29 Best 19th Century, History Books
19th Century, History is one of the most popular categories. We’ve curated a list of the top 19th Century, History audiobooks everyone must read. It’s sure to keep readers engaged and entertained. See the top 29 19th Century, History audiobooks.
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The American Story
- By: David M. Rubenstein
- Narrator: David M. Rubenstein
- Length: 9 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.39(1396 ratings)
4.39(1396 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDIn revealing conversations with our greatest historians, cofounder of The Carlyle Group and patriotic philanthropist David M. Rubenstein takes listeners on a sweeping journey across the grand arc of the American story.These lively dialogues presentIn revealing conversations with our greatest historians, cofounder of The Carlyle Group and patriotic philanthropist David M. Rubenstein takes listeners on a sweeping journey across the grand arc of the American story.
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These lively dialogues present some of the biggest names in American history exploring the subjects they intimately know and understand. You’ll hear live recordings of:
—David McCullough on John Adams
—Ron Chernow on Alexander Hamilton
—Walter Isaacson on Benjamin Franklin
—Cokie Roberts on Founding Mothers
—Doris Kearns Goodwin on Abraham Lincoln
—A. Scott Berg on Charles Lindbergh
—Jay Winik on Franklin D. Roosevelt and 1944
—Jean Edward Smith on Dwight D. Eisenhower
—Taylor Branch on Martin Luther King
—Bob Woodward on Richard Nixon
—H.W. Brands on Ronald Reagan
—And a special conversation with Chief Justice John Roberts
Through his popular program The David Rubenstein Show, David Rubenstein has established himself as one of today’s most thoughtful interviewers. Now, in The American Story, David shares almost a dozen interviews that capture the brilliance of today’s most esteemed historians, as well as the souls of their subjects. The audiobook presents archival recordings of these interviews and features new introductions by Rubenstein as well as a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead our national library.
Through these captivating exchanges, these bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning authors offer fresh insight on pivotal moments from the Founding Era to the late 20th century. -
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
- By: Frederick Douglass
- Narrator: Richard Allen
- Length: 21 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Public Domain
- Publish date: February 07, 2012
- Language: English
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4.33(136 ratings)
4.33(136 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.007.99 USDThe Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass’ third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the receptionThe Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass’ third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the reception of his work. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves. It is also the only of Douglass’ autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American Presidents such as Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield.
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The Age of Napoleon
- By: Will Durant
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 44 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2015
- Language: English
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4.33(706 ratings)
4.33(706 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDAn engrossing volume on European civilization by Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel Durant The Age of Napoleon, the eleventh and final volume of the Story of Civilization, surveys the amazing chain of events that wrenched Europe out ofAn engrossing volume on European civilization by Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Will and Ariel Durant
The Age of Napoleon, the eleventh and final volume of the Story of Civilization, surveys the amazing chain of events that wrenched Europe out of the Enlightenment and into the age of democracy. In this masterful work, listeners will encounter
the French Revolution–from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotining of the king; the revolution’s leaders Danton, Desmoulins, Robespierre, Saint-Just–all cut down by the reign of terror they inaugurated; Napoleon’s meteoric rise–from provincial Corsican military student to emperor and commander of the largest army in history; Napoleon’s fall–his army’s destruction in the snows of Russia, his exile to Elba, his escape and reconquest of the throne, and his ultimate defeat at Waterloo by the combined forces of Europe; the birth of Romanticism and the dawning of a new age of active democracy and a rising middle class, laying the foundation for a new era.
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Waterloo
- By: Bernard Cornwell
- Narrator: Bernard Cornwell
- Length: 8 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 05, 2015
- Language: English
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4.32(6659 ratings)
4.32(6659 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDFrom the New York Times bestselling author comes the definitive, illustrated history of one of the greatest battles ever fought–a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundreth anniversary of Napoleon’s lastFrom the New York Times bestselling author comes the definitive, illustrated history of one of the greatest battles ever fought–a riveting nonfiction chronicle published to commemorate the two-hundreth anniversary of Napoleon’s last stand.
On June 18, 1815, the armies of France, Britain, and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days, the French army had beaten the Prussians at Ligny and fought the British to a standstill at Quatre-Bras. The Allies were in retreat. The little village north of where they turned to fight the French army was called Waterloo. The blood-soaked battle to which the town gave its name would become a landmark in European history.
In his first work of nonfiction, Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting chronicle of every dramatic moment–from Napoleon’s daring escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath. Through quotes from the letters and diaries of Emperor Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington, and the ordinary officers and soldiers, Cornwell brings to life how it actually felt to fight those famous battles–as well as the moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the outcome hanging in the balance until the bitter end.
Published to coincide with the battle’s bicentennial in 2015, Waterloo is a tense and gripping story of heroism and tragedy–and of the final battle that determined the fate of nineteenth-century Europe.
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Hymns of the Republic
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrator: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 14 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.32(848 ratings)
4.32(848 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDFrom the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell comes “a masterwork of history” (Lawrence Wright, author of God Save Texas), the spellbinding, epic account of the last year of theFrom the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell comes “a masterwork of history” (Lawrence Wright, author of God Save Texas), the spellbinding, epic account of the last year of the Civil War.
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The fourth and final year of the Civil War offers one of the most compelling narratives and one of history’s great turning points. Now, Pulitzer Prize finalist S.C. Gwynne breathes new life into the epic battle between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant; the advent of 180,000 black soldiers in the Union army; William Tecumseh Sherman’s March to the Sea; the rise of Clara Barton; the election of 1864 (which Lincoln nearly lost); the wild and violent guerrilla war in Missouri; and the dramatic final events of the war, including Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and the murder of Abraham Lincoln.
“A must-read for Civil War enthusiasts” (Publishers Weekly), Hymns of the Republic offers many surprising angles and insights. Robert E. Lee, known as a great general and Southern hero, is presented here as a man dealing with frustration, failure, and loss. Ulysses S. Grant is known for his prowess as a field commander, but in the final year of the war he largely fails at that. His most amazing accomplishments actually began the moment he stopped fighting. William Tecumseh Sherman, Gwynne argues, was a lousy general, but probably the single most brilliant man in the war. We also meet a different Clara Barton, one of the greatest and most compelling characters, who redefined the idea of medical care in wartime. And proper attention is paid to the role played by large numbers of black union soldiers–most of them former slaves.
Popular history at its best, Hymns of the Republic reveals the creation that arose from destruction in this “engrossing…riveting” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) read. -
The Last Emperor of Mexico
- By: Edward Shawcross
- Narrator: Gustavo Rex
- Length: 11 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 19, 2021
- Language: English
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4.29(371 ratings)
4.29(371 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDThe true operatic tragedy of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico–and faced bloody consequences.In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a youngThe true operatic tragedy of Maximilian and Carlota, the European aristocrats who stumbled into power in Mexico–and faced bloody consequences.
In the 1860s, Napoleon III, intent on curbing the rise of American imperialism, persuaded a young Austrian archduke and a Belgian princess to leave Europe and become the emperor and empress of Mexico. They and their entourage arrived in a Mexico ruled by terror, where revolutionary fervor was barely suppressed by French troops. When the United States, now clear of its own Civil War, aided the rebels in pushing back Maximilian’s imperial soldiers, the French army withdrew, abandoning the young couple. The regime fell apart. Maximilian was executed by a firing squad and Carlota, secluded in a Belgian castle, descended into madness.Assiduously researched and vividly told, The Last Emperor of Mexico is a dramatic story of European hubris, imperialist aspirations clashing with revolutionary fervor, and the Old World breaking from the New.
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The Europeans
- By: Orlando Figes
- Narrator: James Langton
- Length: 21 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.25(346 ratings)
4.25(346 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDFrom the “master of historical narrative” (Financial Times), a dazzling, richly detailed, panoramic work—the first to document the genesis of a continent-wide European culture The nineteenth century in Europe was the first age ofFrom the “master of historical narrative” (Financial Times), a dazzling, richly detailed, panoramic work—the first to document the genesis of a continent-wide European culture
The nineteenth century in Europe was the first age of cultural globalization—an epoch when mass communications and high-speed rail travel brought Europe together, overcoming national barriers and creating a truly pan-European canon of artistic, musical, and literary works. By 1900, people across the continent were reading the same books, looking at the same art, and attending the same opera performances.
Acclaimed historian Orlando Figes moves from Parisian salons to German spa towns to Russian country houses, exploring the interplay of money and art that made this unification possible. At the book’s center is an intimate love triangle: the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev; the Spanish prima donna Pauline Viardot; and her husband Louis Viardot, a connoisseur and political activist. Their passionate, ambitious lives caught up an astonishing array of artists and princes, poets, composers, and impresarios—Delacroix, Chopin, the Schumanns, Hugo, Flaubert, Dickens, and Dostoyevsky, among them.
As Figes observes, nearly all of civilization’s great advances have come when people, ideas, and artistic creations circulate freely between nations. Surprising, beautifully written, spanning a continent and a century, The Europeans offers the first international history of European culture—and a compelling argument for the benefits of cosmopolitanism.
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Crazy Horse, Third Edition
- By: Mari Sandoz
- Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 16 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDCrazy Horse was the legendary military leader of the Oglala Sioux whose personal power and social nonconformity contributed to his reputation as being “strange.” Crazy Horse fought in many battles, including the famous Battle of theCrazy Horse was the legendary military leader of the Oglala Sioux whose personal power and social nonconformity contributed to his reputation as being “strange.”
Crazy Horse fought in many battles, including the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn, and held out tirelessly against the US government’s efforts to confine the Native Americans to reservations. Eventually, in the spring of 1877, he surrendered to military forces and ended up meeting a violent death.
Now, nearly a century and a half later, Crazy Horse continues to hold a special place in the hearts and minds of people. Author Mari Sandoz offers a powerful evocation of the indigenous people of this long-ago world, of the life of Crazy Horse, and of the man’s enduring spirit.
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The Great Bridge
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Nelson Runger
- Length: 27 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.24(12046 ratings)
4.24(12046 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0049.99 USDThe dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by masterThe dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by master historian David McCullough.
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This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation’s history, during the Age of Optimism–a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible.
In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise. -
The Great Bridge
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 10 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2004
- Language: English
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4.24(12046 ratings)
4.24(12046 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.95 USDThe dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by masterThe dramatic and enthralling story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, the world’s longest suspension bridge at the time, a tale of greed, corruption, and obstruction but also of optimism, heroism, and determination, told by master historian David McCullough.
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This monumental book is the enthralling story of one of the greatest events in our nation’s history, during the Age of Optimism—a period when Americans were convinced in their hearts that all things were possible.
In the years around 1870, when the project was first undertaken, the concept of building an unprecedented bridge to span the East River between the great cities of Manhattan and Brooklyn required a vision and determination comparable to that which went into the building of the great cathedrals. Throughout the fourteen years of its construction, the odds against the successful completion of the bridge seemed staggering. Bodies were crushed and broken, lives lost, political empires fell, and surges of public emotion constantly threatened the project. But this is not merely the saga of an engineering miracle; it is a sweeping narrative of the social climate of the time and of the heroes and rascals who had a hand in either constructing or exploiting the surpassing enterprise. -
The American Experiment
- By: David M. Rubenstein
- Narrator: David M. Rubenstein
- Length: 15 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.21(234 ratings)
4.21(234 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDTHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER The capstone book in a trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Lead and The American Story and host of Bloomberg TV’s The David Rubenstein Show–AmericanTHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
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The capstone book in a trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Lead and The American Story and host of Bloomberg TV’s The David Rubenstein Show–American icons and historians on the ever-evolving American experiment, featuring Ken Burns, Madeleine Albright, Wynton Marsalis, Billie Jean King, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and many more.
In this lively collection of conversations–the third in a series from David Rubenstein–some of our nations’ greatest minds explore the inspiring story of America as a grand experiment in democracy, culture, innovation, and ideas.
–Jill Lepore on the promise of America
–Madeleine Albright on the American immigrant
–Ken Burns on war
–Henry Louis Gates Jr. on reconstruction
–Elaine Weiss on suffrage
–John Meacham on civil rights
–Walter Isaacson on innovation
–David McCullough on the Wright Brothers
–John Barry on pandemics and public health
–Wynton Marsalis on music
–Billie Jean King on sports
–Rita Moreno on film
Exploring the diverse make-up of our country’s DNA through interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning historians, diplomats, music legends, and sports giants, The American Experiment captures the dynamic arc of a young country reinventing itself in real-time. Through these enlightening conversations, the American spirit comes alive, revealing the setbacks, suffering, invention, ingenuity, and social movements that continue to shape our vision of what America is–and what it can be. -
The Great Stain
- By: Noel Rae
- Narrator: Steven Crossley
- Length: 24 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.2(49 ratings)
4.2(49 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDComprising personal accounts from an intensely consequential chapter in human history, the transatlantic slave trade, The Great Stain takes listeners from the depths of suffering to the heights of human dignity. There have been numerous books aboutComprising personal accounts from an intensely consequential chapter in human history, the transatlantic slave trade, The Great Stain takes listeners from the depths of suffering to the heights of human dignity.
There have been numerous books about the why, when, and where of slavery in America, but there is a dearth of material exposing what slavery was actually like. In The Great Stain, researcher Noel Rae frames firsthand accounts from former slaves, slave owners, and even African slavers.
Rae exposes the commerce and culture of slavery, not only from an economic or moral standpoint but also through multitudinous perspectives within it: a young girl is beaten after being accused of stealing a piece of candy, a slave ship’s surgeon recounts brutal treatment and squalid conditions, an Englishman visiting Haiti observes as violent uprisings break out. So many viewpoints ensure that no historical blind spot will leave the picture of an era incomplete.
The Great Stain weaves a tapestry of good and evil, of greed and kindness, and of a civilization as it develops, evolves, and continues to move toward the future. More than that, the listener will encounter the complex economic underpinning of an entire society based on the exploitation of the cheapest labor.
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Black Elk
- By: Joe Jackson
- Narrator: Traber Burns
- Length: 22 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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4.2(467 ratings)
4.2(467 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDHere is the epic life story of the Native American holy man who has inspired millions around the world. Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial, Black Elk Speaks. Adapted byHere is the epic life story of the Native American holy man who has inspired millions around the world.
Black Elk, the Native American holy man, is known to millions of readers around the world from his 1932 testimonial, Black Elk Speaks. Adapted by the poet John Neihardt from a series of interviews, it is one of the most widely read and admired works of American Indian literature. Cryptic and deeply personal, it has been read as a spiritual guide, a philosophical manifesto, and a text to be deconstructed–while the historical Black Elk has faded from view.
In this sweeping book, Joe Jackson provides the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West.
Born in an era of rising violence, Black Elk killed his first man at Little Big Horn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior and instead chose the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that haunted and inspired him, even after he converted to Catholicism in his later years.
In Black Elk, Jackson has crafted a true American epic, restoring to Black Elk the richness of his times and gorgeously portraying a life of heroism and tragedy, adaptation and endurance, in an era of permanent crisis on the Great Plains.
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A Lynching at Port Jervis
- By: Philip Dray
- Narrator: Dion Graham
- Length: 7 hours 3 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.18(47 ratings)
4.18(47 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDAn account of a lynching that took place in New York in 1892, forcing the North to reckon with its own racism On June 2, 1892, in the small, idyllic village of Port Jervis, New York, a young Black man named Robert Lewis was lynched by a violent mob.An account of a lynching that took place in New York in 1892, forcing the North to reckon with its own racism
On June 2, 1892, in the small, idyllic village of Port Jervis, New York, a young Black man named Robert Lewis was lynched by a violent mob. The twenty-eight-year-old victim had been accused of sexually assaulting Lena McMahon, the daughter of one of the town’s well-liked Irish American families.
The incident was infamous at once, for it was seen as a portent that lynching, a Southern scourge, surging uncontrollably below the Mason-Dixon Line, was about to extend its tendrils northward. What factors prompted such a spasm of racial violence in a relatively prosperous, industrious upstate New York town, attracting the scrutiny of the Black journalist Ida B. Wells, just then beginning her courageous anti-lynching crusade? What meaning did the country assign to it? And what did the incident portend?
Today, it’s a terrible truth that the assault on the lives of Black Americans is neither a regional nor a temporary feature but a national crisis. There are regular reports of a Black person killed by police, and Jim Crow has found new purpose in describing the harsh conditions of life for the formerly incarcerated, as well as in large-scale efforts to make voting inaccessible to Black people and other minority citizens.
The “mobocratic spirit” that drove the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol–a phrase Abraham Lincoln used as early as 1838 to describe vigilantism’s corrosive effect on America–frightfully insinuates that mob violence is a viable means of effecting political change. These issues remain as deserving of our concern now as they did a hundred and thirty years ago, when America turned its gaze to Port Jervis.
An alleged crime, a lynching, a misbegotten attempt at an official inquiry, and a past unresolved. In A Lynching at Port Jervis, the acclaimed historian Philip Dray revisits this time and place to consider its significance in our communal history and to show how justice cannot be achieved without an honest reckoning.
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The Birth of the Modern
- By: Paul Johnson
- Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 48 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.15(653 ratings)
4.15(653 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0039.95 USDThis is an extraordinary chronicle of the fifteen years, 1815–1830, that laid the foundations of modern society. It is a history of people, ideas, politics, manners, morals, economics, art, science and technology, diplomacy, business andThis is an extraordinary chronicle of the fifteen years, 1815–1830, that laid the foundations of modern society. It is a history of people, ideas, politics, manners, morals, economics, art, science and technology, diplomacy, business and commerce, literature, and revolution.
From Wellington at Waterloo and Jackson at New Orleans to the surge of democratic power and reform, this tumultuous period saw the United States transform itself from an ex-colony into a formidable nation, Britain become the first industrial world power, Russia develop the fatal flaws that would engulf her in the twentieth century, and China and Japan set the stage for future development and catastrophe. Provocative, challenging, and listenable, this remarkable story is told through the lives and actions of its outstanding, curious, and ordinary people.
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A Patriot’s History of the United States
- By: Larry Schweikart
- Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 50 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.14(3001 ratings)
4.14(3001 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0034.95 USDSince the liberal revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, American history books have been biased toward the negative, distorting the way America’s past is taught. They overemphasize America’s racism, sexism, and bigotry whileSince the liberal revolution of the ’60s and ’70s, American history books have been biased toward the negative, distorting the way America’s past is taught. They overemphasize America’s racism, sexism, and bigotry while downplaying the greatness of her patriots. As a result, more emphasis is placed on Harriet Tubman than on George Washington, more on the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII than D-day or Iwo Jima, more on the dangers we faced from Joseph McCarthy than those we faced from Josef Stalin.
This book offers a long-overdue acknowledgment of America’s true and proud history. The authors reexamine America’s discovery, founding, and development with an appreciation for the principles of public virtue, personal liberty, and private property that have made this nation so uniquely successful.
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The Proud Tower
- By: Barbara W. Tuchman
- Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 22 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.13(7364 ratings)
4.13(7364 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe fateful quarter century leading up to World War I was a time when the world of privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of protest was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.” The age was the climax of aThe fateful quarter century leading up to World War I was a time when the world of privilege still existed in Olympian luxury and the world of protest was “heaving in its pain, its power, and its hate.”
The age was the climax of a century of the most accelerated rate of change to that point in history, a cataclysmic shaping of destiny.
Barbara Tuchman brings to vivid life the people, places, and events that shaped the years leading up to the Great War: the Edwardian aristocracy; the anarchists of Europe and America; Germany and its self-depicted hero, Richard Strauss; Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet and Stravinsky’s music; the Dreyfus Affair; two peace conferences in the Hague; and, finally, the youth, ideals, enthusiasm, and tragedy of socialism, epitomized by the death of heroic Jean Jaures on the night the war began and an epoch ended.
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The Lewis and Clark Journals
- By: Gary E. Moulton
- Narrator: John Lescault
- Length: 19 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
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4.13(109 ratings)
4.13(109 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.95 USDFollowing orders from President Thomas Jefferson, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from their wintering camp in Illinois in 1804 to search for a river passage to the Pacific Ocean. This is the riveting account of their journey. InFollowing orders from President Thomas Jefferson, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from their wintering camp in Illinois in 1804 to search for a river passage to the Pacific Ocean. This is the riveting account of their journey.
In their own words, recorded in the famous journals of Lewis and Clark, the members of the Corps of Discovery tell their story with an immediacy and power missing from secondhand accounts. All of their triumphs and terrors are here: the thrill of seeing the vast herds of bison, the fear the captains felt when Sacagawea fell ill, the ordeal of crossing the Continental Divide. The natural wonders of an unspoiled America are here, and the lives and customs of its native peoples also vividly come to life, making for a living drama that is humorous, poignant and, at least once, tragic.
Editor Gary E. Moulton blends the narrative highlights of his definitive Nebraska edition of the Lewis and Clark journals to bring forth the voices of the enlisted men and of the Native Americans, heard for the first time alongside the words of the captains.
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The Johnstown Flood
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 9 hours 2 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.12(17620 ratings)
4.12(17620 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0021.95 USDThe stunning story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a boomingThe stunning story of one of America’s great disasters, a preventable tragedy of Gilded Age America, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.
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At the end of the nineteenth century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation’s burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
Graced by David McCullough’s remarkable gift for writing richly textured, sympathetic social history, The Johnstown Flood is an absorbing, classic portrait of life in nineteenth-century America, of overweening confidence, of energy, and of tragedy. It also offers a powerful historical lesson for our century and all times: the danger of assuming that because people are in positions of responsibility they are necessarily behaving responsibly. -
Men to Match My Mountains
- By: Irving Stone
- Narrator: Traber Burns
- Length: 22 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.11(1035 ratings)
4.11(1035 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDAcclaimed author of biographical and historical fiction Irving Stone turns his magnificent talent to telling America’s most colorful and exciting story–the opening of the Far West. Men to Match My Mountains is a true historicalAcclaimed author of biographical and historical fiction Irving Stone turns his magnificent talent to telling America’s most colorful and exciting story–the opening of the Far West.
Men to Match My Mountains is a true historical masterpiece, an unforgettable pageant of giants–men like John Sutter, whose dream of paradise was shattered by the California Gold Rush; Brigham Young and the Mormons, who tamed the desert with Bible texts; and the silver kings and the miners, who developed Nevada’s Comstock Lode and settled the Rockies.
America called for greatness–and got it. There is nothing in history to match the stories of these men who braved wilderness to bring a new nation to the shores of the Pacific.
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Lying in State
- By: Eric Alterman
- Narrator: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 11, 2020
- Language: English
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4.09(27 ratings)
4.09(27 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThis definitive history of presidential lying reveals how our standards for truthfulness have eroded — and why Trump’s lies are especially dangerous.If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he lies. But... Read moreThis definitive history of presidential lying reveals how our standards for truthfulness have eroded — and why Trump’s lies are especially dangerous.If there’s one thing we know about Donald Trump, it’s that he lies. But he’s by no means the first president to do so. In Lying in State, Eric Alterman asks how we ended up with such a pathologically dishonest commander in chief, showing that, from early on, the United States has persistently expanded its power and hegemony on the basis of presidential lies. He also reveals the cumulative effect of this deception-each lie a president tells makes it more acceptable for subsequent presidents to lie-and the media’s complicity in spreading misinformation. Donald Trump, then, represents not an aberration but the culmination of an age-old trend.Full of vivid historical examples and trenchant analysis, Lying in State is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how we arrived in this age of alternative facts. -
Shadows at Dawn
- By: Karl Jacoby
- Narrator: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 10 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.08(284 ratings)
4.08(284 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDA masterful reconstruction of one of the worst Indian massacres in American history In April 1871, a group of Americans, Mexicans, and Tohono O’odham Indians surrounded an Apache village at dawn and murdered nearly 150 men, women, and childrenA masterful reconstruction of one of the worst Indian massacres in American history
In April 1871, a group of Americans, Mexicans, and Tohono O’odham Indians surrounded an Apache village at dawn and murdered nearly 150 men, women, and children in their sleep. In the past century, the attack, which came to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre, has largely faded from memory. Now, drawing on oral histories, contemporary newspaper reports, and the participants’ own accounts, prizewinning author Karl Jacoby brings this perplexing incident and tumultuous era to life to paint a sweeping panorama of the American Southwest–a world far more complex, diverse, and morally ambiguous than the traditional portrayals of the Old West.
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Mornings On Horseback
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 8 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2004
- Language: English
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4.08(30015 ratings)
4.08(30015 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDThe National Book Award–winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by masterThe National Book Award–winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by master historian David McCullough.
... Read more
Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as “a masterpiece” (John A. Gable, Newsday), it is the winner of the Los Angeles Times 1981 Book Prize for Biography and the National Book Award for Biography. Written by David McCullough, the author of Truman, this is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and almost fatal asthma attacks, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household in which he was raised.
The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. The mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and a celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR’s first love. All are brought to life to make “a beautifully told story, filled with fresh detail” (The New York Times Book Review).
A book to be read on many levels, it is at once an enthralling story, a brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. It is a book about life intensely lived, about family love and loyalty, about grief and courage, about “blessed” mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the Badlands. -
Mornings on Horseback
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: Nelson Runger
- Length: 19 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.08(30015 ratings)
4.08(30015 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0039.95 USDThe National Book Award-winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by masterThe National Book Award-winning biography that tells the story of how young Teddy Roosevelt transformed himself from a sickly boy into the vigorous man who would become a war hero and ultimately president of the United States, told by master historian David McCullough.
... Read more
Mornings on Horseback is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as “a masterpiece” (John A. Gable, Newsday), it is the winner of the Los Angeles Times 1981 Book Prize for Biography and the National Book Award for Biography. Written by David McCullough, the author of Truman, this is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and almost fatal asthma attacks, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household in which he was raised.
The father is the first Theodore Roosevelt, a figure of unbounded energy, enormously attractive and selfless, a god in the eyes of his small, frail namesake. The mother, Mittie Bulloch Roosevelt, is a Southerner and a celebrated beauty, but also considerably more, which the book makes clear as never before. There are sisters Anna and Corinne, brother Elliott (who becomes the father of Eleanor Roosevelt), and the lovely, tragic Alice Lee, TR’s first love. All are brought to life to make “a beautifully told story, filled with fresh detail” (The New York Times Book Review).
A book to be read on many levels, it is at once an enthralling story, a brilliant social history and a work of important scholarship which does away with several old myths and breaks entirely new ground. It is a book about life intensely lived, about family love and loyalty, about grief and courage, about “blessed” mornings on horseback beneath the wide blue skies of the Badlands. -
Ordeal by Hunger
- By: George R. Stewart
- Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 12 hours 9 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
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4.07(1557 ratings)
4.07(1557 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people–men, women, and children–set out for California and were persuaded to attempt a new overland route. AfterThe tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people–men, women, and children–set out for California and were persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering.
Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers–an astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance.
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Myth America
- By: Kevin M. Kruse
- Narrator: Allan Aquino
- Length: 12 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: January 03, 2023
- Language: English
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4.07(102 ratings)
4.07(102 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDAmerica’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led largeAmerica’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past
... Read more
The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy.
In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors–among numerous other partisan lies. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history.
Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today’s heated debates about our nation’s past. -
Beautiful Jim Key
- By: Mim Eichler Rivas
- Narrator: Mim Eichler Rivas
- Length: 11 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.07(668 ratings)
4.07(668 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe horse Jim was known as Beautiful Jim Key from the moment he stepped into the American spotlight in 1897 at age eight until his death in 1912. This horse was beloved for his remarkable intelligence, cultivated by human kindness and patience.The horse Jim was known as Beautiful Jim Key from the moment he stepped into the American spotlight in 1897 at age eight until his death in 1912. This horse was beloved for his remarkable intelligence, cultivated by human kindness and patience. Proclaimed a genius, a leader of his species, the smartest horse who ever lived, with an IQ the equivalent of a twelve-year-old human, Jim Key appeared to read, write, spell, do mathematics, tell time, sort mail, use a cash register and a telephone, cite bible passages by chapter and verse, and engage in political debate. Jim Key and his owner travelled the country performing these tricks, and whether true or not, the public believed it was so.
No less extraordinary was the man who trained Jim, Dr. William Key of Shelbyville, Tennessee, a former slave who in his life had seen horrific cruelty toward humans and animals. Bill Key was a self-schooled veterinarian and Black entrepreneur who refused to use force in any guise while breaking and training horses. It was thanks to this rare and intimate relationship between horse and man, championed by a second man named Albert R. Rogers–inventor, philanthropist, and founding member of the American Humane Society–that the animal rights movement was legitimized and born into the twentieth century.
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The China Mirage
- By: James Bradley
- Narrator: Pete Larkin
- Length: 12 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: April 21, 2015
- Language: English
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4.06(915 ratings)
4.06(915 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDFrom the bestselling author of Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys, and The Imperial Cruise, a spellbinding history of turbulent U.S.-China relations from the 19th century to World War II and Mao’s ascent. In each of his books, James Bradley hasFrom the bestselling author of Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys, and The Imperial Cruise, a spellbinding history of turbulent U.S.-China relations from the 19th century to World War II and Mao’s ascent.... Read moreIn each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind America’s engagement in Asia. Now comes his most engrossing work yet. Beginning in the 1850s, Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans who made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As they — -good Christians all — -profitably addicted millions, American missionaries arrived, promising salvation for those who adopted Western ways.
And that was just the beginning.
From drug dealer Warren Delano to his grandson Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from the port of Hong Kong to the towers of Princeton University, from the era of Appomattox to the age of the A-Bomb, The China Mirage explores a difficult century that defines U.S.-Chinese relations to this day.
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The Bonanza King
- By: Gregory Crouch
- Narrator: John Keating
- Length: 23 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.06(243 ratings)
4.06(243 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USD“A monumentally researched biography of one of the nineteenth century’s wealthiest self-made Americans…Well-written and worthwhile” (The Wall Street Journal) it’s the rags-to-riches frontier tale of an Irish immigrant“A monumentally researched biography of one of the nineteenth century’s wealthiest self-made Americans…Well-written and worthwhile” (The Wall Street Journal) it’s the rags-to-riches frontier tale of an Irish immigrant who outwits, outworks, and outmaneuvers thousands of rivals to take control of Nevada’s Comstock Lode.
... Read more
Born in 1831, John W. Mackay was a penniless Irish immigrant who came of age in New York City, went to California during the Gold Rush, and mined without much luck for eight years. When he heard of riches found on the other side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in 1859, Mackay abandoned his claim and walked a hundred miles to the Comstock Lode in Nevada.
Over the course of the next dozen years, Mackay worked his way up from nothing, thwarting the pernicious “Bank Ring” monopoly to seize control of the most concentrated cache of precious metals ever found on earth, the legendary “Big Bonanza,” a stupendously rich body of gold and silver ore discovered 1,500 feet beneath the streets of Virginia City, the ultimate Old West boomtown. But for the ore to be worth anything it had to be found, claimed, and successfully extracted, each step requiring enormous risk and the creation of an entirely new industry.
Now Gregory Crouch tells Mackay’s amazing story–how he extracted the ore from deep underground and used his vast mining fortune to crush the transatlantic telegraph monopoly of the notorious Jay Gould. “No one does a better job than Crouch when he explores the subject of mining, and no one does a better job than he when he describes the hardscrabble lives of miners” (San Francisco Chronicle). Featuring great period photographs and maps, The Bonanza King is a dazzling tour de force, a riveting history of Virginia City, Nevada, the Comstock Lode, and America itself.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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