29 Best Historical, Biography & Autobiography Books
Historical, Biography & Autobiography is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Historical, Biography & Autobiography audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 Historical, Biography & Autobiography audiobooks below.
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And the Rest Is History
- By: Kenneth R. Timmerman
- Length: 12 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: September 06, 2022
- Language: English
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4.62(13 ratings)
4.62(13 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDForeword by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center A real-life adventure story told by a New York Times bestselling author and war correspondent who reveals how he became a hostage, an arms dealer, and an Israeli spy. AndForeword by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean, Simon Wiesenthal Center
A real-life adventure story told by a New York Times bestselling author and war correspondent who reveals how he became a hostage, an arms dealer, and an Israeli spy.
And the Rest Is History takes readers on a traveling circus from Paris to Beirut, Baghdad, and beyond, introducing them to spies and terrorists, arms dealers and crooks, and along the way reveals a few surprises about the secret underbelly of
recent history you won’t find in WikiLeaks. This book pinpoints precisely when the era of “fake news” actually began in America, and will change the way you think about journalism and journalists.It includes:
* riveting testimony of the author’s torture and born-again experience as a hostage in a Beirut cellar;
* unusual insight into the beginnings of the Iran-Contra scandal;
* eyewitness reporting from the battlefields of the Middle East;
* the inside scoop on Saddam Hussein’s WMD programs;
* astonishing stories of French government dirty tricks, the intelligence underworld, Israeli hostage negotiations, and the real-life escapades of a Soviet sleeper agent.And the Rest Is History is a reporter’s journey from Left-Bank leftist to born-again Christian conservative. But most of all it’s a rollicking good read full of unusual characters, places, and events you will never hear about on the evening news.
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Coming Out of the Ice
- By: Victor Herman
- Narrator: Christopher Hurt
- Length: 13 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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4.55(437 ratings)
4.55(437 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDIn 1931, a young American named Victor Herman accompanied his parents to the Soviet Union, where his father was to set up a Ford Motor Company plant. In 1938, he was inexplicably thrown into a Soviet prison. It was forty-five years before he wasIn 1931, a young American named Victor Herman accompanied his parents to the Soviet Union, where his father was to set up a Ford Motor Company plant. In 1938, he was inexplicably thrown into a Soviet prison. It was forty-five years before he was able to return to America.
His was a common nightmare during the Stalin years. Those who survived imprisonment and torture were either sent north to hard labor in the icy forests and mines or into exile. Victor Herman was one of the few who survived. During his life in and out of Russian prisons, he fell in love with a Russian gymnast, who followed him into exile. She lived with him and their child for a year in Siberia in a cave chopped out of ice. Theirs was a romance destined to thrive even under desperate conditions.
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Walk with Me
- By: Kate Clifford Larson
- Length: 13 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: January 18, 2022
- Language: English
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4.5(116 ratings)
4.5(116 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDShe was born the 20th child in a family that had lived in the Mississippi Delta for generations, first as enslaved people and then as sharecroppers. She left school at 12 to pick cotton, as those before her had done, in a world where white supremacyShe was born the 20th child in a family that had lived in the Mississippi Delta for generations, first as enslaved people and then as sharecroppers. She left school at 12 to pick cotton, as those before her had done, in a world where white supremacy was an unassailable citadel. She was subjected without
her consent to an operation that deprived her of children. And she was denied the most basic of all rights in America–the right to cast a ballot–in a state in which Blacks constituted nearly half the population.And so Fannie Lou Hamer lifted up her voice. Starting in the early 1960s and until her death in 1977, she was an irresistible force, not merely joining the swelling wave of change brought by the Civil Rights movement but keeping it in motion. Working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC), which recruited her to help with voter-registration drives, Hamer became a community organizer, women’s rights activist, and co-founder of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She summoned and used what she had against the citadel–her anger, her courage, her faith in the Bible,
and her conviction that hearts could be won over and injustice overcome. She used her brutal beating at the hands of Mississippi police, an ordeal from which she never fully recovered, as the basis of a televised speech at the 1964 Democratic Convention, a speech that the mainstream party–including
its standard-bearer, President Lyndon Johnson–tried to contain. But Fannie Lou Hamer would not be held back. For those whose lives she touched and transformed, for those who heard and followed her voice, she was the embodiment of protest, perseverance, and, most of all, the potential for
revolutionary change.Kate Clifford Larson’s biography of Fannie Lou Hamer is the most complete ever written, drawing on recently declassified sources on both Hamer and the Civil Rights movement, including unredacted FBI and Department of Justice files. It also uses interviews with Civil Rights activists conducted by the
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Smithsonian and the Library of Congress, and Democratic National Committee archives, in addition to extensive conversations with Hamer’s family and with those with whom she worked most closely. Stirring, immersive, and authoritative, Walk with Me does justice to Fannie Lou Hamer’s life, capturing
in full the spirit, and the voice, that led the fight for freedom and equality in America at its critical moment. -
All but My Life
- By: Gerda Weissmann Klein
- Narrator: Grace Conlin
- Length: 9 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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4.5(1 ratings)
4.5(1 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAll but My Lifeis the basis for the Academy Award-winning documentary from HBO,One Survivor Remembers. This is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein’s six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home inAll but My Lifeis the basis for the Academy Award-winning documentary from HBO,One Survivor Remembers.
This is the unforgettable story of Gerda Weissmann Klein’s six-year ordeal as a victim of Nazi cruelty. From her comfortable home in Bielitz, Poland, to her miraculous survival and her liberation by American troops–including the man who was to become her husband–in Volary, Czechoslovakia, Gerda takes us on a terrifying journey.
Gerda’s serene and idyllic childhood is shattered when Nazis march into Poland on September 3, 1939. Although the Weissmanns were permitted to live for a while in the basement of their home, they were eventually separated and sent to German labor camps. Over the next few years, Gerda experienced the slow, inexorable stripping away of “all but her life.” By the end of the war she had lost her parents, brother, home, possessions, and community; even the dear friends she made in the labor camps, with whom she had shared so many hardships, were dead.
Despite her horrifying experiences, Klein conveys great strength of spirit and faith in humanity. In the darkness of the camps, Gerda and her young friends manage to create a community of friendship and love. Although stripped of the essence of life, they were able to survive the barbarity of their captors. Gerda’s beautifully written story gives an invaluable message to everyone. Itintroduces them to last century’s terrible history of devastation and prejudice yet offers them hope that the effects of hatred can be overcome.
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Frederick
- By: Frederick Ndabaramiye
- Length: 4 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson
- Publish date: September 23, 2014
- Language: English
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4.48(109 ratings)
4.48(109 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0018.99 USD“My God won’t let me do that.” These seven words of boundless hope would irreversibly change the life of the teenage boy who spoke them. On April 7, 1994 the life of Frederick Ndabaramiye and his family changed forever as the“My God won’t let me do that.”
These seven words of boundless hope would irreversibly change the life of the teenage boy who spoke them.
On April 7, 1994 the life of Frederick Ndabaramiye and his family changed forever as the Rwandan genocide erupted in their homeland. When Frederick faced those same genocidaires a few years later, he noted the machete that hung from the right hand closest to him and wondered if his would soon be added to the layers of dried blood that clung to the blade. Either way, young Frederick knew that he wouldn’t be able to carry out the orders just given to him, to raise that blade against the other passengers of the bus, regardless of the race marked on their identity cards.
That bold decision would cause Frederick to lose his hands. But what the killers meant for harm, God intended for good. The cords that bound him served as a tourniquet, saving his life when his hands were hacked away. This new disability eventually fueled Frederick‚Äôs passion to show the world that disabilities do not have to stop you from living a life of undeniable purpose. From that passion, the Ubumwe Community Center was born, where “people like me” come to discover their own purposes and abilities despite their circumstances.
Through miraculous mercy and divine appointment, Frederick forgives those who harmed him and goes on to fully grasp his God-given mission. In this extraordinary true story of forgiveness, faith, and hope, you will be challenged, convicted, and forever converted to a believer of the impossible.  
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The Letters Project
- By: Eleanor Reissa
- Narrator: Eleanor Reissa
- Length: 10 hours 14 minutes
- Publisher: Black Hills Audiobooks, LLC
- Publish date: January 18, 2022
- Language: English
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4.43(35 ratings)
4.43(35 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIn 1986, when her mother died at the age of sixty-four, Eleanor Reissa went through all of her belongings. In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer, she found an old leather purse. Inside that purse was a large wad of folded papers. TheyIn 1986, when her mother died at the age of sixty-four, Eleanor Reissa went through all of her belongings. In the back of her mother’s lingerie drawer, she found an old leather purse. Inside that purse was a large wad of folded papers. They were letters. Fifty-six of them. In German. Written in 1949. Letters from her father to her mother, when they were courting. Just four years earlier, he had fought to stay alive in Auschwitz and on the Death March while she had spent the war years suffering in Uzbekistan. Thirty years later, Eleanor–a theatre artist who has been on the forefront of keeping Yiddish alive–finally had the letters translated. The particulars of those letters send her off on an unimaginable adventure into the past, forever changing her and anyone who reads this book.
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Endurance
- By: Alfred Lansing
- Narrator: Simon Prebble
- Length: 10 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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4.42(98027 ratings)
4.42(98027 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThis is a new reading of the thrilling account of one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded. In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half aThis is a new reading of the thrilling account of one of the most astonishing feats of exploration and human courage ever recorded.
In August of 1914, the British ship Endurance set sail for the South Atlantic. In October, 1915, still half a continent away from its intended base, the ship was trapped, then crushed in the ice. For five months, Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men, drifting on ice packs, were castaways in one of the most savage regions of the world.
Lansing describes how the men survived a 1,000-mile voyage in an open boat across the stormiest ocean in the world and an overland trek through forbidding glaciers and mountains. The book recounts a harrowing adventure, but ultimately it is the nobility of these men and their indefatigable will that shines through.
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Man’s Search for Meaning
- By: Viktor E. Frankl
- Narrator: Simon Vance
- Length: 4 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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4.37(495863 ratings)
4.37(495863 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.95 USDMan’s Search for Meaning is the chilling yet inspirational story of Viktor Frankl’s struggle to hold on to hope during the unspeakable horrors of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl laboredMan’s Search for Meaning is the chilling yet inspirational story of Viktor Frankl’s struggle to hold on to hope during the unspeakable horrors of his years as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of those he treated in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering, but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.
Through every waking moment of his ordeal, Frankl’s training as a psychiatrist lent him a remarkable perspective on the psychology of survival. As a result of these experiences, Dr. Frankl developed a revolutionary approach to psychotherapy known as logotherapy. At the core of his theory is the belief that man’s primary motivational force is his search for meaning. Frankl’s assertion that “the will to meaning” is the basic motivation for human life has forever changed the way we understand our humanity in the face of suffering.
Frankl’s riveting memoir was named one of the Ten Most Influential Books in America after a 1991 survey by the Library of Congress and Book of the Month Club. This revised and updated version includes a new postscript: “The Case for a Tragic Optimism.”
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Nights in White Castle
- By: Steve Rushin
- Narrator: Greg Baglia
- Length: 8 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 20, 2019
- Language: English
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4.36(335 ratings)
4.36(335 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDPicking up where he left off in his acclaimed memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin brilliantly captures a bygone era, and the thrills of new adulthood in the early 80s.It begins in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a 13-year-old kid staging his ownPicking up where he left off in his acclaimed memoir Sting-Ray Afternoons, Steve Rushin brilliantly captures a bygone era, and the thrills of new adulthood in the early 80s.It begins in Bloomington, Minnesota, with a 13-year-old kid staging his own author photo that he hopes will someday grace the cover of a book jacket. And it ends at a desk in the legendary Time & Life building, with that same boy-now in his early 20s and writing professionally-reflecting on how the hell he got there from what seems like a distant universe. In between, Steve Rushin whisks us along on an extraordinarily funny, tender, and altogether unforgettable journey.From a menial summer job at suburban Bennigan’s, to first-time college experiences in Milwaukee, to surviving early adulthood in seedy New York City, this deeply touching odyssey will remind any reader of those special moments when they too went from innocence to experience.... Read more -
Bearing the Cross
- By: David J. Garrow
- Narrator: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 34 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.34(1903 ratings)
4.34(1903 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.95 USDWinner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive book ever written about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. David J. Garrow had unrestricted access to Martin LutherWinner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, this is the most comprehensive book ever written about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. David J. Garrow had unrestricted access to Martin Luther King’s personal papers, to thousands of pages of newly released FBI documents, and to more than seven hundred interviews with King’s closest friends and enemies.
Garrow traces King’s transformation from the young pastor of a modest church into the foremost spokesperson of the civil rights movement. The book’s unifying theme is King’s growing awareness of the symbolic meaning of the cross, as his sense of personal mission deepened into an acceptance of a life that would demand the ultimate sacrifice. This is a powerful portrait of a man at the epicenter of one of the most dramatic periods in our history–and of his metamorphosis into a legend.
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About Face
- By: David H. Hackworth
- Narrator: John Pruden
- Length: 40 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.34(4011 ratings)
4.34(4011 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDCalled “everything a twentieth-century war memoir could possibly be” by the New York Times, this national bestseller by Colonel David H. Hackworth presents a vivid and powerful portrait of a life of patriotism. From age fifteen to forty,Called “everything a twentieth-century war memoir could possibly be” by the New York Times, this national bestseller by Colonel David H. Hackworth presents a vivid and powerful portrait of a life of patriotism.
From age fifteen to forty, David Hackworth devoted himself to the US Army and fast became a living legend. In 1971, however, he appeared on television to decry the doomed war effort in Vietnam. With About Face, he has written what many Vietnam veterans have called the most important book of their generation.
From Korea to Berlin, from the Cuban missile crisis to Vietnam, Hackworth’s story is that of an exemplary patriot, played out against the backdrop of the changing fortunes of America and the American military. It is also a stunning indictment of the Pentagon’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Vietnam conflict and of the bureaucracy of self-interest that fueled the war.
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The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Vol. 1
- By: William Manchester
- Narrator: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 41 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 1990
- Language: English
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4.32(27 ratings)
4.32(27 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0039.95 USDWinston Churchill is perhaps the most important political figure of the twentieth century. His great oratory and leadership during the Second World War were only part of his huge breadth of experience and achievement. Studying his life is aWinston Churchill is perhaps the most important political figure of the twentieth century.
His great oratory and leadership during the Second World War were only part of his huge breadth of experience and achievement. Studying his life is a fascinating way to imbibe the history of his era and gain insight into key events that have shaped our time.
In political office at the end of WWI, he foresaw the folly of Versailles and feared what a crippled Germany would do to the balance of power. In his years in the political wilderness from 1931 to 1939, he alone of all British public men continually raised his voice against Hitler and his appeasers. For over fifty years, he was constantly involved in, and usually at the center of, the most important events of his age. It was, however, his obduracy on matters of principle, his fortitude in the face of opposition, and his perseverance in standing alone that defined him.
As a biographer, William Manchester is the standard by which all others are measured. And when a writer of his caliber is matched with a subject as colorful as Winston Churchill, look for results that are magisterial. This, the first in a three-volume biography, is a momentous piece of work.
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Defying Hitler
- By: Sebastian Haffner
- Narrator: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.31(1965 ratings)
4.31(1965 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDWhen the famous German author Sebastian Haffner died at age ninety-one in 1999, a manuscript was discovered among his unpublished papers that offers a compelling eyewitness account of the rise of Hitler and Nazism. He describes the country’sWhen the famous German author Sebastian Haffner died at age ninety-one in 1999, a manuscript was discovered among his unpublished papers that offers a compelling eyewitness account of the rise of Hitler and Nazism. He describes the country’s inflation and the political climate that contributed to Hitler’s rise to power and also examines the pervasive influence of such groups as the Free Corps and the Hitler Youth movement that swept the nation. He elucidates how the average educated German grappled with a rapidly changing society, while chronicling day-to-day changes in attitudes, beliefs, politics, and prejudices.
A major bestseller in Germany, Defying Hitler is an illuminating portrait of a time, a place, and a people.
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We Share the Same Sky
- By: Rachael Cerrotti
- Narrator: Rachael Cerrotti
- Length: 6 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.3(216 ratings)
4.3(216 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn 2009, Rachael Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother, Hana, if she could record her story. Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the endIn 2009, Rachael Cerrotti, a college student pursuing a career in photojournalism, asked her grandmother, Hana, if she could record her story. Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the end of the war. Rachael also knew that she survived because of the kindness of strangers. It wasn’t a secret. Hana spoke about her history publicly and regularly. But, Rachael wanted to document it as only a granddaughter could. So, that’s what they did: Hana talked and Rachael wrote.
Upon Hana’s passing in 2010, Rachael discovered an incredible archive of her life. There were preserved albums and hundreds of photographs dating back to the 1920s. There were letters waiting to be translated, journals, diaries, deportation and immigration papers as well as creative writings from various stages of Hana’s life.
Rachael digitized and organized it all, plucking it from the past and placing it into her present. Then, she began retracing her grandmother’s story, following her through Central Europe, Scandinavia, and across the United States. She tracked down the descendants of those who helped save her grandmother’s life during the war. Rachael went in pursuit of her grandmother’s memory to explore how the retelling of family stories becomes the history itself.
We Share the Same Sky weaves together the stories of these two young women–Hana as a refugee who remains one step ahead of the Nazis at every turn, and Rachael, whose insatiable curiosity to touch the past guides her into the lives of countless strangers, bringing her love and tragic loss. Throughout the course of her twenties, Hana’s history becomes a guidebook for Rachael in how to live a life empowered by grief.
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Campaigning with Grant
- By: Horace Porter
- Narrator: Noah Waterman
- Length: 12 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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4.29(96 ratings)
4.29(96 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDHorace Porter served as lieutenant colonel on Ulysses S. Grant’s staff from April 1864 to the end of the Civil War. He accompanied Grant into battle in the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg campaigns, and was present at Lee’sHorace Porter served as lieutenant colonel on Ulysses S. Grant’s staff from April 1864 to the end of the Civil War. He accompanied Grant into battle in the Wilderness, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg campaigns, and was present at Lee’s surrender at McLean’s house. Throughout the war, he kept extensive notes that capture Grant’s conversations, as well as his own observations of military life.
Porter’s portrait of Grant is the most comprehensive first-hand account that we have. We see Grant as a soldier and hear in his own words the tactical evaluations that led to many of the war’s key decisions. We also hear of Grant’s dealings with Lincoln, of the close relationship between Sherman and Grant, and of Lee’s noble bearing at his surrender. This is a stirring account of our country’s most memorable conflict.
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Guadalcanal Diary
- By: Richard Tregaskis
- Narrator: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: November 08, 2016
- Language: English
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4.28(3333 ratings)
4.28(3333 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis celebrated classic gives a soldier’s-eye-view of the Guadalcanal battles; crucial to World War II, the war that continues to fascinate us all. Unlike some of those on Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942, Richard Tregaskis volunteered to beThis celebrated classic gives a soldier’s-eye-view of the Guadalcanal battles; crucial to World War II, the war that continues to fascinate us all. Unlike some of those on Guadalcanal in the fall of 1942, Richard Tregaskis volunteered to be there. One of only two on-location news correspondents, he lived alongside the soldiers: sleeping on the ground–only to be awoken by air raids–eating meager rations, and braving some of the most dangerous battlefields of World War II. He more than once narrowly escaped the enemy’s fire, and so we have this incisive and exciting inside account of the groundbreaking initial landing of U.S. troops on Guadalcanal. This 2nd edition features a new Introduction by Mark Bowden, renowned journalist and author of Black Hawk Down.
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An American Life
- By: Ronald Reagan
- Narrator: Ronald Reagan
- Length: 2 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2004
- Language: English
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4.27(2555 ratings)
4.27(2555 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0015.95 USDDon’t miss one of our greatest presidents’ bestselling autobiographies in his own words. Ronald Reagan’s story is a work of major historical importance, a narrative that The Washington Times calls “one of our classic AmericanDon’t miss one of our greatest presidents’ bestselling autobiographies in his own words. Ronald Reagan’s story is a work of major historical importance, a narrative that The Washington Times calls “one of our classic American success stories.”
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Few presidents have accomplished more, or been so effective in changing the direction of government in ways that are both fundamental and lasting, than Ronald Reagan. Certainly no president has more dramatically raised the American spirit, or done so much to restore national strength and self-confidence.
Here, then, is a truly American success story—a great and inspiring one. From modest beginnings as the son of a shoe salesman in Tampico, Illinois, Ronald Reagan achieved first a distinguished career in Hollywood and then, as governor of California and as president of the most powerful nation in the world, a career of public service unique in our history.
Ronald Reagan’s account of that rise is told here with all the uncompromising candor, modesty, and wit that made him perhaps the most able communicator ever to occupy the White House, and also with the sense of drama of a gifted natural storyteller.
He tells us, with warmth and pride, of his early years and of the elements that made him, in later life, a leader of such stubborn integrity, courage, and clear-minded optimism. Reading the account of this childhood, we understand how his parents, struggling to make ends meet despite family problems and the rigors of the Depression, shaped his belief in the virtues of American life—the need to help others, the desire to get ahead and to get things done, the deep trust in the basic goodness, values, and sense of justice of the American people—virtues that few presidents have expressed more eloquently than Ronald Reagan.
With absolute authority and a keen eye for the details and the anecdotes that humanize history, Ronald Reagan takes the reader behind the scenes of his extraordinary career, from his first political experiences as president of the Screen Actors Guild (including his first meeting with a beautiful young actress who was later to become Nancy Reagan) to such high points of his presidency as the November 1985 Geneva meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev, during which Reagan invited the Soviet leader outside for a breath of fresh air and then took him off for a walk and a man-to-man chat, without aides, that set the course for arms reduction and charted the end of the Cold War.
Here he reveals what went on behind his decision to enter politics and run for the governorship of California, the speech nominating Barry Goldwater that first made Reagan a national political figure, his race for the presidency, his relations with the members of his own cabinet, and his frustrations with Congress.
He gives us the details of the great themes and dramatic crises of his eight years in office, from Lebanon to Grenada, from the struggle to achieve arms control to tax reform, from Iran-Contra to the visits abroad that did so much to reestablish the United States in the eyes of the world as a friendly and peaceful power. His narrative is full of insights, from the unseen dangers of Gorbachev’s first visit to the United States to Reagan’s own personal correspondence with major foreign leaders, as well as his innermost feelings about life in the White House, the assassination attempt, his family—and the enduring love between himself and Mrs. Reagan.
An American Life is a warm, richly detailed, and deeply human book, a brilliant self-portrait, a significant work of history. -
My Early Life
- By: Winston Churchill
- Narrator: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 12 hours 39 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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4.26(2994 ratings)
4.26(2994 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDAs a visionary, statesman, historian, and the most eloquent spokesman against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century.This is the story of the first thirty years of his life, up to the point where hisAs a visionary, statesman, historian, and the most eloquent spokesman against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill was one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century.This is the story of the first thirty years of his life, up to the point where his unique parliamentary career was just beginning. From childhood and his apprentice days at Harrow and Sandhurst we follow him on active service to Cuba, the northwest frontier, Omdurman and the Boer War–including the historic story of his escape from captivity–whilst in the background are his early adventures in politics and literature.
“I have tried, in each part of the quarter-century in which this tale lies, to show the point of view appropriate to my years, whether as a child, a schoolboy, a cadet, a subaltern, a war-correspondent or a youthful politician…When I survey this work as a whole I find I have drawn a picture of a vanished age.”–from the author’s preface
My Early Lifegives listeners insights into the shaping of a great leader.
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Irena’s Children
- By: Tilar J. Mazzeo
- Narrator: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 10 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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4.26(3783 ratings)
4.26(3783 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler–the “female Oskar Schindler”–who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death andFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler–the “female Oskar Schindler”–who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II.
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In 1942, one young social worker, Irena Sendler, was granted access to the Warsaw ghetto as a public health specialist. While she was there, she began to understand the fate that awaited the Jewish families who were unable to leave. Soon she reached out to the trapped families, going from door to door and asking them to trust her with their young children. Driven to extreme measures and with the help of a network of local tradesmen, ghetto residents, and her star-crossed lover in the Jewish resistance, Irena ultimately smuggled thousands of children past the Nazis. She made dangerous trips through the city’s sewers, hid children in coffins, snuck them under overcoats at checkpoints, and slipped them through secret passages in abandoned buildings.
But Irena did something even more astonishing at immense personal risk: she kept a secret list buried in bottles under an old apple tree in a friend’s back garden. On it were the names and true identities of these Jewish children, recorded so their families could find them after the war. She could not know that more than ninety percent of their families would perish.
Irena’s Children, “a fascinating narrative of…the extraordinary moral and physical courage of those who chose to fight inhumanity with compassion” (Chaya Deitsch author of Here and There: Leaving Hasidism, Keeping My Family), is a truly heroic tale of survival, resilience, and redemption. -
My Dear Boy
- By: Joanie Holzer Schirm
- Narrator: Kate Mulligan
- Length: 11 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.25(56 ratings)
4.25(56 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAfter the death of Joanie Holzer Schirm’s parents in 2000, she found hundreds of letters, held together by rusted paperclips and stamped with censor marks, sent from Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, China, and South and North America, along withAfter the death of Joanie Holzer Schirm’s parents in 2000, she found hundreds of letters, held together by rusted paperclips and stamped with censor marks, sent from Czechoslovakia, Great Britain, China, and South and North America, along with journals, vintage film, taped interviews, and photographs. In working through these various materials documenting the life of her father, Oswald “Valdik” Holzer, she learned of her family history through his remarkable experiences of exile and loss, resilience and hope.
In this posthumous memoir, Schirm elegantly re-creates her father’s youthful voice as he comes of age as a Jew in interwar Prague, escapes from a Nazi-held army unit, practices medicine in China’s war-ravaged interior, and settles in the United States to start a family. Introducing us to a diverse cast of characters ranging from the humorous to the menacing, Holzer’s life story is an inspirational account of survival during wartime, a cinematic epic spanning multiple continents, and ultimately a tale with a twist–a book that will move readers for generations to come.
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The Long Walk
- By: Slavomir Rawicz
- Narrator: John Lee
- Length: 9 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.23(13786 ratings)
4.23(13786 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe film The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell and Ed Harris, is based on this amazing true story. Twenty-six-year-old cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and sent to theThe film The Way Back, starring Colin Farrell and Ed Harris, is based on this amazing true story.
Twenty-six-year-old cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and sent to the Siberian Gulag. In the spring of 1941, he escaped with six of his fellow prisoners, including one American. Thus began their astonishing trek to freedom.
With no map or compass but only an ax head, a homemade knife, and a week’s supply of food, the compatriots spent a year making their way on foot to British India, through four thousand miles of the most forbidding terrain on earth. They braved the Himalayas, the desolate Siberian tundra, icy rivers, and the great Gobi Desert, always a hair’s breadth from death. Finally returning home, Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army to fight the Germans.
This is his story.
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Invasion Diary
- By: Richard Tregaskis
- Narrator: Pat Grimes
- Length: 7 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: November 29, 2016
- Language: English
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4.23(236 ratings)
4.23(236 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThe Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 were bloody and pivotal, securing the Mediterranean, capitalizing on the overthrow of Mussolini, and pinning down German troops that could have been used on the Russian Front or in France after D-Day.The Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943 were bloody and pivotal, securing the Mediterranean, capitalizing on the overthrow of Mussolini, and pinning down German troops that could have been used on the Russian Front or in France after D-Day. The men who made the Allied victories in Sicily and Italy possible-soldiers and officers, bombardiers and drivers, doctors and generals-are honored and remembered in these pages by famed war correspondent Richard Tregaskis. His experiences take him from bomb-bay doors over Rome, to the chaotic front lines in Italy, where he nearly died from a shrapnel wound. The uniquely American features of the Second World War are unforgettably inscribed through the pen of Richard Tregaskis.
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Adolf Hitler
- By: John Toland
- Narrator: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 44 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.23(2862 ratings)
4.23(2862 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDA national bestseller with more than 370,000 copies in print, this is “the first book that anyone who wants to learn about Hitler or the war in Europe must read” (Newsweek). Based on previously unpublished documents, diaries, notes,A national bestseller with more than 370,000 copies in print, this is “the first book that anyone who wants to learn about Hitler or the war in Europe must read” (Newsweek).
Based on previously unpublished documents, diaries, notes, photographs, and dramatic interviews with Hitler’s colleagues and associates, this is the definitive biography of one of the most despised yet fascinating figures of the twentieth century. Eminently readable and painstakingly documented, it is a work that will not soon be forgotten.
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The Great Escape
- By: Paul Brickhill
- Narrator: Simon Vance
- Length: 7 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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4.22(1573 ratings)
4.22(1573 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIt was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred American and British air force officers, every single one of them, every minute, every hour, everyIt was a split-second operation as delicate and as deadly as a time bomb. It demanded the concentrated devotion and vigilance of more than six hundred American and British air force officers, every single one of them, every minute, every hour, every day, and every night for more than a year. With only their bare hands and the crudest of homemade tools, they sank shafts, built underground railroads, forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons, and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes. They developed a fantastic security system to protect themselves from the German “ferrets” who prowled the compounds with nerve-racking tenacity and suspicion. And against all odds, they pulled off a daring mass escape from a German POW camp.
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The Dab of Dickens, The Touch of Twain, and The Shade of Shakespeare
- By: Elliot Engel
- Narrator: Elliot Engel
- Length: 6 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.21(51 ratings)
4.21(51 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0013.95 USDThey are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown—until now.They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown—until now. In this utterly captivating book, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature’s elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.
You’ll never look at these literary giants the same way again.
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South
- By: Ernest Shackleton
- Narrator: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hours 31 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.21(6335 ratings)
4.21(6335 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDIn 1911, veteran explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set out to lead the first expedition across Antarctica, the last unknown continent. Instead, his ship, the Endurance, became locked in sea ice, and for nine months, Shackleton fought a losing battleIn 1911, veteran explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton set out to lead the first expedition across Antarctica, the last unknown continent. Instead, his ship, the Endurance, became locked in sea ice, and for nine months, Shackleton fought a losing battle with the elements before the drifting ship was crushed, marooning him and his crew.
This gripping first-hand account follows Shackleton and his men on their harrowing journey back to civilization: over 600 miles of unstable ice floes on foot, 850 miles of the worst seas in an open 22-foot boat, and then 20 miles of mountainous terrain to reach the nearest outpost of civilization.
An astonishing story that explores the limits of human courage, Shackleton’s South ranks among history’s greatest adventures.
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Rebel Yell
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrator: Cotter Smith
- Length: 24 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.21(6053 ratings)
4.21(6053 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0034.99 USDFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the epic New York Times bestselling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic national hero.Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure ofFinalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the epic New York Times bestselling account of how Civil War general Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson became a great and tragic national hero.
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Stonewall Jackson has long been a figure of legend and romance. As much as any person in the Confederate pantheon–even Robert E. Lee–he embodies the romantic Southern notion of the virtuous lost cause. Jackson is also considered, without argument, one of our country’s greatest military figures. In April 1862, however, he was merely another Confederate general in an army fighting what seemed to be a losing cause. But by June he had engineered perhaps the greatest military campaign in American history and was one of the most famous men in the Western world. Jackson’s strategic innovations shattered the conventional wisdom of how war was waged; he was so far ahead of his time that his techniques would be studied generations into the future.
In his “magnificent Rebel Yell…S.C. Gwynne brings Jackson ferociously to life” (New York Newsday) in a swiftly vivid narrative that is rich with battle lore, biographical detail, and intense conflict among historical figures. Gwynne delves deep into Jackson’s private life and traces Jackson’s brilliant twenty-four-month career in the Civil War, the period that encompasses his rise from obscurity to fame and legend; his stunning effect on the course of the war itself; and his tragic death, which caused both North and South to grieve the loss of a remarkable American hero. -
One Party After Another
- By: Michael Crick
- Narrator: Richard Attlee
- Length: 20 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.21(53 ratings)
4.21(53 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD‘Enormously readable…excellent’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times‘A superb piece of thorough journalism’ David Aaronovitch, The TimesNigel Farage is arguably one of the most influential British politicians of the 21st‘Enormously readable…excellent’ Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times
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‘A superb piece of thorough journalism’ David Aaronovitch, The Times
Nigel Farage is arguably one of the most influential British politicians of the 21st century. His campaign to take the UK out of the EU began as a minority and extreme point of view, but in June 2016 it became the official policy of the nation after a divisive referendum. In Michael Crick’s brilliant new biography, One Party After Another, we find out how he did it, despite never once managing to get elected to Parliament.
Farage left public school at the age of 16 to go and work in the City, but in the 1990s he was drawn into politics, joining UKIP. Ironically, it was the electoral system for the European Parliament that gave him access to a platform, and he was elected an MEP in 1999. His everyman persona, combined with a natural ability as a maverick and outspoken performer on TV, ensured that he garnered plenty of media attention. His message resonated in ways that rattled the major parties – especially the Conservatives – and suddenly the UK’s membership of the EU was up for debate.
Controversy was never far away, with accusations of racism against the party and various scandals. But, having helped secure the referendum, Farage was largely sidelined by the successful official Brexit campaign. When Parliament struggled to find a way to leave, Farage created the Brexit Party to ensure Britain did eventually leave the EU early in 2020. Crick’s compelling new study takes the reader into the heart of Farage’s story, assessing his methods, uncovering remarkable hidden details and builds to an unmissable portrait of one of the most controversial characters in modern British politics. -
Subversive Southerner
- By: Catherine Fosl
- Narrator: Sara Morsey
- Length: 19 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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4.2(73 ratings)
4.2(73 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDAnne McCarty Braden (1924-2006) rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement’s staunchest white allies. In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthyist politicians who played on fears ofAnne McCarty Braden (1924-2006) rejected her segregationist, privileged past to become one of the civil rights movement’s staunchest white allies.
In 1954 she was charged with sedition by McCarthyist politicians who played on fears of communism to preserve southern segregation. Though Braden remained controversial–even within the civil rights movement–in 1963 she became one of only five white southerners whose contributions to the movement were commended by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in his famed “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Braden’s activism ultimately spanned nearly six decades, making her one of the most enduring white voices against racism in modern US history.
Subversive Southerner is more than a riveting biography of an extraordinary southern white woman; it is also a social history of how racism, sexism, and anticommunism intertwined in the twentieth-century South as ripples from the Cold War divided the emerging civil rights movement.
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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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