NPR American Chronicles: World War II (audiobook)

Absolutely Fantastic

Original Radio Broadcast by NPR
Duration: 3 hours
Published 2011 by HighBridge Audio


NPR's American Chronicles: World War II is a 3 hour collection of 27 stories broadcast over the radio network from 1982 to 2010 around the topic of World War II.

Atomic mushroom cloud over Nagasaki

This collection is not designed to introduce the reader to the war or to its causes - it assumes the listener has a basic grasp of the facts. But, what it does do is delve deeply into certain topics that are associated with the war, such as the life of Londoners during the Blitz, the story of a young Japanese man who was in an internment camp, the Doolittle Raid, Bill Millin - the "Mad Piper" who played the bagpipe for his Scottish regiment as they landed at Normandy (because tradition demanded it), women on the home front, artists who may have used their skills to help the Americans to trick the Germans and an interview with one of the pilots of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

This is an exceptionally strong collection - even the worst stories are quite good. My favorite is the story of Tuskegee Airman Alexander Jefferson who tells his story with a lot of zest and hauntingly tells of visiting the death camp at Dachau and noting that the ovens used to cremate the victims were still warm. The reports are well narrated and  include lots of music from the era and bits of radio reports to give the listener more of a feel for the time.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: NPR American Chronicles: World War II.

This audiobook was sent to me for free by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Reviewed on November 18, 2011.