History bestsellers

The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Will Patton & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 17 minutes

“A chilling story of our country falling apart, this is a fascinating dive into the lead-up to the beginning of the Civil War: the time between Lincoln’s election and the fall of Fort Sumter. This compelling, essential and eminently readable book is based on letters, journals and political records from the time. Read more

The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Dion Graham & David Grann
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

“David Grann's The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder is the shocking true story of the wreck of the ship, the Wager, and how that crew survived, separated from their home country for years. The lengths that these castaways were pushed to is shocking, and makes for a captivating story of adventure and survival. A shocking story from... Read more

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

By: Rashid Khalidi
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi & Rashid Khalidi
Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.

In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home... Read more

Challenger

A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

By: Adam Higginbotham
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
Length: 16 hours 54 minutes

“Vivid…A true-life thriller.” —The New York Times • “Gripping history.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) • “Dramatic…[A] moving narrative.” —The Wall Street Journal • “One of this generation’s best nonfiction writers working at the top of his game.” —Garrett M. Graff

From the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl comes... Read more

A Promised Land

By: Barack Obama
Narrated by: Barack Obama
Length: 29 hours 9 minutes

“No one really needs my blurb to help sell this book, but I wanted to give it anyway, especially for the audiobook, narrated by Barack Obama himself. If you want to know his incredible knowledge and wisdom that guided him through major decisions, and also hear him drop a few F-bombs, you need to listen to this fantastically written book. Read more

Talking to Strangers

What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know

By: Malcolm Gladwell
Narrated by: Malcolm Gladwell
Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

“Gladwell's synthesis of famous news clips, infamous moments in history, and a collection of behavioral studies is uncannily fascinating. I found myself at turns nodding along with his points and shaking my head incredulously. While I was reading, I would over-analyze conversations and encounters I had with strangers, and then laugh at myself for... Read more

Killers of the Flower Moon

The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee & Danny Campbell
Length: 9 hours 4 minutes

“Did you know that the richest people per capita in the world in the 1920s were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma? Me neither. Soon after oil was discovered under their land, a series of murders plagued the Osage Nation and one by one members were killed off, along with those who attempted to get to the bottom of this mystery. This is a... Read more

Spare

By: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
Narrated by: Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex
Length: 15 hours 37 minutes

“I deeply relished every drop of the tea spilt in this memoir. I would recommend it on that alone. However, I was most impressed with Prince Harry’s clear passion for the things and the people he cares about. In his narration of the audiobook you can feel how much he loves his family, how proud he is of his time in the military, and how much he... Read more

The Radium Girls

The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

By: Kate Moore
Narrated by: Angela Brazil
Length: 15 hours 52 minutes

1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous—the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.

As the... Read more

Caste (Oprah's Book Club)

The Origins of Our Discontents

By: Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 15 hours 10 minutes

“Possibly one of the most important books I've read in the last decade. Caste examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America. Wondering how America came to this? This book has brutal, unflinching answers. Read more

The Dawn of Everything

A New History of Humanity

By: David Graeber & David Wengrow
Narrated by: Mark Williams
Length: 24 hours 13 minutes

“What do you do when a 700-page book about the entirety of human history has been sitting unopened on your desk for weeks, taunting you every time you pass it because you know you're going to love it but, man, it's intimidating? You download the audiobook. I've been listening to this radical, invigorating reexamination of the history of... Read more

An Unfinished Love Story

A Personal History of the 1960s

By: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Narrated by: Doris Kearns Goodwin
Length: 17 hours 37 minutes

Narrated by Doris Kearns Goodwin with the star of Breaking Bad, Bryan Cranston! The audio edition also includes archival recordings of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Robert F. Kennedy.

#1 New York Times Bestseller
The perfect gift for Father’s Day!

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris Kearns Goodwin, one of... Read more

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning

By: Jason Reynolds & Ibram X. Kendi
Narrated by: Jason Reynolds
Length: 4 hours 11 minutes

“The history of Black Americans from two people who get it. But this isn't just a history book: it's a recount of why America is the way that it is today, why we have people who think they way they do, and why we have a racist in the White House. Jason Reynolds melodic voice comes through in audio and on the pages. You are guaranteed to learn... Read more

The Boys in the Boat

Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

By: Daniel James Brown
Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
Length: 14 hours 24 minutes

“Determined to beat the odds, nine working-class boys from the University of Washington's rowing team overcome a depressive beginning to defeat the world at Hitler's 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Underdogs from day one, fighting poverty and privilege along the way, this crew shocks all with their unbelievable come-from-behind effort to become... Read more

Raw Dog

The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs

By: Jamie Loftus
Narrated by: Jamie Loftus
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“Have you ever wondered how hotdogs are made? Or how the meatpacking industry was one of the largest breeding grounds for COVID-19? How about hotdogs as a tool of capitalism? You will learn about all of this and more in Raw Dog, delivered with Jamie Loftus’ signature humor. I laughed so hard I cried multiple times! I would recommend this book to... Read more

The Situation Room

The Inside Story of Presidents in Crisis

By: George Stephanopoulos
Narrated by: George Stephanopoulos, Peter Ganim & Elisabeth Rodgers
Length: 10 hours 7 minutes

George Stephanopoulos, the legendary political news host and former advisor to President Clinton, recounts the history-making crises from the place where twelve presidents made their highest-pressure decisions: the White House Situation Room. 

No room better defines American power and its role in the world than the White House Situation Room.... Read more

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy

By: Nathan Thrall
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
Length: 6 hours 44 minutes

Immersive and gripping, an intimate story of a deadly accident outside Jerusalem that unravels a tangle of lives, loves, enmities, and histories over the course of one revealing, heartbreaking day.

Five-year-old Milad Salama is excited for a school trip to a theme park on the outskirts of Jerusalem. On the way, his bus collides with a... Read more

A Fever in the Heartland

The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

By: Timothy Egan
Narrated by: Timothy Egan
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

“Some pride themselves on knowing historical facts and hidden histories, and yet, Egan, with his horror story about the KKK, will stop you in your tracks. Wasn't this just a 19th century Southern phenomenon? Who knew American Terror happened literally in our own backyard. Read more

Mythos

By: Stephen Fry
Narrated by: Stephen Fry
Length: 15 hours 24 minutes

“Stephen Fry has dusted off the Greek myths. Starting with the creation and going through all the infights, back-stabbings, and just plain stupid mistakes of the Greek pantheon, he breaths new life into these tales with his characteristic wry humor and witty asides. A great added feature of the video book is that Fry himself reads it, so sit... Read more

Master Slave Husband Wife

An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom

By: Ilyon Woo
Narrated by: Janina Edwards & Leon Nixon
Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

“Ellen and William Craft, married slaves from Georgia, pulled off one of the most daring escapes from slavery in recorded history. Ellen, who was able to pass for white because she had a white father, dressed as a very ill young man. The couple convinced people that they were master and slave bound for the North to seek medical care. After four... Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“Smith has crafted a resource, narrative and detailed explanation into how we teach the legacy of slavery. He recounts visits from everywhere from NYC to the Whitney Plantation, integrating stories of people and visitors today. This book is lays a beautiful written foundation for interrogating the history we've been taught. Particularly... Read more

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

By: Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman & Jake Silverstein
Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones & Full Cast
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • NPR • Marie Claire
 
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of... Read more

Palo Alto

A History of California, Capitalism, and the World

By: Malcolm Harris
Narrated by: Patrick Harrison
Length: 28 hours 19 minutes

“From The Gold Rush to Google, Harris spins a tale of greed, racism, union-busting and violence that built California and Silicon Valley. The book offers an alternate view of California and world history that many of us missed in school. Read more

Nuclear War

A Scenario

By: Annie Jacobsen
Narrated by: Annie Jacobsen
Length: 11 hours 18 minutes

The INSTANT New York Times bestseller

Instant Los Angeles Times bestseller

“In Nuclear War: A Scenario, Annie Jacobsen gives us a vivid picture of what could happen if our nuclear guardians fail…Terrifying.”—Wall Street Journal

There is only one scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end the world as we know it in a matter of hours:... Read more

Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

By: Yuval Noah Harari
Narrated by: Derek Perkins
Length: 15 hours 17 minutes

“I don't own many books. I read books and give them away. However, I will NOT be giving away my copy of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. It's a keeper! Sapiens was an intense read for me. I found myself taking breaks every dozen pages or so. Not because I was bored - just the opposite. I needed time to let the author's perspective on the... Read more

Heroes

The Greek Myths Reimagined

By: Stephen Fry
Narrated by: Stephen Fry
Length: 15 hours 1 minute

In this sequel to the bestselling Mythos, legendary author and actor Stephen Fry moves from the exploits of the Olympian gods to the deeds of mortal heroes.

Perseus. Jason. Atalanta. Theseus. Heracles. Rediscover the thrills, grandeur, and unabashed fun of the Greek myths. Whether recounting a tender love affair or a heroic triumph, Fry deftly... Read more

The Splendid and the Vile

A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: John Lee & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 48 minutes

“An excellent account of the darkest hour through the intimate details of the Churchill family, and accounts and diaries of staff and English, German and American leaders and soldiers. Larson expertly shows Churchill's highs and lows and how his oration skills, charisma and spirit buoyed society at the exact right time. Excellent for WWII buffs... Read more

Mediocre

The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America

By: Ijeoma Oluo
Narrated by: Ijeoma Oluo
Length: 10 hours

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race, an  “illuminating” (New York Times Book Review) history of white male identity.

What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of color,... Read more

King: A Life

By: Jonathan Eig
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 20 hours 45 minutes

Winner of the 2024 Audie Award for Best Nonfiction Narrator!

This program is narrated by Dion Graham, narrator of over 300 audiobooks and an AudioFile Golden Voice. Dion has won multiple Earphones and Audie Awards.

"Dion Graham superbly narrates this riveting audiobook, emulating the majestic cadence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, speeches. He... Read more

How to Hide an Empire

A History of the Greater United States

By: Daniel Immerwahr
Narrated by: Luis Moreno
Length: 17 hours 25 minutes

“Daniel Immerwahr dives into a more thorough history of the United States -- filling those holes glossed over by history books. Extending beyond the Mainland or "50 States" map, he brings many lost or shadowed histories into the light. Very good listen! Read more

The Library Book

By: Susan Orlean
Narrated by: Susan Orlean
Length: 12 hours 8 minutes

“A love letter to books, librarians, and libraries (and the often quirky communities that inhabit them), The Library Book sets out to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the Los Angeles Public Library Fire of 1986. As always, Orleans exhibits her talent for translating historic details into engrossing narratives, while thrilling the reader... Read more

Say Nothing

A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland

By: Patrick Radden Keefe
Narrated by: Matthew Blaney
Length: 14 hours 40 minutes

“Say Nothing is a chilling chronicle of The Troubles of Northern Ireland and its aftermath, with special focus on the orchestrated disappearance of civilian mother of ten Jean McConville. Per the author, Patrick Radden Keefe, the book is not a comprehensive history, but as someone who knew virtually nothing about The Troubles going in, I found... Read more

Unruly

The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: David Mitchell
Length: 11 hours 39 minutes

INSTANT #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER • A rollicking history of England’s kings and queens from Arthur to Elizabeth I, a tale of power, glory, and excessive beheadings by award-winning British actor and comedian David Mitchell

“Clever, amusing, gloriously bizarre and razor sharp. Mitchell [is] a funny man and a skilled historian.”―The Times

Think... Read more

Jesus and John Wayne

How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

By: Kristin Kobes du Mez
Narrated by: Suzie Althens
Length: 12 hours 3 minutes

“Believe it or not Christianity and American politics were separated at one point. However in the last century Evangelical Christianity has become synonymous with conservative politics. This book walks you through the time frame of how that happened and how we are feeling that divide today. We also see how figures like John Wayne became symbols... Read more

On Our Best Behavior

The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to Be Good

By: Elise Loehnen
Narrated by: Elise Loehnen
Length: 11 hours 54 minutes

“Whether you identify as a Christian or not, you will be persuaded by Loehnen's argument that the centuries old Seven Deadly Sins continue to exert harmful power over the behavior and lives of women causing us to suppress our healthy desires for agency, autonomy and personal power. Read more

Our Hideous Progeny

A Novel

By: C.E. McGill
Narrated by: Florence Howard
Length: 12 hours 30 minutes

“A gripping Gothic tale of grief and ambition, passion and intrigue.” — Jess Kidd, author of The Night Ship“An immersive blend of historical and science fiction brims with surprises and dark delights. . . . An incisive exploration of women’s rights within the field of science. . . . Readers will revel in Mary’s personal and scientific... Read more

Madness

Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum

By: Antonia Hylton
Narrated by: Antonia Hylton
Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

In the tradition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a page-turning 93-year history of Crownsville Hospital, one of the nation’s last segregated asylums, told by an award-winning journalist on her decade-long search for sanity in America’s mental healthcare system. 

On a cold day in March of 1911, officials marched twelve Black men into the... Read more

Girly Drinks

A World History of Women and Alcohol

By: Mallory O'Meara
Narrated by: Mallory O'Meara
Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

“What! A! Book! As an avid nonfiction reader I don't say this lightly: Girly Drinks might be one of the best written 'untold stories' I've ever come across. O'Meara covers several centuries and nearly every continent in this sweeping history. Her tone is playful without dismissing the importance of her record-correcting work. Girly Drinks updated... Read more

The Devil in the White City

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Scott Brick
Length: 14 hours 58 minutes

“The Devil in the White City is one of the most fascinating books I've ever read. Set amidst the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Erik Larson's historical narrative interweaves the stories of two men who would come to define it, for better and for worse. One is Daniel Burnham, chief architect of the Fair, who threw his entire being into creating a... Read more

Ain't I a Woman

Black Women and Feminism 2nd Edition

By: Bell Hooks
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must–read for all those interested in the nature of black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the black woman's involvement with feminism, Hooks attempts to... Read more

New Cold Wars

China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West

By: David E. Sanger
Narrated by: Robertson Dean & David E. Sanger
Length: 18 hours 5 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The fast-paced inside story of America’s plunge into a volatile rivalry with the other two great nuclear powers—Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon
 
“[A] cogent, revealing account of how a generation of American... Read more

The River of Doubt

Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey

By: Candice Millard
Narrated by: Paul Michael
Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

“Did you know that Theodore Roosevelt ran for a third term, this time with the Progressive Party, a new, independent third party? That when he lost, he decided to join an expedition of The River of Doubt, a tributary of the Amazon River? He did, along with the Brazilian explorer Candido Rondon and Roosevelt’s son, Kermit. Of the nineteen men who... Read more

Clanlands

Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other

By: Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish
Narrated by: Diana Gabaldon, Graham McTavish & Sam Heughan
Length: 10 hours 22 minutes

Winner of the Audie Award 2022 for Best History/Biography Audiobook. Earphones Award Winner 2021.

A road trip book with a difference. Stars of Outlander - Sam Heughan & Graham McTavish - explore Scotland, a land of raw beauty, poetry, feuding, music, history, and warfare.

Narrated by Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish, with a foreword written and... Read more

Blood in the Machine

The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech

By: Brian Merchant
Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
Length: 15 hours 33 minutes

Longlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year

The "rich and gripping" true story of the first time machines came for human jobs—and how the Luddite uprising explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech and AI today (Naomi Klein) The most urgent story in modern tech begins not in Silicon Valley but two hundred years ago in rural... Read more

If We Burn

The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution

By: Vincent Bevins
Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
Length: 12 hours 54 minutes

The story of the recent uprisings that sought to change the world - and what comes next
 
From 2010 to 2020, more people participated in protests than at any other point in human history. Yet we are not living in more just and democratic societies as a result. IF WE BURN is a stirring work of history built around a single, vital question: How... Read more

The House of Hidden Meanings

A Memoir

By: RuPaul
Narrated by: RuPaul
Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!***From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date--a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing... Read more

Work Won't Love You Back

How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone

By: Sarah Jaffe
Narrated by: Sarah Jaffe
Length: 12 hours 59 minutes

A deeply-reported examination of why "doing what you love" is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives.

You're told that if you "do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life." Whether it's working for "exposure" and "experience," or enduring poor... Read more

Shit, Actually

The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema

By: Lindy West
Narrated by: Lindy West
Length: 7 hours 16 minutes

“It might be that Lindy West talks during movies, but you wouldn't shush her. She's better than the movie. This audiobook is read by the author and she is hilarious. Smart, funny, irreverent and feminist. I'll take that with a bowl of popcorn. PS. I really, really want West's Hermione-lead HP remake. Read more

Judaism Is About Love

Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life

By: Shai Held
Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
Length: 15 hours 30 minutes

A profound, startling new understanding of Jewish life, illuminating the forgotten heart of Jewish theology and practice: love.

A dramatic misinterpretation of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread... Read more

The Worst Hard Time

The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl

By: Timothy Egan
Narrated by: Jacob York
Length: 12 hours 57 minutes

In a tour de force of historical reportage, Timothy Egan’s National Book Award–winning story rescues an iconic chapter of American history from the shadows.
 
The dust storms that terrorized the High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since. Following a dozen families and their communities through... Read more