In the dramatic period from 1800 through 1850, the United States emerged from its inauspicious beginning as a tiny newborn nation, to a near-empire that spanned the continent. It was a time in which the “dream of our founders” spread in ways that few men of that Revolutionary Generation could possibly have imagined. And it was an era that led to the great, tragic conflagration that followed—the American Civil War.

The narratives that form A Nation Rising each exemplify the “hidden history” of America, exploring a vastly more complex path to nationhood than the national myth of a destiny made manifest by visionary political leaders and fearless pioneers. Davis explores:
 
• Aaron Burr’s 1807 trial, showcasing the political intrigue of the early Republic
• an 1813 Indian uprising and an ensuing massacre
• a mutiny aboard the slave ship Creole
• the “Dade Massacre” and the start of the second Seminole War
• the bloody “Bible Riots” in Philadelphia
• the story of Jessie Benton Frémont and Lt. John C. Frémont
           
The audiobook is not only riveting storytelling in its own right, but a stirring reminder of the ways in which our history continues to shape our present.

Kenneth C. Davis presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation’s destiny and character. Davis’s dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation’s fate hung in the balance.

Spanning a period from the Spanish arrival in America to George Washington’s inauguration in 1789, America’s Hidden History explores these episodes, among others:

The story of the first real Pilgrims in America, who were wine-making French Huguenots, not dour English Separatists
* The coming-of-age story of Queen Isabella, who suggested that Columbus pack the moving mess hall of pigs, which may have spread disease to many Native Americans
* The long, bloody relationship between the Puritans and Indians that runs counter to the idyllic scene of the Thanksgiving feast
* The little-known story of George Washington as a headstrong young soldier who committed a war crime, signed a confession, and started a war!

Full of color, intrigue, and human interest, America’s Hidden History proves why Davis is truly America’s teacher.

Don’t Know Much About Anything: Everything You Need to Know But Never Learned About Famous People, Exceptional Places, Historical Happenings, Holidays and Traditions, Everyday Objects, Remarkable Inventions, Space, Sports, Food, Entertainment and More! is a compendium of around 275 columns, sorted into the subject categories listed in the subtitle. Quizzes on the atomic bomb, hamburgers, football, and The Wizard of Oz are included, along with the Emancipation Proclamation, cold weather, and Mother Theresa, to name a few.

Like all of Ken Davis’ Don’t Know Much About audiobooks, Don’t Know Much About Anything will educate and inform listeners while allowing them to have fun.

From bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes a treasure trove of answers to questions about our world.

Was there an Atlantis?
What’s the smallest country in the world?
What’s the difference between a jungle and a rain forest?

Kenneth C. Davis, author of Don’t Know Much About® History, Don’t Know Much About® the Civil War and Don’t Know Much About® the Bible, turns his inimitable wit and wide-ranging knowledge to the subject of geography, and proves once and for all that there is a lot more to it than labeling countries on a map.

From often amusing perceptions people have had through the ages about the world and the universe to the changing map of today, Davis shows how geography is really a great crossroad of many fields: biology, meteorology, astronomy, history, economics, and even politics. In this lively, entertaining, and endlessly fascinating presentation, you’ll hear about the personalities that helped shape the world and learn the answers to questions that have vexed most of us since grade school. Along the way, Davis offers an affectionate ode to the earth: a celebration of the earth, a searching investigation of the destruction of our habitat, and a practical guide to saving our home planet.

For anyone who has felt geographically ignorant ever since gas stations stopped handing out free maps, Don’t Know Much About® Geography is enormously informative entertainment.

A New York Times bestseller 

“Reading Davis is like returning to the classroom of the best teacher you ever had!” —People magazine

From the arrival of Columbus through the historic election of Barack Obama and beyond, Kenneth C. Davis carries readers on a rollicking ride through more than five hundred years of American history. In this revised, expanded, and updated edition of the classic anti-textbook, he debunks, recounts, and serves up the real story behind the myths and fallacies of American history.

“Fun, engrossing, and significant. . . . History in Davis’s hands is loud, coarse, painful, funny, irreverent—and memorable.”—San Francisco Chronicle

Here, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of its debut as a New York Times bestseller, is the revised, updated, and expanded edition of the classic anti-textbook that changed the way we look at history. First published two decades ago, when the “closing of the American mind” was in the headlines, Don’t Know Much About® History proved Americans don’t hate history—just the dull version that was dished out in school.

Now Davis has brought his groundbreaking work up to the present, including the history of an “Era of Broken Trust,” from the end of the Clinton administration through the recent Great Recession. This additional material covers the horrific events of 9/11 and the rise of conspiracy theorists, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levees, the global financial meltdown, the election of Barack Obama, and the national controversy of same-sex marriage.

Employing the popular Don’t Know Much About® style, with its familiar question-and-answer format, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY will explore the myths of the world, their impact on history, and their continuing role in our lives. It will offer listeners a wide-ranging, comprehensive, entertaining and listenable survey of the great myths of world civilizations, how they came to be, what they meant to the people who created them, how they influenced society, literature and art through history, and how they still speak to us today. Mythology is alive today in our art, literature, theatre, dreams, psychology–and certainly our language. “Pandora’s Box,” “Golden Fleece,” “Labor of Hercules,” and “Wheel of Fortune” are just a few of the words and phrases that come from a world of mythology and still color our speech. Using humor, contemporary references, and anecdotal material from mythology, extensive research based on recent archaeology which often reveals the history behind mythology and surprising information that breaks down conventional wisdom, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY will ultimately be about stories–the great and timeless tales that have fascinated people around the planet for several millennia.

Employing the popular Don’t Know Much About® style, with its familiar question-and-answer format, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY will explore the myths of the world, their impact on history, and their continuing role in our lives. It will offer listeners a wide-ranging, comprehensive, entertaining and listenable survey of the great myths of world civilizations, how they came to be, what they meant to the people who created them, how they influenced society, literature and art through history, and how they still speak to us today. Mythology is alive today in our art, literature, theatre, dreams, psychology–and certainly our language. “Pandora’s Box,” “Golden Fleece,” “Labor of Hercules,” and “Wheel of Fortune” are just a few of the words and phrases that come from a world of mythology and still color our speech. Using humor, contemporary references, and anecdotal material from mythology, extensive research based on recent archaeology which often reveals the history behind mythology and surprising information that breaks down conventional wisdom, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY will ultimately be about stories–the great and timeless tales that have fascinated people around the planet for several millennia.

For more than twenty years since his New York Times bestseller Don’t Know Much About® History first appeared, Davis has shown that Americans don’t hate history, just the dull version dished out in school.

Now Davis turns his attention to what is arguably the most important and most fascinating subject in American history: our presidents. From the heated debates over executive powers through the curious election of George Washington in 1789 and, for more than 200 years, up through the meteoric rise of Barack Obama, the presidency has been at the heart of American history. From the low lights to the bright lights, from the intellectuals to the disasters, from the memorable to the forgettable and forgotten, Davis tells all the stories. He uses his entertaining question-and-answer style to chart the history of the presidency itself as well as debunk the myths of America’s leaders and recount the real stories of these very real people.

For history buffs and history-phobes alike, this entertaining audiobook is packed with memorable facts that will change your understanding of the highest office in the land and the men who have occupied it.

Includes a bonus PDF of the author’s favorite must-reads and online resources

Bringing to life the world of the Old and New Testaments, the acclaimed creator of the bestselling Don’t Know Much About® series transforms dry, difficult reading into colorful and realistic accounts. Relying on new research and improved translations, Kenneth C. Davis uncovers some amazing questions and contradictions about what the Bible really says:

•Jericho’s walls may have tumbled down because the city lies on a fault line.
•Moses never parted the Red Sea.
•There was a Jesus, but he wasn’t born on Christmas and he probably wasn’t an only child.

Don’t Know Much About® the Bible entertains and astonishes, but more important, provides a much better understanding of the world’s most-owned but least-understood anthology, with much more fun along the way.

“Distinct, clear, and balanced. . . . Davis has a gift for deftly rendering the essentials.”—New York Times Book Review

“Lively and relevant.” —USA Today

 
Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events—Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe—and much more.

Drawing on moving eyewitness accounts, Davis includes a wealth of “hidden history” about the roles played by women and African Americans before and during the war, along with lesser-known facts that will enthrall even learned Civil War buffs. Vivid, informative, and hugely entertaining, Don’t Know Much About the Civil War is the only audiobook you’ll ever need on “the war that never ended.”

“Distinct, clear, and balanced. . . . Davis has a gift for deftly rendering the essentials.”—New York Times Book Review

“Lively and relevant.” —USA Today

 
Millions of Americans, bored by dull textbooks, are in the dark about the most significant event in our history. Now New York Times bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes to the rescue, deftly sorting out the players, the politics, and the key events—Emancipation and Reconstruction, Shiloh and Gettysburg, Generals Grant and Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe—and much more.

Drawing on moving eyewitness accounts, Davis includes a wealth of “hidden history” about the roles played by women and African Americans before and during the war, along with lesser-known facts that will enthrall even learned Civil War buffs. Vivid, informative, and hugely entertaining, Don’t Know Much About the Civil War is the only audiobook you’ll ever need on “the war that never ended.”

Employing the popular Don’t Know Much About® style, with its familiar question-and-answer format, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY will explore the myths of the world, their impact on history, and their continuing role in our lives. It will offer listeners a wide-ranging, comprehensive, entertaining and listenable survey of the great myths of world civilizations, how they came to be, what they meant to the people who created them, how they influenced society, literature and art through history, and how they still speak to us today. Mythology is alive today in our art, literature, theatre, dreams, psychology–and certainly our language. “Pandora’s Box,” “Golden Fleece,” “Labor of Hercules,” and “Wheel of Fortune” are just a few of the words and phrases that come from a world of mythology and still color our speech. Using humor, contemporary references, and anecdotal material from mythology, extensive research based on recent archaeology which often reveals the history behind mythology and surprising information that breaks down conventional wisdom, DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT MYTHOLOGY will ultimately be about stories–the great and timeless tales that have fascinated people around the planet for several millennia.

This entertaining guide to some of the best short novels of all time, from a bestselling historian, is the “perfect gift for busy bibliophiles” (BookPage).

Experience the joys of literature with this this “exciting guide to all that the world of fiction has to offer” (The New York Times Book Review): a compulsively readable, deeply engaging discussion of great short novels. A journey into fiction designed with our contemporary attention spans in mind, Great Short Books suggests fifty-eight excellent short novels, all under 200 pages–easily readable in a week or less–a fresh approach to a fun, fascinating year of reading.

From hard-boiled fiction to magical realism, the 18th century to the present day, Great Short Books spans genres, cultures, countries, and time to present an enchanting and diverse selection of acclaimed and canonical novels. From works in translation like Yu Miri’s Tokyo Ueno Station and Marguerite Duras’s The Lover to popular, acclaimed authors like Toni Morrison and James Baldwin, this compilation is a celebration of classics from the historic to contemporary–plus a few bestsellers, including Stephen King and Colson Whitehead. Each entry includes the novel’s opening lines, a spoiler-free plot summary, a “why you should read it” section, and suggestions for what to read next.

“An entertaining journey with a fun, knowledgeable guide” (Booklist), this eclectic collection is a fun and practical book for any passionate reader hoping to broaden their literary IQ–or anyone who wants to find an effortless reentry into reading.

2017 YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction finalist

Did you know that many of America’s Founding Fathers―who fought for liberty and justice for all―were slave owners?

Through the powerful stories of five enslaved people who were “owned” by four of our greatest presidents, this book helps set the record straight about the role slavery played in the founding of America. From Billy Lee, valet to George Washington, to Alfred Jackson, faithful servant of Andrew Jackson, these dramatic narratives explore our country’s great tragedy―that a nation “conceived in liberty” was also born in shackles.

These stories help us know the real people who were essential to the birth of this nation but traditionally have been left out of the history books. Their stories are true―and they should be heard.

Read by Ken Davis, with Frankie Faison, Keith David, JD Jackson, Adenrele Ojo, Adam Lazarre-White, Dion Graham, and Mark Bramhall

From bestselling author Kenneth C. Davis comes a fascinating account of the Spanish influenza pandemic 100 years after it first swept the world in 1918.

“Davis deftly juggles compelling storytelling, gruesome details, and historical context. More Deadly Than War reads like a terrifying dystopian novel-that happens to be true.” -Steve Sheinkin, author of Bomb and Undefeated

With 2018 marking the 100th anniversary of the worst disease outbreak in modern history, the story of the Spanish flu is more relevant today than ever. This dramatic narrative, told through the stories and voices of the people caught in the deadly maelstrom, explores how this vast, global epidemic was intertwined with the horrors of World War I-and how it could happen again. Complete with modern research and firsthand reports by medical professionals and survivors, this audiobook provides captivating insight into a catastrophe that transformed America in the early twentieth century.

Praise for More Deadly Than War

A Junior Library Guild Selection!

“More Deadly Than War is a riveting story of the great influenza pandemic of 1918, packed with unforgettable examples of the power of a virus gone rogue. Kenneth C. Davis’s book serves as an important history-and an important reminder that we could very well face such a threat again.” -Deborah Blum, New York Times bestselling author of The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.

“With eye-popping details, Kenneth C. Davis tracks the deadly flu that shifted the powers in World War I and changed the course of world history. In an age of Ebola and Zika, this vivid account is a cautionary tale that will have you rushing to wash your hands for protection.” -Karen Blumenthal, award-winning author of Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different

From the bestselling author of the Don’t Know Much About books comes a dramatic account of the origins of democracy, the history of authoritarianism, and the reigns of five of history’s deadliest dictators.

What makes a country fall to a dictator? How do authoritarian leaders-strongmen-capable of killing millions acquire their power? How are they able to defeat the ideal of democracy? And what can we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?

By profiling five of the most notoriously ruthless dictators in history-Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein-Kenneth C. Davis seeks to answer these questions, examining the forces in these strongmen’s personal lives and historical periods that shaped the leaders they’d become. Meticulously researched, Strongman provides insight into the lives of five leaders who callously transformed the world and serves as an invaluable resource in an era when democracy itself seems in peril.

“Strongman is a book that is both deeply researched and deeply felt, both an alarming warning and a galvanizing call to action, both daunting and necessary to read and discuss.” -Cynthia Levinson, author of Fault Lines in the Constitution

Multi-million-copy bestselling historian Kenneth C. Davis sets his sights on war stories in The Hidden History of America at War. In prose that will remind you of “the best teacher you ever had” (People Magazine), Davis brings to life six emblematic battles, revealing untold tales that span our nation’s history, from the Revolutionary War to Iraq. Along the way, he illuminates why we go to war, who fights, the grunt’s-eye view of combat, and how these conflicts reshaped our military and national identity.

From the Battle of Yorktown (1781), where a fledgling America learned hard lessons about what kind of military it would need to survive, to Fallujah (2004), which epitomized the dawn of the privatization of war, The Hidden History of America at War takes listeners inside the battlefield, introducing them to key characters and events that will shatter myths, misconceptions, and romanticism, replacing them with rich insight.