History bestsellers

Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By: John Green
Narrated by: John Green
Length: 5 hours 35 minutes

“John Green convinced me: everything really IS tuberculosis! This book is an excellent examination of the inequities in global healthcare through the lens of one disease, plus Green intersperses his stories of people throughout, demonstrating the most important thesis in the book: people are more than just disease statistics and the cost of its... Read more

A People's History of the United States

By: Howard Zinn
Narrated by: Jeff Zinn
Length: 34 hours 9 minutes

“What this classic, alternative, and, yes, overtly leftist history of the United States most impressed upon me is that the history of American protest is just as vital and as old a tradition as the stars and stripes. The American people have always protested, gone on strike, marched - for suffrage, abolition, labor rights, civil rights,... 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

On Tyranny

Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

“This pocket guide to preserving our freedoms and resisting authoritarianism, penned by Yale historian of fascism Timothy Snyder, takes lessons from the fall of democracies across Europe in the 20th Century, each posing a warning to us now in the 21st Century. A brief but mind blowing, eye-opening read that left me feeling sobered and empowered... 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

“This is an important and beautifully written book examining the links and common elements between the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany. Highly recommended. 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

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

“This book is as good as everyone says. I knew I didn't know a ton about the troubles in Northern Ireland, but I didn't know HOW much I didn't know. This book turns a rather complex, sometimes dry (if you're not Irish or a war history person) subject into a story of intrigue, weaving the conflict's history with the stories of a few men and women... 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

“An absorbing non-fiction nautical shipwreck thriller, this is the story of the ill-fated journey of The Wager in 1740-41 as it attempts to to sail round Cape Horn, the treacherous tip of South America. The hardships seem unreal: starvation, illness (scurvy, typhus), death, but also murder and a mutinous crew, never mind the truly wild weather... Read more

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

“Larson’s gift is taking lesser known historical events and providing nail-biting descriptions that entertain and inform. This one focuses on the five months between Lincoln’s election and inauguration and events leading up to the firing on Fort Sumter. He tells us how General Anderson and his men “hold the fort” for the federal government while... 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

“Instead of reading this important book outright, Gladwell uses a podcast-style format to really engage the listener. Thoroughly engaging, interesting, and enlightening, audio is definitely an excellent way to read this book. Read more

Fight Like Hell

The Untold History of American Labor

By: Kim Kelly
Narrated by: Em Grosland
Length: 12 hours 11 minutes

“In Fight Like Hell, Kim Kelly celebrates the untold stories and unsung heroes of the American labor movement, taking great care to center voices that have historically been sidelined or silenced in mainstream conversations around workers' rights. The result is an inclusive, fascinating, and galvanizing retrospective that mines the depths of the... Read more

Nexus

A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI

By: Yuval Noah Harari
Narrated by: Vidish Athavale
Length: 17 hours 27 minutes

“Rich with history and analysis, yet always accessible, this “brief history of information networks,” is much more. Touching religion, ancient Rome and China, Stalinism, and current events, this is more accurately a “brief history” of how information networks create power. Pitting democracy against totalitarianism, Harari utilizes a global... 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

“This 75-year-spanning study by a Christian historian traces American evangelicals’ takeover of the Republican Party and shows how their highest values - militarism and masculinity, patriarchy and patriotism - turned a modest Jesus Christ into a macho John Wayne, and made voting for Donald Trump not a necessary evil, but a natural conclusion. As... Read more

Off with Her Head

Three Thousand Years of Demonizing Women in Power

By: Eleanor Herman
Narrated by: Erin Bennett
Length: 10 hours 57 minutes

New York Times bestseller Eleanor Herman, author of Sex with Kings and Sex with Presidents, returns with another work of popular history, exploring the history of misogyny against women with power from Cleopatra to Kamala Harris.
Imagine Donald Trump as a woman, called Donna. Would Donna Trump have been viewed as blunt, honest, and refreshing?... Read more

Challenger

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

By: Adam Higginbotham
Narrated by: Jacques Roy
Length: 17 hours 9 minutes

“Insightful, fascinating, deeply researched and fast paced. A great listen! 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

The Sirens' Call

How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource

By: Chris Hayes
Narrated by: Chris Hayes
Length: 8 hours 54 minutes

An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

From the New York Times bestselling author and MSNBC and podcast host, a powerful wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society

“An ambitious analysis of how the trivial amusements offered by... Read more

The Dawn of Everything

A New History of Humanity

By: David Graeber & David Wengrow
Narrated by: Mark Williams
Length: 24 hours 19 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

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party

How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World

By: Edward Dolnick
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

“An absolute fever dream of a book, truly brings into perspective, how lucky the human race is to still be an existence, given the tendencies of the Victorian people. Also dinosaurs, enough said. 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

“This book was a true education, even coming after many recent books I’ve read on race in America. It details the history of African Americans, making clear not only how central it is to the history of the United States, but how revealing it is of our national character, past and present. Chapters of historical events alternate with poetry and... Read more

Cults Like Us

Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America

By: Jane Borden
Narrated by: Jane Borden
Length: 10 hours 53 minutes

For readers of Fantasyland and Cultish, a colorful and enlightening pop history that explains why the eccentric doomsday beliefs of our Puritan founders are still driving American culture today, contextualizes the current rise in far-right extremism as a natural result of our latent indoctrination, and proposes that the United States is the... Read more

The Small and the Mighty

Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History, from the Founding to the Civil Rights Movement

By: Sharon McMahon
Narrated by: Sharon McMahon
Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

“A thoroughly informative and enjoyable look at 12 Americans who made a difference. Sharon McMahon narrates the book herself, and it’s all the better for her own inflections and emotions. Cannot recommend enough! Read more

On Tyranny: Expanded Audio Edition

Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine

By: Timothy Snyder
Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

The #1 New York Times bestseller, now in an expanded audiobook edition that includes detailed historical context for the democracy-threatening Ukrainian conflict and a call to action for modern times.

This edition includes the bestselling original essay collection On Tyranny, read by the author.

In this exclusive audiobook edition, which... Read more

Mythos

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

“I’m envious of those who caught this live on the stage. That being said: stage, print, or audio, Stephen Fry does not disappoint with his juicy retellings of Greek Gods and legends. Ever the scholar and entertainer, expect well curated family trees and etymological asides amongst the beautifully illustrated text, the boisterous audio, or both.... 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 Barn

The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

By: Wright Thompson
Narrated by: Wright Thompson
Length: 11 hours 38 minutes

“One of the best books I read in 2024. Wright Thompson is a true poet and masterfully weaves his personal connection with Mississippi with the tragic legacy of Emmitt Till. Highly recommended. Plus, Wright Thompson is the PERFECT reader for the audiobook. Read more

Patriot

A Memoir

By: Alexei Navalny
Narrated by: Matthew Goode
Length: 16 hours 46 minutes

“A powerhouse of a memoir. Learn about Navalny's metamorphosis from ordinary Soviet citizen to activist who took on the corruption and treachery of Putin's regime, and as a result, was almost fatally poisoned. Navalny's is a tale of caution of what happens to a country when we allow autocrats and oligarchs to have complete rule which ultimately... 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

“The Osage Indians were the wealthiest people per capita in the 1920s - they were also getting murdered in diabolical schemes. This story touches on a range of topics, it is a lament for the mistreatment of the Native Americans, a sinister domestic thriller, a perplexing mystery set in the untamed west, a testament to a dying breed of wily... Read more

Man's Search for Meaning

By: Viktor E. Frankl
Narrated by: Theo Solomon
Length: 5 hours 43 minutes

“A profound, moving, and transformative meditation on suffering and meaning written by a psychologist who was a prisoner in Auschwitz for three years. Read more

Red Scare

Blacklists, McCarthyism and the Making of Modern America

By: Clay Risen
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
Length: 15 hours 15 minutes

As relevant as it is comprehensive, Red Scare tells the story of McCarthyism and the Red Scare—based in part on newly declassified sources—by an award-winning writer of history and New York Times reporter.

The film Oppenheimer has awakened interest in this vital period of American history. Now, for the first time in a generation, Red Scare... Read more

Original Sins

The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of AmericanRacism

By: Eve L. Ewing
Narrated by: Robin Miles & Eve L. Ewing
Length: 12 hours 14 minutes

“In our house, we are massive Eve Ewing fans and can’t wait to read every book her visionary mind gifts us. Original Sins reveals how our schools have their foundation in efforts of forced cultural assimilation, reinforcing racial hierarchies, and indoctrination with the emerging worker/consumer ethos. While this is a bleak and heavy history, it... Read more

How Fascism Works

The Politics of Us and Them

By: Jason Stanley
Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
Length: 5 hours 44 minutes

“With unsettling insight and disturbing clarity, How Fascism Works is an essential guidebook to our current national dilemma of democracy vs. authoritarianism.”—Jelani Cobb, New Yorker staff writer

“No single book is as relevant to the present moment.”—Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS’ CHOICE • A Yale... 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

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 • A New York Times Top 10 Book of 2024 • Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, PBS NewsHour, LitHub, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Lunch, Christian Science Monitor, and Counterpunch • One of Barack Obama's Summer Reading List Picks • Named a Notable Book by New York Times and Washington... Read more

The Bookshop

A History of the American Bookstore

By: Evan Friss
Narrated by: Jay Myers
Length: 10 hours 15 minutes

“A wonderful book for all book—and bookSHOP—lovers! It charts the history of the independent bookshop (and explaining why 'shop' is preferred to 'store'), from Ben Franklin's eclectic early shop to traveling stores-on-wheels to current 'big indies' like Parnassus Books, along with the stories of the dedicated, dogged, book-fanatic folks who run... 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

“Great history/biography. The actual speeches are a great addition to a thoroughly enjoyable revisit to the 60’s political scene from insiders. Read more

Story of a Murder

The Wives, the Mistress, and Dr. Crippen

By: Hallie Rubenhold
Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson
Length: 16 hours 56 minutes

This is the story of a murder, not a murderer . . .

In this epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century, bestselling author of The Five, Hallie Rubenhold, gives voice to those who were never properly heard--the women.

On February 1, 1910, the vivacious, diamond-adorned music hall performer Belle Elmore suddenly... 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

“This is one of my favorite non-fiction reads of all time, containing everything that I love to find in a book: suspense, unbreakable friendships, insurmountable obstacles, and unlimited perseverance! As told to the readers at the beginning of the book, this story is not one of Brown’s own experience but one that he heard and shared with the... Read more

Troy

The Greek Myths Reimagined

By: Stephen Fry
Narrated by: Stephen Fry
Length: 11 hours

“A perfect conclusion to an endlessly entertaining series. Fry’s take on the Trojan War is hilarious, harrowing, and everything in-between—and it’s only improved by his expert audiobook narration. Read more

Cue the Sun!

The Invention of Reality TV

By: Emily Nussbaum
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
Length: 15 hours 11 minutes

“Are you low-key fascinated by reality tv? This is the book for you! It follows unscripted television from its game-show-type origins all the way up to today. It's a big part of our culture so I think it's great someone is studying it with such detail. 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

Let This Radicalize You

Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care

By: Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba
Narrated by: Diana Blue
Length: 10 hours 41 minutes

What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing? Let This Radicalize You is a practical and imaginative resource for activists and organizers building power in an era of destabilization and catastrophe.



Longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine some of the... Read more

Black AF History

The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

By: Michael Harriot
Narrated by: Michael Harriot
Length: 15 hours 42 minutes

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on... Read more

Prequel

An American Fight Against Fascism

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

“This eye opening true history of the Nazi plot to overthrow American Democracy in the 1930s and 1940s reads like a page-turning spy thriller novel! Tracking the historical strain of American far right politics that longs for an authoritarian ruler, Maddow draws astonishingly relevant parallels to our current political moment in America.... Read more

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside

By: Nick Offerman
Narrated by: Nick Offerman
Length: 11 hours 42 minutes

“I enjoyed listening to this book. Nick Offerman’s essays candidly explore his place on this planet, delving into the dichotomy and overlap between experiencing the natural, numinous world and navigating societal consumerism and political chaos. Many people find solace and reset in nature, but we shouldn’t forget our impact. He critically... 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 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

“Thoroughly researched non-fiction that reads like a novel. Covers Winston Churchill and his family and close associates through the horrible Luftwaffe bombings of London and nearby cities during 1940-41. Shows Churchill leading his country against seemingly impossible odds through the sheer force of personality. Excellent book even for those who... Read more

The Last American Road Trip

A Memoir

By: Sarah Kendzior
Narrated by: Sarah Kendzior
Length: 10 hours 47 minutes

Written and read by New York Times bestselling author of They Knew, Hiding in Plain Sight, and The View from Flyover Country, Sarah Kenzidor, The Last American Road Trip navigates a changing America as Sarah and her family embark on a series of road trips in an audiobook that is part memoir, part history, and wholly unique.

"...a thoughtfully... Read more

Inventing the Renaissance

The Myth of a Golden Age

By: Ada Palmer
Narrated by: Candida Gubbins
Length: 30 hours 11 minutes

This is an audiobook version of this book.

An irreverent new take on the Renaissance, which reveals it as anything but Europe’s golden age.

From the darkness of a plagued and war-torn Middle Ages, the Renaissance (we’re told) heralds the dawning of a new world—a halcyon age of art, prosperity, and rebirth. Hogwash! or so says award-winning... Read more