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Title: A Country of Vast Designs

Subtitle: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent

Author: Robert W. Merry

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 19 hrs and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-05-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 251 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

When James K. Polk was elected president in 1844, the United States was locked in a bitter diplomatic struggle with Britain over the rich lands of the Oregon Territory, which included what is now Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Texas, not yet part of the Union, was threatened by a more powerful Mexico. And the territories north and west of Texas - what would become California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and part of Colorado - belonged to Mexico.

When Polk relinquished office four years later, the country had grown by more than a third as all these lands were added. The continental United States as we know it today was established - facing two oceans and positioned to dominate both.

In a one-term presidency, Polk completed the story of America's Manifest Destiny - extending its territory across the continent, from sea to sea, by threatening England and manufacturing a controversial and unpopular two-year war with Mexico that Abraham Lincoln, in Congress at the time, opposed as preemptive.

Robert W. Merry tells this story through powerful debates and towering figures: the outgoing President John Tyler and Polk's great mentor, Andrew Jackson; his defeated Whig opponent, Henry Clay; two famous generals, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott; Secretary of State James Buchanan (who would precede Lincoln as president); Senate giants Thomas Hart Benton and Lewis Cass; Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun; and ex-president Martin Van Buren, like Polk a Jackson protégé, but now a Polk rival.

This was a time of tremendous clashing forces. A surging antislavery sentiment was at the center of the territorial fight. The struggle between a slave-owning South and an opposing North was leading inexorably to Civil War. In a gripping narrative, Merry illuminates this crucial epoch in U.S. history.

Critic Reviews:

A compelling, perceptive portrait of one of the oddest men ever to occupy the White House. (

The Wall Street Journal)

"A crucial architect of modern America, James K. Polk deserves to be elevated out of the mists of history. In this engaging book, Robert Merry does just that, recapturing the passions and personalities of a forgotten era in American life." (Jon Meacham, author of

American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House)

"Polk was our most underrated president. He made the United States into a continental nation. Bob Merry captures the controversial and the visionary aspects of his presidency in a colorful narrative populated by great characters such as Jackson, Clay, and Van Buren." (Walter Isaacson, author of

Einstein: His Life and Universe)

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Title: Martin Luther King

Subtitle: The Essential Box Set: The Landmark Speeches and Sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Author: Clayborne Carson, Kris Shepard, Peter Holloran, Martin Luther King

Narrator: Keith David, Jay Gregory, Martin Luther King

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-22-09

Publisher: Hachette Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 114 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

This definitive box set includes all the landmark speeches of the great orator and American leader Martin Luther King, Jr., from his inspirational "I Have a Dream" to his firey "Give Us the Ballot." Comprised of recordings previously included in A Call to Conscience and A Knock at Midnight, The Essential Box Set is a must-have for any home, library, or school collection.

©2009 Hachette; (P)2009 Hachette

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Title: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Subtitle: An Indian History of the American West

Author: Dee Brown

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-23-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 1214 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the 19th century uses council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions. Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won - and lost.

©1970 Dee Brown; Preface 2000 by Dee Brown; (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking....Impossible to put down." (New York Times)

"Shattering, appalling, compelling....One wonders...who indeed were the savages." (Washington Post)

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Title: The Dead Hand

Subtitle: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and its Dangerous Legacy

Author: David E. Hoffman

Narrator: Bob Walter

Format: Unabridged

Length: 20 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-13-09

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 845 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 2010

During the Cold War, world superpowers amassed nuclear arsenals containing the explosive power of one million Hiroshimas. The Soviet Union secretly plotted to create the "Dead Hand," a system designed to launch an automatic retaliatory nuclear strike on the United States, and developed a fearsome biological warfare machine. President Ronald Reagan, hoping to awe the Soviets into submission, pushed hard for the creation of space-based missile defenses.

In the first full account of how the arms race finally ended, The Dead Hand provides an unprecedented look at the inner motives and secret decisions of each side. Drawing on top-secret documents from deep inside the Kremlin, memoirs, and interviews in both Russia and the United States, David Hoffman introduces the scientists, soldiers, diplomats, and spies who saw the world sliding toward disaster and tells the gripping story of how Reagan, Gorbachev, and many others struggled to bring the madness to an end. When the Soviet Union dissolved, the danger continued, and the United States began a race against time to keep nuclear and biological weapons out of the hands of terrorists and and rogue states.

Critic Reviews:

"A stunning feat of research and narrative. Terrifying." (John le Carré)

"In The Dead Hand, David Hoffman has uncovered some of the Cold War's most persistent and consequential secrets - plans and systems designed to wage war with weapons of mass destruction, and even to place the prospective end of civilization on a kind of automatic pilot. The book's revelations are shocking; its narrative is intelligent and gripping. This is a tour de force of investigative history." (Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens)

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Title: The National Parks

Subtitle: America's Best Idea

Author: Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns

Narrator: Ken Burns

Format: Unabridged

Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-08-09

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 198 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

America's national parks spring from an idea as radical as the Declaration of Independence: that the nation's most magnificent and sacred places should be preserved, not for royalty or the rich, but for everyone.

In this evocative narrative, Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan delve into the history of the park idea, from the first sighting by white men in 1851 of the valley that would become Yosemite and the creation of the world's first national park at Yellowstone in 1872, through the most recent additions to a system that now encompasses nearly four hundred sites and 84 million acres.

The authors recount the adventures, mythmaking, and intense political battles behind the evolution of the park system, and the enduring ideals that fostered its growth. They capture the importance and splendors of the individual parks: from Haleakala in Hawaii to Acadia in Maine, from Denali in Alaska to the Everglades in Florida, from Glacier in Montana to Big Bend in Texas. And they introduce us to a diverse cast of compelling characters, both unsung heroes and famous figures, such as John Muir, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ansel Adams, who have been transformed by these special places and committed themselves to saving them from destruction so that the rest of us could be transformed as well.

The National Parks is a glorious celebration of an essential expression of American democracy.

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Title: Zeitoun

Author: Dave Eggers

Narrator: Firdous Bamji

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-31-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1112 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

When HurricaneKatrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun - a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four - chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the eerie days after the storm, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and rescuing those he could. A week later, on September 6, 2005, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.

Eggers's riveting work, three years in the making, follows Zeitoun back to his childhood in Syria and around the world during his years as a sailor. The book also traces the story of Zeitoun's wife Kathy - a boisterous Southerner who converted to Islam - and their wonderful, funny, devoted family. When Zeitoun vanishes, Kathy is left to make sense of the surreal atmosphere (in New Orleans and the United States generally) in which what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun was possible.

Critic Reviews:

"Imagine Charles Dickens, his sentimentality in check but his journalistic eyes wide open, roaming New Orleans after it was buried by Hurricane Katrina ... Eggers's tone is pitch-perfect - suspense blended with just enough information to stoke reader outrage and what is likely to be a typical response: How could this happen in America?" (Timothy Egan, The New York Times)

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Title: A History of the American People

Author: Paul Johnson

Narrator: Nadia May

Format: Unabridged

Length: 47 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-06-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 410 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Anne Hutchinson, Cotton Mather, Ben Franklin, Tom Paine, George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, among others, are all presented in a fresh perspective. Wherever possible, letters, diaries, and recorded conversations are used to ensure a sense of actuality.

This is an in-depth portrait of a great people, from their fragile origins and struggles for independence, to their heroic efforts and sacrifices to deal with the "organic sin" of slavery and the preservation of the Union, to their explosive economic growth and emergence as the world's greatest superpower.

Critic Reviews:

"Johnson is a lively writer (more so than nearly all other historians), and May's reading is sensitive to Johnson's wit and sharp comments....Her reading is lively, crisp, and sharp throughout." (AudioFile)

"A magnificent achievement...brilliantly combines broad sweep with extraordinary detail." (Wall Street Journal)

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Title: The Big Rich

Subtitle: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes

Author: Bryan Burrough

Narrator: James Jenner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-26-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 361 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

While hobnobbing with movie stars and presidents, the Big Rich also created the legend of the swaggering Texas oilman with island hideaways and sprawling ranches.

Critic Reviews:

"John Dunning is a master." (USA Today)

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Title: What Hath God Wrought

Subtitle: The Transformation of America, 1815 - 1848

Author: Daniel Walker Howe

Narrator: Patrick Cullen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 32 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-09-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 774 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Pulitzer Prize, History, 2008

In this addition to the esteemed Oxford History of the United States series, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the Battle of New Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era of revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated America's expansion and prompted the rise of mass political parties.

He examines the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party but contends that John Quincy Adams and other advocates of public education, economic integration, and the rights of blacks, women, and Indians were the true prophets of America's future.

Howe's panoramic narrative - weaving together social, economic, and cultural history with political and military events - culminates in the controversial but brilliantly executed war against Mexico that gained California and Texas for America.

Please note: The individual volumes of the series have not been published in historical order. What Hath God Wrought is number V in The Oxford History of the United States.

Critic Reviews:

"One of the most outstanding syntheses of U.S. history published this decade." (Publishers Weekly)

"He is a genuine rarity: an English intellectual who not merely writes about the United States but actually understands it." (Washington Post)

"A stunning synthesis....it is a rare thing to encounter a book so magisterial and judicious and also so compelling." (Chicago Tribune)

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Title: The Wordy Shipmates

Author: Sarah Vowell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-02-08

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1566 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

To this day, America views itself as a Puritan nation, but Vowell investigates what that means - and what it should mean. What was this great political enterprise all about? Who were these people who are considered the philosophical, spiritual, and moral ancestors of our nation? What Vowell discovers is something far different from what their uptight shoe-buckles-and-corn reputation might suggest. The people she finds are highly literate, deeply principled, and surprisingly feisty. Their story is filled with pamphlet feuds, witty courtroom dramas, and bloody vengeance. Along the way she asks:

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