History audiobooks

Plato's Greater Hippias

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 1 hour 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Hippias of Elis travels throughout the Greek world practicing and teaching the art of making beautiful speeches. On a rare visit to Athens, he meets Socrates who questions him about the nature of his art. Socrates is especially curious about how Hippias would define beauty. They agree that “beauty makes all beautiful things beautiful,” but when... Read more

Plato's Republic

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 11 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which... Read more

L'art de la guerre

By: Sun Tzu

Narrated by: Hervé Lacroix

Length: 2 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

L'Art de la guerre est le premier traité de stratégie militaire écrit au monde (VIe siècle av. J.-C). Son auteur, Sun Tzu développe des thèses originales qui s'inspirent de la philosophie chinoise ancienne. C'est l'essence de la guerre psychologique. L'ouvrage est fondé sur le principe suivant : gagner ou perdre une guerre ne se fait pas par... Read more

Plato's Meno

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 1 hour 12 minutes

Abridged: No

A dialogue between Socrates and Meno probes the subject of ethics. Can goodness be taught? If it can, then we should be able to find teachers capable of instructing others about what is good and bad, right and wrong, or just and unjust. Socrates and Meno are unable to identify teachers of ethics, and we are left wondering how such knowledge... Read more

Plato's Ion

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Socrates questions Ion, an actor who just won a major prize, about his ability to interpret the epic poetry of Homer. How does an actor, a poet, or any other artist create? Is it by knowing? Is it by inspiration? As the dialogue proceeds, the nature of human creativity emerges as a mysterious process and an unsolved puzzle. Read more

Plato's Phaedrus

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 2 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Plato’s dialogues frequently treat several topics and show their connection to each other. The Phaedrus is a model of that skill because of its seamless progression from examples of speeches about the nature of love to mythical visions of human nature and destiny to the essence of beauty and, finally, to a penetrating discussion of speaking and... Read more

Plato's Symposium

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 2 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

The dramatic nature of Plato’s dialogues is delightfully evident in the Symposium. The marriage between character and thought bursts forth as the guests gather at Agathon’s house to celebrate the success of his first tragedy. With wit and insight, they each present their ideas about love—from Erixymachus’s scientific naturalism to Aristophanes’... Read more

Plato's Gorgias

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

Gorgias of Leontini, a famous teacher of rhetoric, has come to Athens to recruit students, promising to teach them how to become leaders in politics and business. A group has gathered at Callicles' house to hear Gorgias demonstrate the power of his art. This dialogue blends comic and serious discussion of the best life, providing a penetrating... Read more

The Texas Rangers

By: Mike Cox

Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan

Length: 16 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Mike Cox, journalist and Texas Ranger grand master, recounts enthralling tales of men who proudly wore the silver Lone Star, once hand-carved from the Mexican fivepeso. Whether facing Indians, banditos, or Yankees, Texas Rangers earned a reputation for being some of the most formidable lawmen in U.S. history. "[A] lively, enlightening history ."... Read more

Religion, Myth, and Magic

By: Susan Johnston

Narrated by: Susan Johnston

Length: 7 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Anthropologist Susan Johnston turns a scholarly eye on one of humankind's primary interests throughout history: the spiritual belief system. Beginning her lectures with an attempt to define religion, Professor Johnston continues this intriguing study with an examination of mythology and symbols, rituals and witchcraft, gender, politics, and... Read more

This House of Sky

By: Ivan Doig

Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte

Length: 11 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

A haunting, magnificently written memoir by Ivan Doig about growing up in the American WestIvan Doig grew up in the rugged wilderness of western Montana among the sheepherders and denizens of small-town saloons and valley ranches. What he deciphers from his past with piercing clarity is not only a raw sense of land and how it shapes us but also... Read more

Fueling the Planet: The Past, Present, and Future of Energy

By: Michael McElroy

Narrated by: Michael McElroy

Length: 7 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

Renowned professor Michael B. McElroy leads a comprehensive examination of energy, including its history, use in the world today, and environmental consequences. Whether discussing the "oil shocks" of the 1970s, the current reliance on imported oil, or the growing buildup of carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere, it is clear that energy... Read more

The Concise King - Abridged

By: Clayborne Carson

Narrated by: Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Dr....

Length: 2 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: Yes

For the first time, an edition of Martin Luther King's most important speeches and selected sermons are assembled and available on CD as a value-priced edition. Hachette Audio believes that the timeless message of King, in his own words and voice, are essential listening for any American and for any world citizen interested in American history,... Read more

The Great Money Binge

By: George Melloan

Narrated by: Johnny Heller

Length: 9 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

Prestigious newspaper editor George Melloan, who worked for the Wall Street Journal for more than half a century, is no stranger to the wild ups and downs of the American and world economies. Using detailed examples from the Crash of 1929 and from the Carter era, this brilliantly argued book explains how government intervention actually prevents... Read more

God's Battalions

By: Rodney Stark

Narrated by: David Drummond

Length: 7 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

In God's Battalions, award-winning author Rodney Stark takes on the long-held view that the Crusades were the first round of European colonialism, conducted for land, loot, and converts by barbarian Christians who victimized the cultivated Muslims. To the contrary, Stark argues that the Crusades were the first military response to unwarranted... Read more

Saving Cinnamon

By: Christine Sullivan

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 7 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: No

Set against the backdrop of the war in Afghanistan, Saving Cinnamon chronicles the love story of Navy Reservist Mark Feffer and a stray puppy he bonded with while stationed outside of Kandahar. When Mark is about to return stateside, he decides to adopt Cinnamon and sets up her transport back to the United States. But the unthinkable happens:... Read more

The Darwin Myth

By: Benjamin Wiker

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 4 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

In the 150 years since the publication of Origin of Species, Charles Darwin's reputation has wavered between two extremes—secular saint or heretic. But the truth is much more complicated than that. While he was by all accounts a kind and virtuous man, Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection has been one of the most destructive ideas... Read more

Signs of Life

By: Scott Hahn

Narrated by: Scott Hahn

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

In the appealing conversational tone that has won him millions of devoted readers, Hahn presents the basic tenets of Church teachings, clears up common misconceptions about specific rituals and traditions, and responds thoughtfully to the objections raised about them. Each chapter concludes with loving, good-natured, inspiring advice on applying... Read more

Patton, Montgomery, Rommel

By: Terry Brighton

Narrated by: Mel Foster

Length: 15 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

In the Second World War, the United States, Great Britain, and Germany each produced one land-force commander who stood out from the rest: George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. All were arrogant, publicity seeking, and personally flawed, yet each possessed a genius for command and an unrivaled enthusiasm for combat. But their... Read more

General Sherman's Christmas

By: Stanley Weintraub

Narrated by: Ed Sala

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

General Sherman's Christmas opens on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, 1864, one month before Christmas. Sherman was relentlessly pushing his troops across Georgia, reaching Savannah days before Christmas. His methodical encroachment of the city from all sides eventually convinced Confederate general W. J. Hardee to slip away in darkness... Read more

Fly by Wire

By: William Langewiesche

Narrated by: David Drummond

Length: 6 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

On January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus A320 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in New York when a flock of Canada Geese collided with it, destroying both of its engines. Over the next three minutes, the plane's pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, managed to glide it to a safe landing in the Hudson River. It was an instant media... Read more

Miami Babylon

By: Gerald Posner

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 18 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

From its beginnings in the 1890s, Miami Beach has been a place made by visionaries and hustlers. During Prohibition, Al Capone had to muscle into its bootlegging and gambling businesses. After December 1941, when the Beach was the training ground for half a million army recruits, even the war couldn't stop the party. After a short postwar boom,... Read more

Revolution 1989

By: Victor Sebestyen

Narrated by: Paul Hecht

Length: 18 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Revolution 1989 is the first in-depth, authoritative account of a few months that changed the world. At the start of 1989, six European nations were Soviet vassal states. By year’s end, they had all declared national independence and embarked on the road to democracy. How did it happen so quickly? Victor Sebestyen, who was on the scene as a... Read more

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

By: Phillip Hoose

Narrated by: Channie Waites

Length: 3 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

On March 2, 1955, a slim, bespectacled teenager refused to give up her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Shouting “It’s my constitutional right!” as police dragged her off to jail, Claudette Colvin decided she’d had enough of the Jim Crow segregation laws that had angered and puzzled her since she was a young... Read more