History audiobooks

How the South Won the Civil War

By: Heather Cox Richardson

Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson

Length: 9 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

While the North prevailed in the Civil War, ending slavery and giving the country a "new birth of freedom," Heather Cox Richardson argues in this provocative work that democracy's blood-soaked victory was ephemeral. The system that had sustained the defeated South moved westward and there established a foothold. It was a natural fit. Settlers... Read more

Ask Not

By: Maureen Callahan

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

Length: 11 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

From New York Times bestseller Maureen Callahan, a fierce, character-driven exposé of the real Kennedy Curse—the family’s generations-long legacy of misogyny, murder, and mayhem.

The Kennedy name has long been synonymous with wealth, power, glamor, and—above all else—integrity. But this carefully constructed veneer hides a dark truth: the... Read more

Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians but Were Afraid to Ask

By: Dr. Anton Treuer

Narrated by: Dr. Anton Treuer

Length: 8 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young listeners alike. Ranging from "Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween?" to "Why is it called a 'traditional Indian fry bread taco'?," "What's it like for... Read more

Vanderbilt

By: Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe

Narrated by: Anderson Cooper

Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in... Read more

Erasing History

By: Jason Stanley

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 4 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

“I’ve never read a book that is as timely, urgent and essential as this one. A battle plan for keeping this nation from falling into fascism.” —Khalil Gibran Muhammad, author of The Condemnation of Blackness

From the bestselling author of How Fascism Works, a searing confrontation with the far right’s efforts to rewrite history and undo a... Read more

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist

By: Radley Balko & Tucker Carrington

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Length: 14 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

A shocking and deeply reported account of the persistent plague of institutional racism and junk forensic science in our criminal justice system, and its devastating effect on innocent lives

After two three-year-old girls were raped and murdered in rural Mississippi, law enforcement pursued and convicted two innocent men: Kennedy Brewer and... Read more

Pockets

By: Hannah Carlson

Narrated by: Stephanie Cannon

Length: 6 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

A thought-provoking microhistory of the humble pocket that uncovers what pockets reveal about us—and why it matters.

It’s a subject that stirs up plenty of passion: Why do men’s clothes have so many pockets and women’s so few? In her captivating book, Hannah Carlson, a lecturer in dress history at the Rhode Island School of Design, shows us how... Read more

The Spy and the Traitor

By: Ben Macintyre

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 13 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The celebrated author of Double Cross and Rogue Heroes returns with a thrilling Americans-era tale of Oleg Gordievsky, the Russian whose secret work helped hasten the end of the Cold War.

“The best true spy story I have ever read.”—JOHN LE CARRÉ

Named a Best Book of the Year by The Economist • Shortlisted for the Bailie... Read more

Oath and Honor

By: Liz Cheney

Narrated by: Liz Cheney

Length: 12 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Read by Liz Cheney with 50+ audio source material clips included, Oath and Honor is a gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution--leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand... Read more

Code Breaker, Spy Hunter

By: Laurie Wallmark

Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger

Length: 42 minutes

Abridged: No

In this biography, young listeners will learn all about Elizebeth Friedman (1892-1980), a brilliant American code breaker who smashed Nazi spy rings, took down gangsters, and created the CIA's first cryptology unit. Her story came to light when her secret papers were finally declassified in 2015. From thwarting notorious rumrunners with only... Read more

Humankind

By: Rutger Bregman

Narrated by: Rutger Bregman & Thomas Judd

Length: 11 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The “lively” (The New Yorker), “convincing” (Forbes), and “riveting pick-me-up we all need right now” (People) that proves humanity thrives in a crisis and that our innate kindness and cooperation have been the greatest factors in our long-term success as a species.

If there is one belief that has united the... Read more

The Jakarta Method

By: Vincent Bevins

Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR, THE FINANCIAL TIMES, AND GQ

“A radical new history of the United States abroad” (Wall Street Journal) which uncovers U.S. complicity in the mass-killings of left-wing activists in Indonesia, Latin America and around the world

In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill... Read more

I Never Thought of It That Way

By: Mónica Guzmán

Narrated by: Mónica Guzmán

Length: 8 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

We think we have the answers, but we need to be asking a lot more questions.

Journalist Mónica Guzmán is the loving liberal daughter of Mexican immigrants who voted—twice—for Donald Trump. When the country could no longer see straight across the political divide, Mónica set out to find what was blinding us and discovered the most eye-opening tool... Read more

By the Fire We Carry

By: Rebecca Nagle

Narrated by: Rebecca Nagle

Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

“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

Some People Need Killing

By: Patricia Evangelista

Narrated by: Patricia Evangelista

Length: 11 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

TIME’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“Patricia Evangelista’s searing account is not only the definitive chronicle of a reign of terror in the Philippines, but a warning to the rest of the world about the true dangers of despotism—its nightmarish consequences and its terrible human... Read more

Play Nice

By: Jason Schreier

Narrated by: Ray Chase

Length: 9 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

From a New York Times bestselling author and investigative journalist comes The Social Network for the video game industry, a riveting examination of Blizzard Entertainment's rise and shocking downfall.

For video game fans, the name Blizzard Entertainment was once synonymous with perfection. The renowned company behind classics like Diablo and... Read more

The Story of the World, Vol. 1 Audiobook

By: Susan Wise Bauer

Narrated by: Jim Weiss

Length: 8 hours 4 minutes

Abridged: No

History will never be the same again! This spirited reading of the first in Susan Wise Bauer's Story of the World history series brings to life the stories and records of the peoples of ancient times. Now more than ever, other countries and customs affect our everyday lives-and our children need to learn about the people who live all around the... Read more

When the Clock Broke

By: John Ganz

Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin

Length: 15 hours 17 minutes

Abridged: No

"John Ganz is the most important young political writer of his generation—just the one our dark moment needs." —Rick Perlstein

"Lively and kaleidoscopic." —Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker

"John Ganz belongs to a species of public intellectual that is almost extinct . . . When the Clock Broke is the first of what I hope will be a shelf of books that... Read more

Blood and Thunder

By: Hampton Sides

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 20 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Ghost Soldiers comes an eye-opening history of the American conquest of the West—"a story full of authority and color, truth and prophecy" (The New York Times Book Review).

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed... Read more

South to America

By: Imani Perry

Narrated by: Imani Perry

Length: 16 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

“An elegant meditation on the complexities of the American South—and thus of America—by an esteemed daughter of the South and one of the great intellectuals of our time. An inspiration.” —Isabel Wilkerson, New York Times bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste: The Origins of Our DiscontentsAn essential, surprising journey... Read more

Dark Money

By: Jane Mayer

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 16 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Why is America living in an age of profound economic inequality? Why, despite the desperate need to address climate change, have even modest environmental efforts been defeated again and again? Why have protections for employees been decimated? Why do hedge-fund billionaires pay a far lower tax rate than middle-class workers?
     The... Read more

Empires of the Steppes

By: Kenneth W. Harl

Narrated by: Corey M. Snow

Length: 17 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A narrative history of how Attila, Genghis Khan and the so-called barbarians of the steppes shaped world civilization.

The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These nomadic tribes have produced some of the world’s greatest conquerors: Attila the... Read more

John Lewis

By: David Greenberg

Narrated by: David Sadzin

Length: 24 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

A comprehensive, authoritative biography of Civil Rights icon John Lewis, “the conscience of the Congress,” drawing on interviews with Lewis and approximately 275 others who knew him at various stages of his life, as well as never-before-used FBI files and documents.

Born into poverty in rural Alabama, Lewis would become second only to Martin... Read more

Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here

By: Jonathan Blitzer

Narrated by: André Santana & Jonathan Blitzer

Length: 18 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

A National Bestseller • One of Barack Obama's Summer Reading List Picks • Nominated for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction • One of Washington Post's 50 Notable Books of 2024

“What an incredibly thorough documentation of the causes of the immigration crisis, the discussions that have been going on... Read more