New Reviews: History

History lovers, rejoice! This audiobook is for you. As it surveys the major and sometimes minor revolutions of the past 500 or so years, Fareed Zakaria takes the listener through their causes and effects. Many of these upheavals, he says, changed the world in ways both obvious and surprising. It may take the listener a bit of time to get used to Zakaria's Indian accent, but... Read More

Robert Petkoff holds a steady course through an audiobook that links the legend of Alexander the Great to archaeological evidence and an array of histories, classic and modern. Alexander is arguably the most celebrated, most storied, most enigmatic figure in ancient history. Most historians focus on the Macedonian general's early conquest of the Persian Empire, slighting his... Read More

The stentorian voice of Leon Nixon adds gravitas and depth to a sweeping historical study of the Blood family. This noteworthy family embraced the wildness of the American continent, westward expansion, and the mythos of the American Dream as they explored, settled, and developed their claims from the seventeenth century through the beginning of the twentieth. Nixon's rich... Read More

Narrator Mack Sanderson balances several storylines in this jaw-dropping history of the race to identify native birds in early 1800s America. Patiently mounting the evidence, Kaufman recounts, or rather dismantles, the career of John James Audubon, who it seems stole, fudged, misidentified, and miscategorized many of his discoveries, along with shooting birds, owning and... Read More

The very word "Belle Epoque" is melodious to the ear. Not surprisingly, a particular appeal of this richly detailed history of France's most fabled era, beginning in 1871, is narrator Paul Daintry's deft rendering of proper names such as Eiffel, Toulouse-Lautrec, Clemenceau, and Proust. Daintry's voice is not the most silken, but he effectively delivers the clamor of a divided... Read More

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Welsh professor of ancient history at Cardiff University, presents a fascinating look at seven Cleopatras, the strong women who ruled ancient Egypt over generations in the last centuries BCE. His Welsh accent is smooth and consistent; even slight variations between British and American English pronunciations of some words flow smoothly. He is up to the... Read More

Narrator David de Vries turns what could have been a ponderous story of a major scientific rivalry into a fascinating study of the legacies of two inquisitive men with two difficult temperaments. Swede Carl Linneaus (1707-1778) and Frenchman George-Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) tried, simultaneously, to define and classify all life on earth. While their approaches... Read More

Johnny Heller and Jo Anna Perrin successfully navigate the challenge of narrating an extensive oral history, creating a fascinating journey through the evolution and demise of THE VILLAGE VOICE. Even if listeners have never read the weekly news and culture publication from Greenwich Village, they've definitely felt its influence. Contributing writers embraced the arts and pop... Read More

Shamaan Casey brings a deep, captivating voice to his stellar performance of this recounting of one of America's first prisons for profit. The story includes the 1846 murders that resulted from its operators' greed and brutality. William Freeman, serving five years in the Auburn, New York, penal institution, was left brain damaged and partially deaf after guards beat him. He... Read More

Anyone with a passing interest in the events taking place in the Middle East likely knows that the history of the region is--to put it mildly--complicated. Friedman is an award-winning journalist who has covered the region for decades. In this 1989 book with an updated introduction, he details the tortured events there from 1979 to the late '80s. With a fine delivery, Friedman... Read More

This audiobook compilation of interviews with brides, nurses, factory workers, children, and other survivors of World War II is captivating. The narrators are excellent, and the candid stories give insight into why the seemingly ordinary is anything but. Each narrator brings a unique delivery to the mic, ranging from a distinct accent to the type of unique inflection that... Read More

Author and narrator Steven Johnson earns high praise for this dramatic history of dynamite as a terror weapon, a tangled tale that begins with Alfred Nobel and ends with J. Edgar Hoover. Cause and effect shape a narrative as compelling as any thriller. Dynamite enabled the large constructions of the modern age but offered a powerful tool for anarchists, whose outrages, in turn,... Read More

Narrator Elizabeth Wiley is a gifted enunciator, adept at delivering the full weight and value of every word. For this expansive survey of how theories of prehistory have shaped thinking and events over the past three centuries, she maintains a steady pace and a level tone. In these ways she keeps grounded a narrative that takes enormous leaps in time and locale. Wiley proves... Read More

Rupert Brooke, Alan Seeger, Isaac Rosenberg, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Wilfred Owen were arguably the greatest poets writing in English during WWI. Malcolm Hillgartner delivers Michael Korda's biographies of them, telling the story of how the attitudes of poetry--and to a lesser extent of the British public--shifted as the war went on. From Brooke's glorification of... Read More

This history of American Indigenous people sounds like a well-constructed college lecture. But that's no surprise since author Kathleen DuVal is a university professor. But Carolina Hoyos's narration is far from a dry academic recitation. Rather, she comes across as a storyteller. Her voice is smooth and easy to listen to. Her pace allows listeners to absorb the author's points... Read More

Narrator Timothy Andrés Pabon vividly conveys the struggle, passion, and extreme hardship that define Sir Walter Raleigh's quest for an elusive city of gold in the jungles of Guiana. Pabon narrates from deep in the throat in a kind of stage whisper that's highly effective for scenes of suspense and horror, of which this story has plenty. Raleigh was a colorful, controversial... Read More

Three centuries of cutthroats, blackguards, and assorted sea swine, women as well as men, set sail again in this audiobook anthology of history's most infamous and dastardly pirates. Editor Katherine Howe introduces each chapter, and her more than three dozen one-chapter biographies are divided among three narrators, each taking a century. Most effective is Matthew Lloyd... Read More

Versatile narrator Gabra Zackman maintains an even, judicious tone while tracing the rocky history of the Federal Theatre Project. From 1935 to 1939, that New Deal program employed thousands of out-of-work actors and reached millions of Americans who had never seen a live play before. It was eventually axed by conservative politicians for its allegedly Communist bias. Happily,... Read More

Robin Miles and Moe Egan do fine work narrating this revealing memoir of Chicago's West Garfield Park and the author's life, family, and experiences with race relations--especially during the 1960s. Egan voices the author, and her timbre, tone, and style are just right. The supremely talented Miles depicts the many African American characters and does them well. This is mostly... Read More

Patrick Joyce writes of the rapidly disappearing, or already vanished, European peasantry--its characteristics and culture--in this thoughtful, quietly analytic, elegiac audiobook. Narrator Philip Bird mirrors the production's best qualities, its sensitivity and intelligence, and lets its essential sadness emerge unobtrusively. His deft narration softens the frustrations of a... Read More

This audiobook tour of antiquity's great architectural wonders is rich in detail but somewhat difficult to absorb. Popular historian and narrator Bettany Hughes, who is spirited and personable, investigates both the original and present condition of each site. The narrative is informative, highly visual, and engaging regardless of one's prior knowledge or degree of interest.... Read More

Fred Sanders gives a solid narration of this account of the air supply route over the Himalayas, known as "The Hump," during WWII. These Allied missions flew supplies from India to China after its coast was blockaded by the Japanese. The author goes into great detail about the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater: the many people involved and the various motives of the countries... Read More

Edoardo Ballerini's perfect pacing and smooth delivery are worthy of the podium in this narrative about a little-remembered episode from the 1924 Paris Olympics. Author Todd Balf weaves together the stories of three very different men who faced each other in swimming's marquee event, the 100-meter freestyle: a Native Hawaiian who was already a legend in the water; a brash... Read More

O'Donnell is arguably at the forefront of contemporary historians of America's special forces, and this well-written account of the mostly unknown Civil War irregulars is superbly read by Fred Sanders. The history shows how effective both sides' irregulars were and how their actions and legacy were an inspiration for the formation of American Special Operations in WWII. The... Read More

A business journalist combines flawless narration with intelligent writing to explain how cultural and institutional barriers have blocked U.S. women's access to financial independence and the power that comes with it. Josie Cox's mature-sounding performance and British accent add dignity to her careful research and writing. The stories of pioneers like Betty Friedan, Ruth... Read More