History audiobooks

A Brief History of Equality

By: Thomas Piketty

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 8 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

The world’s leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding, a perfect introduction to the ideas developed in his monumental earlier books.It is easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased... Read more

History for Tomorrow

By: Roman Krznaric

Narrated by: Roman Krznaric

Length: 7 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: No

Brought to you by Penguin.

What can humankind’s rich history of radical revolts teach us about the power of disobedience to tackle the climate crisis? What inspiration could we take from eighteenth century Japan to create a regenerative economy today? How might understanding the origins of capitalism spark ideas for bringing AI under control?

In... Read more

Burning Boy

By: Paul Auster

Narrated by: Paul Auster

Length: 35 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

This program is read by the author.

Booker Prize-shortlisted and New York Times bestselling author Paul Auster's comprehensive, landmark biography of the great American writer Stephen Crane.

With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who... Read more

Hero of the Empire

By: Candice Millard

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 10 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

From New York Times bestselling author of Destiny of the Republic and The River of Doubt, a thrilling narrative of Winston Churchill's extraordinary and little-known exploits during the Boer War
 
At age twenty-four, Winston Churchill was utterly convinced it was his destiny to become prime minister of England one day, despite the fact he had... Read more

Waxing On

By: Ralph Macchio

Narrated by: Ralph Macchio

Length: 5 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

An instant New York Times Bestseller! 

Since The Karate Kid first crane-kicked its way into the pop culture stratosphere in June 1984, there hasn’t been a week Ralph Macchio hasn’t heard friendly shouts of “Wax on, wax off” or “Sweep the leg!” Now, with Macchio reprising his role as Daniel LaRusso in the #1 ranked Netflix show Cobra Kai, he is... Read more

Pseudoscience

By: Lydia Kang & Nate Pedersen

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

From the authors of Quackery, a visual and narrative history of popular ideas, phenomena, and widely held beliefs disproven by science. 

From the easily disproved to the wildly speculative, to  straight-up hucksterism, Pseudoscience is a romp through much more than bad science—it’s a light-hearted look into why we insist on believing in things... Read more

Paradise Falls

By: Keith O'Brien

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

Length: 13 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

From the New York Times best-selling journalist, the staggering, hidden story of an unlikely band of mothers who discovered the deadly secret of Love Canal, and exposed one of America’s most devastating environmental disasters.

Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an... Read more

The 9.9 Percent

By: Matthew Stewart

Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins

Length: 12 hours 6 minutes

Abridged: No

A “brilliant” (The Washington Post), “clear-eyed and incisive” (The New Republic) analysis of how the wealthiest group in American society is making life miserable for everyone—including themselves.

In 21st-century America, the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution have walked away with the big prizes even while the bottom 90% have lost ground.... Read more

If Walls Could Talk

By: Lucy Worsley

Narrated by: Anne Flosnik

Length: 9 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

Why did the flushing toilet take two centuries to catch on? Why did medieval people sleep sitting up? When were the two "dirty centuries?" Why did gas lighting cause Victorian ladies to faint? Why, for centuries, did rich people fear fruit?

In her brilliantly and creatively researched book, Lucy Worsley takes us through the bedroom, bathroom,... Read more

Sons and Soldiers

By: Bruce Henderson

Narrated by: Brett Barry

Length: 13 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Joining the ranks of Unbroken, Band of Brothers, and Boys in the Boat, the little-known saga of young German Jews, dubbed The Ritchie Boys, who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, came of age in America, and returned to Europe at enormous personal risk as members of the U.S. Army to play a key role in the Allied victory.In 1942, the U.S. Army... Read more

Rez Life

By: David Treuer

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 10 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

Celebrated novelist David Treuer has gained a reputation for writing fiction that expands the horizons of Native American literature. In Rez Life, his first full-length work of nonfiction, Treuer brings a novelist's storytelling skill and an eye for detail to a complex and subtle examination of Native American reservation life, past and... Read more

The River of Doubt

By: Candice Millard

Narrated by: Paul Michael

Length: 12 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.

The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the... Read more

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

By: Emma Southon

Narrated by: Sophie Ward

Length: 11 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

An entertaining and informative look at the unique culture of crime, punishment, and killing in ancient RomeIn ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in the theater, Claudius was poisoned at dinner, and Galba... Read more

Hell Put to Shame

By: Earl Swift

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 12 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

""Hell Put to Shame is a powerfully unsettling portrait of both the single most savage episode in the long decades of savagery inflicted by white southerners on their Black neighbors in the 20th century—and the methodical process that followed to erase those crimes from America’s collective memory."" —Douglas A. Blackmon, author of Slavery by... Read more

Blood and Thunder

By: Hampton Sides

Narrated by: Don Leslie

Length: 20 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of Ghost Soldiers comes an eye-opening history of the American conquest of the West—"a story full of authority and color, truth and prophecy" (The New York Times Book Review).

In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed... Read more

Realm of Ice and Sky

By: Buddy Levy

Narrated by: Will Damron

Length: 12 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

"Damron's subtle pacing manages the tension perfectly." —AudioFile on Empire of Ice and Stone

"Listen to this if you want to hear a narrator at the top of his game recount a fascinating—and at times disturbing—true story of adventure, disaster, discovery, cannibalism, and more. Will Damron makes Levy's fascinating account of the Greely (Polar)... Read more

Eden Undone

By: Abbott Kahler

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 9 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

An incredible true story of murder, romance, and a fateful search for utopia in the Galápagos—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Ghosts of Eden Park

“Abbott Kahler’s wickedly gothic tale confronts an essential truth about those who ditch civilization: Try as we might, humans cannot elude the tyranny of our own nature.”—Hampton... Read more

The Men Who Killed the News

By: Eric Beecher

Narrated by: Eric Beecher

Length: 13 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

Readings Best Books of 2024, Non-Fiction
Nominated for the 2025 Sperber Prize

Never before has the media played such an active part in our politics, with Elon Musk using X to affect world elections and direct US government policy. But as Crikey owner and ex-News Corp executive Eric Beecher shows, media moguls have a long history of abusing their... Read more

Irena's Children

By: Tilar J. Mazzeo

Narrated by: Amanda Carlin

Length: 10 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler—the “female Oskar Schindler”—who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.

In 1942, one young social worker, Irena Sendler, was granted access to... Read more

Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws

By: Adrienne Mayor

Narrated by: Adrienne Mayor & Nancy Crane

Length: 11 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

Adrienne Mayor and Nancy Crane narrate this treasury of astonishing mythic marvels Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realities and scientific insights—glimmering, long-buried nuggets of truth—embedded in myth, legends, and folklore.... Read more

Endangered Eating

By: Sarah Lohman

Narrated by: Sarah Lohman

Length: 11 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Apples, a common New England crop, have been called the United States' most endangered food. The iconic Texas Longhorn cattle is categorized at critical risk for extinction. Unique date palms, found nowhere else on the planet, grow in California’s Coachella Valley, but the family farms that caretake them are shutting down. Apples, cattle,... Read more

Over the Edge of the World - Abridged

By: Laurence Bergreen

Narrated by: Laurence Bergreen

Length: 6 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A majestic tale of discovery thatchanged many long-held views about the world In 1519 Magellan and his fleet of five ships set sail from Seville, Spain, to discover a water route to the fabled Spice Islands in Indonesia, where the most sought-after commodities -- cloves, pepper, and nutmeg -- flourished. Three years later, a handful of survivors... Read more

Every Valley

By: Charles King

Narrated by: Juliet Stevenson

Length: 10 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • From the bestselling historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist, the moving untold story of the eighteenth-century men and women behind the making of Handel’s Messiah.

"A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure."—Simon Sebag... Read more

Long Time Coming

By: Michael Eric Dyson

Narrated by: Michael Eric Dyson

Length: 4 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: No

"As a narrator, the reverence and tenderness Dyson communicates in his letters--addressed to victims of racist violence Elijah McClain, Emmett Till, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Hadiya Pendleton, Sandra Bland, and the Rev. Clementa Pinckney--invoke the experience of listening in on a holy epistle. Don't miss this." -- AudioFile Magazine

This... Read more