Audiobooks narrated by Dan Gallagher

U-Boats in the Atlantic: The History of Germany’s Submarines during World War I and World War II

World War I witnessed the First Battle of the Atlantic, when the Kaiserreich unleashed its U-boats against England. During the war, the German submarines sent much of the British merchant marine to the bottom. Indeed, German reliance on U-boats in both World War I and World War II stemmed largely from their nation's geography. The Germans eventually recognized the superiority of the Royal Navy and its capacity to blockade Germany's short coastline in the event of war. While the British could easily interdict surface ships, submarines slipped from their Kiel or Hamburg anchorages unseen, able to prey upon England's merchant shipping. The sleek hunter-killers lurking beneath the waves, using periscopes to close in unnoticed on their prey, added a new, nerve-wracking element to naval warfare. The mere threat of submarine attack immediately altered naval tactics and strategies employed by both the Western Allies and the Central Powers, shifting them towards a more cautious approach, especially at the war’s start when the submarine threat remained untested. One critical innovation in World War II's Atlantic U-boat operations consisted of wolf-pack tactics, in which Admiral Karl Dönitz put great faith: “The greater the number of U-boats that could be brought simultaneously into the attack, the more favourable would become the opportunities offered to each individual attacker. […] it was obvious that, on strategic and general tactical grounds, attacks on convoys must be carried out by a number of U-boats acting in unison.” (Dönitz, 1990, 4). However, even the wolf-pack proved insufficient to defeat the Atlantic convoys and stop Allied commerce – the precise opposite of the Pacific theater, where America's excellent submarine forces annihilated much of Japan's merchant marine and inflicted severe damage on the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Learning From Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies

Learning From Strangers is the definitive work on qualitative research interviewing. It draws on Robert Weiss's 30 years of experience in interviewing and teaching others how to do it. The most effective interviews, says Weiss, rely on creating cooperation - an open and trusting alliance between interviewer and respondent, dedicated to specific and honest accounts of both internal and external events. Against the eclectic background of his work in national sample surveys, studies based on semi-structured interviewing, and participant observation, Weiss walks the listener through the method of qualitative interview studies: sample selection, development of an interview guide, the conduct of the interview, analysis, and preparation of the data. Weiss gives examples of successful and less successful interviews and offers specific techniques and guidelines for the practitioner. Learning From Strangers is wonderfully narrated by Dan Gallagher. ©1994 Robert S. Weiss. Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Robert S. Weiss (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Antoni Gaudi and Frank Lloyd Wright: The Lives and Works of the Most Influential Modern Architects

Halfway into the 19th century, Spain's Catalonia underwent a sweeping transformation when it was thrust into not one, but 2 golden eras – the Renaixença and the Industrial Revolution. It was during this explosive period of creativity, thriving prosperity, and invigorated patriotism that a steadfastly nonconforming and fascinatingly eccentric icon was born, one that was about to take Catalonia by storm with his brilliant eye for unorthodox art and his legendary – or as some would say, notoriously – out-of-the-box ideas. Salvador Dalí, the celebrated surrealist, was one of many who would find a fount of inspiration in him, even once raving about the Sagrada Familia, the highlight of this icon's career: “Those who have not heard about the chromatic and shining essence of its color, the astonishing polyphony of its towers as organ pipes and shocked by its mutant naturalism, are traitors.” This icon in question, of course, is none other than what many now consider to be the patriarch of the Catalan Modernism movement: Antoni Gaudí. Across the pond, America’s most innovative and prolific architect was Frank Lloyd Wright, whose works are almost too vast and diverse to list. Recognized for designing unique churches and distinctive commercial buildings, and admired for his geometric style house designs, Wright has been widely imitated, and his work continues to influence architecture not only in the United States but around the world. Laymen often think they know the definition of “a Frank Lloyd Wright,” but they probably don’t fully understand the brilliant mind of the man, nor the intricacies of his Prairie Style. Yet it endures because he has made it so, and in many ways, Wright’s architectural career has overshadowed other aspects of his life.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Charles Babbage and Alan Turing: The Lives and Careers of the English Mathematicians Who Revolutioni

Today, the world is in the midst of the transformative and ever-developing Digital Age, otherwise referred to as the “Age of Information.” It has been an unprecedented, remarkable, and explosive era marked by social media and computer-generated imagery (and with it, deep fakes), among other novel, previously unimaginable concepts. The bulky monitors and blocky towers of personal computers and laptops, which were once upon a time considered fashionable, futuristic contraptions, have since been replaced with a sleek and stylish array – both multi-functional and specialized – of aerodynamic, minimalistic devices, ranging from smartphones and tablets to lightweight laptops and full-fledged gaming set-ups packed with powerhouse processors. While many are familiar with those facts, and a recent movie revived interest in Alan Turing’s achievements with computing during World War II, it was Charles Babbage who was the first to conceive the notion of a programmable and automatic universal computer, which, on top of its ability to calculate any mathematical equation at an unmatched speed, could also be used for a seemingly infinite number of other applications. In other words, he envisioned the precursor to the modern computer. Given that he was the one who envisioned a concept so momentous that it ultimately led to the creation of what is now considered the world's first computer, many might be mistaken for thinking Alan Turing was the kind of suave, pipe-puffing dandy that many might associate with such a grand and futuristic idea. In reality, he was nothing of the sort. Turing was hardly the kind of two-dimensional, stereotypically bookish character whose light bulb suddenly went off during an experiment binge either. On the contrary, Alan was a gauche and grief-stricken 17-year-old schoolboy who would channel all the pain and confusion from his poignant heartbreak into his tireless research, paving the path for the deeply transformative Computer Age.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Submarines and the World Wars: The History of Submarine Warfare in World War I and World War II

During World War I, German U-boats operated solo except on one occasion. Initially, the British and nations supplying England with food and materiel scattered vessels singly across the ocean, making them vulnerable to the lone submarines. However, widespread late war re-adoption of the convoy system tipped the odds in the surface ships' favor, as one U-boat skipper described: “The oceans at once became bare and empty; for long periods at a time the U-boats, operating individually, would see nothing at all; and then suddenly up would loom a huge concourse of ships, thirty or fifty or more of them, surrounded by a strong escort of warships of all types.” World War I proved the value of submarines, ensuring their widespread employment in the next conflict, and one critical innovation in World War II's Atlantic U-boat operations consisted of wolf-pack tactics, in which Admiral Karl Dönitz put great faith: “The greater the number of U-boats that could be brought simultaneously into the attack, the more favorable would become the opportunities offered to each individual attacker. Meanwhile, submarines exercised a decisive impact on the outcome of the Pacific Theater in World War II. The U.S. submarine fleet, largely though not exclusively under the overall command of Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood, strangled the supply lines and shipping traffic of the Empire of Japan. Their commerce raiding crippled both Japan's ability to keep its frontline units supplied and to manufacture the weapons, vessels, and vehicles needed to successfully carry on the struggle. Though constituting only 1.6% of the total U.S. Navy’s tonnage in the Pacific, the submarine fleet inflicted massive losses on the Imperial Japanese Navy and Japan's crucial merchant marine. Submarines sank 55% of the merchant shipping lost, or approximately 1,300 vessels

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Greco-Roman Technology: The History of Inventions and Improvements Made by the Ancient Greeks and Ro

In virtually all fields of human endeavor Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day. In the field of medicine, the great physician Hippocrates not only advanced the practical knowledge of human anatomy and care-giving but changed the entire face of the medical profession. The great philosophers of Athens, men like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, interrogated themselves with startling complexity about the nature of good and evil, questioned the existence of divinity, advocated intelligent design, and went so far as to argue that all life was composed of infinitesimal particles. Great architects and sculptors such as Phidias produced works of art of such breathtaking realism and startling dynamism that they later formed the driving force behind the resurgence of sculpture during the Renaissance and served as masters to artists such as Michelangelo, Bernini, and Donatello. And this does not take into account the host of equally brilliant mathematicians, natural philosophers, historians, astronomers and politicians that the city’s great schools nurtured and produced. The modern world has the ancient Romans to thank for the origins of many modern technologies, conveniences, and ideas, from running water, baths, and republican style government to roads. Similarly, by the 3rd century BCE, the Romans were prodigious monument builders, so much so that the memory of the great Roman Republic and the Roman Empire continues to exist within a cityscape of stone. Rome’s public spaces were filled with statues, arches, temples, and many other varieties of monumental images, and each of these structures had its own civic or religious function. At the same time, most were embedded with stories, messages, and symbolism so that they also tended to function as propaganda.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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The Inquisition in the New World: The History and Legacy of the Inquisition after Spain and Portugal

New Spain was established in the aftermath of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 1521, and as the most spectacular conquest and the richest province, New Spain quickly became the focus of Spanish America. The Viceroyalty of New Spain was established in 1535, comprising a vast region of what is now the American Southwest, all of Mexico and Central America, the various Spanish held islands of the Caribbean, the "Spanish Main," and the Spanish Far East Empire (comprised mainly of the Philippines). The Viceroyalty of New Castile (later named the Viceroyalty of Peru) was established in 1542 and comprised all of Spain's South American territory, such as it was defined, excluding the Guianas. In 1610, the viceregency of New Granada was established with its capital in Cartagena, comprising the modern states of Columbia, Venezuela, a portion of Equator and Panama. In 1776, after much jostling with the southern frontier of Portuguese Brazil, the viceregency of Rio la Plata was formed, comprising Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, with Buenos Aires a sits capital. The Portuguese, of course, established their territory of Brazil with its capital and Rio de Janeiro. Not surprisingly, as the Catholic empires expanded across the globe, persecution would travel with them, and the horrors experienced by indigenous populations in these colonies rivaled anything heretics back in Europe faced. The Inquisition in the New World: The History and Legacy of the Inquisition after Spain and Portugal Colonized the Americas looks at how the Inquisitions came to be, the manner in which it was exported west, and how people were tortured and executed.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Operation Condor: The History of the Notorious Intelligence Operations Supported by the United State

"Let's say there were 7,000 or 8,000 people who had to die to win the war against subversion... We couldn't execute them by firing squad. Neither could we take them to court... For that reason, so as not to provoke protests inside and outside the country, the decision was reached that these people should be disappeared." - General Jorge Rafael Videla For much of the 20th century, South American governments in large part lived under a system of military junta governments. The mixture of indigenous peoples, foreign settlers and European colonial superpowers produced cultural and social imbalances into which military forces intervened as a stabilizing influence. The proactive personalities of military heads and the rigid structures of such a hierarchy guaranteed the "strong man" commanding officer an abiding presence in the form of executive dictator. Such leaders often bore the more collaborative title of "President," but the reality was, in most cases, identical. Likewise, the gap between rich and poor was often vast, and a disappearance of the middle class fed a frequent urge for revolution, reenergizing the military's intent to stop it. With no stabilizing center, the ideologies most prevalent in such conflicts alternated between a federal model of industrial and social nationalization and an equally conservative structure under privatized ownership and autocratic rule drawn from the head of a junta government. Whichever belief system was in play for the major industrial nations of the continent, a constant bombardment of foreign influence pushed the people of states such as Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and others, toward overthrow, in one direction or the other. From the left came Stalinist influences from the Soviet Union and Castro's Cuba, while the German World War II model and an anti-communist mindset from the United States worked behind the scenes to upset any movement toward extreme liberalism. The reign of Juan Peron in Argentina became the most iconic such arrangement to the Western observer, but General Augusto Pinochet's 17-year rule over Chile after an American-supported coup in the 1970s proved the most enduring and the most resistant to eradication by subsequent leaders of an opposite bent. Pinochet himself openly bragged, "My library is filled with UN condemnations." By combating Marxists and Communists during the Cold War, Pinochet ensured he would at the very least remain undisturbed by America, even as he carried out policies that would be labeled tyrannical by any objective measurement. As writer Jacob C. Hornberger put it while analyzing appraisals of Pinochet based on political background, "[T]error in the name of fighting terror is a grave criminal offense against humanity no matter what economic philosophy the state terrorist happens to hold." The tacit acceptance of these right-wing dictators across South America was part of an overarching effort known as Operation Condor, consisting mostly of CIA operations that are as infamous and controversial as ever, with a lasting legacy that affects current events such as reactions to the ongoing unrest in Venezuela. Operation Condor: The History of the Notorious Intelligence Operations Supported by the United States to Combat Communists across South America looks at the various intelligence operations and the winding chain of events that brought about conflicts in the region. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about Operation Condor like never before.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Mansa Musa and and Timbuktu: The History of the West African Emperor and Medieval Africa's Most Fabl

Recent research has revealed that the richest person of all time lived in the 14th century in West Africa and went by many names, including Kankan Musa Keita, Emir of Melle, Lord of the Mines of Wangara, Conqueror of Ghanata and the Lion of Mali II, but today he is usually referred to as Mansa Musa. Adjusting his wealth to modern values, he was worth about an estimated $400 billion as the Sultan of ancient Mali, which controlled the trade routes across the Sahara Desert. About 6,000 years ago, the ancient Sahara was a tropical jungle with lush grasslands and substantial rivers until it moved north of the Equator as a result of tectonic plate movements. The seismic activity changed the location of land and the composition of the atmosphere. The African Humid Period seems to have ended relatively quickly, taking a couple of thousand years before being replaced by a much drier climate, and this started a process of desertification that forced many animals and human inhabitants to the outer edges of the immense desert. There would have been passages through the area that vanished as the harsh climate inexorably clawed at the mountains and hills, turning them into the sand that obliterated all traces of their ever having been there. By about 600 BCE, the terrain and habitat had become much less hospitable, so much so that it was no longer possible to use horses and oxen to carry commodities. As a result, trading became difficult and sporadic and slowly disappeared. This all changed when camels were introduced to the Sahara, initially via Roman invaders and then with the Berber traders from Arabia moving across North Africa in search of gold and salt. As they reached the southern Sahel, they encountered the old established trading system and routes of the Garamantes, the people who handled the trade in and out of the Sahara from West Africa. The combination of the use of camels with the already re-established West African trade routes brought about rapid economic progress that resulted in the area supplying more than half the world's gold for more than 1,000 years, beginning around 400 CE. Of course, this timing coincided with the rise of global trade routes such as the Silk Road and the beginning of Europe's Age of Discovery. By the 12th century, it was believed that far to the east, beyond the lands controlled by the Muslim armies, lived a powerful Christian king named Prester John in the land of India. While he was a king, he was also a priest ("Prester" means Priest and was supposedly the only title he took). His kingdom was believed to be grand and contained many wonders. Marco Polo looked for Prester John, and the Crusaders wanted to reach out to Prester John. Portugal's Henry the Navigator sent his ships out with explicit instructions of what they should do if they met Prester John, and on his historic voyages, Columbus carried two books, The Travels of Marco Polo and The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, both of which have long passages on Prester John. The belief in the existence of fabled African kingdoms and kings ensured that real African kings were also shrouded in lore, and few would become as legendary as Mansa Musa. Mansa Mansa Musa and Timbuktu: The History of the West African Emperor and Medieval Africa's Most Fabled City looks at one of the most famous rulers of the Middle Ages and the development of the city. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about Mansa Musa and Timbuktu like never before.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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The Knights Hospitaller: The History and Legacy of the Medieval Catholic Military Order

For centuries, Christians and Muslims were embroiled in one of the most infamous territorial disputes of all time, viciously and relentlessly battling one another for the Holy Land. In the heart of Jerusalem sat one of the shining jewels of the Christian faith, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Legend has it that this was where their Savior had been buried before his fabled resurrection. What was more, it was said to house the very cross Jesus Christ had died upon. It was for precisely these reasons that fearless pilgrims, near and far, risked their lives and made the treacherous trek to Jerusalem. Like other secretive groups, the mystery surrounding the Catholic military orders that sprung up in the wake of the First Crusade helped their legacies endure. While some conspiracy theorists attempt to tie the groups to other alleged secret socities like the Illuminati, other groups have tried to assert connections with them to bolster their own credentials. Who they were and what they had in their possession continue to be a source of great intrigue. The story of the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, frequently shortened to the Knights Hospitaller, is long and complicated. Although the roots of the organization existed before the First Crusade, the order would not develop until 20 years after the famous call by Pope Urban II to conquer the Holy Land of Jerusalem for Christianity. Moreover, while the identity of the Knights Hospitaller was focused on the principles of crusading and military conquest, the order also focused on charitable Christian causes like the healing the sick and feeding the poor and hungry. In fact, functioning as a hospital was the original purpose of the Order before it started to militarize, yet as time wore on, such ideals would fade in the face of wealth, power, and desperation to reclaim the vestiges of prestige lost over the centuries. The Knights Hospitaller formed in the 12th century and continue to exist in contemporary times, albeit in a considerably different form. Over the last millennium, the organization has fulfilled different roles, served varying masters, and continued to uphold the tenets of crusading even when there was no Crusade to fight. All the while, as it went through centuries of murkiness, including the development of a notorious reputation, the Knights Hospitaller continued to adapt. In contemporary times, the Knights Hospitaller could no longer be said to uphold the morals of the Crusades, but it definitely continues to adhere to the tenets of chivalry and charity. To get to this new position, however, the Order needed to undergo trials, tribulations, and years of resorting to begging. The Knights Hospitaller: The History and Legacy of the Medieval Catholic Military Order chronicles the known history of the order and examines the secrecy and mysteries surrounding it. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Knights Hospitaller like never before.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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The Sentinelese: The History of the Uncontacted People on North Sentinel Island

There is no record of Marco Polo ever visiting the Andaman Islands, so his brief description of the islanders must have been drawn from a secondary source. They were, he wrote, "a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth like those of dogs. They are very cruel, and kill and eat every foreigner whom they can lay their hands upon." Most subsequent travelers and travelogues have tended to agree, although in an age of inclusion and diversity, the modern understanding and appreciation of the indigenous Andamanese is somewhat more sympathetic. Nonetheless, that one common theme has persisted, in particular in the many colonial-era chronicles, which were all written at a time when Darwin and his contemporaries were rationalizing evolution, and evolutionary divergence. How could it be, they ask, that a small pocket of the human race could be content to linger so far behind in the journey of human development? The Andaman and Nicobar Islands comprise a tiny archipelago of some 200 islands in the Indian Ocean. They are located in a seemingly insignificant spot in the Bay of Bengal, comprising a combined area of only 3,500 square miles, but the islands are a tropical idyll, populated by dark Indians drawn mainly from the east coast, with a curious aboriginal people who appear more African than Asian. The islands have been within sight of international shipping routes since the very birth of ocean travel, and yet, until the arrival of the great European trading enterprises, the archipelago remained virtually unvisited, and absolutely unsettled by any other than its indigenous inhabitants. The Sentinelese: The History of the Uncontacted People on North Sentinel Island profiles the indigenous people, famous attempts to contact them, and what's known and unknown about them. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Sentinelese like never before.

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Ancient Greek Technology: The History and Legacy of the Technological Advances Made in Greece during

Dominated to this day by the sprawling white marble complex of the Acropolis, Athens is a city which is immensely and rightly proud of its past. For a period of roughly three centuries, the polis of Athens stood, if not in a position of unchallenged supremacy among the cities of Hellas, then at the very least among its three most important polities. Its fledgling empire, though small by the standards later set by Alexander or the Romans, or even by those of its ancient enemy Persia, nonetheless encompassed cities as far afield as Asia Minor and Southern Italy, a remarkable fact considering such expansion was achieved by the inhabitants of a single city and its immediate surroundings, rather than by an entire nation. For much of its history, the Athenian navy was the single mightiest force in the Mediterranean, having defeated the overwhelming might of Persia in pitched battle upon the open sea numerous times. The Athenian army itself, though subordinate to its naval power - a sop to the fact that it was trade and empire-building that had made Athens rich - was nothing to be sneered at, as it succeeded in meting out a humiliating defeat to Darius's Persians at Marathon. Yet despite a martial tradition that, if taken as a whole, was second to none save the Spartans, Athens is chiefly remembered for two reasons: its political system, which would in time form the nucleus of all Western democratic systems of government, and the remarkable number of outstanding individuals which, during the Golden Age of Athens, lived and flourished in the enlightened city-state. The Ancient Athenians formed the backbone of the West's entire culture, from the arts to philosophy and everything in between. In virtually all fields of human endeavor Athens was so much at the forefront of dynamism and innovation that the products of its most brilliant minds remain not only influential but entirely relevant to this day. In the field of medicine, the great physician Hippocrates not only advanced the practical knowledge of human anatomy and care-giving but changed the entire face of the medical profession. The great philosophers of Athens, men like Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, interrogated themselves with startling complexity about the nature of good and evil, questioned the existence of divinity, advocated intelligent design, and went so far as to argue that all life was composed of infinitesimal particles. Great architects and sculptors such as Phidias produced works of art of such breathtaking realism and startling dynamism that they later formed the driving force behind the resurgence of sculpture during the Renaissance and served as masters to artists such as Michelangelo, Bernini, and Donatello. The plays of dramatists such as Aristophanes not only displayed an acerbic wit and a genius for political satire so pronounced that their works continue to be performed - and topical - to this day, and they served as the inspiration for virtually all playwrights from Shakespeare to the present day. And this does not take into account the host of equally brilliant mathematicians, natural philosophers, historians, astronomers and politicians that the city's great schools nurtured and produced. The flowering of Greek civilization was further made possible by an increase of trade between the cities and with other civilizations. Trade became a major occupation on account of the scarcity of agricultural land in the largely mountainous regions of the Balkan peninsula. The polis of Athens, in particular, assumed economic dominance in the Aegean in from the 6th century BCE. The consequent increase in wealth, resources and population made a cultural renaissance possible. Commerce, in turn, led to the rise of an affluent aristocratic class which had the leisure to devote itself to learning, philosophy, and art. It also led to an industrial class of freemen who were ar

Charles River Editors (Author), Dan Gallagher (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Dan Gallagher