Audiobooks by Ian Mortimer

[German] - Im Mittelalter: Handbuch für Zeitreisende

Nicht berühmte Herrscher, grausame Kriege oder denkwürdige Ereignisse sind das Thema des Historikers Ian Mortimer, sondern der Alltag der Menschen im Mittelalter: Wie feierten sie? Worüber lachten sie? Wie liebten sie? Mortimer beschreibt, wie es in den engen Gassen roch, welche Mahlzeiten sich die Bewohner zubereiteten und wie man sich auch ohne Handy und SMS in Windeseile verständigte. Endlich ein Buch, das zeigt, dass Geschichte nicht nur studiert, sondern auf einer Zeitreise erlebt werden kann!

Ian Mortimer (Author), Michael A. Grimm (Narrator)

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[German] - Im Rausch des Vergnügens: Eine Reise in das England von Jane Austen und Lord Byron

Willkommen im Regency, dem Übergang vom 18. ins 19. Jahrhundert! Ian Mortimer nimmt uns mit in diese kuriose Zeit, die für viele schlichtweg für Übermaß steht. Zwischen der leicht langweilig anmutenden Eleganz des 18. Jahrhunderts und der prüden moralischen Überlegenheit der Frühviktorianer wirkt diese Epoche liederlich, grell, gefährlich, schockierend und anstößig – doch dabei höchst unterhaltsam und anziehend. Es ist das Zeitalter von Jane Austen und den Dichtern der Romantik, der Gemälde von John Constable, der eleganten Kleidung von Beau Brummell und der poetischen Freiheit von Lord Byron. Mortimer zeigt uns, wie sich die Engländer des Regency vergnügt haben, wie sie regiert und gedacht haben, was sie aßen, tranken und trugen, woran sie glaubten und wovor sie Angst hatten – und zeichnet so ein lebendiges Porträt dieser außergewöhnlichen Zeit. Der Übergang vom 18. ins 19. Jahrhundert, auch Regency genannt, ist geprägt von Ungerechtigkeit. Die Bevölkerung ist stark gewachsen, überall herrscht Armut. Gleichzeitig sind es vielleicht die letzten Jahre, in denen die Menschen gewisse Freiheiten genießen, bevor die strikten moralischen Regeln des Viktorianischen Zeitalters ihren Alltag bestimmen. Mit Ian Mortimer reisen wir durch vier der aufregendsten und kulturell wichtigsten Jahrzehnte der britischen Geschichte – eine Zeit des Überschwangs, des Nervenkitzels und des unkontrollierten, schlechten Benehmens. Gleichzeitig war es eine Zeit des Umbruchs, die von einem beispiellosen sozialen, wirtschaftlichen und politischen Wandel geprägt war. Und wie alle Epochen der Geschichte war es ein Zeitalter vieler Widersprüche – immerhin konnte Beethovens donnernde fünfte Symphonie im selben Jahr uraufgeführt werden, in dem Jane Austen die feinfühligen Empfindsamkeiten von Überredung zu Papier brachte.

Ian Mortimer (Author), Michael A. Grimm (Narrator)

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[German] - Als Licht das Dunkel durchdrang: Das unterschätzte Mittelalter - eine Epoche des Wandels

Wir neigen dazu, das Mittelalter als eine dunkle, rückständige und konstante Zeit zu sehen, die von Gewalt, Unwissenheit und Aberglaube geprägt war. Im Gegensatz dazu glauben wir, dass Fortschritt auf Wissenschaft und technischer Innovation beruht und dass uns erst die Erfindungen der letzten Jahrhunderte in die Moderne geführt haben. Ian Mortimer räumt mit diesem Narrativ auf. Er skizziert die enormen kulturellen Veränderungen, die sich im Mittelalter vollzogen, und führt uns eine revolutionäre Epoche vor Augen, die von grundlegender Bedeutung für die Entwicklung der westlichen Welt war.

Ian Mortimer (Author), Michael A. Grimm (Narrator)

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Guía del viajero del tiempo a la Inglaterra medieval (The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

Una guía original, entretenida y esclarecedora de un mundo completamente diferente: Inglaterra en la Edad Media. Una máquina del tiempo te acaba de transportar al siglo xiv. ¿Qué ves? ¿Cómo te vistes? ¿Cómo te ganas la vida y cuánto te pagan? ¿Qué tipo de comida te ofrecerá un campesino, un monje o un señor? Y lo que es más importante, ¿dónde te alojarás? La Guía para viajar en el tiempo a la Inglaterra medieval no es la típica mirada a un periodo histórico. Mortimer da un giro radical a nuestra concepción de la historia: no es solo algo que se estudia, también es algo que se vive, ya sea la vida de un campesino o de un señor. A través de las crónicas diarias, las cartas, los relatos domésticos y los poemas de la época, Mortimer nos transporta al pasado y nos ofrece respuestas a preguntas que los historiadores tradicionales suelen ignorar. Aprenderemos cómo saludar a la gente en la calle, qué usar como papel higiénico, por qué un médico podría querer probar nuestra sangre y cómo saber si estamos enfermando de lepra. Un libro de historia social sorprendente y revolucionario, informativo y entretenido, acerca de una época de violencia, exuberancia y miedo.

Ian Mortimer (Author), Sergio Mejía (Narrator)

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Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter

Brought to you by Penguin. We tend to think about the Middle Ages as a dark and backward time, characterised by violence, ignorance and superstition. We believe that life was unchanging over the period, so if a peasant fell asleep in in the year 1000 and woke up six hundred years later, he would return to a world that was instantly recognisable. We hold that change is facilitated by science and technological innovation, and that it was the inventions of recent centuries, from the steam engine to the Internet, that created the modern world. We couldn't be more wrong. As Ian Mortimer shows in this fascinating introduction to the Middle Ages, people's horizons - their knowledge, experience and understanding of the world -- expanded dramatically. All aspects of life - politics and economics, religion and the arts - were utterly transformed between 1000 and 1600, in the process laying the foundations on which our modern lives rest. If Ian Mortimer's bestselling Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England revealed what it was like to live in the fourteenth century, Medieval Horizons provides the perfect primer to the period as a whole. It looks at the Middle Ages through the prism of a small range of topics - ranging from warfare to religion, travel to architecture, inequality to a new sense of self - thereby correcting misconceptions and presenting the period as one of the most important eras in our past, about which any reader with an interest in history should care. © Ian Mortimer 2023 (P) Penguin Audio 2023

Ian Mortimer (Author), Ian Mortimer (Narrator)

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The Time Traveller's Guide to Regency Britain

Brought to you by Penguin. In the latest volume of his celebrated series of Time Traveller's Guides - after the Middle Ages, Elizabethan England and Restoration Britain - Ian Mortimer turns to what is arguably the most-loved period in British history: the Regency (aka Georgian England). Bookended by the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789 and the death of George IV in 1830, this is the age of Jane Austen and the Romantic poets; the paintings of John Constable and the gardens of Humphry Repton; the sartorial elegance of Beau Brummell and the poetic licence of Lord Byron; Britain's military triumphs at Trafalgar and Waterloo; and the threat of revolution and the Peterloo massacre. A time of exuberance, thrills, frills and unchecked bad behaviour, it was perhaps the last age of true freedom before the arrival of the stifling world of Victorian morality. At the same time, it was a period of transition that reflected unprecedented social, economic and political change; it was dominated by population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation, fear of social unrest and demands for political reform. And like all periods in history, it was an age of many contradictions - where Beethoven's thundering Fifth Symphony could premier in the same year that saw Jane Austen craft the delicate sensitivities of Persuasion. Once more, Ian Mortimer takes us on a thrilling journey to the past, revealing what people ate, drank and wore; where they shopped and how they amused themselves; what they believed in and what they were afraid of. Conveying the sights, sounds and smells of the Regency period, this is history at its most exciting, physical, visceral - the past not as something to be studied but as lived experience. © Ian Mortimer 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

Ian Mortimer (Author), Ian Mortimer (Narrator)

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Zeiten der Erkenntnis: Wie uns die großen historischen Veränderungen bis heute prägen

Welches der vergangenen zehn Jahrhunderte hat die größten Veränderungen erlebt, welches hat die Menschheit am weitesten vorangebracht? Was war das Besondere eines jeden Jahrhunderts? Auf einem Streifzug durch die vergangenen 1000 Jahre führt uns Ian Mortimer zu den großen Zeiten der Erkenntnis und des Wandels. Wir begegnen gottesfürchtigen Forschern, gewitzten Bauern, kühl kalkulierenden Unternehmern und willensstarken Frauen. Vor allem aber stößt uns Mortimer am Ende - witzig, philosophisch und so klug wie prägnant - auf eine überraschende Erkenntnis, die unseren Blick auf die Geschichte der Menschheit für immer verändern wird.

Ian Mortimer (Author), Michael A. Grimm (Narrator)

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Why Running Matters

A memoir about the meaning of running from renowned historian and author of The Time Traveller's Guides. You might run for fitness. You might run for speed. But ultimately, running is about much more than the physical act itself. It is about the challenges we face in life, and how we measure up to them. It is about companionship, endurance, ambition, hope, conviction, determination, self-respect and inspiration. In this year-long memoir, which might be described as a historian's take on Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, the celebrated historian Ian Mortimer considers the meaning of running as he approaches his fiftieth birthday. From injuries and frustrated ambitions to exhilaration and empathy, it is a personal and yet universal account of what running means to people, and how it helps everyone focus on what really matters.

Ian Mortimer (Author), Ian Mortimer (Narrator)

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The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III

Edward's life is one of the most extraordinary in all English history. He ordered his uncle to be beheaded, he usurped his father's throne, and started a war which lasted for more than a hundred years. He took the crown when it was at its lowest point and raised it to new heights, presenting himself as a new King Arthur, victorious across Europe. He was the architect of many English icons - from parliamentary rule to the adoption of English as the official language and even the building of a great clocktower at Westminster. Yet behind the strong warrior king was a compassionate, conscientious and often merciful man - resolute yet devoted to his wife, friends and family, and the father of both the English nation and the English people.

Ian Mortimer (Author), Alex Wyndham (Narrator)

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The Fears of Henry IV

King Henry IV survived at least eight plots to dethrone or kill him in the first six years of his reign. However he had not always been so unpopular. In his youth he had been a great chivalric champion and crusader. In 1399, at the age of thirty-two, he was greeted as the saviour of the realm when he ousted from power the tyrannical King Richard II. But Henry had to contend with men who supported him only as long as they could control him; when they failed, they plotted to kill him. Adversaries also tried to take advantage of his questionable right to the crown. Such threats transformed him from hero to murderer, prepared to go to any lengths to save his family and throne. Against all the odds, however, he took a poorly ruled nation, established a new Lancastrian dynasty, and introduced the principle that a king must act in accordance with parliament.

Ian Mortimer (Author), James Cameron Stewart (Narrator)

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1415: Henry V's Year of Glory

Henry V is regarded as the great English hero, lionised in his own day for his victory at Agincourt, his piety and his rigorous application of justice. But what was he really like? In this ground-breaking book, Ian Mortimer portrays Henry in the pivotal year of his reign. Recording the dramatic events of 1415, he offers the fullest, most precise and least romanticised view we have of Henry and what he did. At the centre of the narrative is the campaign which culminated in the battle of Agincourt: a slaughter ground intended not to advance England's interests directly but to demonstrate God's approval of Henry's royal authority on both sides of the Channel. The result is a fascinating reappraisal of Henry which brings to the fore many unpalatable truths, as well as the king's extraordinary courage and leadership qualities.

Ian Mortimer (Author), James Cameron Stewart (Narrator)

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The Outcasts of Time

December 1348. What if you had just six days to save your soul? With the country in the grip of the Black Death, brothers John and William fear that they will shortly die and suffer in the afterlife. But as the end draws near, they are given an unexpected choice: either to go home and spend their last six days in their familiar world, or to search for salvation across the forthcoming centuries-living each one of their remaining days ninety-nine years after the last. John and William choose the future and find themselves in 1447, ignorant of almost everything going on around them. The year 1546 brings no more comfort, and 1645 challenges them in further unexpected ways. It is not just that technology is changing: things they have taken for granted all their lives prove to be short-lived. As they find themselves in stranger and stranger times, the listener travels with them, seeing the world through their eyes as it shifts through disease, progress, enlightenment, and war. But their time is running out-can they do something to redeem themselves before the six days are up?

Ian Mortimer (Author), James Cameron Stewart (Narrator)

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