History audiobooks

Ghosts of Gold Mountain

By: Gordon H. Chang

Narrated by: David Shih

Length: 9 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking, breathtaking history of the Chinese workers who built the Transcontinental Railroad, helping to forge modern America only to disappear into the shadows of history until now.



From across the sea, they came by the thousands, escaping war and poverty in southern China to seek their fortunes in America. Converging on the enormous... 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

His Truth Is Marching On

By: Jon Meacham

Narrated by: JD Jackson & Jon Meacham

Length: 10 hours

Abridged: No

An intimate and revealing portrait of civil rights icon and longtime U.S. congressman John Lewis, linking his life to the painful quest for justice in America from the 1950s to the present—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America 
 
John Lewis, who at age twenty-five marched in Selma, Alabama, and was beaten on the Edmund... Read more

The Lincoln Conspiracy

By: Brad Meltzer & Josh Mensch

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

"Everyone knows that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, but how many know that there was a previous, unsuccessful attempt on his life? Let narrator Scott Brick tell you all about it...Brick can make a nursery rhyme sound exciting, and he's on fire in this audiobook." -- AudioFile Magazine

The bestselling authors of The First Conspiracy, which... Read more

The Crazies

By: Amy Gamerman

Narrated by: Anna Sale

Length: 17 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: No

A dazzling piece of narrative nonfiction about land lust and the American West, The Crazies tells the story of a wind farm that triggers a 21st century range war between a struggling fifth-generation rancher and the billionaires next door.

Most locals in Big Timber, Montana learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. Like... Read more

Amazing Grace

By: Bruce Hindmarsh & Craig Borlase

Narrated by: Alan Irving, Bruce Hindmarsh & Craig Borlase

Length: 8 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

Amazing Grace is the surprising true story of John Newton, author of the song that has touched millions. A biography that reads like a novel, it reveals Newton’s dramatic story of sin and salvation as a slave trader before his ultimate transformation to speaking out against the horror of slavery. His story speaks to the brokenness within us all... Read more

Sunny Days

By: David Kamp

Narrated by: David Sadzin

Length: 8 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

One of the “Best Books” of the year from The Smithsonian, The Washington Independent Review, and more!

From bestselling writer David Kamp, the “fun, fascinating, and surprisingly touching,” (People) behind-the-scenes story of the cultural heroes who created the beloved children’s TV programs Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Mister Rogers’... Read more

The Oregon Trail

By: Rinker Buck

Narrated by: Rinker Buck

Length: 16 hours 41 minutes

Abridged: No

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Winner of the PEN New England Award

“Enchanting…A book filled with so much love…Long before Oregon, Rinker Buck has convinced us that the best way to see America is from the seat of a covered wagon.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Amazing…A real nonfiction thriller.” —Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books

... Read more

The Fire Is upon Us

By: Nicholas Buccola

Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi

Length: 14 hours 42 minutes

Abridged: No

"A great read."—Whoopi Goldberg, The View Prentice Onayemi narrates the story of how the clash between the civil rights firebrand and the father of modern conservatism continues to illuminate America's racial divide This audiobook includes as a bonus feature the original audio recording of the Cambridge Union debate On February 18, 1965, an... Read more

On the Horizon

By: Lois Lowry

Narrated by: Lois Lowry

Length: 38 minutes

Abridged: No

From two-time Newbery medalist and living legend Lois Lowry comes a moving account of the lives lost in two of WWII’s most infamous events: Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima

Lois Lowry looks back at history through a personal lens as she draws from her own memories as a child in Hawaii and Japan, as well as from historical research, in this stunning... 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

The Poison Squad

By: Deborah Blum

Narrated by: Kirsten Potter

Length: 11 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

A New York Times Notable Book 

The inspiration for PBS's AMERICAN EXPERIENCE film The Poison Squad.

From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times-bestselling author Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change

By the end... Read more

Covered with Night

By: Nicole Eustace

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

Length: 14 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two white fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. Though virtually forgotten today, this act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and... Read more

The Palace Papers

By: Tina Brown

Narrated by: Tina Brown

Length: 18 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The “addictively readable” (The Washington Post) inside story of the British royal family’s battle to overcome the dramas of the Diana years—only to confront new, twenty-first-century crises
 
“Frothy and forthright, a kind of Keeping Up with the Windsors with sprinkles of Keats.”—The New York Times (Notable Book of... Read more

Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States

By: J. Albert Mann

Narrated by: Sandy Rustin

Length: 9 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

For readers of Stamped and An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People, Albert J. Mann’s Shift Happens: The History of Labor in the United States is an accessible and comprehensive YA history of the way the labor movement has shaped America and how it intersects with many of the major issues facing modern teens.“Mann... Read more

A Brief History of Earth

By: Andrew H. Knoll

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 4 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard’s acclaimed geologist.“A sublime chronicle of our planet."" –Booklist, STARRED reviewOdds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked... Read more

Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me

By: Steven Hyden

Narrated by: Ben Sullivan

Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Steven Hyden explores nineteen music rivalries and what they say about life in this "highly entertaining" book (Rolling Stone) perfect for every passionate music fan.

Beatles vs. Stones. Biggie vs. Tupac. Kanye vs. Taylor. Who do you choose? And what does that say about you? Actually -- what do these endlessly argued-about pop music rivalries... Read more

Patrick Melrose

By: Edward St. Aubyn

Narrated by: Alex Jennings

Length: 26 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: No

COLLECTED INTO ONE VOLUME FOR THE FIRST TIME, ALL FIVE INSTALLMENTS OF EDWARD ST. AUBYN'S CELEBRATED PATRICK MELROSE NOVELS

Now a 5-Part Limited Event Series on Showtime, Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Blythe Danner.

Edward St. Aubyn has penned one of the most acclaimed series of the decade with the Patrick Melrose Novels. Now you can read all... Read more

Writing to Save a Life

By: John Edgar Wideman

Narrated by: Roger Guenveur Smith

Length: 7 hours 28 minutes

Abridged: No

A major literary figure tells “a searching tale of loss, recovery, and déja vu that is part memoir and what-if speculation, part polemic and exposé” (The Washington Post) about two generations of one family—civil rights martyr Emmett Till and his father, Louis—shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Emmett Till took a train from... Read more

One Hundred Saturdays

By: Michael Frank

Narrated by: Michael Frank

Length: 8 hours 27 minutes

Abridged: No

A 2022 Audible Editor's Selection

One of Wall Street Journal’s Ten Best Books of the Year * Winner of the National Jewish Book Awards for Holocaust Memoir and Sephardic Culture * Recipient of the Jewish Book Council’s Natan Notable Book Award * Winner of the Sophie Brody Medal

The remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi whose... Read more

The Caped Crusade

By: Glen Weldon

Narrated by: Glen Weldon

Length: 9 hours 25 minutes

Abridged: No

“A roaring getaway car of guilty pleasures” (The New York Times Book Review), Glen Weldon’s The Caped Crusade is a fascinating, critically acclaimed chronicle of the rises and falls of one of the world’s most iconic superheroes and the fans who love him—now with a new afterword.

Since his debut in Detective Comics #27, Batman has been many... Read more

Citizen Reporters

By: Stephanie Gorton

Narrated by: Maggi-Meg Reed

Length: 11 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating history of the rise and fall of influential Gilded Age magazine McClure’s and the two unlikely outsiders at its helm—as well as a timely, full-throated defense of investigative journalism in America.The president of the United States made headlines around the world when he publicly attacked the press, denouncing reporters who... Read more

D-Day Girls

By: Sarah Rose

Narrated by: Sarah Rose

Length: 10 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The dramatic, untold history of the heroic women recruited by Britain’s elite spy agency to help pave the way for Allied victory in World War II

“Gripping. Spies, romance, Gestapo thugs, blown-up trains, courage, and treachery (lots of treachery)—and all of it true.”—Erik Larson, author of The Devil in the White... Read more

The Road to Unfreedom

By: Timothy Snyder

Narrated by: Timothy Snyder

Length: 10 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

With the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy was thought to be absolute. Observers declared the end of history, confident in a peaceful, globalized future. But we now know this to be premature. Authoritarianism first returned in Russia, as Putin developed a political system dedicated solely to the consolidation and exercise of... Read more