History audiobooks

Hillbilly Nationalists, Urban Race Rebels, and Black Power

By: Amy Sonnie & James Tracy

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 7 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Some of the most important and little-known activists of the 1960s were poor and working-class radicals. Inspired by the Civil Rights movement, the Black Panthers, and progressive populism, they started to organize significant political struggles against racism and inequality during the 1960s and into the 1970s.



Historians of the period have... Read more

The Invention of Surgery

By: David Schneider, M.D.

Narrated by: Peter Noble

Length: 23 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

Written by an author with plenty of experience holding a scalpel, Dr. David Schneider’s in-depth biography is an encompassing history of the practice that has leapt forward over the centuries from the dangerous guesswork of ancient Greek physicians through the world-changing “implant revolution” of the twentieth century. The Invention of... Read more

Generations

By: William Strauss & Neil Howe

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 23 hours 3 minutes

Abridged: No

Hailed by national leaders as politically diverse as former Vice President Al Gore and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Generations has been heralded by reviewers as a brilliant, if somewhat unsettling, reassessment of where America is heading.



William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational... Read more

Under the Knife

By: Arnold van de Laar

Narrated by: Rich Keeble

Length: 9 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

Surgeon Arnold van de Laar uses his own experience and expertise to tell this engrossing history of surgery through 28 famous operations—from Louis XIV and Einstein to JFK and Houdini.

From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife... Read more

Bobby Kennedy

By: Larry Tye

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 19 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

“A multilayered, inspiring portrait of RFK . . . [the] most in-depth look at an extraordinary figure whose transformational story shaped America.”—Joe Scarborough, The Washington Post

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Soon to be a Hulu original series starring Chris Pine. Larry Tye appears on CNN’s American Dynasties: The Kennedys.

“We are in Larry... Read more

Last Train to Paradise

By: Les Standiford

Narrated by: Del Roy

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

The fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores.

In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D.... Read more

Tulipomania

By: Mike Dash

Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart

Length: 8 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

A vivid narration of the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most coveted—and beautiful—commodity in Europe.



In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn't... Read more

Boyd

By: Robert Coram

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Length: 19 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

John Boyd may be the most remarkable unsung hero in all of American military history. Some remember him as the greatest U.S. fighter pilot ever—the man who, in simulated air-to-air combat, defeated every challenger in less than forty seconds. Some recall him as the father of our country's most legendary fighter aircraft—the F-15 and F-16. Still... Read more

Dark Sun

By: Richard Rhodes

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

Length: 28 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Here, for the first time, in a brilliant, panoramic portrait by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb, is the definitive, often shocking story of the politics and the science behind the development of the hydrogen bomb and the birth of the Cold War.

Based on secret files in the United States and the former Soviet... Read more

Women Money Power

By: Josie Cox

Narrated by: Josie Cox

Length: 10 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

A narrative history of women fighting for financial freedom, and the social and political hurdles that have kept them from equality

For centuries, women were denied equal access to money and the freedom and power that came with it. Even well into the twentieth century, women could not take out loans or open bank accounts without a man’s... Read more

Philip and Alexander

By: Adrian Goldsworthy

Narrated by: Neil Dickson

Length: 20 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

This definitive biography of one of history's most influential father-son duos tells the story of two rulers who gripped the world -- and their rise and fall from power.
Alexander the Great's conquests staggered the world. He led his army across thousands of miles, overthrowing the greatest empires of his time and building a new one in their... Read more

Fire and Fortitude

By: John C. McManus

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 24 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

An engrossing, epic history of the US Army in the Pacific War, from the acclaimed author of The Dead and Those About to Die

“This eloquent and powerful narrative is military history written the way it should be.”—James M. McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
 
"Out here, mention is seldom seen of the achievements of the Army ground troops,"... Read more

A Consumers' Republic

By: Lizabeth Cohen

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 21 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

In this signal work of history, Bancroft Prize winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Lizabeth Cohen shows how the pursuit of prosperity after World War II fueled our pervasive consumer mentality and transformed American life.



Trumpeted as a means to promote the general welfare, mass consumption quickly outgrew its economic objectives and became... Read more

Girly Drinks

By: Mallory O'Meara

Narrated by: Mallory O'Meara

Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

“At last, the feminist history of booze we’ve been waiting for!” —Amy Stewart, author of The Drunken Botanist

From Los Angeles Times bestselling author Mallory O’Meara comes a lively and engrossing feminist history of women drinking through the ages

Strawberry daiquiris. Skinny martinis. Vodka sodas with lime. These are the cocktails that come in... Read more

Birthright Citizens

By: Martha S. Jones

Narrated by: Janina Edwards

Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans.



Before the Civil War, colonization schemes and black laws threatened to deport former slaves born in the United States. Birthright Citizens recovers the story of how African American activists remade national belonging... Read more

The World According to Cunk

By: Philomena Cunk

Narrated by: Philomena Cunk

Length: 5 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

Romans! Madrigals! The Dark Ages! Revolutions! Trumpets! The Oranges of The First World War! All of this (except trumpets) and more, is covered in this definitive, easy-clean history of all world history so far, written by the 21st Century's leading historian, philosopher and thinkerer Philomena Cunk.

Focussing on the inventions, art, and... Read more

Scotland Yard

By: Simon Read

Narrated by: Harry Myers

Length: 14 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

A riveting true-crime history of London's first modern police force as told through its most notorious murder cases. The idea of Scotland Yard is steeped in atmospheric stories of foggy London streets, murder by lamplight, and fiendish killers pursued by gentleman detectives. From its establishment in 1829 through the eve of World War II,... Read more

Psychonauts

By: Mike Jay

Narrated by: Rachel Perry

Length: 11 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind



Until the twentieth century, scientists investigating the effects of drugs on the mind did so by experimenting on themselves. Vivid descriptions of drug experiences sparked insights across the mind... Read more

A Certain Idea of France

By: Julian Jackson

Narrated by: John Banks

Length: 35 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Brought to you by Penguin.

In six weeks in 1940, France was over-run by German troops and surrendered. One junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entered into history. For the rest of... Read more

3,000 Years of Judaism in 30 Days: Understanding Jewish History, Beliefs, and Practices

By: Howard Lupovitch

Narrated by: Howard Lupovitch

Length: 12 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Judaism is not only a religious faith but also a set of beliefs, practices, symbols, and institutions. More than that, it’s a civilization and culture of a people both diverse and united by a history of exile and perseverance.

Explore the storied history, texts, and traditions of one of the world’s oldest living religions and civilizations. As... Read more

The Lessons of Tragedy

By: Hal Brands & Charles Edel

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 6 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

An eloquent call to draw on the lessons of the past to address current threats to international order

The ancient Greeks hard-wired a tragic sensibility into their culture. By looking disaster squarely in the face, by understanding just how badly things could spiral out of control, they sought to create a communal sense of responsibility and... Read more

Jazz - Abridged

By: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns

Narrated by: LeVar Burton

Length: 8 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A masterpiece that brings to life the fascinating story of the quintessential American music—jazz. Visually stunning, with more than five hundred photographs, this companion volume to the acclaimed ten-part PBS TV series is an exploration of the music that celebrates all Americans at their best.

Here are the stories of the extraordinary men and... Read more

Bombs Away

By: John Steinbeck

Narrated by: Scott Aiello

Length: 4 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

A magnificent volume of short novels and an essential World War II report from one of America's great twentieth-century writers

A Penguin Classic

On the heels of the enormous success of his masterwork The Grapes of Wrath and at the height of the American war effort John Steinbeck, one of the most prolific and influential literary figures of his... Read more

Deep Down Dark

By: Héctor Tobar

Narrated by: Henry Leyva

Length: 13 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Deep Down Dark is the novel that inspired the film The 33 starring Lou Diamond Phillips, Cote de Pablo and Antonio Banderas.

When the San José mine collapsed outside of Copiapó, Chile, in August 2010, it trapped thirty-three miners beneath thousands of feet of rock for a record-breaking sixty-nine days. After the disaster, Pulitzer Prize-winning... Read more