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Title: The Most Dangerous Man in America

Subtitle: Timothy Leary, Richard Nixon and the Hunt for the Fugitive King of LSD

Author: Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis

Narrator: Peter Ganim

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-09-18

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

From Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis, authors of the PEN Center USA award-winning Dallas 1963, comes a madcap narrative about Timothy Leary's daring prison escape and run from the law.

On the moonlit evening of September 12, 1970, an ex-Harvard professor with a genius IQ studies a 12-foot high fence topped with barbed wire. A few months earlier, Dr. Timothy Leary, the High Priest of LSD, had been running a gleeful campaign for California governor against Ronald Reagan. Now, Leary is six months into a 10-year prison sentence for the crime of possessing two marijuana cigarettes.

Aided by the radical Weather Underground, Leary's escape from prison is the counterculture's union of "dope and dynamite", aimed at sparking a revolution and overthrowing the government. Inside the Oval Office, President Richard Nixon drinks his way through sleepless nights as he expands the war in Vietnam and plots to unleash the United States government against his ever-expanding list of domestic enemies. Antiwar demonstrators are massing by the tens of thousands; homemade bombs are exploding everywhere; Black Panther leaders are threatening to burn down the White House; and all the while Nixon obsesses over tracking down Timothy Leary, whom he has branded "the most dangerous man in America."

Based on freshly uncovered primary sources and new firsthand interviews, The Most Dangerous Man in America is an American thriller that takes listeners along for the gonzo ride of a lifetime. Spanning 28 months, President Nixon's careening, global manhunt for Dr. Timothy Leary winds its way among homegrown radicals, European aristocrats, a Black Panther outpost in Algeria, an international arms dealer, hash-smuggling hippies from the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, and secret agents on four continents, culminating in one of the trippiest journeys through the American counterculture.

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Title: Ramp Hollow

Subtitle: The Ordeal of Appalachia

Author: Steven Stoll

Narrator: Brian Sutherland

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-21-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 21 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

How the United States underdeveloped Appalachia

Appalachia - among the most storied and yet least understood regions in America - has long been associated with poverty and backwardness. But how did this image arise, and what exactly does it mean? In Ramp Hollow, Steven Stoll launches an original investigation into the history of Appalachia and its place in US history, with a special emphasis on how generations of its inhabitants lived, worked, survived, and depended on natural resources held in common.

Ramp Hollow traces the rise of the Appalachian homestead and how its self-sufficiency resisted dependence on money and the industrial society arising elsewhere in the United States - until, beginning in the 19th century, extractive industries kicked off a "scramble for Appalachia" that left struggling homesteaders dispossessed of their land. As the men disappeared into coal mines and timber camps, and their families moved into shantytowns or deeper into the mountains, the commons of Appalachia were, in effect, enclosed, and the fate of the region was sealed.

Ramp Hollow takes a provocative look at Appalachia and the workings of dispossession around the world by upending our notions about progress and development. Stoll ranges widely from literature to history to economics in order to expose a devastating process whose repercussions we still feel today.

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Title: The Friendly Orange Glow

Subtitle: The Untold Story of the PLATO System and the Dawn of Cyberculture

Author: Brian Dear

Narrator: George Newbern

Format: Unabridged

Length: 21 hrs and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-14-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The remarkable, untold story of PLATO, the computer program and platform created in the 1960s that marked the true beginning of cyberculture - a book that will rewrite the history of computing and the Internet

At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn't even born, a group of visionary engineers and designers - some of them only high school students - in the late 1960s and 1970s created a computer system called PLATO, which was not only years but light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage, communicate, and play through connected computers. Not only did PLATO engineers make significant hardware breakthroughs with plasma displays and touch screens, but PLATO programmers also came up with a long list of software innovations: chat rooms, instant messaging, message boards, screen savers, multiplayer games, online newspapers, interactive fiction, and emoticons. Together, the PLATO community pioneered what we now collectively engage in as cyberculture. They were among the first to identify and also realize the potential and scope of the social interconnectivity of computers, well before the creation of the Internet. PLATO was the foundational model for every online community that was to follow in its footsteps.

The Friendly Orange Glow is the first history to recount in fascinating detail the remarkable accomplishments and the inspiring personal stories of the PLATO community. The addictive nature of PLATO both ruined many a college career and launched path-breaking multimillion-dollar software products. Its development, impact, and eventual disappearance provides an instructive case study of technological innovation and disruption, project management, and missed opportunities. Above all, The Friendly Orange Glow at last reveals new perspectives on the origins of social computing and our Internet-infatuated world.

Critic Reviews:

"Brian Dear has made an important and fascinating contribution to the history of the digital age. This insightful book tells the story of the pioneering system of networked computing known as PLATO. Much of what we enjoy today sprang from PLATO and the colorful community that created and embraced it." (Walter Isaacson, author of The Innovators and Steve Jobs)

"A full decade before the history most people believe, PLATO was the original system that inspired modern computing - and even the cloud. Designed and built by Midwestern pioneers starting in 1960, PLATO was still operational when I attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the early 1990s. In fact, I took math classes on it before building Mosaic. This story is a testament to the importance of both innovation and timing!" (Marc Andreessen, cofounder, Netscape and Andreessen Horowitz)

"I loved this deep unknown history. An incredible tale of a rag-tag team of students inventing key technologies - flat screens, instant messaging, networked games, blogging - decades before Silicon Valley, and then they were totally forgotten. Your mind will be blown." (Kevin Kelly, senior maverick for Wired magazine and author of The Inevitable)

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Title: Jewish Comedy

Subtitle: A Serious History

Author: Jeremy Dauber

Narrator: Jeremy Dauber

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-31-17

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter.

Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel. And he explores an enormous range of comic masterpieces, from the Book of Esther, Talmudic rabbi jokes, Yiddish satires, Borscht Belt skits, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm to the work of such masters as Sholem Aleichem, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Philip Roth, Sarah Silverman, and Jon Stewart.

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Title: The Accidental President

Subtitle: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World

Author: A. J. Baime

Narrator: Tony Messano

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 93 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The dramatic, pulse-pounding story of Harry Truman's first four months in office, when this unlikely president had to take on Germany, Japan, Stalin, and the atomic bomb, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.

Heroes are often defined as ordinary characters who get thrust into extraordinary circumstances and, through courage and a dash of luck, cement their places in history. Chosen as FDR's fourth-term vice president for his well-praised work ethic, good judgment, and lack of enemies, Harry S. Truman - a Midwesterner who had no college degree and had never had the money to buy his own home - was the prototypical ordinary man. That is, until he was shockingly thrust in over his head after FDR's sudden death.

During the climactic months of the Second World War, Truman had to play judge and jury, pulling America to the forefront of the global stage. The first four months of Truman's administration saw the founding of the United Nations, the fall of Berlin, victory at Okinawa, firebombings of Tokyo, the first atomic explosion, the Nazi surrender, the liberation of concentration camps, the mass starvation of Europe, the Potsdam Conference, the controversial decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the surrender of Imperial Japan, and, finally, the end of World War II and the rise of the Cold War. No other president had ever faced so much in such a short period of time.

Tightly focused, meticulously researched, rendered with vivid detail and narrative verve, The Accidental President escorts listeners into the situation room with Truman during this tumultuous, history-making 120 days, when the stakes were high and the challenge even higher. The result is narrative history of the highest order and a compelling look at a presidency with great relevance to our times.

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Title: The Thin Light of Freedom

Subtitle: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America

Author: Edward L. Ayers

Narrator: James Edward Thomas

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-24-17

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A landmark Civil War history told from a fresh, deeply researched ground-level perspective

At the crux of America's history stand two astounding events: the immediate and complete destruction of the most powerful system of slavery in the modern world, followed by a political reconstruction in which new constitutions established the fundamental rights of citizens for formerly enslaved people. Few people living in 1860 would have dared imagine either event, and yet, in retrospect, both seem to have been inevitable.

In a beautifully crafted narrative, Edward L. Ayers restores the drama of the unexpected to the history of the Civil War. He does this by setting up at ground level in the Great Valley counties of Augusta, Virginia, and Franklin, Pennsylvania, communities that shared a prosperous landscape but were divided by the Mason-Dixon Line. From the same vantage point occupied by his unforgettable characters, Ayers captures the strategic savvy of Lee and his local lieutenants, and the clear vision of equal rights animating black troops from Pennsylvania. We see the war itself become a scourge to the Valley, its pitched battles punctuating a cycle of vicious attack and reprisal in which armies burned whole towns for retribution. In the weeks and months after emancipation, from the streets of Staunton, Virginia, we see black and white residents testing the limits of freedom as political leaders negotiate the terms of re-admission to the Union.

Ayers deftly shows throughout how the dynamics of political opposition drove these momentous events, transforming once unimaginable outcomes into fact. With analysis as powerful as its narrative, here is a landmark history of the Civil War.

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Title: American Wolf

Subtitle: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

Author: Nate Blakeslee

Narrator: Nate Blakeslee, Mark Bramhall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-17-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 470 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The enthralling story of the rise and reign of O-Six, the celebrated Yellowstone wolf, and the people who loved or feared her.

Before men ruled the earth, there were wolves. Once abundant in North America, these majestic creatures were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought wolves back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West.

With novelistic detail, Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves, O-Six, a charismatic alpha female named for the year of her birth. Uncommonly powerful, with gray fur and faint black ovals around each eye, O-Six is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter, and a doting mother. She is beloved by wolf watchers, particularly renowned naturalist Rick McIntyre, and becomes something of a social media star, with followers around the world.

But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers who are losing livestock and have the ears of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves who are vying for control of the park's stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.

These forces collide in American Wolf, a riveting multigenerational saga of hardship and triumph that tells a larger story about the ongoing cultural clash in the West - between those fighting for a vanishing way of life and those committed to restoring one of the country's most iconic landscapes.

Critic Reviews:

"With

American Wolf, Nate Blakeslee gives us a very different sort of biography - the saga of a single female wolf, 'the most famous wolf in the world', and her exploits in Yellowstone National Park. It's a startlingly intimate portrait of the intricate, loving, human-like interrelationships that govern wolves in the wild, as observed in real time by a cadre of dedicated wolf-watchers - in the end, a drama of lupine love, care, and grief." (Erik Larson, author of

The Devil in the White City and

Dead Wake)

"Wild, poignant, and compelling,

American Wolf is an important, beautifully wrought book about animals, about values, and about living on this earth." (Susan Orlean, author of

The Orchid Thief and

Rin Tin Tin)

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Title: The Last Castle

Subtitle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nations Largest Home

Author: Denise Kiernan

Narrator: Denise Kiernan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-26-17

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 58 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Girls of Atomic City comes the fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore - the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States.

Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York's best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House.

Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore - and secure the future of the region and her husband's legacy.

The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. The Last Castle is the unique American story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

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Title: The Cold War

Subtitle: A World History

Author: Odd Arne Westad

Narrator: Julian Elfer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-05-17

Publisher: HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 52 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In The Cold War, Odd Arne Westad offers a new perspective on a century when a superpower rivalry and an ideological war transformed every corner of our globe. We traditionally think of the Cold War as a post-World War II diplomatic and military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Westad argues that the conflict must be understood as a global ideological confrontation with roots in the industrial revolution and with continuing implications for the world today. The Cold War may have begun on the perimeters of Europe, but it had its largest impacts in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Expanding our understanding of the Cold War both geographically and chronologically, Westad offers the definitive new history of an ongoing battle.

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Title: The American West: History, Myth, and Legacy

Author: The Great Courses

Narrator: Professor Patrick N. Allitt PhD

Format: Original Recording

Length: 12 hrs and 1 min

Language: English

Release date: 08-18-17

Publisher: The Great Courses

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 122 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Our understanding of the American West has moved far beyond pop culture in recent years. The legendary people and events we associate with the Wild West - the last stand at the Alamo, the Battle of Little Bighorn, the exploits of Calamity Jane, the hardships of the Oregon Trail - are even more fascinating once the historical realities have been separated from the myths.

Designed to shine a light on the American frontier, these 24 lectures are a way for you to experience the grit and grandeur of an epic period in American history. Professor Allitt uncovers new historical angles and perspectives about events and themes ranging from the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Indian Removal Act to the creation America's first national parks.

You'll cover more than 200 years of history and the most important events, themes, and ideas that form the backbone of the frontier's reality - and legend. Among these: the Transcontinental Railroad, the idea of Manifest Destiny, the Gold Rush, the Trail of Tears, and (yes) cowboys. You'll also learn how popular culture - novels like Little House on the Prairie, paintings by artists like Frederic Remington, and decades of Western films - can actually clue us in to the intimate details of life for everyday men and women.

Saddle up for an exciting adventure in learning.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

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