Bookseller Picks: For the History Buff

Unruly

The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens

By: David Mitchell
Narrated by: David Mitchell
Length: 11 hours 39 minutes

“As funny as it is informative, if clever Brits and history are your thing, you’ll love this! Read more

How the Word Is Passed

A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

By: Clint Smith
Narrated by: Clint Smith
Length: 10 hours 6 minutes

“From plantation to Angola Prison. From Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, VA to the African Burial Ground in New York City. From Île de Gorée to Whitney Plantation. From the Emancipation Proclamation to Juneteenth. Clint Smith takes us on an unforgettable journey through the history of slavery in the United States, revealing many truths we’ve... Read more

The Black Box

Writing the Race

By: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

“One of our finest historians shows how African Americans have used the written word to shape their realities, resisting the confines of the 'Black Box'. Read more

The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Dion Graham & David Grann
Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

“Since a lot of the book is drawn from actual sailor's diaries, listening to it feels like you're hearing a salty sea dog's confessional! Apart from that it's got everything you'd want in a swashbuckling adventure: mutiny, shipwreck, scurvy and colonialist criticism. Read more

The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

By: Erik Larson
Narrated by: Will Patton & Erik Larson
Length: 17 hours 17 minutes

“Absolutely loved this one. Sent me off onto a Civil War history binge. Larson is always a favorite. Will Patton as the reader was a nice treat. Read more

The Indian Card

Who Gets to Be Native in America

By: Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz
Narrated by: Amy Hall
Length: 7 hours 51 minutes

“Carrie Lowry Schuettpelz offers an in-depth and personal look at the long history of colonialism's effects on Native identity. Through interviews and her own experiences, she presents a rich tapestry of rules surrounding Tribal membership, the concept of blood quantum, and the often complex emotions involved in self-identity. This is a rich... Read more

The Six

The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts

By: Loren Grush
Narrated by: Inés del Castillo
Length: 11 hours 41 minutes

“The interesting - and sometimes infuriating - story of the first six female NASA astronauts. It's got everything: a bit of history, a bit of science and space travel, and a bit of tragedy. Inés del Castillo is a fantastic narrator, bringing an added level of humanity to Grush's history. An excellent read for both those who are interested in the... Read more

The Bookshop

A History of the American Bookstore

By: Evan Friss
Narrated by: Jay Myers
Length: 10 hours 15 minutes

“A very real history of American bookselling with an assortment of characters and personalities. It hasn’t always been pretty or easy to hear about, but it’s ours. I personally enjoyed the vignettes between the longer chapters that spoke to all the things that continuously draw us back to our local bookshop. Read more

The 1619 Project

A New Origin Story

By: Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman & Jake Silverstein
Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones & Full Cast
Length: 18 hours 56 minutes

“This new landmark work of U.S. history, criticism, and art is forged of 18 essays that consider the relevance of slavery to contemporary America through the prism of such subjects as capitalism, music, and healthcare and poems and fiction that focus on key moments in the oppression, resistance, and liberation of Black people in America. Riveting... Read more

Wandering in Strange Lands

A Daughter of the Great Migration Reclaims Her Roots

By: Morgan Jerkins
Narrated by: Morgan Jerkins
Length: 8 hours 3 minutes

“In Wandering in Strange Lands, Morgan Jerkins brings us along on her journey to learn about her ancestors and herself. This fascinating ethnography leads Jerkins down paths she anticipated and, perhaps most interestingly, down unexpected ones. As she learns more about where and whom she came from, she confronts her image of herself and grapples... Read more

Killers of the Flower Moon

The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

By: David Grann
Narrated by: Will Patton, Ann Marie Lee & Danny Campbell
Length: 9 hours 4 minutes

“In "Killers of the Flower Moon", David Grann recounts the tragic tale of the Osage Indian Nations decimation and deceit at the hands of their government appointed guardians. Motivated by money, morally corrupt and masterfully manipulative, the true role of these benevolent benefactors, perpetrators of mass murder, is still a mystery today.... Read more

A Little Devil in America

Notes in Praise of Black Performance

By: Hanif Abdurraqib
Narrated by: JD Jackson
Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

“Using Black performance as a loose organizing principle, Abdurraqib has written a brilliant, expansive, insightful, and personal book. There is something of Montaigne’s penchant for humility and brilliance in equal measure; of Susan Sontag’s use of cultural criticism to understand history and the self; of Zadie Smith’s verbal wizardry,... Read more

Empire of Pain

The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

By: Patrick Radden Keefe
Narrated by: Patrick Radden Keefe
Length: 18 hours 6 minutes

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE NOMINEE • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR • NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A grand, devastating portrait of three generations of the Sackler family, famed for their philanthropy, whose fortune was built by Valium and whose reputation was destroyed by OxyContin. From the prize-winning and bestselling author of... Read more

Four Hundred Souls

A Community History of African America, 1619-2019

By: Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain
Narrated by: Various
Length: 14 hours 1 minute

“An absolutely stunning history of African America for people who do not normally read history. Compiled of short stories, essays, and poems, it is perfect for someone who is intimidated by lists of names and dates. Each individual voice stands on its own but together they truly make a 'choir' that flows together beautifully. This is a... Read more

The Dawn of Everything

A New History of Humanity

By: David Graeber & David Wengrow
Narrated by: Mark Williams
Length: 24 hours 19 minutes

“This book packs the foundations of modern political philosophy with dynamite and lights the fuse! Through recent advances in archaeology and anthropology, Davids Graeber and Wengrow show us a dizzying range of sophisticated models of human social organization among indigenous peoples, around the world, over tens of thousands of years,... Read more