History audiobooks

Israel

By: Daniel Gordis

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 16 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

The first comprehensive yet accessible history of the state of Israel from its inception to present day, from Daniel Gordis, ""one of the most respected Israel analysts"" (The Forward) living and writing in Jerusalem.Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its... Read more

The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee

By: David Treuer

Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau

Length: 17 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

FINALIST FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Named a best book of 2019 by The New York Times, TIME, The Washington Post, NPR, Hudson Booksellers, The New York Public Library, The Dallas Morning News, and Library Journal.

"Chapter after chapter, it's like one... Read more

Thomas

By: The Voice of the Martyrs

Narrated by: Lance Smith

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

Jesus’ disciple Thomas rightly earned the title "Doubting Thomas" by refusing to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead. He told the disciples, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, I will not believe." Soon after, Jesus appeared to Thomas, shattering his unbelief. Thomas became so convinced of the resurrection of Jesus Christ... Read more

Aloha Betrayed

By: Noenoe K. Silva

Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab

Length: 8 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1897, as a white oligarchy made plans to allow the United States to annex Hawai'i, native Hawaiians organized a massive petition drive to protest. Ninety-five percent of the native population signed the petition, causing the annexation treaty to fail in the US Senate.



This event was unknown to many contemporary Hawaiians until Noenoe K. Silva... Read more

The Wars of the Roses

By: Dan Jones

Narrated by: John Curless

Length: 15 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

The author of the New York Times bestseller The Plantagenets chronicles the next chapter in British history-the actual historical backdrop for Game of Thrones The fifteenth century saw the longest and bloodiest series of civil wars in British history. The crown of England changed hands five times as two branches of the Plantagenet dynasty fought... Read more

Furious Hours

By: Casey Cep

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 11 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

ONE OF PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2019

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2019 BY Time, LitHub, Vulture, Glamour, O Magazine, Town and Country, Suspense Magazine, Inside Hook

New York Times Best Seller
 
“Compelling . . . at once a true-crime thriller, courtroom drama, and miniature biography of Harper Lee. If To Kill a Mockingbird was... Read more

The Jungle Grows Back

By: Robert Kagan

Narrated by: Jason Culp

Length: 5 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

"An incisive, elegantly written, new book about America’s unique role in the world." --Tom Friedman, The New York Times

A brilliant and visionary argument for America's role as an enforcer of peace and order throughout the world--and what is likely to happen if we withdraw and focus our attention inward.

Recent years have brought deeply disturbing... Read more

Making of the Atomic Bomb

By: Richard Rhodes

Narrated by: Holter Graham

Length: 37 hours 15 minutes

Abridged: No

**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award**

The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to... Read more

A Spectre, Haunting

By: China Miéville

Narrated by: China Miéville

Length: 7 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

In 1848, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO was published by two émigrés from Germany. Marx and Engels' apocalyptic vision of an insatiable system that penetrates every corner of the world reduces every relationship to that of profit, and burst asunder the old forms of production and of politics. It is still a recognisable picture of our world – the... Read more

Work

By: James Suzman

Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith

Length: 13 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

"This book is a tour de force." -- Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take

A revolutionary new history of humankind through the prism of work by leading anthropologist James Suzman

Work defines who we are. It determines our status, and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth... Read more

Reign of Terror

By: Spencer Ackerman

Narrated by: Spencer Ackerman

Length: 13 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2021
 
"An impressive combination of diligence and verve, deploying Ackerman’s deep stores of knowledge as a national security journalist to full effect. The result is a narrative of the last 20 years that is upsetting, discerning and brilliantly argued." —The New York Times
 
"One of the most illuminating books... Read more

The Eagle and the Hart

By: Helen Castor

Narrated by: Helen Castor

Length: 20 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From an acclaimed historian comes an epic tale of power and betrayal: the dual biography of Richard II and Henry IV, two cousins whose tumultuous reigns shaped the course of English history.

Richard of Bordeaux and Henry of Bolingbroke, cousins born just three months apart, were ten years old when Richard became king of England. They were... Read more

The Reconstruction of Nations

By: Timothy Snyder

Narrated by: Rich Miller

Length: 13 hours 47 minutes

Abridged: No

From the bestselling author of On Tyranny comes a revealing history of the four modern national ideas that arose from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth



Modern nationalism in northeastern Europe has often led to violence and then reconciliation between nations with bloody pasts. In this fascinating book, Timothy Snyder traces the emergence of... Read more

Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies

By: Elizabeth Winkler

Narrated by: Eunice Wong

Length: 14 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

An “extraordinarily brilliant” and “pleasurably naughty” (André Aciman) investigation into the Shakespeare authorship question, exploring how doubting that William Shakespeare wrote his plays became an act of blasphemy…and who the Bard might really be.

The theory that Shakespeare may not have written the works that bear his name is the most... Read more

Slow Noodles

By: Chantha Nguon

Narrated by: Clara Kim

Length: 10 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

A haunting and beautiful memoir from a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot's genocide in the 1970s but who finds hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother's kitchen. 

Take a well-fed nine-year-old with a big family and a fancy education. Fold in 2 revolutions, 2 civil wars, and one wholesale... Read more

The Golden Road

By: William Dalrymple

Narrated by: William Dalrymple

Length: 13 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Bloomsbury presents The Golden Road, written and read by William Dalrymple.

The internationally bestselling author of The Anarchy returns with a sparkling, soaring history of ideas, tracing South Asia’s under-recognized role in producing the world as we know it.

For a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse... Read more

It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful

By: Jack Lowery

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 14 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

The story of art collective Gran Fury—which fought back during the AIDS crisis through direct action and community-made propaganda—offers lessons in love and grief.

In the late 1980s, the AIDS pandemic was annihilating queer people, intravenous drug users, and communities of color in America, and disinformation about the disease ran rampant. Out... Read more

Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

By: Richard Hofstadter

Narrated by: Adam Verner

Length: 16 hours 32 minutes

Abridged: No

This book throws light on many features of the American character. Its concern is not merely to portray the scorners of intellect in American life, but to say something about what the intellectual is, and can be, as a force in a democratic society. Read more

How Jesus Became God

By: Bart D. Ehrman

Narrated by: Walter Dixon

Length: 10 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church.The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples believed during Jesus’s lifetime—and it is not what Jesus... Read more

The Great Crash 1929

By: John Kenneth Galbraith

Narrated by: Brian Troxell

Length: 6 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

Of Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financial collapse, the Atlantic Monthly said:""Economic writings are seldom notable for their entertainment value, but this book is. Galbraith's prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal of sardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation's oracles and the wondrous antics of the... Read more

Silent Spring Revolution

By: Douglas Brinkley

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

Length: 29 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.With the detonation of... Read more

The Man Nobody Killed

By: Elon Green

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Length: 7 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

The first comprehensive audiobook about Michael Stewart, the young Black artist and model who was the victim of a fatal assault by police in 1983, from Elon Green, the Edgar Award-winning author of Last Call.

This program, read by award-winning narrator Dion Graham, features a bonus conversation between the author and gallerist Patrick Fox, who... Read more

Fearless Speech

By: Mary Anne Franks

Narrated by: Soneela Nankani & Mary Anne Franks

Length: 8 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

A powerful debunking of First Amendment orthodoxy that critiques "reckless speech," which endangers vulnerable groups, and elevates "fearless speech," which seeks to advance equality and democracy.

Freedom of speech has never been more important—or more controversial. From debates about what's permissible on social media, to the politics of... Read more

Bad Mexicans

By: Kelly Lytle Hernández

Narrated by: Joana Garcia

Length: 13 hours 34 minutes

Abridged: No

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