History audiobooks

Plato's Phaedo

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 2 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

Socrates is in prison, sentenced to die when the sun sets. In this final conversation, he asks what will become of him once he drinks the poison prescribed for his execution. Socrates and his friends examine several arguments designed to prove that the soul is immortal. This quest leads him to the broader topic of the nature of mind and its... Read more

Plato's Apology

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 1 hour

Abridged: No

Socrates is on trial for his life. He is charged with impiety and corrupting young people. He presents his own defense, explaining why he has devoted his life to challenging the most powerful and important people in the Greek world. The reason is that rich and famous politicians, priests, poets, and a host of others pretend to know what is good,... Read more

Plato's Euthyphro

By: Plato

Narrated by: Albert A. Anderson

Length: 33 minutes

Abridged: No

In Euthyphro, Socrates is on his way to the court where he must defend himself against serious charges brought by religious and political authorities. On the way, he meets Euthyphro, an expert on religious matters, who has come to prosecute his own father. Socrates questions Euthyphro’s claim that religion serves as the basis for ethics. Read more

A History Of Britain

By: Simon Schama

Narrated by: Timothy West

Length: 10 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

Timothy West reads the second volume of Simon Schama’s compelling chronicle of the British Isles. The British wars began on the morning of 23 July 1637, heralding two hundred years of battles waged within and away from our isles. Most would be driven by religious or political conviction, as Republicans and Royalists, Catholics and Protestants,... Read more

Race to the Pole

By: Ranulph Fiennes

Narrated by: David Povall

Length: 16 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

During the Golden Era of Exploration, Captain Robert Scott and his competitor Roald Amundsen conquered the unconquerable: Antarctica. Their perilous race to the South Pole claimed Scott's life and became the stuff of legend as well as endless scrutiny. In this compelling biography of Captain Scott and his fatal journey, renowned modern-day... Read more

A History Of Britain

By: Simon Schama

Narrated by: Timothy West

Length: 7 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

To look back at the past is to understand the present. In this vivid account of over 4,000 years of British history Simon Schama takes us on an epic journey which encompasses the very beginnings of the nation’s identity, when the first settlers landed on Orkney. From the successes and failures of the monarchy to the daily life of a Roman soldier... Read more

A History Of Britain

By: Simon Schama

Narrated by: Timothy West

Length: 10 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Award-winning historian Simon Schama concludes his monumental three-volume history of Britain. Here he illuminates the period from 1776 to 2000 through a variety of historical themes, including Victorian advances in technology and industry, women’s increasing role in society, and the burgeoning British Empire which promised civilisation and... Read more

Collapse - Abridged

By: Jared Diamond

Narrated by: Christopher Murney

Length: 9 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: Yes

In Jared Diamond’s follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize–winning Guns, Germs and Steel, the author explores how climate change, the population explosion, and political discord create the conditions for the collapse of civilization.

Environmental damage, climate change, globalization, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all... Read more

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Abridged

By: Roy Jenkins

Narrated by: Richard Rohan

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A masterly, posthumous work by the New York Times bestselling author of Churchill and Gladstone

A protean figure and a man of massive achievement, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only man to be elected to the presidency more than twice. In a ranking of chief executives, no more than three of his predecessors could truly be placed in contention... Read more

Prisoner of the Vatican

By: David I. Kertzer

Narrated by: Alan Sklar

Length: 13 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

Based on a wealth of documents long buried in the Vatican archives, Prisoner of the Vatican tells the story of the Church's secret attempt to block the unification of Italy and seize control - not in ancient times, but in the late nineteenth century. For more than fifty years, the pope was a self-imposed prisoner within the Vatican walls,... Read more

Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour - Abridged

By: Joseph E. Persico

Narrated by: Harry Chase

Length: 6 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: Yes

November 11, 1918. The final hours pulsate with tension as every man in the trenches hopes to escape the melancholy distinction of being the last to die in World War I. The Allied generals knew the fighting would end precisely at 11:00 A.M, yet in the final hours they flung men against an already beaten Germany. The result? Eleven thousand... Read more

The Captured

By: Scott Zesch

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 10 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1870, ten-year-old Adolph Korn was kidnapped by Indians. He thrived in the Comanches’ rough, nomadic existence, quickly becoming one of the tribe’s fiercest warriors. Forcibly returned to his parents after three years, Korn never adjusted to life in white society. He spent his last years living in a cave, all but forgotten by his family.Then... Read more

Frank Lloyd Wright

By: Ada Louise Huxtable

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie

Length: 6 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Ada Louise Huxtable's biography of America's greatest architect

Renowned architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable's biography Frank Lloyd Wright looks at the architect and the man, from his tumultuous personal life to his long career as a master builder. Along the way she introduces Wright's masterpieces--from the... Read more

The Last Season

By: Phil Jackson

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 8 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

For the countless basketball fans who were spellbound by the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2003–2004 high-wire act, this book is a rare and phenomenal treat. In The Last Season, Lakers coach Phil Jackson draws on his trademark honesty and insight to tell the whole story of the season that proved to be the final ride of a truly great dynasty. From the... Read more

Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism

By: Bob Edwards

Narrated by: Bob Edwards

Length: 4 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

"Most Americans living today never heard Ed Murrow in a live broadcast. This book is for them. I want them to know that broadcast journalism was established by someone with the highest standards. Tabloid crime stories, so much a part of the lust for ratings by today's news broadcasters, held no interest for Murrow. He did like Hollywood... Read more

Planet Simpson - Abridged

By: Chris Turner

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 11 hours 49 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Going well beyond a critical discussion of a single television program, this book will use The Simpsons as a window on the culture at large to deliver first-hand reportage of the defining events and trends of our accelerated, confounding era. Read more

Alexander Hamilton - Abridged

By: Ron Chernow

Narrated by: Grover Gardner

Length: 11 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton!

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.

"Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently... Read more

Ask Not - Abridged

By: Thurston Clarke

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 5 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A close-up on one of American history's most splendid events, JFK's inaugural week, and the creation of the speech that inspired a generation and brought hope to a nation
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." On the January morning when John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency and stood to speak those... Read more

Lost and Found Sound and Beyond

By: The Kitchen Sisters & Jay Allison

Length: 2 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

The second volume of the LOST & FOUND SOUND collection explores how recorded sound has shaped and captured the history of the last 100 years. Drawing from the archives and attics of the nation, this historic and intimate collection of radio documentaries presents a compelling array of sonic pioneers and legends, eccentric collectors, and... Read more

The Family

By: Kitty Kelley

Narrated by: Susan Denaker

Length: 29 hours 16 minutes

Abridged: No

They have wielded enormous financial power and dominated world politics for more than half a century. They have been appointed to positions of great power and have been elected as governors, congressmen, senators and presidents. They have shaped our past and, with our country at war under the leadership of their number one son, they are, more... Read more

The Family - Abridged

By: Kitty Kelley

Narrated by: Kitty Kelley

Length: 10 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: Yes

They have wielded enormous financial power and dominated world politics for more than half a century. They have been appointed to positions of great power and have been elected as governors, congressmen, senators and presidents. They have shaped our past and, with our country at war under the leadership of their number one son, they are, more... Read more

Cary Grant: A Biography

By: Marc Eliot

Narrated by: Marc Eliot

Length: 15 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

Bringing up Baby. The Philadelphia Story. North by Northwest. An Affair to Remember. When Cary Grant passed away at age 82, fans from every generation mourned. Nearly 20 years later his star shines just as brightly from television and revival-house screens; his name remains synonymous with effortless charm. But perhaps the most remarkable fact... Read more

What's the Big Idea, Ben Franklin?

By: Jean Fritz

Narrated by: Jean Fritz

Length: 1 hour 16 minutes

Abridged: No

A fun historic tale by Newbery Honor-winning author, Jean Fritz!No matter how busy he was, Ben Franklin always found time to try out new ideas: a remote-control lock (so he could lock his door without getting out of bed), a rocking chair with a fan over it (to keep flies away), and a windmill (to turn his roast meat on its spit). Aside from... Read more

Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?

By: Jean Fritz

Narrated by: Jean Fritz

Length: 2 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Newbery Honor author Jean Fritz takes us on a historic tour of Christopher Columbus! "In a simple, short biography of Columbus she has been extraordinarily successful in extracting the essence of the man."—The Horn BookChristopher Columbus thought he knew where he was going. He had planned to be the first to cross the ocean and reach the rich... Read more