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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Talking To Strangers is perfect on audio. It reads (listens) like a podcast including audio clips from interviews, etc. 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

Girly Drinks

A World History of Women and Alcohol

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

“Girly Drinks is a fun, feminist, and information account chronicling the immense impact women have had on society through making and consuming alcohol. From beer and ale, to whisky, to sake, to sorghum, this is an inclusive and culturally aware history. Full to the brim with riveting stories, you’ll savor every line. Grab a beverage and tuck in! 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 Mother’s Day and Father’s Day!

An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s by Doris... 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

“I listened to the audio and I highly recommend it. These two are a dynamite team. They were the narrators and it was perfect. More history needs to be told like this. Listened to it in 2 sittings and you will probably also, cause you will be fascinated. 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

Raw Dog

The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs

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

“This is your smart, funny, acerbic, friend talking at you a mile a minute about their latest hyperfixation which, in this case, is hot dogs. This is a cross country travelogue steeped in meat-sweat and post-pandemic uncertainty with detours through such territory as gas station pickles and the politics of competitive eating. This is an... 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

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

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

“From plantation to Angola Prison. From Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA to the African Burial Ground in New York City. From Île de Gorée to Whitney Plantation. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Juneteenth. Clint Smith takes us on an unforgettable journey through the history of slavery in the United States, revealing many truths we’ve... Read more

The House of Hidden Meanings

A Memoir

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

Read by Ru Paul
***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... 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

Cobalt Red

How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

By: Siddharth Kara
Narrated by: Peter Ganim
Length: 11 hours 20 minutes

“We cannot close our eyes to what is happening in our world even in 2023. Exposés like this force us to see and understand how our choices can affect people on the other side of the earth from us. Changes need to be made starting at the major corporations and then trickle down to the individual. Once we know what is happening we cannot un-know it. Read more

Mythos

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

“Brush up on your classical mythology painlessly with the help of Stephen Fry! The Greek gods are brought to life with a fresh perspective and loads of uncensored naughty bits served with a side of pop culture references. Best enjoyed by listening to the Libro.fm audiobook to fully appreciate the storytelling aspect of these tales that were meant... 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

The Wide Wide Sea

Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook

By: Hampton Sides
Narrated by: Peter Noble
Length: 15 hours 40 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling and superbly crafted” (The Wall Street Journal) account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook’s death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

“Hampton Sides, an acclaimed master of the nonfiction narrative,... 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

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

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

Prequel

An American Fight Against Fascism

By: Rachel Maddow
Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
Length: 13 hours 9 minutes

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Rachel Maddow traces the fight to preserve American democracy back to World War II, when a handful of committed public servants and brave private citizens thwarted far-right plotters trying to steer our nation toward an alliance with the Nazis.
 
“A ripping read—well rendered, fast-paced and delivered with the same... Read more

A Little Devil in America

Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“Hanif Abdurraqib's exploration of Black performance in America is a cultural keystone that is chillingly relevant. Whether discussing the fact that a knowing look or advice on a route from a cashier is a form of a living Green Book that still exists because there are places Black people are not safe, to the origin of the card game spades or the... Read more

Age of Revolutions

Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present

By: Fareed Zakaria
Narrated by: Fareed Zakaria
Length: 13 hours 2 minutes

The internationally bestselling author explores the revolutions—past and present—that define the chaotic, polarized, and unstable age in which we live.

Populist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, geopolitical dangers, and an international system studded with catastrophic risk—the early decades of the 21st century may... 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

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

Sea People

The Puzzle of Polynesia

By: Christina Thompson
Narrated by: Susan Lyons
Length: 11 hours 39 minutes

A blend of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Simon Winchester’s Pacific, a thrilling intellectual detective story that looks deep into the past to uncover who first settled the islands of the remote Pacific, where they came from, how they got there, and how we know.For more than a millennium, Polynesians have occupied the remotest... Read more

Hidden Figures

The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race

By: Margot Lee Shetterly
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 10 hours 47 minutes

The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. Before John Glenn orbited the earth, or Neil Armstrong walked on the... Read more

A Brief History of Earth

Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

By: Andrew H. Knoll
Narrated by: Tom Parks
Length: 4 hours 57 minutes

How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard’s acclaimed geologist.“A sublime chronicle of our planet."" –Booklist, STARRED reviewOdds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked... 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

South to America

A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation

By: Imani Perry
Narrated by: Imani Perry
Length: 16 hours 32 minutes

“An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South—and thus of America—by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration.” —Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsAn essential, surprising journey... Read more

The Escape Artist

The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World

By: Jonathan Freedland
Narrated by: Jonathan Freedland
Length: 11 hours 47 minutes

Winner of the National Jewish Book Award · New York Times Bestseller""A brilliant and heart-wrenching book, with universal and timely lessons about the power of information—and misinformation. Is it possible to stop mass murder by telling the truth?"" — Yuval Noah Harari, bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus:... 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

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

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

Arabs

A 3,000-Year History of Peoples, Tribes, and Empires

By: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Narrated by: Ralph Lister
Length: 25 hours 33 minutes

A riveting, comprehensive history of the Arab peoples and tribes that explores the role of language as a cultural touchstone This kaleidoscopic book covers almost three thousand years of Arab history and shines a light on the footloose Arab peoples and tribes who conquered lands and disseminated their language and culture over vast distances.... Read more

A New World Begins

The History of the French Revolution

By: Jeremy D. Popkin
Narrated by: Pete Cross & Jeremy D. Popkin
Length: 21 hours 54 minutes

The principles of the French Revolution remain the only possible basis for a just society—even if, after more than two hundred years, they are more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the... 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

“A hilarious sparkler of historical quirks burns down to a dangerous fuse of tampering, territory, and transnational economics in this history of the USA not as the nation you just pictured, but as the complete global network of Americans, many without the rights the Lower 48 believe in, most segregated into cells of power that occasionally... Read more

Mott Street

A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming

By: Ava Chin
Narrated by: Ava Chin
Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

“Essential reading for understanding not just Chinese American history but American history—and the American present.” —Celeste Ng, #1 bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

* TIME 100 Must-Read Books of 2023 * San Francisco Chronicle's Favorite Nonfiction * Kirkus Best Nonfiction of 2023 * Library Journal Best Memoir and Biography of 2023... Read more

Debt - Updated and Expanded

The First 5,000 Years

By: David Graeber
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Length: 17 hours 48 minutes

Now in audio, the updated and expanded edition : David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years,... Read more

Our Kindred Creatures

How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals

By: Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy
Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
Length: 13 hours 45 minutes

A compassionate, sweeping history of the transformation in American attitudes toward animals by the best-selling authors of Rabid

Over just a few decades at the end of the nineteenth century, the United States underwent a moral revolution on behalf of animals. Before the Civil War, animals' suffering had rarely been discussed; horses pulling... Read more

Three Women

By: Lisa Taddeo
Narrated by: Tara Lynne Barr, Marin Ireland, Mena Suvari & Lisa Taddeo
Length: 11 hours 24 minutes

“Three Women is simultaneously a wonder and a horror, inviting us as readers into the lives of three strangers and asking us for compassion and understanding where we might not feel comfortable doing so. Wonderfully voiced by three equally talented narrators, If you love delving into societal grey areas that force us to examine our biases, highly... Read more

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here

The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis

By: Jonathan Blitzer
Narrated by: André Santana & Jonathan Blitzer
Length: 18 hours 13 minutes

A National Bestseller

“What an incredibly thorough documentation of the causes of the immigration crisis, the discussions that have been going on through multiple administrations.” —Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

“Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is sure to take its place as one of the definitive accounts of the U.S. and Central American immigration... Read more

Democracy Awakening

Notes on the State of America

By: Heather Cox Richardson
Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

A New York Times Bestseller

A vital and urgent call to action about the precarious state of American democracy, charting its historical challenges and current threats, from one of our era’s most important and insightful historians.

“Magisterial.” –The Washington Post

“An excellent primer for anyone who needs the important facts of the last 150... Read more