New Reviews: History

Sorkin's thoroughly researched depictions of the personalities and market gyrations that led up to the stock market crash of 1929 give the listener insights into the economic greed and foolishness of the 1920s. A NEW YORK TIMES writer and television personality, Sorkin narrates as a practiced professional. While the audiobook may be considered a parable for today's "market... Read More

Listeners will need patience and some prior interest in the murderous history of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to fully appreciate this audiobook. While author Philippe Sands is an effective narrator, his range is narrow, and his voice somewhat abrasive. The audiobook is enriched by impressive research and full diligence in interviewing those who labored to bring Pinochet... Read More

Stefanie Powers delivers an exquisite, often thrilling, performance of this deeply researched and unvarnished history of Amelia Earhart. Listeners may be familiar with the basic outlines of Earhart's accomplishments as a pilot. This new audiobook provides a detailed picture of how Earhart, a social worker in the 1920s, became a skilled aviator. George Putnam, well known for... Read More

Never underestimate the value of a pleasing voice, especially when the subject is history--in particular, a topic as obtuse as the English Civil War. Mark Meadows's light British accent is an enhancement and a defining feature of this well-told narrative, a sequel of sorts to Oxford scholar Jonathan Healey's THE BLAZING WORLD. That narrative surveyed the entire revolutionary... Read More

Mark Bramhall gives an excellent performance of this WWII story. Nina Willner weaves the lives of her father, Eddie Willner, and his Jewish family in Germany with the lives of several American GIs who saved his life at the end of the war. Her father and another companion were found by members of the 32nd Armored Regiment just before V-E Day. The two Germans assisted the GIs in... Read More

Adenrele Ojo narrates this important history of Black women whose magic and spirituality permeates the roots of American culture. Blue jeans, pancake mix, and even Vicks VapoRub all have their origins in these "conjure women," but a culture of misogyny and racism capitalized on them, at the same time ignoring their sacred elements. From the lore of the goddess Oshun through... Read More

Many listeners will recall Edoardo Ballerini's lucid narration of Stephen Greenblatt's 2013 audiobook, THE SWERVE. It was an inspired match between one of today's finest Renaissance scholars and one of the very finest audiobook narrators. Author and narrator match again in this insightful biography of Shakespeare's predecessor and early model, playwright Christopher Marlowe. In... Read More

This oral history of the Manhattan Project and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is dramatically made aural, thanks to the talents of some 30 narrators, plus the author. Like its predecessor, WHEN THE SEA CAME ALIVE, this audiobook features snippets of first-person accounts of those who lived the history. Artfully arranged into a cohesive whole, they vocalize the... Read More

The great auk, a large flightless seabird related to guillemots and razorbills, has been extinct since 1844, wholly at the hands of people. John Sackville's crisp English accent and conversational pacing draw the listener into ornithologist Tim Birkhead's wide-ranging investigation into the life and afterlife of the great auk. Sackville is a charming and precise guide as we... Read More

This account of how the Founders dealt with the issues of slavery and the treatment of America's Indigenous populations is solidly narrated by Golden Voice Kimberly Farr. Ellis, a prominent historian, goes into detail about the contradictions inherent in America's founding relating to those two issues. He also notes that the Founders were people and that irony and contradiction... Read More

This dramatic audiobook chronicles the first months that followed the opening month of WWI, a history memorably depicted in Barbara Tuchman's THE GUNS OF AUGUST. This narrative describes the struggle that then unfolded in Flanders. Narrator Paul Boehmer has the range and stamina needed for so vast and bloody a tale. One hero emerges, King Albert of Belgium. Albert's valiant... Read More

This history examines the question of when the American Civil War ended and what its legacy was--or is. Landon Woodson gives it a stalwart narration. Like many historical events, the date of the end of the Civil War depends on who is viewing it. Even the Supreme Court weighed in on this issue in a ruling (Anderson v. United States, 1869.) Like most other conflicts, the Civil... Read More

Narrator Paul Woodson's resonant voice, measured pacing, and subtle expression transport the listener to WWII Occupied France through the lens of the artist Henri Matisse (1869-1954). Matisse, aging and in poor health, defiantly stayed in France and considered his groundbreaking new art form an act of resistance. Confined to his bed, he created the famous paper cutouts in bold... Read More

Corey Snow's baritone is splendid for narrating this account of how the Monopoly board game was used to enable Allied POWs to escape German captivity during WWII. During the war, British and American intelligence services were able to conceal tools, money, and maps in special editions of Monopoly that were given to their POWs by various charities. These tools enabled a number... Read More

Brian Nishii reprises his narration of HIROSHIMA, the first of a two-volume series that recounts the atomic bombings of Japan in August 1945. Author Sheftall draws on extensive interviews with those who survived, providing detail on the day-to-day lives of the Japanese and a history of Japanese relations with the West. He also provides details on the Americans involved--giving... Read More

As an audiobook author, historian Matthew Restall is spirited, witty, highly informed, and full of insights and revelations. As a narrator, he's more subdued, even a bit flat. But no matter. Restall's steady, evenhanded narration reenforces the balance and objectivity of his history of the "nine lives of Christopher Columbus." Over five centuries, Columbus has been hailed and... Read More

It's not altogether certain, as this audiobook claims, that rope is the backbone of civilization. But it has as good a claim as the wheel, whose history has been forever linked with it. From the pyramids to the hangman's noose, rope has been an essential component of mankind's advance. Its many applications--or "strands," as they're called here--lead into a future in which... Read More

Mitch Crawford narrates this nonfiction account of the Fountain Grove utopian community in California in the late 1800s. Run by minister, spiritualist, and poet Thomas Lake Harris, the community went through a large public scandal involving gender, race, and sexual mores. As a result, it was dubbed the first "cult"--and Harris the first "cult leader." Crawford narrates with a... Read More

The U.S. Constitution is under threat, but it has a self-contained aspect that can right the ship of state if only we will let it: the amendment process. Harvard historian Jill Lepore contends the country's guiding document was not born fully developed and shouldn't be treated as a static entity. Rather, it was designed to allow for adaptation to changing times. Lepore is also... Read More

This graphic audiobook is not for the tenderhearted. Dion Graham narrates the account of one of the most horrific incidents to occur during the Atlantic slave trade. The ZORG was a Dutch ship that was captured by British privateers off the coast of West Africa and then sent to Jamaica in 1781. As contagious illness, including smallpox, swept through the crew and the 244... Read More