, and the struggle to maintain the new nation.

To say Edith Stein lived a remarkable life would be a dramatic understatement. Born in Breslau (then part of Germany) at the end of the 19th century, Edith was raised as an observant jew, only to turn her back on religion right around the time World War I devastated the continent. In the wake of the war, during which she earned a doctorate and began working as an assistant at the University of Freiburg, she began reading the works of the legendary St. Teresa of Ávila, one of the most influential Catholic saints in history.