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THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT

THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood

by Nina Willner | Read by Mark Bramhall, Nina Willner

Penguin Audio | Unabridged
History

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

THE CLUB

THE CLUB Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris

by Jennifer Dasal | Read by Jennifer Dasal

Bloomsbury Publishing | Unabridged
History

The existence of the American Girls Club in Belle Epoque Paris (1871-1914) had been all but lost to history before author/narrator Jennifer Dasal unearthed details about it. This audiobook is pieced together from artists' autobiographies and American journalists' coverage of the expatriates. Bubbly, enthusiastic Dasal recounts the highs and lows of bohemian life in the famed... Read More

THE CONJURING OF AMERICA

THE CONJURING OF AMERICA Mojos, Mermaids, Medicine, and 400 Years of Black Women's Magic

by Lindsey Stewart | Read by Adenrele Ojo

Hachette Audio | Unabridged
History

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

DARK RENAISSANCE

DARK RENAISSANCE The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival

Earphones Award Winner

by Stephen Greenblatt | Read by Edoardo Ballerini

Recorded Books | Unabridged
History

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

THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY

THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb

Earphones Award Winner

by Garrett M. Graff | Read by Edoardo Ballerini and a Full Cast, Garrett M. Graff [Note]

Simon & Schuster Audio | Unabridged
History

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

FREEDOM SEASON

FREEDOM SEASON How 1963 Transformed America's Civil Rights Revolution

by Peniel E. Joseph | Read by Peniel E. Joseph

Hachette Audio | Unabridged
History

The year 1963 marked a pivotal turning point in U.S. history, and this audiobook captures its drama and significance in vivid detail. Author and narrator Peniel E. Joseph guides listeners through the era's defining moments and people, including Martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, and Malcolm X; the March on Washington and the assassinations of Medgar Evers and John F.... Read More

THE KILLING SEASON

THE KILLING SEASON The Autumn of 1914, Ypres, and the Afternoon That Cost Germany a War

by Robert Cowley | Read by Paul Boehmer

Random House Audio | Unabridged
History

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

KING OF KINGS

KING OF KINGS The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation

by Scott Anderson | Read by Malcolm Hillgartner, Scott Anderson

Random House Audio | Unabridged
History

Many listeners will remember Malcolm Hillgartner's fine narration of Scott Anderson's compelling, much-admired LAWRENCE IN ARABIA. Here again, Hillgartner's frank, unbiased tone is a fitting complement to Anderson's scrupulous reporting of a history heavily encrusted with bias, controversy, and lingering grievances. America's long support of Iran's repressive Shah, its... Read More

LINCOLN'S PEACE

LINCOLN'S PEACE The Struggle to End the American Civil War

by Michael Vorenberg | Read by Landon Woodson

Random House Audio | Unabridged
History

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

MATISSE AT WAR

MATISSE AT WAR

by Christopher C. Gorham | Read by Paul Woodson

Tantor Media | Unabridged
History

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

MEDICINE RIVER

MEDICINE RIVER A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools

by Mary Annette Pember | Read by Erin Tripp

Random House Audio | Unabridged
History

Tlingit narrator Erin Tripp brings an authentic voice to Mary Annette Pember's investigation of the legacy of Indian boarding schools in the U.S. and Canada. Pember's mother, Bernice, attended a government-run and Catholic-operated school in Wisconsin in the 1930s, where she was starved, abused, and worked to the bone while being unable to practice her Ojibwe customs or speak... Read More

MONOPOLY X

MONOPOLY X How Top-Secret World War II Operations Used the Game of Monopoly to Help Allied POWs Escape, Conceal Spies, and Send Secret Codes

by Phillip E. Orbanes | Read by Corey Snow

Harper Audio | Unabridged
History

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

NAGASAKI

NAGASAKI The Last Witnesses (Embers, Book 2)

Earphones Award Winner

by M.G. Sheftall | Read by Brian Nishii

Penguin Audio | Unabridged
History

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

PARALLEL LIVES

PARALLEL LIVES A Love Story from a Lost Continent

Earphones Award Winner

by Iain Pears | Read by Richard Attlee

Recorded Books | Unabridged
History

Actor Richard Attlee has the rare ability among audiobook narrators of extracting full value from each word and syllable while seeming to do nothing at all. What in a lesser narrative might have seemed affected here achieves a singular ease and naturalism. Art historian Pears's richly detailed, expertly written "Love Story from a Lost Continent" comes from firsthand... Read More

REMEMBER US

REMEMBER US American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II

by Robert M. Edsel, Bret Witter | Read by Dion Graham, Robert M. Edsel

HarperCollins Focus | Unabridged
History

This account of the occupation of a portion of the Netherlands during WWII--and how the Dutch commemorate those who resisted and those who liberated them--is given a splendid narration by Golden Voice Dion Graham. Edsel, who also wrote THE MONUMENTS MEN, looks at the lives of 12 individuals who all were connected with the events of 1940-45 in this small corner of Europe. It... Read More

ROPE

ROPE How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization

by Tim Queeney | Read by Timothy Andrés Pabon

Tantor Media | Unabridged
History

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

SHIFTING SANDS

SHIFTING SANDS A Human History of the Sahara

by Judith Scheele | Read by Lucy Paterson

Hachette Audio | Unabridged
History

Lucy Paterson's confident narration lends authority to anthropologist Judith Scheele's wide-ranging exploration of the Sahara Desert. Scheele's mission is to complicate Western notions of the region by introducing listeners to its cultural, environmental, historical, economic, and ethnic complexity. Spanning the width of North Africa, the region's languages include both... Read More

THE SISTERHOOD OF RAVENSBRUCK

THE SISTERHOOD OF RAVENSBRUCK How an Intrepid Band of Frenchwomen Resisted the Nazis in Hitler's All-Female Concentration Camp

Earphones Award Winner

by Lynne Olson | Read by Lisa Flanagan

Random House Audio | Unabridged
History

This audiobook recounts the extraordinary true story of a small group of women imprisoned in Ravensbrück, the Nazis' only all-female concentration camp during WWII. The powerful account traces their harrowing ordeal with relentless brutality, including starvation, forced labor, inhumane medical experiments, and extreme overcrowding. Narrator Lisa Flanagan delivers a performance... Read More

UNHOLY SENSATIONS

UNHOLY SENSATIONS A Story of Sex, Scandal, and California's First Cult Scare

by Joshua Paddison | Read by Mitch Crawford

Dreamscape | Unabridged
History

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

WE THE PEOPLE

WE THE PEOPLE A History of the U.S. Constitution

Earphones Award Winner

by Jill Lepore | Read by Jill Lepore

Recorded Books | Unabridged
History

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

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