Social Science audiobooks

The New Elite - Abridged

By: Jim Taylor, Doug Harrison & Stephen Kraus

Narrated by: Jim Bond

Length: 7 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: Yes

We are all fascinated by them - that enigmatic class of people often referred to as the rich. With all the emphasis on the rich and famous in America, we would think we know everything about them. In reality, very few of us truly understand those who make up the very wealthiest Americans - those with liquid assets of $5 million or more. What is... Read more

Women & Self-Esteem - Abridged

By: Linda Tschirhart Sanford & Mary Ellen Donovan

Narrated by: Linda Tschirhart Sanford

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

For any woman who knows the pain of low self-esteem, who feels inadequate or worthless, who hates her looks, who secretly believes she doesn't deserve success or happiness—this audio offers invaluable support and guidance.

Drawing on extensive research, the authors explain how women's self-attitudes are shaped by family relationships, schools,... Read more

The Courage to Raise Good Men - Abridged

By: Olga Silverstein & Beth Rashbaum

Narrated by: Olga Silverstein

Length: 2 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

"Challenging and readable...will help mothers understand the implications of pushing boys out of the family before they're ready to go."—The Los Angeles Times Book Review. Read more

Maggie's American Dream - Abridged

By: James P. Comer

Narrated by: Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis

Length: 2 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: Yes

The true story of Maggie Comer, an illiterate Southern Black woman who moves North to escape poverty and sexual and physical abuse. Unable to get the educuation she desperately desires, Maggie vows that her children will be educated. Working as a domestic, she raises five children who end up earning a total of thirteen college degrees between... Read more

The Numerati

By: Stephen Baker

Narrated by: Richard Powers

Length: 7 hours 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Every day, we produce loads of data about ourselves simply by living in the modern world: we click web pages, flip channels, drive through automatic toll booths, shop with credit cards, and make cell phone calls. Now, in one of the greatest undertakings of the twenty-first century, a savvy group of mathematicians and computer scientists is... Read more

Archaeology and the Iliad

By: Eric Cline

Narrated by: Eric Cline

Length: 7 hours 33 minutes

Abridged: No

The Trojan War, captured forever in Homer's epic poem the Iliad, resonates to the present day in the popular imagination, and this magnificent confrontation continues to exert a tremendous influence on modern audiences. But did Troy actually exist? And if so, where is it located? Was the Trojan War actually fought? If it was, did it take place... Read more

The Road to Wigan Pier

By: George Orwell

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 7 hours 43 minutes

Abridged: No

When Orwell went to the north of England in the thirties to find out how industrial workers lived, he not only observed but shared in their experience. He stayed in cramped, dreary lodgings and subsisted on the scant, cheerless diet of the poor. He went down into the coal mines and walked crouching, as the miners did, through a one- to... Read more

Everyday Survival

By: Laurence Gonzales

Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins

Length: 9 hours 19 minutes

Abridged: No

Laurence Gonzales turns his talent for gripping narrative, knowledge of the way our minds and bodies work, and bottomless curiosity about the world to the topic of how we can best use the lessons of our evolutionary history to overcome the hazards of everyday life. He finds that natural laws profoundly affect our actions, and he reveals the... Read more

Bob Schieffer's America

By: Bob Schieffer

Narrated by: Bob Schieffer

Length: 6 hours 22 minutes

Abridged: No

Unbridged CDs * 6 CDs, 7 hours

Wise, rueful, candid, graceful commentaries from one of journalism’s most stylish and respected writers. Read more

Ladies of the Night

By: Gene Simmons

Narrated by: Gene Simmons

Length: 3 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Rock legend, best-selling author, reality television star, accomplished entrepreneur, and renowned ladies' man Gene Simmons presents an entirely original take on a traditionally taboo topic—prostitution. In this informative and entertaining mix of narrative history and Simmons' own unique philosophy, the Kiss frontman delves deep into the legacy... Read more

Crowdsourcing

By: Jeff Howe

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne

Length: 9 hours 44 minutes

Abridged: No

“The amount of knowledge and talent dispersed among the human race has always outstripped our capacity to harness it. Crowdsourcing ­corrects that—but in doing so, it also unleashes the forces of creative destruction.”
—From Crowdsourcing

First identified by journalist Jeff Howe in a June 2006 Wired article, “crowdsourcing” describes the process... Read more

Ceremony

By: Leslie Marmon Silko

Narrated by: Pete Bradbury

Length: 9 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

Leslie Marmon Silko's sublime Ceremony is almost universally considered one of the finest novels ever written by an American Indian. It is the poetic, dreamlike tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Laguna Pueblo and veteran of World War II. Tormented by shell shock and haunted by memories of his cousin who died in the war, Tayo struggles on his... Read more

Exploring The Mythic Frankenstein

By: Molly Dwyer

Narrated by: Justine Willis Toms

Length: 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Molly Dwyer is on a first-name basis with the likes of Goethe, Byron, Aesop, and especially Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein. She takes us inside the minds of these literary icons to explore the seeds of creativity and imagination, and the way story both defines and fashions who we are. Read more

Traffic

By: Tom Vanderbilt

Narrated by: Marc Cashman

Length: 13 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Would you be surprised that road rage can be good for society? That most crashes happen on sunny, dry days? Or that you can gauge a nation’s driving behavior by its levels of corruption? These are only a few of the remarkable dynamics that Tom Vanderbilt explores in this fascinating tour through the mysteries of the road.

Based on exhaustive... Read more

Traffic - Abridged

By: Tom Vanderbilt

Narrated by: David Slavin

Length: 5 hours 46 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Driving is a fact of life. We are all spending more and more time on the road, and traffic is an issue we face everyday. This audiobook will make you think about it in a whole new light.

We have always had a passion for cars and driving. Now Traffic offers us an exceptionally rich understanding of that passion. Vanderbilt explains why traffic... Read more

Reporting America at War

By: Michelle Ferrari & James Tobin

Narrated by: various narrators

Length: 7 hours 39 minutes

Abridged: No

Now, for the first time, the nation's most respected reporters share their stories as the eyes and ears of the nation to create a fascinating oral history. Some of the most influential journalists of our time, including Christiane Amanpour, Walter Cronkite, Morley Safer, Peter Arnett and Andy Rooney convey the facts, the brutality and the drama... Read more

Two Lives, One Russia

By: Nicholas Daniloff

Narrated by: Tom Casaletto

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

Nicholas Daniloff's arrest by the KGB in the fall of 1986 made headlines around the world, but the roots of that story ran deeper than anyone knew. Daniloff's imprisonment was in fact an echo of his family's past, for his great-great grandfather, Alexander Frolov, was also a prisoner of the Russian state. In this rich and absorbing book,... Read more

I Never Had It Made - Abridged

By: Jackie Robinson

Narrated by: Ossie Davis

Length: 2 hours 59 minutes

Abridged: Yes

A straightforward yet inspiring story of what it took to be the first man of color to break into the white world of professional sports. Jackie Robinson's story is more than a telling of his tremendous talent; it is also a recollection that showcases his tenacious spirit, bravery and the courage of his ideals. From the early influences of family... Read more

No Man's Land

By: Ruth Fowler

Narrated by: Ruth Fowler

Length: 8 hours 50 minutes

Abridged: No

Unabridged CDs * 7 CDs, 8 hours

The gripping, gritty story of a young woman’s plunge into the underbelly of Manhattan’s strip clubs—and how she got back out. Read more

The Drunkard's Walk

By: Leonard Mlodinow

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 9 hours 21 minutes

Abridged: No

In this irreverent and illuminating audiobook, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, chance, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives, and how we misunderstand the significance of everything from a casual conversation to a major financial setback. As a result, successes and failures in... Read more

Lost in the City

By: Edward P. Jones

Narrated by: Patricia R. Floyd, Peter Jay Fernandez, Cherise...

Length: 10 hours 31 minutes

Abridged: No

Edward P. Jones is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the critically acclaimed novel The Known World. A finalist for the National Book Award, Lost in the City features 15 poignant short stories, each set in Washington, D.C. Far removed from marble monuments and the offices of rich politicians, the nation's capital that Jones captures is... Read more

Me of Little Faith

By: Lewis Black

Narrated by: Lewis Black

Length: 5 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Abridged CDs * 5 CDs, 6 hours

From the hilariously mad-as-hell Daily Show regular and New York Times– bestselling author comes a ferociously funny exploration of religion and faith. Read more

Panic in Level 4

By: Richard Preston

Narrated by: James Lurie

Length: 7 hours 48 minutes

Abridged: No

Bizarre illnesses and plagues that kill people in the most unspeakable ways. Obsessive and inspired efforts by scientists to solve mysteries and save lives. From The Hot Zone to The Demon in the Freezer and beyond, Richard Preston’s bestselling works have mesmerized readers everywhere by showing them strange worlds of nature they never... Read more

The Prince of Frogtown

By: Rick Bragg

Narrated by: Rick Bragg

Length: 7 hours 57 minutes

Abridged: No

In this final volume of the beloved American saga that began with All Over but the Shoutin’ and continued with Ava’s Man, Rick Bragg closes his circle of family stories with an unforgettable tale about fathers and sons inspired by his own relationship with his ten-year-old stepson.

He learns, right from the start, that a man who chases a woman... Read more