-
Pacific
- Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $34.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Atlantic
- Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Atlantic is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues profoundly to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams. Spanning the ocean's story, from its geological origins to the age of exploration, from World War II battles to today's struggles with pollution and overfishing, Winchester's narrative is epic, intimate, and awe inspiring.
-
-
Another winner from Simon
- By Paul on 01-01-11
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Men Who United the States
- America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators. Introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
-
-
Simon Winchester tells us the history of America
- By KathrynVB on 10-16-14
By: Simon Winchester
-
Land
- How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Land - whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city - is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing - and have done - with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
-
-
Audiobook Version is the Best!
- By semarla on 01-31-21
By: Simon Winchester
-
Krakatoa
- The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa - the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster - was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly 40,000 people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light.
-
-
Great subject, great writing, great voice
- By rwise on 01-26-04
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Perfectionists
- How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement - precision - in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future.
-
-
Somewhat less than perfect
- By enya keshet on 06-19-18
By: Simon Winchester
-
A Crack in the Edge of the World
- America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale.
-
-
This Book Delivers
- By Drayton on 10-31-05
By: Simon Winchester
-
Atlantic
- Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms,and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Atlantic is a biography of a tremendous space that has been central to the ambitions of explorers, scientists, and warriors, and continues profoundly to affect our character, attitudes, and dreams. Spanning the ocean's story, from its geological origins to the age of exploration, from World War II battles to today's struggles with pollution and overfishing, Winchester's narrative is epic, intimate, and awe inspiring.
-
-
Another winner from Simon
- By Paul on 01-01-11
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Men Who United the States
- America's Explorers, Inventors, Eccentrics, and Mavericks, and the Creation of One Nation, Indivisible
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America’s most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators. Introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today’s United States, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree.
-
-
Simon Winchester tells us the history of America
- By KathrynVB on 10-16-14
By: Simon Winchester
-
Land
- How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Land - whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city - is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing - and have done - with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet.
-
-
Audiobook Version is the Best!
- By semarla on 01-31-21
By: Simon Winchester
-
Krakatoa
- The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa - the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster - was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly 40,000 people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light.
-
-
Great subject, great writing, great voice
- By rwise on 01-26-04
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Perfectionists
- How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York Times best-selling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement - precision - in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future.
-
-
Somewhat less than perfect
- By enya keshet on 06-19-18
By: Simon Winchester
-
A Crack in the Edge of the World
- America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force. In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale.
-
-
This Book Delivers
- By Drayton on 10-31-05
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Map That Changed the World
- William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1793 William Smith, a canal digger, made a startling discovery that was to turn the fledgling science of the history of the earth - and a central plank of established Christian religion - on its head. He noticed that the rocks he was excavating were arranged in layers; more important, he could see quite clearly that the fossils found in one layer were very different from those found in another. And out of that realization came an epiphany.
-
-
Who knew rocks could be so deceptive?
- By Jody R. Nathan on 11-09-04
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Man Who Loved China
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No cloistered don, this tall, married Englishman was a freethinking intellectual, who practiced nudism and was devoted to a quirky brand of folk dancing. In 1937, while working as a biochemist at Cambridge University, he instantly fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He soon became fascinated with China, and his mistress swiftly persuaded the ever-enthusiastic Needham to travel to her home country, where he embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire.
-
-
Great for Winchester Fans
- By David Ewing on 10-09-08
By: Simon Winchester
-
The End of the River
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 1 hr and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it comes to climate-change-inspired threats, it is rising sea levels we hear most about. But if the oceans are, as Herman Melville put it, “the tide-beating heart of the Earth”, rivers are its circulatory system. In the United States, there is no river more storied, symbolic, and vital than the Mississippi, and none, to use Mark Twain’s word, more lawless. The struggle to control it has been going on nearly as long as there has been human civilization on its banks, and the attendant drama and dangers have been memorialized by many writers.
-
-
Stunning Informative and Scarry as Hell
- By Dorn Cranert on 05-06-22
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Meaning of Everything
- The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary.
-
-
A New Appreciation
- By Donald on 11-01-04
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Professor and the Madman
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Part history, part true-crime, and entirely entertaining, listen to the story of how the behemoth Oxford English Dictionary was made. You'll hang on every word as you discover that the dictionary's greatest contributor was also an insane murderer working from the confines of an asylum.
-
-
Perfect example of a quality audible book.
- By Jerry on 07-07-03
By: Simon Winchester
-
Outposts
- Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1985, Outposts is Simon Winchester's journey to find the vanishing empire, "on which the sun never sets". In the course of a three-year, 100,000 mile journey - from the chill of the Antarctic to the blue seas of the Caribbean, from the South of Spain and the tip of China to the utterly remote specks in the middle of gale-swept oceans - he discovered such romance and depravity, opulence and despair that he was inspired to write what may be the last contemporary account of the British empire.
-
-
Nice Travelogue
- By J. S. Koehler on 01-28-06
By: Simon Winchester
-
The Fracture Zone
- A Return to the Balkans
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist and author Simon Winchester takes readers on a personal tour of the Balkans. Combining history and interviews with the people who live there, Winchester offers a fascinating glimpse into the complex issues at work in this chaotic region. Unrest in the Balkans has gone on for centuries. A seasoned reporter, Winchester visited the region twenty years ago. When Kosovo reached crisis level in 1997, Winchester thought a return visit to the beleaguered area would help to make sense out of the awful violence.
-
-
Loved this-Great combo:Story and History Explained
- By Jeremy on 07-10-14
By: Simon Winchester
-
Jungle of Stone
- The True Story of Two Men, Their Extraordinary Journey, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya
- By: William Carlsen
- Narrated by: Paul Michael Garcia
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1839 rumors of extraordinary yet baffling stone ruins buried within the unmapped jungles of Central America reached two of the world's most intrepid travelers. Seized by the reports, American diplomat John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood sailed together out of New York Harbor on an expedition into the forbidding rainforests of present-day Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico. What they found would rewrite the West's understanding of human history.
-
-
Unsung Explorers at the Heart of History
- By thomas on 01-10-17
By: William Carlsen
-
With the Old Breed
- At Peleliu and Okinawa
- By: E. B. Sledge
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Joe Mazzello, Tom Hanks (introduction)
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The celebrated 2010 HBO miniseries The Pacific, winner of eight Emmy Awards, was based on two classic books about the War in the Pacific, Helmet for My Pillow and With The Old Breed. Audible Studios, in partnership with Playtone, the production company co-owned by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman, and creator of the award-winning HBO series Band of Brothers, John Adams, and The Pacific, as well as the HBO movie Game Change, has created new recordings of these memoirs, narrated by the stars of the miniseries.
-
-
This is the second audio book of Sledge's work
- By Richard on 10-21-13
By: E. B. Sledge
-
Caesar
- Life of a Colossus
- By: Adrian Goldsworthy
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of Julius Caesar's life, Adrian Goldsworthy covers not only the great Roman emperor's accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar's character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some 2,000 years later.
-
-
Caesar and his times
- By Mike From Mesa on 08-31-15
-
The Secret Life of Groceries
- The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
- By: Benjamin Lorr
- Narrated by: Benjamin Lorr
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American supermarket is an everyday miracle. But what does it take to run one? What are the inner workings of product delivery and distribution? Who sets the price? And who suffers for the convenience and efficiency we’ve come to expect? In this rollicking exposé, author Benjamin Lorr pulls back the curtain on this highly secretive industry.
-
-
Fucking Exceptional
- By Amazon Customer on 02-23-21
By: Benjamin Lorr
-
Dreams of El Dorado
- A History of the American West
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame - and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.
-
-
Dreadful narration
- By Fredmo on 12-09-19
By: H. W. Brands
Publisher's Summary
Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times best-selling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature.
As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West Coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley.
Today the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us - tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis - but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan's 16th-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made.
In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, from the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in Northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, a trek across South Korea, and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor.
Winchester's personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.
More from the same
What listeners say about Pacific
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- William L. Cantor, MD
- 12-17-15
Winchester books are a must read/listen
What did you love best about Pacific?
Incredible amount of important information made enjoyably digestible and read as only the author can. Serious but with wit.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Pacific?
The epilog describes the navigating skills of a Polynesian man who enables a team from Hawaii to go to Tahiti without any instruments, simply by "reading" the ocean. History, geology, politics --everyone from Sandra Dee to Douglas McArthur.
Which scene was your favorite?
I couldn't chose, I liked them all.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
NO! The true pleasure of a Simon Winchester book is to listen to 15-30 minutes and then talk about what you have learned
Any additional comments?
I have listened to all of his books and I am constantly astonished by his knowledge and ability to interweave tectonic plates and weather and history and religion into a coherent and memorable narrative. I look forward to his next book.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark Patterson
- 12-25-15
Political Asides Have Become Bombastic Didactic
I've listened to nearly every Simon Winchester recording available. I saw this newest title and jumped on it with eager anticipation. I didn't get far into my expected enjoyment of Winchester's smooth delivery when he began assailing me with his politics. In the past, I rather enjoyed the occasional upper-class sniffling disdain for the business of earning a living or providing security in a difficult world, relishing instead the personal context they provided his wide-ranging observations. But this time, Winchester's politics take front and center stage, and his tone verges on hortatory-- or at least self-righteously condemnatory. I couldn't finish.
20 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark
- 01-01-16
Ponderous hard to keep attention
Would you try another book from Simon Winchester and/or Simon Winchester?
I have liked many of Simon Winchester books, Atlantic, The Crack in the Edge of the Earth, Krakatoa. This is not as good.
Would you ever listen to anything by Simon Winchester again?
Yes
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
A bunch of disjointed stories that droned on and on....
What character would you cut from Pacific?
Kill the part about Sony and Surfing, and that boat that's trying to sail around the world.
Any additional comments?
Hope Simon's next book is more up to the pervious books' standards
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Peter MacLeod
- 01-03-16
Topics that involve the Pacific Ocean and us.
Would you listen to Pacific again? Why?
Yes, selectively to review a particular topic.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Non fiction accounts of topics and issues that involve the inhabitants of the Pacific Ocean realm, meaning in a way, all of us.
Have you listened to any of Simon Winchester’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
This fits into all of his books with deep research, interesting anecdotes and solid performance.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, too many topics, better to give a chapter its full time then take a break and think about what you have just heard.
Any additional comments?
As current as it can be and since i heard the book, there has been a reminder in the news almost every day.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dorothy
- 11-28-15
Navigating the biggest ocean
Simon Winchester is a master at finding the eye-opening story, just the right anecdote, the most startling tidbits of history. His book is fascinating; very wide-ranging, and probably the only book I'll ever read that explains how California surfer culture influenced Google. A great listen.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Andy
- 11-22-15
i would have given it 7 stars
Another great book by Simon Winchester. The combination of his British accent, the many new things I learned, and the breadth of the story, make for a terrific listen.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Michael
- 07-11-16
Wincester is a treasure
I've loved all his work since The Professor and the Madman.
Most non fiction like this reads like a disconnected jumble of quotes pulled from diaries, letters and other works. Simon manages to make a compelling story out of scraps and notes. Pacific could well have been the result of a bar bet between friends - "Simon - I dare you to try to write a book with the central character being the ocean and make it a page turner."
He's also one of my favorite readers and voices.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JoAnn
- 11-04-15
Another good Simon Winchester book
Another thoroughly researched and well written book by Mr Winchester. If you've enjoyed previous books, this one won't disappoint
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ronald E. Weiss
- 11-18-16
A Disappointment
What did you like best about Pacific? What did you like least?
The more technical discussions-re: the deep depth exploration, navigation and such
Would you ever listen to anything by Simon Winchester again?
Yes: His Krakatoa and Atlantic were respectively a 10 and and 8. I look forward to more books with historical emphasis.
What do you think the narrator could have done better?
Its Simon and he speaks the kings English well.
Do you think Pacific needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?
This book contained too much proselytizing. His views on immigration are appalling.he thinks Australia is populated with white drunks and lastly he proposes the USA abandon the West Pacific to the Chinese - forgetting our treaty obligations to Korea, Japan, Singapore and the Philippines. Typical far-left clap trap. But he is a left wing British Labor weenie and his tilt understandable.
Any additional comments?
What more can one say? Perhaps the book might have been better served without his far left opinions. I was hoping to get into the populating of the islands, the Cook discoveries, and the 1700-1800 commercialization. We would have been better served with more history and less opinion.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 10-10-17
Unnecessarily fluffed up and disarray execution.
Packed too much and over detailed. Less is more. Too many topics condensed. Unfortunately disappointed.
2 people found this helpful