AMERICAN MIDNIGHT The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis

Not every audiobook offers pleasurable listening, and narrator Jonathan Todd Ross has a particular gift for making topics of narrow interest—liquid rocket propellants, for example—palatable for general listeners. Few eras in American history are as unpalatable as that ignited by WWI and extending into the 1920s, a time when unchecked racism, union opposition, and patriotic fervor stoked dozens of incidents of violence and savagery. None of it makes for easy listening, but this is undoubtedly one of this year’s best and most important histories, narrated with impressive skill, balance, and restraint. The many links to our own uneasy present are implicit, and the evil precedents described here are critical history that bears on dozens of relevant issues today. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2022 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2022]