History audiobooks

Hallowed Ground - Abridged

By: James M. McPherson

Narrated by: James M. McPherson

Length: 1 hour 58 minutes

Abridged: Yes

James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, and arguably the finest Civil War historian in the world, walks us through the site of the bloodiest and perhaps most consequential battle ever fought by Americans: the Battle of Gettysburg.

The events that occurred at Gettysburg are etched into our collective... Read more

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Abridged

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Bill Bryson

Length: 5 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: Yes

One of the world’s most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.

In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to... Read more

Into Africa - Abridged

By: Martin Dugard

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: TBA

Abridged: Yes

With the utterance of a single line—“Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”—a remote meeting in the heart of Africa was transformed into one of the most famous encounters in exploration history. But the true story behind Dr. David Livingstone and journalist Henry Morton Stanley is one that has escaped telling. Into Africa is an extraordinarily ... Read more

Reefer Madness

By: Eric Schlosser

Narrated by: Eric Schlosser

Length: 9 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

In Reefer Madness, the best-selling author of Fast Food Nation investigates America's black market and its far-reaching influence on our society through three of its mainstays -- pot, porn, and illegal immigrants.
The underground economy is vast; it comprises perhaps 10 percent -- or more -- of America's overall economy, and it's on the rise.... Read more

A Patriot's Handbook

By: author

Narrated by: Caroline Kennedy & Full Cast

Length: 3 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Caroline Kennedy shares an inspiring collection of patriotic poems, song lyrics, historical documents, and speeches.The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a blockbuster success, remaining on the New York Times bestseller list for 15 weeks with more than 500,000 copies in print. Now, Caroline Kennedy shares with readers an... Read more

In the Company of Heroes - Abridged

By: Michael Durant & Steven Hartov

Narrated by: Michael Durant

Length: 5 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: Yes

"Ranger, Ranger, you die Somalia!" shouted the enraged Somali voices surrounding Blackhawk helicopter pilot Michael J. Durant, his bird shot down by a well-placed rocket-propelled grenade. With his devastating injuries, Durant would be lucky to survive the night.
"Mike Durant...Mike Durant..." came the disembodied voice floating above the... Read more

The Hill Fights - Abridged

By: Edward F. Murphy

Narrated by: Charles Stransky

Length: 2 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: Yes

While the seventy-seven-day siege of Khe Sanh in early 1968 remains one of the most highly publicized clashes of the Vietnam War, scant attention has been paid to the first battle of Khe Sanh, also known as “the Hill Fights.” Although this harrowing combat in the spring of 1967 provided a grisly preview of the carnage to come at Khe Sanh, few... Read more

The Seashell on the Mountaintop

By: Alan Cutler

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 5 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

How could a seashell get into a rock? And how could that rock get to the top of a mountain? The "seashell question" plagues 17th century thinkers who fervently believed the planet was young and the human race supreme. Read more

Of Paradise and Power

By: Robert Kagan

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

From Robert Kagan, a leading scholar of American foreign policy, comes an insightful analysis of the state of European and American foreign relations. At a time when relations between the United States and Europe are at their lowest ebb since World War II, this brief but cogent book is essential reading. Kagan forces both sides to see... Read more

The Majesty of the Law - Abridged

By: Sandra Day O'Connor

Narrated by: Sandra Day O'Connor

Length: 6 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In The Majesty of the Law, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor explores the law, her life as a Justice, and how the Court has evolved and continues to function, grow, and change as an American institution. Tracing some of the origins of American law through history, people, and ideas, O’Connor sheds new light on the basics, and through... Read more

What Kind of Nation

By: James F. Simon

Narrated by: John Lescault

Length: 12 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

The bitter and protracted struggle between President Thomas Jefferson and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall defined the basic constitutional relationship between the executive and judicial branches of government. More than 150 years later, their clashes still reverberate in constitutional debates and political battles.In this dramatic... Read more

To Conquer the Air - Abridged

By: James Tobin

Narrated by: Boyd Gaines

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: Yes

James Tobin, award-winning author of Ernie Pyle's War and The Man He Became, has penned the definitive account of the inspiring and impassioned race between the Wright brothers and their primary rival Samuel Langley across ten years and two continents to conquer the air.

For years, Wilbur Wright and his younger brother, Orville, experimented in... Read more

The Crisis of Islam

By: Bernard Lewis

Narrated by: Bernard Lewis

Length: 4 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

In his first book since What Went Wrong? Bernard Lewis examines the historical roots of the resentments that dominate the Islamic world today and that are increasingly being expressed in acts of terrorism. He looks at the theological origins of political Islam and takes us through the rise of militant Islam in Iran, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia,... Read more

Power Failure - Abridged

By: Mimi Swartz & Sherron Watkins

Narrated by: Henry Leyva

Length: 6 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: Yes

“They’re still trying to hide the weenie,” thought Sherron Watkins as she read a newspaper clipping about Enron two weeks before Christmas, 2001. . . It quoted [CFO] Jeff McMahon addressing the company’s creditors and cautioning them against a rash judgment. “Don’t assume that there is a smoking gun.”
Sherron knew Enron well enough to know that... Read more

Hallowed Ground

By: James M. McPherson

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 2 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

James M. McPherson, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom, and arguably the finest Civil War historian in the world, walks us through the site of the bloodiest and perhaps most consequential battle ever fought by Americans: the Battle of Gettysburg.

The events that occurred at Gettysburg are etched into our collective... Read more

Sleeping with the Devil

By: Robert Baer

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 7 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

“Saudi Arabia is more and more an irrational state—a place that spawns global terrorism even as it succumbs to an ancient and deeply seated isolationism, a kingdom led by a royal family that can’t get out of the way of its own greed. Is this the fulcrum we want the global economy to balance on?”

In his explosive New York Times bestseller, See No... Read more

13 Cent Killers - Abridged

By: John Culbertson

Narrated by: L.J. Ganser

Length: 2 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: Yes

“It’s not easy to stay alive with a $1,000 bounty on your head.”

In 1967, a bullet cost thirteen cents, and no one gave Uncle Sam a bigger bang for his buck than the 5th Marine Regiment Sniper Platoon. So feared were these lethal marksmen that the Viet Cong offered huge rewards for killing them. Now noted Vietnam author John J. Culbertson, a... Read more

Blood on the Risers - Abridged

By: John Leppelman

Narrated by: Scott Sowers

Length: 2 hours 1 minute

Abridged: Yes

In three straight years he was a paratropper, and army seaman, and a LRRP—and he lived to tell about it. 

As an FNG paratrooper in the 173d Airborne, John Leppelman made that unit's only combat jump in Vietnam. Then he spent months in fruitless search of the enemy, watching as his buddies died because of poor leadership and lousy weapons. Often... Read more

Platoon Leader - Abridged

By: James R. McDonough

Narrated by: Joel Rooks

Length: 1 hour 55 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A remarkable memoir of small-unit leadership and the coming of age of a young soldier in combat in Vietnam.'

"Using a lean style and a sense of pacing drawn from the tautest of novels, McDonough has produced a gripping account of his first command, a U.S. platoon taking part in the 'strategic hamlet' program. . . . Rather than present a potpourri... Read more

Five Years to Freedom - Abridged

By: James N. Rowe

Narrated by: Reathel Bean

Length: 1 hour 47 minutes

Abridged: Yes

When Green Beret Lieutenant James N. Rowe was captured in 1963 in Vietnam, his life became more than a matter of staying alive.

In a Vietcong POW camp, Rowe endured beri-beri, dysentery, and tropical fungus diseases. He suffered grueling psychological and physical torment. He experienced the loneliness and frustration of watching his friends die.... Read more

William McKinley

By: Kevin Phillips

Narrated by: Richard Rohan

Length: 5 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

A bestselling historian and political commentator reconsiders McKinley's overshadowed legacy

By any serious measurement, bestselling historian Kevin Phillips argues, William McKinley was a major American president. It was during his administration that the United States made its diplomatic and military debut as a world power. McKinley was one of... Read more

Grover Cleveland

By: Henry F. Graff

Narrated by: Ira Claffey

Length: 4 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

A fresh look at the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms.

Though often overlooked, Grover Cleveland was a significant figure in American presidential history. Having run for President three times and gaining the popular vote majority each time -- despite losing the electoral college in 1892 -- Cleveland was unique in the line of... Read more

Supreme Command

By: Eliot A. Cohen

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

The relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been a complicated one, especially in times of war. When the chips are down, who should run the show, the politicians or the generals?In Supreme Command, Eliot Cohen examines four great democratic war statesmen, Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and... Read more

Theodore Roosevelt

By: Louis Auchincloss

Narrated by: Ira Claffey

Length: 3 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

An intimate portrait of the first president of the 20th century

The warm and knowing biography traces Roosevelt's involvement in the politics of New York City and New York State, his celebrated, military career, and his ascent to the national political stage. Caricatured through history as the "bull moose", Roosevelt was in fact a man of... Read more