Social Science audiobooks

Ladies of Liberty - Abridged

By: Cokie Roberts

Narrated by: Cokie Roberts

Length: 10 hours 1 minute

Abridged: Yes

“This collection succeeds in emphasizing that many unsung women left their mark well before the suffrage movement.” —Publishers WeeklyFans of #1 New York Times bestselling author Cokie Roberts, also a celebrated journalist for ABC and NPR, will love this stunning nonfiction picture book, as will parents and educators looking for a more in-depth... Read more

McMafia - Abridged

By: Misha Glenny

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 9 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the deregulation of international financial markets in 1989, governments and entrepreneurs alike became intoxicated by forecasts of limitless expansion into newly open markets. No one would foresee that the greatest success story to arise from these events would be the... Read more

Bonk

By: Mary Roach

Narrated by: Sandra Burr

Length: 9 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

The study of sexual physiology—what happens, and why, and how to make it happen better—has been a paying career or a diverting sideline for scientists as far-ranging as Leonardo da Vinci and James Watson. The research has taken place behind the closed doors of laboratories, brothels, MRI centers, pig farms, sex-toy R&D labs, and Alfred... Read more

April 4, 1968

By: Michael Eric Dyson

Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson

Length: 6 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., the prophet for racial and economic justice in America, was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of a Memphis hotel. Only hours earlier, he had ended his final public speech with the words, "I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the Promised... Read more

Finding Grace in the Everyday Stories of our Lives

By: Dawna Markova, Ph.D.

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Dawna Markova believes that each of us is a “spot of grace,” and she beautifully inspires us as she reads many stories of everyday life that uncover the wisdom each of us carries within. She says, “What I know about grace is that we can create the conditions in which grace can happen…And often times a story will do it. “ Read more

The End of Poverty

By: Jeffrey D. Sachs

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 13 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

"Book and man are brilliant, passionate, optimistic and impatient . . . Outstanding." —The Economist

The landmark exploration of economic prosperity and how the world can escape from extreme poverty for the world's poorest citizens, from one  of the world's most renowned economists

Hailed by Time as one of the world's hundred most influential... Read more

Democracy in America

By: Alexis de Tocqueville

Narrated by: George Guidall

Length: 4 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1831, a Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in New York convinced that the democratic spirit America had embraced would eventually spread across Europe. Democracy in America, a treatise on democratic government written from his fresh perspective as an outsider, is now a classic document of political history. Read more

Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour

By: Peniel E. Joseph

Narrated by: Beresford Bennett

Length: 12 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

An acclaimed chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement, Peniel Joseph presents this sweeping overview of a key component of the struggle for racial equality-the Black Power movement. This is the story of the men and women who sacrificed so much to begin a more vocal and radical push for social change in the 1960s and 1970s. "... a dramatic story,... Read more

Be Happy Without Being Perfect

By: Alice D. Domar, Ph.D. & Alice Lesch Kelly

Narrated by: Karen White

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

BONUS: Includes the quiz: How Much of a Perfectionist Are You?*

Do you have trouble going to bed at night when there’s a mess in the kitchen? Do you think you would be happier if only you could lose weight, be a better parent, work smarter, reduce stress, exercise more, and make better decisions? You’re not perfect. But guess what? You don’t have... Read more

Be Happy Without Being Perfect - Abridged

By: Alice D. Domar, Ph.D. & Alice Kelly

Narrated by: Alice D. Domar, Ph.D.

Length: 2 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Do you have trouble going to bed at night when there’s a mess in the kitchen? Do you think you would be happier if only you could lose weight, be a better parent, work smarter, reduce stress, exercise more, and make better decisions? You’re not perfect. But guess what? You don’t have to be. All of us struggle with high expectations from time to... Read more

Stupid Black Men

By: Larry Elder

Narrated by: Larry Elder

Length: 9 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Is life unfair for Black Americans? Is racial equality the answer to every question of public policy? Are a huge group of citizens being kept down by “the man”? In Stupid Black Men, radio host and bestselling author Larry Elder takes on the mind-set that always captures the most media attention—as well as masses of public money—in this country:... Read more

I've Got a Home in Glory Land

By: Karolyn Smardz Frost

Narrated by: Karen Chilton

Length: 14 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Acclaimed archeologist and historian Karolyn Smardz Frost painstakingly resurrects Thornton and Lucie Blackburn's perilous 1830s journey from Kentucky slavery to Canadian freedom. "Exhaustively researched and poignantly told," this compelling story "pulsates with the breathtaking urgency of a thriller" (Boston Globe). ". [an] engrossing look at... Read more

Goat

By: Brad Land

Narrated by: Nick Landrum

Length: 6 hours 14 minutes

Abridged: No

Reeling from a terrifying assault that leaves him psychologically shattered, 20-year-old Brad Land feels he will never be normal again. When he joins his brother's college fraternity to help him heal, he instead finds a new found terror. Read more

The Predictably Irrational

By: Dan Ariely

Narrated by: Simon Jones

Length: 7 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

The groundbreaking bestseller from iconic behavioral psychologist Dan Ariely, now the inspiration for the Fall 2023 NBC show The Irrational“A marvelous book that is both thought provoking and highly entertaining, ranging from the power of placebos to the pleasures of Pepsi. Ariely unmasks the subtle but powerful tricks that our minds play on us,... Read more

A Short History of Medicine

By: F. Gonzalez-Crussi

Narrated by: John McDonough

Length: 9 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Praised for his erudite writing, renowned scientist Frank GonzAlez-Crussi penned this concise history of medicine, beginning with the most primitive healthcare practices and ending with the technology of modern medicine that we enjoy today. As with all Modern Library Chronicles, A Short History of Medicine is a wonderful primer for anyone... Read more

The Calling - Abridged

By: Catherine Whitney

Narrated by: Susie Breck

Length: 5 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In a bluff north of Seattle, overlooking the glorious vista of Puget Sound and the white-capped Olympics, stands Rosary Heights, the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Dominic of the Holy Cross. On a dark night in 1997, a catastrophic mudslide shifts the ground beneath the motherhouse and threatens to send it crashing into the water below. By... Read more

Der Schimmelreiter - Abridged

By: Theodor Storm

Narrated by: Sven Görtz

Length: 4 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Hauke Haien, nach dem Tod des alten Deichgrafen durch seine heimliche Verlobung mit dessen Tochter Elke selbst zum Deichgrafen avanciert, wird von den Dorfbewohnern als Emporkömmling abgelehnt. Nur mühsam kann er seinen Plan für einen neuen Deich, der enormen Landgewinn bedeutet, durchsetzen und die trägen Bauern zur Mitarbeit bewegen. Bei... Read more

Living Authentically And Simply

By: David Wann

Narrated by: Michael Toms

Length: 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Continuing to consume excessively as a way of life is neither desirable nor possible, if we care about future generations. It seems clear that we need to alter our patterns of consumption in order to preserve and sustain our precious natural resources. David Wann suggests that if we change a few key priorities, many of our material wants will... Read more

The Cheating Culture

By: David Callahan

Narrated by: Richard Davidson

Length: 11 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

In this provocative audiobook author David Callahan examines the cheating epidemic-at work, in school, on the ballfield and everywhere else-that is the new American plague. Now more than ever, people are bending rules and breaking laws to get what they want. From the Enron scandal to the dot-com collapses to the plagiarism that has rocked the... Read more

The Histories

By: Caius Cornelius Tacitus

Narrated by: James Adams

Length: 10 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Caius Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman orator and public official, is considered one of the greatest historians as well as one of the greatest prose stylists of the Latin language. In The Histories, he describes and interprets the period in which he lived, beginning with the political situation that followed Nero's death in AD 69 and ending with the... Read more

The Logic of Life

By: Tim Harford

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 8 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or easier to fathom: Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune... Read more

A History of the Jews

By: Paul Johnson

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 28 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

This historical magnum opus covers 4,000 years of the extraordinary history of the Jews as a people, a culture, and a nation. It shows the impact of Jewish character on the world: their genius, imagination and, most of all, their ability to persevere despite severe persecutions. Compelling insights into events and individuals are chronologically... Read more

The Logic of Life - Abridged

By: Tim Harford

Narrated by: L.J. Ganser

Length: 6 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Life sometimes seems illogical. Individuals do strange things: take drugs, have unprotected sex, mug each other. Love seems irrational, and so does divorce. On a larger scale, life seems no fairer or easier to fathom: Why do some neighborhoods thrive and others become ghettos? Why is racism so persistent? Why is your idiot boss paid a fortune... Read more

Gang Leader for a Day

By: Sudhir Venkatesh

Narrated by: Reg Rogers & Stephen J. Dubner

Length: 8 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

The story of the young sociologist who studied a Chicago crack-dealing gang from the inside captured the world's attention when it was first described in Freakonomics. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh managed to gain entrée into the gang, what he learned, and how his method revolutionized the academic... Read more