History audiobooks

Black on Both Sides

By: C. Riley Snorton

Narrated by: C. Riley Snorton

Length: 8 hours 51 minutes

Abridged: No

The story of Christine Jorgensen, America's first prominent transsexual, narrated trans embodiment in the postwar era. Her celebrity, however, has obscured other mid-century trans narratives. Their erasure from trans history masks the ways race has figured prominently in the construction and representation of transgender subjects. In Black on... Read more

The House of Hidden Meanings

By: RuPaul

Narrated by: RuPaul

Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

***An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!***From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date--a deeply intimate memoir of discovery, found family, and self-acceptance. The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing... Read more

In the Heart of the Sea

By: Nathaniel Philbrick

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hours 12 minutes

Abridged: No

From the author of In the Hurricane's Eye and Valiant Ambition, the riveting and critically acclaimed bestseller and a major motion picture starring Chris Hemsworth, directed by Ron Howard.

Chris Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Ben Whishaw, and Brendan Gleeson star in a film based on this National Book Award–winning account of the true events behind... Read more

The Library Book

By: Susan Orlean

Narrated by: Susan Orlean

Length: 12 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

A REESE WITHERSPOON x HELLO SUNSHINE BOOK CLUB PICK

A WASHINGTON POST TOP 10 BOOK OF THE YEAR * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER and NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018

“A constant pleasure to read…Everybody who loves books should check out The Library Book.” —The Washington Post

“CAPTIVATING…DELIGHTFUL.” —Christian Science Monitor * “EXQUISITELY... Read more

The Boys in the Boat

By: Daniel James Brown

Narrated by: Edward Herrmann

Length: 14 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

The #1 New York Times–bestselling story about American Olympic triumph in Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the PBS documentary The Boys of '36, broadcast to coincide with the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 80th anniversary of the boys' gold medal race.

For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about... Read more

Four Hundred Souls

By: Ibram X. Kendi & Keisha N. Blain

Narrated by: Various

Length: 14 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.

The story begins in 1619—a year before the Mayflower—when the White Lion... Read more

A Place of Our Own

By: June Thomas

Narrated by: June Thomas

Length: 6 hours 52 minutes

Abridged: No

A deeply researched and highly readable cultural history of queer women’s lives in the second half of the twentieth century, told through six iconic spaces. For as long as queer women have existed, they’ve created gathering grounds where they can be themselves. From the intimate darkness of the lesbian bar to the sweaty camaraderie of the... Read more

The Anatomy of Fascism

By: Robert O. Paxton

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 11 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

What is fascism? By focusing on the concrete: what the fascists did rather than what they said, the esteemed historian Robert O. Paxton answers this question for the first time. From the first violent uniformed bands beating up “enemies of the state,” through Mussolini’s rise to power, to Germany’s fascist radicalization in World War II, Paxton... Read more

The Cruelty Is the Point

By: Adam Serwer

Narrated by: Adam Serwer

Length: 7 hours 35 minutes

Abridged: No

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From an award-winning journalist at The Atlantic, these searing essays make a powerful case that “real hope lies not in a sunny nostalgia for American greatness but in seeing this history plain—in all of its brutality, unadorned by euphemism” (The New York Times).

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • “No... 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

Code Name: Pale Horse

By: Scott Payne

Narrated by: Scott Payne

Length: 6 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

The thrilling true story of one man who risked his life to infiltrate the most dangerous neo-Nazi group in the United States, an “urgent and exciting look into the life of an FBI undercover agent” (Joe Pistone) by “one of the top undercover agents in the Bureau” (Joaquin “Jack” Garcia).

When Scott Payne was growing up, an ‘80s kid with a big... Read more

The Gene

By: Siddhartha Mukherjee

Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris

Length: 19 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

2017 Audie Award Finalist for Non-Fiction

The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller
The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what... Read more

Raw Dog

By: Jamie Loftus

Narrated by: Jamie Loftus

Length: 9 hours 38 minutes

Abridged: No

One of BookPage's Best Audiobooks of 2023

"Loftus is a charming narrator...goofy, engaging, and always game to do a silly voice." —The New York Times

"There’s something terribly irresistible about her narration, which is often incredibly funny." —BookPage

Part travelogue, part culinary history, all capitalist critique—comedian Jamie Loftus's debut,... Read more

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days

By: Rebecca Donner

Narrated by: Rebecca Donner

Length: 13 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

The INSTANT New York Times Bestseller

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award 
Winner of the Chautauqua Prize
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award
Finalist for the Plutarch Award
A New York Times Notable Book of 2021
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
A New... Read more

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

By: John Berendt

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman, Will Damron & John Berendt

Length: 15 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An enormously engaging portrait of a most beguiling Southern city: “Elegant and wicked.... [This] might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime." —The New York Times Book Review

Shots rang out in Savannah's grandest mansion in 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

A History of the Arab Peoples

By: Albert Hourani

Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon

Length: 21 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

Despite the turmoil of Arab nationalism and fundamentalism, Middle Eastern wars, and oil crises, the history of the Arab world has been little known and poorly understood in the West. One reason may be that, for more than half a century, there has been no up-to-date single-volume work that chronicles the story of Arab civilization—until... Read more

Let Only Red Flowers Bloom

By: Emily Feng

Narrated by: Emily Feng

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

A “gripping and scrupulously reported” (The Washington Post) investigation into the battle over identity in China, chronicling the state oppression of those who fail to conform to Xi Jinping’s definition of who is “Chinese,” from an award-winning NPR correspondent.

“Emily Feng’s focus on ordinary people—bravely determined to shape their own... Read more

A True History of the United States

By: Daniel A. Sjursen

Narrated by: Daniel A. Sjursen

Length: 24 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

“Thought-provoking—a must read for [everyone] seeking a firm grasp of accurate American history."  —Kirkus (starred review)

Brilliant, readable, and raw. Maj. (ret.) Danny Sjursen, who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and later taught history at West Point, delivers a true epic and the perfect companion to Howard Zinn’s A People’s... Read more

Sometimes You Have to Lie

By: Leslie Brody

Length: 10 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

In this inspiring biography, discover the true story of Harriet the Spy author Louise Fitzhugh -- and learn about the woman behind one of literature's most beloved heroines. Harriet the Spy, first published in 1964, has mesmerized generations of readers and launched a million diarists. Its beloved antiheroine, Harriet, is erratic, unsentimental,... Read more

Mobituaries

By: Mo Rocca

Narrated by: Mo Rocca

Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

Abridged: No

From beloved CBS Sunday Morning correspondent and humorist Mo Rocca, a rigorously researched, “funny and smart” (Jon Stewart) book that celebrates the dead people who have long fascinated him.

Mo Rocca has always loved obituaries—reading about the remarkable lives of global leaders, Hollywood heavyweights, and innovators who changed the world.... Read more

The Cycle

By: Shalene Gupta

Narrated by: Shalene Gupta

Length: 6 hours 2 minutes

Abridged: No

A groundbreaking exploration of a debilitating disorder that’s underdiagnosed and misunderstood.

Most days, Shalene Gupta was the person she’d always aspired to be. She was hardworking, excelled at work, and had a long-term boyfriend who she desperately loved.

Then, every month like clockwork, it all came crashing down in fits of rage and... Read more

The Scottish Clearances

By: T.M. Devine

Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart

Length: 13 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: No

Eighteenth-century Scotland is famed for generating many of the enlightened ideas which helped to shape the modern world. But there was in the same period another side to the history of the nation. Many of Scotland's people were subjected to coercive and sometimes violent change, as traditional ways of life were overturned by the "rational"... Read more

Oath and Honor

By: Liz Cheney

Narrated by: Liz Cheney

Length: 12 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Read by Liz Cheney with 50+ audio source material clips included, Oath and Honor is a gripping first-hand account from inside the halls of Congress as Donald Trump and his enablers betrayed the American people and the Constitution--leading to the violent attack on our Capitol on January 6th, 2021—by the House Republican leader who dared to stand... Read more