for the history loving bbs

Cultish

The Language of Fanaticism

By: Amanda Montell
Narrated by: Ann Marie Gideon
Length: 8 hours 21 minutes

“Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this on Libro.fm. Entertaining, informative, and a must-read (listen to) for anyone interested in Cults, MLMs, Fitness, the English language... etc. Read more

The Death and Life of Great American Cities

50th Anniversary Edition

By: Jane Jacobs
Narrated by: Donna Rawlins
Length: 17 hours 58 minutes

Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context.  It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the... Read more

The Sum of Us

What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together

By: Heather McGhee
Narrated by: Heather McGhee
Length: 11 hours 8 minutes

“I recommend this because it digs deeper into some of the harmful systemic practices that are or were in place for Black people in the US. It shows how not only does it affect Black people and other marginalized communities but those practices affect everyone. I also appreciated the perspective and how these facts and personal stories are told so... Read more

Caste (Oprah's Book Club)

The Origins of Our Discontents

By: Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 15 hours 10 minutes

“This is an important and beautifully written book examining the links and common elements between the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany. Highly recommended. Read more

The Anthropocene Reviewed

Essays on a Human-Centered Planet

By: John Green
Narrated by: John Green
Length: 10 hours 42 minutes

“An entertaining and fascinating collection of essays - perfect for your commute! Read more

An Immense World

How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

By: Ed Yong
Narrated by: Ed Yong
Length: 14 hours 17 minutes

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong

“One of this year’s finest works of narrative... Read more

Poverty, by America

By: Matthew Desmond
Narrated by: Dion Graham
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“Matthew Desmond, best selling author of Evicted, is back to examine the causes of poverty in America. Since the Johnson Administration in the 1960s, the American government has waged war on poverty. Vast amounts of money are spent annually fighting poverty, but poverty seems to be an entrenched part of American society. Desmond argues and... Read more

When Crack Was King

A People's History of a Misunderstood Era

By: Donovan X. Ramsey
Narrated by: Donovan X. Ramsey
Length: 11 hours 33 minutes

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A “vivid and frank” (NPR) account of the crack cocaine era and a community’s ultimate resilience, told through a cast of characters whose lives illuminate the dramatic rise and fall of the epidemic
 
“A master class in disrupting a stubborn narrative, a monumental feat for the fraught subject of addiction... Read more

The Patriarchs

The Origins of Inequality

By: Angela Saini
Narrated by: Sohm Kapila
Length: 10 hours 24 minutes

For fans of Sapiens and The Dawn of Everything, a groundbreaking exploration of gendered oppression—its origins, its histories, our attempts to understand it, and our efforts to combat it

For centuries, societies have treated male domination as natural to the human species. But how would our understanding of gender inequality—our imagined past... Read more

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017

By: Rashid Khalidi
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi & Rashid Khalidi
Length: 10 hours 30 minutes

This program includes an introduction read by the author.

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US historian of the Middle East, told through pivotal events and family history.

In 1899, Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, mayor of Jerusalem, alarmed by the Zionist call to create a Jewish national home... Read more

Stiff

The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

By: Mary Roach
Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
Length: 7 hours 59 minutes

An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.



For 2,000 years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to... Read more

Girly Drinks

A World History of Women and Alcohol

By: Mallory O'Meara
Narrated by: Mallory O'Meara
Length: 11 hours 29 minutes

“Girly Drinks is a fun, feminist, and information account chronicling the immense impact women have had on society through making and consuming alcohol. From beer and ale, to whisky, to sake, to sorghum, this is an inclusive and culturally aware history. Full to the brim with riveting stories, you’ll savor every line. Grab a beverage and tuck in! Read more

Bullshit Jobs

A Theory

By: David Graeber
Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
Length: 12 hours 39 minutes

From David Graeber, the bestselling author of The Dawn of Everything and Debt—“a master of opening up thought and stimulating debate” (Slate)—a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs…and their consequences.

Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this... Read more

How the South Won the Civil War

Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America

By: Heather Cox Richardson
Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
Length: 9 hours 9 minutes

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

Before We Were Trans

A New History of Gender

By: Dr. Kit Heyam
Narrated by: Dr. Kit Heyam
Length: 8 hours 2 minutes

A groundbreaking global history of gender nonconformity  

Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives.  
 
Before We Were Trans illuminates... Read more

Four Lost Cities

A Secret History of the Urban Age

By: Annalee Newitz
Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
Length: 8 hours 14 minutes

“Analee Newitz looks at the fate of four so-called 'lost' cities on three continents in this book. They describe the way modern day archeologists are turning their findings into stories about what life was like in these early urban centers. For a book about falling civilizations, I found it incredibly optimistic! Political and environmental... Read more

Bad Mexicans

Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

By: Kelly Lytle Hernández
Narrated by: Joana Garcia
Length: 13 hours 34 minutes

Bad Mexicans tells the dramatic story of the magonistas, the migrant rebels who sparked the 1910 Mexican Revolution from the United States. Led by a brilliant but ill-tempered radical named Ricardo Flores Magón, the magonistas were a motley band of journalists, miners, migrant workers, and more, who organized thousands of Mexican workers—and... Read more

Fight Like Hell

The Untold History of American Labor

By: Kim Kelly
Narrated by: Em Grosland
Length: 12 hours 11 minutes

“In Fight Like Hell, Kim Kelly celebrates the untold stories and unsung heroes of the American labor movement, taking great care to center voices that have historically been sidelined or silenced in mainstream conversations around workers' rights. The result is an inclusive, fascinating, and galvanizing retrospective that mines the depths of the... Read more

Butts

A Backstory

By: Heather Radke
Narrated by: Emily Tremaine
Length: 8 hours 13 minutes

“What a surprising and incredible book! Heather Radke delves into humans' complex and often strange relationships with butts from the perspective of eugenics and racism, fashion and pop culture, music and workout videos. Mindful of society's scrutiny of women's bodies, Radke brings a unique insight by sharing her personal experiences with her own... Read more

The Great Displacement

Climate Change and the Next American Migration

By: Jake Bittle
Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
Length: 10 hours 26 minutes

Shortlisted for the 2024 Carnegie Medal for Excellence

The “closely observed, compassionate, and far-sighted” (Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Under a White Sky) story of climate migration in the United States—the personal stories of those experiencing displacement, the portraits of communities torn apart by disaster, and the... Read more