Peter the Great: His Life and World
About this audiobook
This superbly told story brings to life one of the most remarkable rulers––and men––in all of history and conveys the drama of his life and world. The Russia of Peter’s birth was very different from the Russia his energy, genius, and ruthlessness shaped. Crowned co-Tsar as a child of ten, after witnessing bloody uprisings in the streets of Moscow, he would grow up propelled by an unquenchable curiosity, everywhere looking, asking, tinkering, and learning, fired by Western ideas. We see Peter in his twenties traveling “incognito” with his ambassadors to the courts of Europe; as the victorious soldier proclaimed emperor; as the simple workman at his forge; and as the visionary statesman who single-handedly created a formidable world power. Impetuous and stubborn, bawdy and stern, relentless in his perseverance, he was capable of the greatest generosity and the greatest cruelty.
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About the author
Robert K. Massie was born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1929. He studied American history at Yale University and modern European history at Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes scholar. Peter the Great won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1981.
John E. Dowling is professor emeritus at Harvard University, and has done extensive research into the neurobiology of vision. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Frederick Davidson (1932–2005), also known as David Case, was one of the most prolific readers in the audiobook industry, recording more than eight hundred audiobooks in his lifetime, including over two hundred for Blackstone Audio. Born in London, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and performed for many years in radio plays for the British Broadcasting Company before coming to America in 1976. He received AudioFile’s Golden Voice Award and numerous Earphones Awards and was nominated for a Grammy for his readings.
