History audiobooks

Brothers in Arms - Abridged

By: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Anthony Walton

Narrated by: Peter Francis James

Length: 4 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A powerful wartime saga recounting the extraordinary story of the 761st Tank Battalion, the first all-black armored unit to see combat in World War II.
 
“More than a combat story . . . it’s also the story of how black soldiers had to fight (literally and figuratively) for the right to fight the Germans.”—USA Today 
 
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar first... Read more

The Outlaw Sea

By: William Langewiesche

Narrated by: William Langewiesche

Length: 7 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Riveting stories of our last frontier and the acts of God and man upon it

Even if we live within sight of the sea, it is easy to forget that our world is an ocean world. The open ocean spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by... Read more

Fanatics and Fools

By: Arianna Huffington

Narrated by: Arianna Huffington

Length: 10 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times best-selling author Arianna Huffington takes another sweeping look at how right wing zealots have taken charge of the Republican Party and the government—and the American leadership who let it happen. Read more

Alexander the Great's Art of Strategy - Abridged

By: Partha Bose

Narrated by: James Langton

Length: 5 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Alexander the Great endures as one of the most admired and emulated leaders in world history. In our time, his example of unprecedented and unparalleled success has inspired leaders of business and government, from media mogul Ted Turner (who keeps a bronze bust of Alexander in his office) to Desert Storm commander General Norman Schwarzkopf... Read more

Plan of Attack - Abridged

By: Bob Woodward

Narrated by: Boyd Gaines

Length: 6 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, examining the... Read more

Ted Williams - Abridged

By: Leigh Montville

Narrated by: Philip Bosco

Length: 5 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: Yes

He was The Kid. The Splendid Splinter. Teddy Ballgame. One of the greatest figures of his generation, and arguably the greatest baseball hitter of all time. But what made Ted Williams a legend – and a lightning rod for controversy in life and in death? What motivated him to interrupt his Hall of Fame career twice to serve his country as a... Read more

1968

By: Mark Kurlansky

Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove

Length: 15 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

National BestsellerMark Kurlansky, New York Times bestselling author of Cod, Salt and The Basque History of the World looks at a pivotal year in our history. From the Viet Cong attack on Saigon to the birth of feminism and women's liberation, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy to riots at the Democratic... Read more

George Herbert Walker Bush

By: Tom Wicker

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 7 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

No one is more qualified to give a fully rounded, objective portrait of our forty-first president than Tom Wicker. A political correspondent for The New York Times for more than thirty years, Wicker was a first-hand witness to and reporter of George H. W. Bush’s political rise and presidential reign. In George Herbert Walker Bush, Wicker... Read more

Losing Bin Laden

By: Richard Miniter

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 9 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

"If Clinton had fought back, the attacks on September 11, 2001, might never have happened."

Years before the public knew about bin Laden, Bill Clinton did. Bin Laden first attacked Americans during Clinton's presidential transition in December 1992. He struck again at the World Trade Center in February 1993. Over the next eight years the... Read more

St. Patrick of Ireland

By: Philip Freeman

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 6 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Ireland's patron saint has long been shrouded in legend: he drove the snakes out of Ireland; he triumphed over Druids and their super-natural powers; he used a shamrock to explain the Christian mystery of the Trinity. But his true story is more fascinating than the myths.

Late in the 4th century Irish pirates captured a young, British citizen... Read more

Raid on the Sun - Abridged

By: Rodger Claire

Narrated by: Adam Grupper

Length: 5 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: Yes

From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned. The reactor formed the heart of a huge nuclear plant situated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv. By 1981, the reactor was on... Read more

Terrible Terry Allen - Abridged

By: Gerald Astor

Narrated by: Reathel Bean

Length: 1 hour 43 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Terry de la Mesa Allen’s mother was the daughter of a Spanish officer, and his father was a career U.S. Army officer. Despite this impressive martial heritage, success in the military seemed unlikely for Allen as he failed out of West Point—twice—ultimately gaining his commission through Catholic University’s R.O.T.C. program. In World War I,... Read more

All the Way to Berlin - Abridged

By: James Megellas

Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson

Length: 2 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In mid-1943 James Megellas, known as “Maggie” to his fellow paratroopers, joined the 82d Airborne Division, his new “home” for the duration. His first taste of combat was in the rugged mountains outside Naples.

In October 1943, when most of the 82d departed Italy to prepare for the D-Day invasion of France, Lt. Gen. Mark Clark, the Fifth Army... Read more

Sixty Days in Combat - Abridged

By: Dean Joy

Narrated by: Don Hastings

Length: 1 hour 44 minutes

Abridged: Yes

“The infantryman’s war is . . . without the slightest doubt the dirtiest, roughest job of them all.”

He went in as a military history buff, a virgin, and a teetotaler. He came out with a war bride, a taste for German beer, and intimate knowledge of one of the darkest parts of history. His name is Dean Joy, and this was his war.

For two months in... Read more

Mekong First Light - Abridged

By: Joseph W. Callaway, Jr.

Narrated by: Richard Ferrone

Length: 2 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: Yes

“Before we got to Vietnam, the troops all thought you would be the first lieutenant killed, and in the end, you were the only one left. We were all wrong. You were the best.”
—Sgt. Lonnie “Tallman” Caldwell

December, 1966: Platoon leader Lt. Joseph Callaway had just turned twenty-three when he arrived in Vietnam to lead forty-two untested men into... Read more

The Nathaniel Hawthorne Audio Collection

By: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrated by: Paul Auster & James Naughton

Length: 5 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

On July 28, 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne's wife left their house in Western Massachusetts to visit relatives. Hawthorne and his five-year-old son Julian stayed behind. How father and son got on together for the next three weeks is the subject of Twenty Days with Julian & Little Bunny, by Papa, a tender and funny extract from Hawthorne's... Read more

The Essential Lewis and Clark Selections

By: Landon Y. Jones

Narrated by: Tom Wopat & Peter Friedman

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

This compact volume of the journals of Lewis and Clark, compiled by American Book Award nominee Landon Y. Jones, includes all of the most riveting tales of their adventure—in their own wordsThe journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark remain the single most important document in the history of American exploration. Here is a concise,... Read more

Sons of Camelot - Abridged

By: Laurence Leamer

Narrated by: Laurence Leamer

Length: 7 hours 1 minute

Abridged: Yes

From renowned biographer and New York Times bestselling author of The Kennedy Women and The Kennedy Men comes THE SONS OF CAMELOT, the second volume in a multi-generational history bound to be considered an American epic.Almost a year before publication, THE SONS OF CAMELOT: The Fate of an American Dynasty was already being widely discussed and... Read more

Breaking the Da Vinci Code

By: Darrell L. Bock

Narrated by: Chris Fabry

Length: 4 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Many who have read the New York Times bestseller The Da Vinci Code have questions that arise from seven codes-expressed or implied-in Dan Brown's book. In Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone's Asking, Darrell Bock, Ph.D., responds to the novelist's claims using central ancient texts and answers the following... Read more

Bobby Fischer Goes to War - Abridged

By: David Edmonds & John Eidinow

Narrated by: Sam Tsoutsouvas

Length: 11 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In the summer of 1972, with a presidential crisis stirring in the United States and the cold war at a pivotal point, two men -- the Soviet world chess champion Boris Spassky and his American challenger Bobby Fischer -- met in the most notorious chess match of all time. Their showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, held the world spellbound for two... Read more

Red, White & Liberal - Abridged

By: Alan Colmes

Narrated by: Alan Colmes

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

In Red, White & Liberal, Alan Colmes addresses a fundamental question: In this time of uncertainty, how can we protect our freedom without diminishing our liberties, while burnishing our rightful place as the world's beacon of democracy? Colmes urges Americans to see past the tactics of the vocal right and to combat the problems that... Read more

Shadow Divers

By: Robert Kurson

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 15 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat–complete with its crew of 60 men–not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught... Read more

1968

By: Mark Kurlansky

Narrated by: Christopher Cazenove

Length: 15 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

Over the course of one pivotal year, events that shaped American and world history took place: The North Vietnamese launched the Tet offensive. Prague Spring began. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. Students protested across the United States and around the world. Robert Kennedy was assassinated. The Democratic National Convention in... Read more

In The Company of Soldiers - Abridged

By: Rick Atkinson

Narrated by: Rick Atkinson

Length: 6 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: Yes

For soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division, the road to Baghdad began with a midnight flight out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in late February 2003. For Rick Atkinson, who would spend nearly two months covering the division for The Washington Post, the war in Iraq provided a unique opportunity to observe today's U.S. Army in combat.
Granted... Read more