Blueprint for Armageddon (Hardcore History, #50-55) by Dan Carlin

Blueprint for Armageddon (Hardcore History, #50-55) Reviews

• 
  David

  I haven’t been so gratified by learning in a long time. My mind has been wonderfully expanded about modern world history - the vast extent of what happened in WWI, what it involved and affected, its surreal hellish brutality and mass insanity. Realizing the scope of the trench experience and the scale of the artillery was vividly phenomenal as no movie has opened up to me. Carlin is superb at making meaningful history exciting and accessible. I consumed these 23 hours quickly, and took notes that I'll return to. Amazing, valuable stuff. I'd put this in every high school curriculum.
• 
  Victor

  I was tempted to give this effort 4* for the sake of leaving out the Balkans and especially the plight of the Serbs but I just couldn't. WW1 is not an epic that can be told in such a short time and it's recount from a purely historical point of view was never the scope of Carlin's effort.
  
  There are some very poignant images that stay with you even if most of them are from the western front like the painting of Georges Leroux "Hell" about the moonscape of Verdun.
  
  
• 
  Ru

  Apparently the first episode of 'Blueprint for Armageddon' had been the first ever podcast I had ever listened to. But the thing is, I cannot even begin to imagine 'Hardcore History' at the same category as all the other podcasts. The production quality is just on whole other level. I had never been a fan of any kind of audio material whatsoever. I never listened to any radio programs, and for the most part, I am not a big fan of audio books either. Podcasts I can go with now if the content material is something I am truly interested in, and history for the most part is NOT something I had ever been interested in. But of course, all of that was before coming across Dan Carlin.
  
  To give an idea about how little I knew of World War I before 'Blueprint for Armageddon', or of any part of world history for that matter - I genuinely had no idea that the Russian Revolution happened during this war. I mean I knew from the top of my head that it happened in 1917. I also knew Russia was part of the allied power in the great war which lasted from 1914-1918. But somehow I never just made the connection. So thank the heavens there are Dan Carlin materials in this world for people like me whose knowledge of their species' larger history has been no better than that of a chimp(no offense to any chimpanzees out there).
  
  I listened to more than 23 hours worth of audio material in here over the course of last 5 months. Though initially I only had plans of listening to it while doing house chores or commuting - simply as a commitment to learn more about the world I live in - I found myself more and more listening to it just for the sake of it. Who knew history could be so damn interesting? I read more than 25 books at the same time I listened to these six episodes, some of them have even made to my all time favourites list. And I will say this here - none of those books contained a story so full of twists and turns, of hopes and despairs, of heroes and villains, of worlds clashing together as this - and here all of that supposedly happened in real life. Well, they do say that reality is stranger than fiction, and on top of that when those real happenings are described by the great master of his craft Dan Carlin - you can be absolutely sure that it would be miles better than any other fictional story you would ever hear.
  
  Loved it, would recommend it to anyone and everyone regardless of their level of interest in history or podcast listening habits.
• 
  Mohamed al-Jamri

  This is a masterpiece. Although not a professional historian, Dan Carlin conveys the history of WWI in a way I have never felt before. You don't just get to know the main events, but also the experiences of people that took part in them. His side comments and analogies were very helpful in understanding the importance and magnitute of some events. In general it was a very interesting and fascinating journey. I'm currently writing the script of a podcast about a related topic, and this is my main influence in doing so.
• 
  Sharly

  I dread the day I run out of Dan Carlin content.
• 
  Nasar

  “It was astonishing how loudly one laughed at tales of gruesome things, of war’s brutality-I with the rest of them. I think at the bottom of it was a sense of the ironical contrast between the normal ways of civilian life and this hark-back to the caveman code. It made all our old philosophy of life monstrously ridiculous. It played the “hat trick” with the gentility of modern manners. Men who had been brought up to Christian virtues, who had prattled their little prayers at mothers’ knees, who had grown up to a love of poetry, painting, music, the gentle arts, over-sensitized to the subtleties of half-tones, delicate scales of emotion, fastidious in their choice of words, in their sense of beauty, found themselves compelled to live and act like ape-men; and it was abominably funny. They laughed at the most frightful episodes, which revealed this contrast between civilized ethics and the old beast law. The more revolting it was the more, sometimes, they shouted with laughter, especially in reminiscence, when the tale was told in the gilded salon of a French chateau, or at a mess-table.
  
  It was, I think, the laughter of mortals at the trick which had been played on them by an ironical fate. They had been taught to believe that the whole object of life was to reach out to beauty and love, and that mankind, in its progress to perfection, had killed the beast instinct, cruelty, blood-lust, the primitive, savage law of survival by tooth and claw and club and ax. All poetry, all art, all religion had preached this gospel and this promise.
  
  Now that ideal had broken like a china vase dashed to hard ground. The contrast between That and This was devastating.” ~ Philip Gibbs (a British reporter who served in WW1)
  
  A remarkable piece of work.
• 
  Sara ♥

  April 2-4, 2019
  
  I love that someone added this on here, because it's SHOULD count as a book toward my annual reading challenge!!! This is HARDCORE HISTORY!!!
  
  Anyway, my husband made me listen to about an hour of this podcast in the car on a short across-town trip, and it was just FASCINATING! And if you look at the books on my bookshelf, it will be very clear that I DO NOT read this kind of thing! I'm all about books with some romance in them!!
  
  So.... I added Hardcore History to my podcast app.... and then proceeded to INHALE this series!
  
  I realized just how EXTREMELY LITTLE I knew about World War I (except the parts about Rasputin, as I looked that up after watching the animated Anastasia movie (a favorite) last year with my girls). I knew about Franz Ferdinand (mostly because of the band) and the names of some of the battles (Marne, Verdun, Somme)... but other than that... Nada! None of my American History classes every managed to get that far before the end of the school year!
  
  But even more important than learning the history was how Dan Carlin brings it back to a human level: What it must have been like to be there. How they would have to live with the split-second decisions, the horror, the death, the pain for the rest of their lives. How none of these men had emotional support for their PTSD after the war (since they didn't understand that that is a thing). How the men who experienced WWI were the ones to shape the future of their countries politically. How this experience would have affected how countries would approach WWII... All sorts of things that really made me think.
  
  I appreciated that. 5*
• 
  Ziggy Glacier

  Wow! Dan Carlin really has a gift for bringing these history stories to life and illuminating the tiny facets that really make what is going on at the time so unbelievable. I started not knowing anything about WWI, barely could tell you who it was between other than Germany was who we were fighting against. I now feel like I could at least hold my own in a conversation discussing the topic.
• 
  Olivia

  Wow.
  
  Before listening to this podcast, I couldn't have told you anything about WWI other than the dates and who was involved. This extensive six-part podcast gives you a nice framework of what happened.
  
  Carlin pulls from many sources to help you better understand both sides of the war. I appreciated all the hard work that went into this series and the attention to detail. I think the most impactful moments were the first-hand accounts that Carlin brings in.
  
  I think he did a good job of conveying the mindset of the people, soldiers, and the military leaders and how they differed. I also really liked the comparisons he made and how he put things in perspective. It is hard to wrap your mind around what happened in this war—the numbers alone are something I can barely get my head around.
  
  Dan Carlin knows how to tell a story. It was never hard to follow despite the story spanning four years and across most of the world. I would recommend this to anyone. It was very easy to get into and I think Carlin does a tremendous job at making this series accessible.
  
  5 Stars
  
  
• 
  - ̗̀ jess ̖́-

  okay, blueprint for armageddon isn’t technically a book. but if it was, it’d be as hefty as any of the other history books out there—a solid 22 hour chronicle of how the first world war plays out. look, i’m making my way through adam hoschchild’s king leopold’s ghost on audiobook and it’s six hours shorter.
  
  i’m by no means a scholar of the first world war, but the conflict has held my interest as one of, if not the quintessential turning point of history. this podcast pulls no punches in showing how modernity was borne in blood, mud, and gunfire, pulling from first hand accounts and historians alike.
  
  what carlin excels at—and why hardcore history resonates such with its listeners—is that dan carlin makes history into an emotional, heartrending story. he puts you into the shoes of the soldiers and statesmen who fought in the first world war. it’s a 22 hour podcast, and i was hooked on every minute of it.
• 
  Mark

  This history of the First World War — effectively a 23 hour audiobook — is delivered as a 6-part episode of Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History podcast (available on dancarlin.com).
  
  I’ve been listening to this off and on in my car for so long that when it ended I felt like I was saying goodbye to an old friend. And that’s due largely to the fantastic storytelling of Dan Carlin.
  
  What Carlin has done here is amazing, and yet he is humble about it. He emphasizes repeatedly during his storytelling that he is not a historian, but simply “playing” historian. And while it may be true that he’s not a professional historian, he has invested an immense amount of research into telling this story. His reading list (which he shares on his website) consists of 38 books (many of which he quotes from), and that doesn’t even include any of the articles or other sources he may have used. The thoroughness of his research and his deep comprehension of the nuance of the historical events makes him, in my eyes, sufficiently a historian.
  
  This history of the Great War covers topics from the highest level of government and military strategy all the way down to an on-the-ground account of the soldiers’ experiences. One of the reasons I enjoyed this so much is the great deal of first-hand accounts that he quotes from leaders of nations as well as from the men in the trenches. And Dan doesn’t shy away from sharing the most horrific and gruesome aspects of the war as related by the men that experienced it.
  
  Before listening to this I knew quite a bit about World War 2 and very little about World War 1. After listening to this I’ve come to believe that WW1 is one of the very ugliest, most horrifying things that our civilization has ever inflicted upon itself. And not only was it a monumental conflict, it set the wheels in motion that brought about WW2, the rise of Communism, and the creation of the modern Middle East. WW1 set the stage for the entire 20th century and beyond.
  
  Although this audiobook is technically a podcast, there are some things I liked about the podcast format more than an audiobook format. Primarily, it’s the fact that Dan Carlin is speaking off-the-cuff. Although not scripted, his language and word choice are precise, his storytelling draws you in, and his delivery is riveting. It feels like you’re sitting around a campfire with the most eloquent, exciting, and knowledgable storyteller you could ever hope to share a campfire with. And I don't get that feeling from a typical audiobook.
  
  So the spontaneous nature of the delivery is for me a benefit rather than a hindrance. Yes, it is less polished than a carefully crafted book that’s undergone thousands of revisions. But it also feels less stilted than an audiobook reading. Dan Carlin is telling this story and he’s feeling it as he’s telling it. The emotion comes through not just in his choice of words but in his delivery. This makes listening to him so much more enthralling than even the best of audiobook readers that I’ve heard.
  
  Some of the topics he covers include: the tensions leading up to the war; the outbreak of the war; the debut of the horrors of industrialized warfare (dubbing it the "War to End All Wars"); many of the major battles (Verdun, Somme, Paschendaele, etc); the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Bolsheviks (including the famous Rasputin story); the gruesomeness of trench warfare; the introduction of the tank (I finally learned why it's called a "tank"); at least one major naval engagement (Jutland); submarine warfare and the sinking of the Lusitania; American isolationism and later participation; the eventual armistice; and the post-war clean-up that continues to this day (even over 100 years later we are still finding unexploded ordinance -- sometimes chemical weapons -- in fields in France). Most of the focus was on Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Britain, Russia, and the USA.
  
  There are some things he left out in the interest of time. He didn’t include the Balkans side of the war, aside from the very beginning of the war with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He also omitted much of the Ottoman side of the war. The fall and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire was one of the most significant outcomes of the war, leading among other things to the modern situation in the Middle East. He also mentioned very little about the war in North Africa and the events in Asia.
  
  But for me, as a fan of aviation, the biggest omission was the air war. He hardly mentioned the air war even though WW1 saw the birth of dogfighting and was the first war where aircraft played a pivotal role. No mention was made of the Red Baron, Rickenbacker, the Sopwith Camel, the Focker, Zeppelins, and so on.
  
  He confesses at the end that there is a great deal he had to leave out. And even then, he still had 23 hours worth of things to say. The scale of the conflict is just too huge to be able to condense it into one book, but I think Carlin did an admirable job of distilling a great deal of history down to a digestible size. I considered knocking off one star because of the omissions, but I just can’t give this anything less than 5 stars. It’s simply amazing.
• 
  Kerri (Book Hoarder)

  If you're interested in learning more about WWI but find yourself bogged down in trying to understand the complexity of it all, or if you find yourself struggling with the books that you find, etc.... Then this might be just what you're looking for!
  
  I may or may not have been taught about WWI in school, I'm honestly not sure if I was or not. At any rate, whatever I did know didn't really stay with me, as about the only thing I'd absorbed was that Canada had fought in the war, who had won, and November the 11th.
  
  So if you're looking for an interesting but also compelling take on the events that is accessible for someone who is new to the whole thing, I would say this is a good place to start. It's definitely long, but it's like Carlin is telling you a story, and it's very listenable. (Is that a word? Well, it is now!)
• 
  Ben Vogel

  Listened to all 23+ hours of this extraordinary history for the 2nd time through in January of 2020. While Carlin's emphatic narration of his own work may not be easy to get comfortable with for everyone, there is no question in my mind that the quality of the research and writing he has assembled for this history of WWI is top quality. Highly recommended.
• 
  Charlotte

  Actually a podcast but amazing and I wanted to include it.
• 
  Manvendra Shekhawat

  I was a total stranger to WW1. But this podcast series has managed to instil in me a sense of understanding of how complex, ruthless, brutal & mind blowing this event was.
  
  Dan carlin seems to have done a brilliant job at summarising and providing a easy to grasp narrative of the events of WW1.
• 
  Alex C.

  this was depressing
• 
  Kevin Keating

  Possibly his best series. Waaayy long but worth every hour. Brings to life the tragedy of WW1, possibly worse in many ways than WW2.
• 
  Kyle Steinicke

  (4.5 Stars)
  
  War is horrifically devastating. I didn’t know a lot about the First World War until listening to this, a lot of people went through some terrible things unnecessarily. Lots of suffering only to set up another war similar in its destruction of life and well-being.
• 
  Nick Scheepers

  Amazing insight into the broad strokes of World War I.
• 
  Neama

  - Briefly, in 6 episodes [23 hours], the podcast covers the main events and battles of WW1. Listening to it, I have learned a lot about the many dimensions of wars, some of which contribute to the decision-making process that could change a course of history or simply a human life. That includes "minor" events that could have dramatic effects later on. The podcast covers a brief about the European mindset and atmosphere at the time, the generals and rulers' personalities, the technological advancements and their role during the war, ethnic conflicts, human tragedy and individual stories, tactics and strategies followed, moral aspects, economical implications, etc.
  
  - Dan Carlin has his way, that I admire, that leads up to events cleverly. He switches between details and then to the big picture smoothly involving the listener without boredom while also being informative and straightforward. Dan also tries to provide different perspectives on what exactly happened and it's one reason why there is a lot of quoting involved. This also opens the door for further readings and suggestions.
  
  - On the one hand, the podcast is a long "introduction" to WW1, so it doesn't target historians or well-informed people about this period; on the other, it doesn't count as a quick summary. It's highly recommended for anyone interested to know more about these years of the European history or the dynamic of wars in general. I enjoyed this.
• 
  John Burns

  I quite enjoyed this. Carlin is a pretty empathetic thinker. He does his best to put everything in context, to see these events not as dry historical happenings but as real human experiences, hellish experiences. He's constantly comparing the number of casualties in one battle to those of another famous battle - Waterloo for example. He wants us to try to understand the staggering scale of this conflict. He's jam packed with original sources describing really horrific details. He wants us to know what it felt like to be a soldier in the trenches.
  
  It was pretty good. I'm not generally all that interested in history. The podcasts can be had for free though and they're very accessible, very likeable. You can absorb a huge amount of info in a manner that's pretty enjoyable. If you want to know more about the first world war then you'll probably enjoy this. If you aren't that interested then I don't think this will suddenly convince you to become a big WWI fanatic.
• 
  Teo Mechea

  Absolutely mind blown by this series.
  The information selected and the way Carlin ties together so many strings while at the same time letting you know both the macro scale and the micro personal experiences are curated to perfection.
  Such a monster of a subject in terms of information yet Carlin navigates through it absolutely masterfully.
  -
  I'm recommending this one right and left.
  
• 
  Andrew

  By far one of the best resources on World War 1. Out of everything I have read, watched, or listened to, this series uniquely captures the emotion and trauma of arguably the most pivotal moment in human history.
• 
  Abhilash Keshav

  Easier to relate, Dan achieves in portraying the horrific side of war, that statistics seldom do.
• 
  Nix

  The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.
  Joseph Stalin