Discover Top 100 Audiobooks in History, American Popular Titles

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Title: Coinage of the United States

Subtitle: A Short History

Author: Doug West

Narrator: Gregory Diehl

Format: Unabridged

Length: 55 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-04-15

Publisher: C&D Publications

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The history of United States coinage is a story that parallels the rise of America. Starting from a humble beginning in a basement in Philadelphia in the first few years of the country, it grew to a large highly sophisticated system that produces millions of coins per year. Due to a lack of silver, the first silver coins produced by the Mint came from silverware contributed by George and Martha Washington.

Coins are something we take for granted today and put in jars and baskets on our night stands to accumulate for a rainy day when we need a few extra dollars. For more than half of the history of America, that wouldn't have been possible for the average citizen. It wasn't until after the Civil War that coinage became widely used for all types of transactions. Until that time, barter and money substitutes, such as tokens, script, and foreign coins, were used as a mediums of exchange.

Members Reviews:

Tremendous value on US monetary history

I'm amazed that so much history can be so economically packed into this little work.

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Title: Ricochet

Subtitle: Two Women War Reporters and a Friendship Under Fire

Author: Mary Jo McConahay

Narrator: Betsy Baker

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-30-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

When three colleagues die violently during a single wartime election day in Central America, two female journalists, best friends, are hurled into a torrent of change in their personal and professional lives and in their relationship with each other. The author, bedeviled by stress and feelings of abandonment, hangs on by her fingernails to reporting while her dear friend "just can't take another picture of a dead body" and throws herself into teaching photography to children who live in a garbage dump. Big questions quietly roil their lives - what is our responsibility to history? To individuals? - until, unexpectedly, they approach an answer together when a child from the dump goes missing.

Mary Jo McConahay is the author of Maya Roads, One Woman's Journey Among the People of the Rainforest. She is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker whose coverage of war, politics, and international justice issues over three decades has appeared in Time, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Vogue, Rolling Stone, and dozens of other newspapers and magazines. Also a believer in writing "deep travel", weaving local history and voices into narrative, she is the current Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year, a distinction considered equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize in the genre. Maya Roads' awards include the Northern California Book Award for Best Nonfiction Book, National Geographic Traveler Book of the Month, Society of American Travel Writers Grand Award, Independent Publisher's Award for Best Travel Essay Book, Los Angeles BookNews International Book Awards for Best New Nonfiction Book, Best Travel Essay Book, and Best Memoir/Autobiography.

This is a short audiobook originally published as an ebook by Shebooks - high quality fiction, memoir, and journalism for women, by women.

Members Reviews:

Tense, Gritty, and Full of Humanity.

"The plane banked over the surf, came in low over khaki sand, and hit the runway with a single bump, rolling to a stop under the familiar welcome sign..."

With that opening line, Mary Jo McConahay drops us into 1989 El Salvador and, in a tense, urgent narrative, propels us through the war ravaged streets of a Central America in utter turmoil. Many dramas and many themes unfold throughout the story. There's the two American women journalists, one working in words, the other in film, mired in the external war while fighting a war of their own for respect and validation. There are the innocent victims, the common people whose impoverished lives are made even more insufferable by the ongoing horrors of warring factions that have no concern for residual casualties. Corruption, yes, and political intrigue, but told from the human perspective, that of the people suffering or the observers of those who have suffered.

McConahay does an excellent job conveying the journalist perspective. We're there with her in the field. We understand the pressure to get the story and somehow put human emotion on a back burner because the emotion must find it's proper target in the reader. She tells us of the stories that must remain untold because her male colleagues just don't get it:

"Our colleagues, mostly men, seemed to be less interested in what happened to women and children caught in the landscape we covered.

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Title: American Thought & Life

Subtitle: Based on 6 Great Documents

Author: Deaver Brown

Narrator: Deaver Brown

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-29-15

Publisher: Simply Media

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

American Thought is a profound accessible book about how America got to where it is by building on 6 great documents: Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, The Gettysburg Address, Emancipation Proclamation, and the I Have a Dream Speech. Brings it all together in a succinct work that will deliver A's for students & knowledge for all of us.

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Title: Lost Plantation

Subtitle: The Rise and Fall of Seven Oaks

Author: Marc R. Matrana

Narrator: Charles Henderson Norman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-02-15

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Along the fertile banks of the Mississippi River across from New Orleans, planter Camille Zeringue transformed a mediocre colonial plantation into a thriving gem of antebellum sugar production, complete with a columned mansion known as Seven Oaks. Under the moss-strewn oaks, the privileged master nurtured his own family but enslaved many others. Excelling at agriculture, business, an ambitious canal enterprise, and local politics, Zeringue ascended to the very pinnacle of Southern society. But his empire soon came crashing down. After the ravages of the Civil War and a nasty battle with a railroad company, the family eventually lost the great estate. Seven Oaks ultimately ended up in the hands of distant railroad executives whose only desire was to rid themselves of this heap of history.

Lost Plantation: The Rise and Fall of Seven Oaks tells both of Zeringue's climb to the top and of his legacy's eventual ruin. Preservationists and community members abhorred the railroad's indifferent attitude, and the question of the plantation mansion's fate fueled years of fiery, political battles. These hard-fought confrontations ended in 1977, when the exasperated railroad executives sent bulldozers through the decaying house. By analyzing one failed effort, Lost Plantation provides insight into the complex workings of American historical preservation efforts as a whole while illustrating how Southerners deal with their multifaceted past. The rise and fall of Seven Oaks is much more than just a local tragedy - it is a glaring example of how any community can be robbed of its history. Now, as parishes around New Orleans recognize the great aesthetic and monetary value of restoring plantation homes and attracting tourism, Jefferson Parish mourns a manor lost.

Members Reviews:

As a Descendant of the Zeringue family....

As a Descendant of the Zeringue family, I might be slightly biased about the book, but in trying to be objective - it really was a well written book and very informative. I learned a lot about my Ancestors that I had never known before and even though it brings to light a very troubling past for my family, it is never the less a fact of history and I am also proud of many things about my Ancestors. I was born in 1966, just as Seven Oaks was crumbling to its death. I remember at a very young age, my family having discussions about how wrong it would be if we as a community lost the great treasure that used to be our ancestors home. I never got to go inside or even near the old house as a child because of it's advanced decay, but within the history of the old house within these pages, I felt the experience that was Seven Oaks, and in many ways it felt richer than if I had walked through the ruins as a child. I thank the writer for the time he took to bring this jewel to life in my mind and heart.

Five Stars

This book is a great in site to our family's heritage.

This book is well written

This book is well written. I love the details of the history of Seven Oaks. It does include some pictures which help to illustrate of a time and place long lost.

Five Stars

Excellent.

A very sad account of America's lost architecture

A very sad account of America's lost architecture. At one time, Mississippi was one of the most architecturally diverse states in the country.

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Title: Examining the Issue of Enslaving Native Americans

Author: Jason Wallace

Narrator: Dennis Logan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-20-15

Publisher: Jason Wallace

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In 1550-51, Bartolomé de las Casas and Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, in the Valladolid Debate, attempted to settle the issue of whether or not Native Americans should have been enslaved, given sanction by the Pope. Both carefully argued their sides, las Casas stating emphatically, through his "Apología", that Native Americans were not all uncivilized and that only Canaanite tribes could be enslaved. What ensued was a heated, good-versus-evil argument that settled nothing and still allowed the Catholic Church and the Spanish government to condone and support the continued enslavement of native peoples.

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Title: The Address of the People of South Carolina to the People of the Slaveholding States of The United States Sample

Author: Robert Barnwell Rhett

Narrator: Mike Vendetti

Format: Original Recording

Length: 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-06-15

Publisher: Spoken Realms

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, this is one of three documents published by the South Carolina Secession Convention, detailing the decision to secede. The address is generally credited to Robert Barnwell Rhett, though it was produced by a committee of seven members led by Rhett. Adopted December 24, 1860, it was about slavery.

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Title: History of the Presidency

Author: The Hugh Hewitt Show

Narrator: Hugh Hewitt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-23-15

Publisher: Salem Media Group

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Eminent presidential historian and biographer Richard Norton Smith joins Hugh Hewitt for a brisk and fascinating walk through the lives of the first 43 presidents. The perfect introduction to American history and a key fix for any presidential trivia junkie. Norton opens the door to the White House and to the essential summary of all of the Oval Office occupants. The Hugh Hewitt Show presents: History of the Presidency with special guest Richard Norton Smith.

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Title: Pen and Sword

Subtitle: American War Correspondents, 1898-1975

Author: Mary S. Mander

Narrator: Robert J. Eckrich

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-12-15

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Addressing the ever-changing, overlapping trajectories of war and journalism, this introduction to the history and culture of modern American war correspondence considers a wealth of original archival material. In powerful analyses of letters, diaries, journals, television news archives, and secondary literature related to the US's major military conflicts of the twentieth century, Mary S. Mander highlights the intricate relationship of the postmodern nation state to the free press and to the public. Pen and Sword: American War Correspondents, 1898-1975 situates war correspondence within the larger framework of the history of the printing press to make perceptive new points about the nature of journalism and censorship, the institution of the press as a source of organized dissent, and the relationship between the press and the military. Fostering a deeper understanding of the occupational culture of war correspondents who have accompanied soldiers into battle, Mander offers interpretive analysis of the reporters' search for meaning while embedded with troops in war-torn territories. Broadly encompassing the history of Western civilization and modern warfare, Pen and Sword prompts new ways of thinking about contemporary military conflicts and the future of journalism.

The book is published by University of Illinois Press.

Critic Reviews:

"A stimulating inquiry into the place of war correspondents in twentieth-century American life." (Owen Johnson, coauthor of Eastern European Journalism)

"A thoughtful consideration of the history and culture of war correspondents in the United States. Written in an engaging, muscular voice and filled with insight, Pen and Sword makes novel arguments based on significant archival evidence." (John C. Nerone, coauthor of The Form of News: A History))

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Title: The Dance of Ghosts

Author: Jason Wallace

Narrator: Alex Jeffries

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-09-15

Publisher: Jason Wallace

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Epidemic and deprivation were widespread among Native American tribes in the 19th century. The Ghost Dance asserted that Native Americans were God's chosen people, attempting to restore Native American pride, dignity, power, and autonomy. The 1870 Ghost Dance was a combination of a curing rite (curing for diseases and to bring a "lost soul" back to its body) and an increase rite (to increase food). With enough time and performance, land, loved ones, and game would return to the people and cure them of their ills.

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Title: Lincoln's Assassin

Subtitle: The Unsolicited Confessions of John Wilkes Booth

Author: J. F. Pennington

Narrator: Bernard Setaro Clark

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-02-15

Publisher: Audible Studios

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A riveting, fictionalized confessional of John Wilkes Booth that evokes a world of conspiracy, political duplicity, and theatricality.

In 1890 actor John Wilkes Booth - long presumed dead - emerged from 25 years of anonymity in his wilderness refuge to expose those truly responsible for the Lincoln assassination and its ensuing cover-up, to unite with the children he had never known and recover what he might of his sense of purpose and dignity.

After shooting President Abraham Lincoln, Booth fled into the night, and government reports claimed he was killed 12 days later. But the man who was shot in the head and burned in a tobacco-shed fire before being covertly transported to Washington was never fully identified. Friends, as well as members of America's premier family of the theatre, of which he was a member, were barred from even viewing the body - the only photograph taken of the corpse was never printed and then lost, and a strangely ceremonious martial court presided over a secret burial. Rumor immediately began to circulate: Booth was still alive.

In Lincoln's Assassin, Jeffrey Pennington presents Booth's own story of flight and return, detailing how another was shot in his place as he escaped to nominal freedom and obscurity, leaving behind all his personal belongings and the stage life he once knew. The larger conspiracy in which he was embroiled is unpicked in stylish fashion, exploring the political landscape in which Lincoln lived and died. Written in a confessional style, it aims to offer an insight into the true motivations at the heart of the Lincoln assassination, an event that continues to be the subject of much theorizing and interest.

Members Reviews:

Booth should have stayed dead

What was this? A mishmash of ramblings by an author.

Dialogue Heavy Book Misfires & Meanders. Audiobook's Cartoony Accents Laughable

Meager (if any) traditional "plot". I can't believe I even listened all the way through! J. F. Pennington should have written this as a stage or screenplay cuz almost 90% of it is dialogue (which often leads nowhere.) And sometimes the author inserts highbrow vocabulary words in places that don't belong & stick out like a sore thumb. Perhaps if I were reading instead of listening it wouldn't have been as obnoxious but the Over-The-Top audiobook narrator (Bernard Setaro Clark) added way too many voices throughout. It was both distracting and humorous (when it wasn't supposed to be.) For example, one of the characters had a "Cajun accent" but the narrator voiced him in a rumbling Russian (Boris from Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoon) type accent. How laughable, like listening to Saturday Morning Cartoons from the 70's. (A little bit of that goes a longggggg way.) This book has glimmers of listenability but unsustainable overall. There are scores of far Better Lincoln-Booth books out there so skip this one.