History bestsellers

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

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

“This account of the Challenger disaster is thorough and absolutely fascinating! I have always been obsessed with the space program so I went into it thinking I knew the story pretty well. But Adam does a great job adding extra details and perspectives not normally shared! The narrator is fantastic and you will definitely find yourself binging... Read more

Off The Map

The Journals of Lewis and Clark

By: Meriwether Lewis
Narrated by: Pat Grimes
Length: 57 minutes

Lewis and Clark's famous 1804 expedition was told with great detail by the explorers themselves in an eight-volume account. Now young historians have the opportunity to learn the thrills, challenges, and adventures in a version accessible for them. Two years' worth of entries are condensed into a flowing account that maintains the historical... 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

Amelia Earhart

First Names: Book #2

By: Andrew Prentice
Narrated by: Elizabeth Cottle
Length: 2 hours 39 minutes

Before Amelia Earhart (1897–1939) became a world-famous pilot, she was a little tomboy from Kansas with a taste for adventure. When she visited an airfield and took a short plane ride, she knew she had to be a pilot. She signed up for flying lessons and cropped her hair short so that the other pilots would take her seriously. She became the... 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

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

A Ben Of All Trades

The Most Inventive Boyhood of Benjamin Franklin

By: Michael J. Rosen & Matt Tavares
Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
Length: 44 minutes

Young Benjamin Franklin wants to be a sailor, but his father won’t hear of it. The other trades he tries—candle maker, joiner, boot closer, turner—bore him through and through. Curious and inventive, Ben prefers to read, swim, fly his kite, and fly his kite while swimming. But each time he fails to find a profession, he takes some important bit... Read more

The Bookshop

A History of the American Bookstore

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

“A charming and informative history of and love letter to bookstores throughout American history. From Benjamin Franklin to Jeff Bezos, from the early "books on wheels" traveling stores, to sidewalk vendors, from big box booksellers to our beloved indie bookstores, Evan Friss shows us how bookstores have shaped the world around us. Highly... 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

“I haven't read non-fiction since Chernow's Hamilton. THIS was the book that has brought me back to it. Thanks to Larson's artful story-telling, I am about to go down a Civil War rabbit hole. Mary Chestnut, James Henry Hammond, Edmund Ruffin...if you don't know these names, you need to. The narration performance by Will Patton is sublime, and... 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

“How has this story been kept under wraps for so long? It plays like a novel with vivid characters and escalating tension. Fans of Erik Larson or Patrick O'Brian will love this equally. Read more

Major Battles in U.S. History

All About the Battle of Gettysburg, Little Bighorn, Normandy and more

By: Various
Narrated by: Qarie Marshall
Length: 49 minutes

This close-up look at key battles throughout the history of the United States offers engaging anecdotes about those battles and provides historical context for each of them. Each audiobook examines the decisive moments and lasting impact of major battles such as The Battle of Gettysburg and The Battle of Little Bighorn. With interesting facts... 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

“I really enjoyed the audio clips from JFK and LBJ, they really made the book come alive. Read more

Sapiens

A Brief History of Humankind

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

“Harari's brilliant cross-discipline synthesis of humanity's last 100,000 year story arc is sweeping and brilliant. I would almost use a phrase usually reserved for beach read thrillers-it's a page-turner. Rarely does a book stir up conversation in academic circles while still being so accessible to a general audience. That a history book has... Read more

The Only Plane in the Sky

An Oral History of September 11, 2001

By: Garrett M. Graff
Narrated by: A Full 45-Person Cast
Length: 15 hours 54 minutes

“This is a book you really need to hear instead of read. I was an adult with 2 children on 9/11 and I learned so much listening to this. This is more than just people recounting what happened to them on that dark day, it is a reenactment from key people told in chronological order. You get the where and learn exactly what they experienced. There... Read more

The Barn

The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

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

“Unequivocally one of the most compelling non-fiction books I've ever read. Thompson's research not only reveals the depth of depravity and barbarity of Emmett Till's murderers, but illuminates the commitment to collective forgetting by the white townspeople. Told with great humanity, this book is critical to the historical record, and with 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

Through the Wardrobe

How C. S. Lewis Created Narnia

By: Lina Maslo
Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
Length: 33 minutes

As a child, Clive Staples Lewis imagined many things... heroic animals and knights in armor and a faraway land called Boxen. He even thought of a new name for himself—at four years old, he decided he was more of a Jack. As he grew up, though, Jack found that the real world was not as just as the one in his imagination. No magic could heal 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

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world.

“Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly.”—The Economist

“This deeply important book comes at a critical... 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

SPQR

A History of Ancient Rome

By: Mary Beard
Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
Length: 18 hours 30 minutes

“I listened to SPQR as I prepared for my first trip to Rome, and I am so glad that I did. Beard expertly recounts the history of Rome's rise to world dominance. She updates our knowledge of this fantastic empire using new archeological finds and insight into the motivations underlying the source documents. A recent social media craze claims that... Read more

Harry Houdini

First Names: Book #1

By: Kjartan Poskitt
Narrated by: Pete Cross
Length: 2 hours 35 minutes

Before Harry Houdini (1874–1926) became the greatest magician in the world, he was just little Ehrich Weisz, a Hungarian-born immigrant who moved to America with his family and performed stage tricks for a little extra cash. He started off with card tricks and then eventually began performing the escape acts that would make him famous. Known for... 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

“I have always considered myself to be a very open-minded person. But Malcolm Gladwell's "Talking to Strangers" is a revelation in the mistakes we humans make in interpreting each other's motives and intentions. The common assumptions that we make in order to navigate daily life often lead us to grossly err in our decisions and judgments... 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 new landmark work of U.S. history, criticism, and art is forged of 18 essays that consider the relevance of slavery to contemporary America through the prism of such subjects as capitalism, music, and healthcare and poems and fiction that focus on key moments in the oppression, resistance, and liberation of Black people in America. Riveting... 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

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, LitHub, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Lunch, and Christian Science Monitor • One of Barack Obama's Summer Reading List Picks • Named a Notable Book by New York Times and Washington Post • Nominated for the... 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 three sections of the book each cover a different part of this bizarre and unbelievable but true murder mystery: the investigation, the trial, and the aftermath. Each time I finished a section, I kind of assumed the interesting part was over. And each time I was WRONG. This book kept me guessing all the way to the end, and then some. Read more

Nuclear War

A Scenario

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

“Jacobsen extensively researched the military science and our country's preparation plan should a nuclear war occur. The consequences are understandably brutal. The subject of nuclear warfare is described in an assertive style that will leave you thinking about the subject long after the book is finished. Told in a relentless play-by-play... 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

“This book packs the foundations of modern political philosophy with dynamite and lights the fuse! Through recent advances in archaeology and anthropology, Davids Graeber and Wengrow show us a dizzying range of sophisticated models of human social organization among indigenous peoples, around the world, over tens of thousands of years,... 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

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

“What an amazing, passionate and fast-paced take on Kendi’s original Stamped from the Beginning! It takes you on a journey of racist ideas from then to now, the how and why it still lingers on. Reynolds’s engaging way with words will connect with young adults, and everyone else too. This is a book for everyone to read, so that we all can do... Read more

The Inventor's Secret

By: Suzanne Slade
Narrated by: Susie Berneis
Length: 47 minutes

Both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford started off as insatiably curious tinkerers. That curiosity led them to become inventors—with very different results. As Edison invented hit after commercial hit, gaining fame and fortune, Henry struggled to make a single invention (an affordable car) work. Witnessing Thomas's glorious career from afar, a... 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.

One of The New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of the... Read more

By the Fire We Carry

The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land

By: Rebecca Nagle
Narrated by: Rebecca Nagle
Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

“Rebecca Nagle gives a clear and compelling narration of her look into how a small-town murder in the Muscogee Nation led to a significant 2020 Supreme Court case—and the largest restoration of Native tribal land in American history. . . . An illuminating listen.” — AudioFile""Impeccably researched. . . . A fascinating book and an important one.”... Read more

Everything Is Tuberculosis

The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection

By: John Green
Narrated by: John Green
Length: TBA

John Green, the #1 bestselling author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and a passionate advocate for global healthcare reform, tells a deeply human story illuminating the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.

Tuberculosis has been entwined with hu­manity for millennia. Once romanticized as a malady of poets, today tuberculosis is... Read more

A Green Place to Be

The Creation of Central Park

By: Ashley Benham Yazdani
Narrated by: John Pruden
Length: 23 minutes

In 1858, New York City was growing so fast that new roads and tall buildings threatened to swallow up the remaining open space. The people needed a green place to be—a park with ponds to row on and paths for wandering through trees and over bridges. When a citywide contest solicited plans for creating a park out of barren swampland, Calvert Vaux... Read more

Mythos

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

“I'm really enjoying listening to Stephen Fry's narration of his book Mythos. Told with a wink and a nod, he brings the classical mythologies alive with great zest. Weaving the many personalities and stories into a whole tapestry of delight. Wonderful fun for making that walk longer. 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

Unruly

The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens

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

“As funny as it is informative, if clever Brits and history are your thing, you’ll love this! Read more

Anna Strong

A Spy During the American Revolution

By: Sarah Glenn Marsh
Narrated by: Heather Lind
Length: 50 minutes

Anna Smith Strong (1790–1812) was a fearless woman who acted as a spy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Recruited by Washington’s spymaster Major Benjamin Tallmadge, she joined the Culper Ring, a group of American spies. General Washington placed a huge amount of trust in his spies, and Anna helped pass him important messages... Read more

Enemy Child

The Story of Norman Mineta, a Boy Imprisoned in a Japanese American Internment Camp During World War II

By: Andrea Warren
Narrated by: Caroline McLaughlin
Length: 3 hours 53 minutes

One by one, things that Norm and his Japanese American family took for granted are taken away. In a matter of months they, along with everyone else of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, are forced by the government to move to internment camps, leaving everything they have known behind. At the Heart Mountain internment camp in Wyoming,... Read more

Music Is History

By: Ben Greenman & Questlove
Narrated by: Questlove
Length: 11 hours

A New York Times bestseller, Music Is History combines multi–Grammy Award winner Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years.Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapestry, whether investigating how the blaxploitation... Read more

As You Wish

Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride

By: Cary Elwes & Joe Layden
Narrated by: Cary Elwes, Carol Kane, Norman Lear, Rob Reiner, Chris Sarandon, Andy Scheinman, Wallace Shawn & Robin Wright
Length: 7 hours 1 minute

“An affectionate and engaging love letter to the movie-adaptation of The Princess Bride, and everyone who worked on the project. If you are a huge fan of the fairytale cult classic, this memoir is a must-read that will leave you feeling nostalgic, and ready to watch the film again with new eyes. With guest commentary from the cast and crew, this... 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

Wild Faith

How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America

By: Talia Lavin
Narrated by: Talia Lavin
Length: 9 hours 45 minutes

The acclaimed author of Culture Warlords investigates the rise of the Christian Right over the last half-century that lays out the grim vision evangelicals are enforcing on our democracy.

All across America, a storm is gathering: from book bans in school libraries to anti-trans laws in state legislatures; firebombings of abortion clinics and... Read more

Kingmaker

Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue

By: Sonia Purnell
Narrated by: Louise Brealey
Length: 16 hours 57 minutes

From the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, an electrifying re-examination of one of the 20th century’s greatest unsung power players

When Pamela Churchill Harriman died in 1997, the obituaries that followed were predictably scathing – and many were downright sexist. Written off as a mere courtesan... 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

“Poet Clint Smith’s personal, intimate examination of sites of historical significance to slavery is as soulful and accessible as it is urgent and important. The opening chapter on Jefferson’s Monticello is one of the best chapters of American historical writing in recent memory, and should be required reading on the legacy of America’s founders.... 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 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

Shit, Actually

The Definitive, 100% Objective Guide to Modern Cinema

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

“Lindy West is a blast. Shit, Actually is basically CinemaSins, but but more (self-described) Femi-Nazi. I lol-ed through most of it. I recommend just reading everything she writes and, if you can listen to it, even better, as West's delivery is the pitch-perfect sarcasm that makes this such a fun reading experience. It'll make you a better... Read more