us colonialism and histories

The Undocumented Americans

By: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Narrated by: Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
Length: 4 hours 53 minutes

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • One of the first undocumented immigrants to graduate from Harvard reveals the hidden lives of her fellow undocumented Americans in this deeply personal and groundbreaking portrait of a nation.

“Karla’s book sheds light on people’s personal experiences and allows their stories to be told and their voices to be... Read more

Metaracism

How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—and How We Break Free

By: Tricia Rose
Narrated by: Mela Lee & Tricia Rose
Length: 6 hours 54 minutes

The definitive book on how systemic racism in America really works, revealing the vast and often hidden network of interconnected policies, practices, and beliefs that combine to devastate Black lives

In recent years, condemnations of racism in America have echoed from the streets to corporate boardrooms. At the same time, politicians and... Read more

You Get What You Pay For

Essays

By: Morgan Parker
Narrated by: Morgan Parker
Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

“A strong, impressive essay collection filled with smart observations Parker has an incredible way of words that is both witty and insightful. No essay is too long, and I found the ones criticizing pop culture especially intriguing. The audiobook is read by the author, and each essay was read like a performance. I found myself re-listening to... Read more

Dead Weight

Essays on Hunger and Harm

By: Emmeline Clein
Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
Length: 11 hours 26 minutes

A personal and cultural look at the dark underbelly of Western beauty standards and the lethal culture of disordered eating they've wrought

"An authoritative, generous, and persuasive debut that I wish I could go back in time and gift to my teenage self.”—Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood

“Electric with insight, and suffused with a strange,... Read more

Indigenous Continent

The Epic Contest for North America

By: Pekka Hamalainen
Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
Length: 18 hours 44 minutes

There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus "discovers" a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing "New World" as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back, they cannot stop the onslaught. White imperialists... Read more

Teaching White Supremacy

America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity

By: Donald Yacovone
Narrated by: Cary Hite
Length: 12 hours 46 minutes

A powerful exploration of the past and present arc of America’s white supremacy—from the country’s inception and Revolutionary years to its 19th century flashpoint of civil war; to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and today’s Black Lives Matter.
 
“The most profoundly original cultural history in recent memory.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,... Read more

Torn Apart

How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World

By: Dorothy Roberts
Narrated by: Dorothy Roberts & Janina Edwards
Length: 11 hours 49 minutes

An award-winning scholar exposes the foundational racism of the child welfare system and calls for radical change 
 
Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals... 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

The Rediscovery of America

Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History (The Henry Roe Cloud Series on American Indians and Modernity)

By: Ned Blackhawk
Narrated by: Jason Grasl
Length: 17 hours 18 minutes

The most enduring feature of US history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, with a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American... Read more

Caste (Oprah's Book Club)

The Origins of Our Discontents

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

“Possibly one of the most important books I've read in the last decade. Caste examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America. Wondering how America came to this? This book has brutal, unflinching answers. 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

Of Greed and Glory

In Pursuit of Freedom for All

By: Deborah G. Plant
Narrated by: Desmond Manny & Emana Rachelle
Length: 7 hours 32 minutes

A ground-breaking, personal exploration of America’s obsession with continuing human bondage from the editor of the New York Times–bestselling Barracoon.Freedom and equality are the watchwords of American democracy. But like justice, freedom and equality are meaningless when there is no corresponding practical application of the ideals they... Read more

Black AF History

The Un-Whitewashed Story of America

By: Michael Harriot
Narrated by: Michael Harriot
Length: 15 hours 42 minutes

From acclaimed columnist and political commentator Michael Harriot, a searingly smart and bitingly hilarious retelling of American history that corrects the record and showcases the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It is the story of the pilgrims on... 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 Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

By: Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
Length: 22 hours 40 minutes

“I'm sorry I hadn't gotten to this sooner. Wilkerson pulls together so much of what I already knew about the US but not necessarily why... a great audiobook, too. Read more

The Souls of Black Folk

By: W. E. B. Du Bois
Narrated by: Mirron Willis
Length: 8 hours 32 minutes

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," writes Du Bois, in one of the most prophetic works in all of American literature.First published in 1903, this collection of fifteen essays dared to describe the racism that prevailed at that time in America—and to demand an end to it. Du Bois' writing draws on his early... Read more

Notes of a Native Son

By: James Baldwin
Narrated by: Ron Butler
Length: 5 hours 3 minutes

At last, a new audio edition of the book many have called James Baldwin's most influential work!Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays collected in Notes of a Native Son capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained... Read more

Fantasy Island

Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico

By: Ed Morales
Narrated by: Sean Duffy
Length: 10 hours 57 minutes

A crucial, clear-eyed accounting of Puerto Rico's 122 years as a colony of the US.

Since its acquisition by the US in 1898, Puerto Rico has served as a testing ground for the most aggressive and exploitative US economic, political, and social policies. The devastation that ensued finally grew impossible to ignore in 2017, in the wake of Hurricane... Read more

A Fever in the Heartland

The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them

By: Timothy Egan
Narrated by: Timothy Egan
Length: 10 hours 29 minutes

“Some pride themselves on knowing historical facts and hidden histories, and yet, Egan, with his horror story about the KKK, will stop you in your tracks. Wasn't this just a 19th century Southern phenomenon? Who knew American Terror happened literally in our own backyard. Read more

After Work

A History of the Home and the Fight for Free Time

By: Helen Hester & Nick Srnicek
Narrated by: Marisa Calin
Length: 6 hours 16 minutes

A vital and timely proposal for a feminist post-work politicsWould you let a robot clean your house?When we think about work, we still tend to think about workplaces—if we think about reducing work, we think about reducing working hours and spending more time at home. But the home has never been free from work, and with the continued gendered... Read more