Download Best Sellers Audiobooks in History, American

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Title: The Yellow Kids

Subtitle: Foreign Correspondents in the Heyday of Yellow Journalism

Author: Joyce Milton

Narrator: Gary Dikeos

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-28-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The amazing story behind the greatest newspaper men to ever live, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, lies primarily hidden with their reporters who were in the field.

They risked their lives in Cuba as the country grappled for independence simply to get the story and write what was not always the most accurate story, but definitely the best. Anything to sell papers. Reporters like Harry Scovel, Stephen Crane, Cora Taylor, Richard Harding Davis, and James Creelman, among others, put themselves in danger every day just for the news.

The Yellow Kids is an adventure story packed with engaging characters, witticism, humor and adversity, to reveal that the yellow found in journalism was often an extra ingredient applied by editors and publishers in New York.

Editorial Reviews:

"You furnish the pictures, Ill furnish the war." That was newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearsts (possibly apocryphal) instructions to Frederick Remington, who was bored in Cuba waiting for a war that looked like it would never come. Such is the credo of so-called "yellow journalism", which ruled the day at the turn of the 20th century as Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer competed for circulation.

Though the story has been told, this audiobook, written by Joyce Milton and performed with urgency and a sense of fun by Gary Dikeos, provides the listener a much-needed perspective: that of the reporters.

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Title: A Massacre in Memphis

Subtitle: The Race Riot That Shook the Nation One Year After the Civil War

Author: Stephen V. Ash

Narrator: Michael Butler Murray

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-15-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

An unprecedented account of one of the bloodiest and most significant racial clashes in American history

In May 1866, just a year after the Civil War ended, Memphis erupted in a three-day spasm of racial violence that saw whites rampage through the city's black neighborhoods. By the time the fires consuming black churches and schools were put out, forty-six freed people had been murdered. Congress, furious at this and other evidence of white resistance in the conquered South, launched what is now called Radical Reconstruction, policies to ensure the freedom of the regions four million blacks - and one of the most remarkable experiments in American history.

Stephen V. Ash's A Massacre in Memphis is a portrait of a Southern city that opens an entirely new view onto the Civil War and its aftermath. A momentous national event, the riot is also remarkable for being "one of the best-documented episodes of the American nineteenth century." Yet Ash is the first to mine the sources available to full effect.

Bringing postwar Memphis to vivid life, he takes us among newly arrived Yankees, former Rebels, boisterous Irish immigrants, and striving freed people, and shows how Americans of the period worked, prayed, expressed their politics, and imagined the future. And how they died: Ash's harrowing and profoundly moving present-tense narration of the riot has the immediacy of the best journalism.

Told with nuance, grace, and a quiet moral passion, A Massacre in Memphis is Civil War-era history like no other.

Members Reviews:

Blah

I bought this book after reading the authors other book that is available on Audible. I very much enjoyed that book as the author put together a book that was a collection of private diaries, narrated things at times but mostly was more of an editor than anything. That book was interesting in that he let the people speak and mostly kept his opinions out of it.

This book is the exact opposite of that. Instead of letting the story tell itself the author feels to the need to constantly lecture you to make sure you get the point. He overstates the obvious over and over, instead of approaching the story from a historical point of view he approaches it like a someone on a moral crusade. The author is so biased in the way he presents information its completely natural to wonder what he left out. We're all very well aware that blacks were treated badly, but the way to show that would have been to let each party tell their story themselves. The author notes at the beginning of the book how well documented this event was, yet rarely seems to use much of that documentation for anything.

Overall this book was very frustrating since if the author stuck to his previous format he could have made an interesting book that would have been a good read on a subject that many people know nothing about.

It's not a worthless book, but it's nowhere near a good book. Locals to Memphis might find this book to be more enjoyable as it has a good amount of location information. I know nothing of Memphis and didn't find it distracting, but someone that knew the area would probably be able to pick up some interesting tidbits.

The reader was acceptable, nothing special but not bad either.

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Title: Novembers Winter, The Indian Cries

Subtitle: The Most Powerful Indian Story in American History

Author: U.C. Berkeley

Narrator: Lynn Benson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-04-13

Publisher: Kimberley Lynn Reese

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Through Novembers Winter Air, The Indian Cries: The Most Powerful Indian Story in American History. In this audiobook I have tried to make a faithful representation of Quanah Parker, his background and associates; to give an understanding portrayal of his life and work. Historical material has been carefully studied and followed, checked with members of the family; and I have a personal acquaintance with much of the territory and some of the particular places involved. However, it has been necessary, especially in the earlier part, to reconstruct the story from the little that was known, much as the paleontologist frames the skeleton of some prehistoric dinosaur from the bones that have been dug up.

Members Reviews:

Priceless collection!

This is an extraordinary collection of stories about the life and times of the great Comanche chief Quannah Parker. The stories range in topics such as his mother's kidnapping, Quannah's childhood, the ways of the Comanche and Quannah's relationship with US Govt on behalf of his people.

I can't praise the collection enough. The author used sources, such as Quannah's own son, and other sources which would forever be unavailable to us as years separate us from Quannah's life.

Excellent book. Great narrator. Highly recommended!

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Title: Executing Democracy

Subtitle: Volume One: Capital Punishment & the Making of America, 1683-1807 (Rhetoric & Public Affairs)

Author: Stephen John Hartnett

Narrator: Kenneth Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-04-13

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Executing Democracy: Capital Punishment & the Making of America, 1683-1807 is the first volume of a rhetorical history of public debates about crime, violence, and capital punishment in America. This examination begins in 1683, when William Penn first struggled to govern the rowdy indentured servants of Philadelphia, and continues up until 1807, when the Federalists sought to impose law-and-order upon the New Republic.

This volume offers a lively historical overview of how crime, violence, and capital punishment influenced the settling of the New World, the American Revolution, and the frantic post-war political scrambling to establish norms that would govern the new republic.

By presenting a macro-historical overview, and by filling the arguments with voices from different political camps and communicative genres, Hartnett provides readers with fresh perspectives for understanding the centrality of public debates about capital punishment to the history of American democracy.

Critic Reviews:

Steven Hartnett's Executing Democracy, Volume One, offers a penetrating and scathing critique of the nation's obsession with spectacular violence and capital punishment. (Early American Literature)

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Title: Hurricane Katrina: The Mississippi Story

Author: James Patterson Smith

Narrator: Claton Butcher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-06-13

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

This book presents the fullest account yet written of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in a wealth of oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty five thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities. James Patterson Smith takes us through life and death accounts of storm day, August 29, 2005, and the precarious days of food and water shortages that followed. Along the way the narrative treats us to inspiring episodes of neighborly compassion and creative responses to the greatest natural disaster in American history.

The heroes of this saga are the local people and local officials. In often moving accounts, the book addresses the Mississippi Gulf Coast's long struggle to remove a record-setting volume of debris and get on with the rebuilding of homes, schools, jobs, and public infrastructure. Along the way readers are offered insights into the politics of recovery funding and the bureaucratic bungling and hubris that afflicted the storm response and complicated and delayed the work of recovery. Still, there are ample accounts of things done well, and a moving chapter gives us a feel for the psychological, spiritual, and material impact of the eight hundred thousand people from across the nation who gave of themselves as volunteers in the Mississippi recovery effort.

The book is published by University Press of Mississippi

Members Reviews:

OK

First a hint on the narration - while I agree it's awful there is a very simple fix, change your playback speed in the audible app to 1.25x - if you do that the narration actually sounds normal, maybe a tiny bit quicker than someone would normally talk, but in this case it actually sounds correct. No idea if there was an issue with the recording, like someone has it running at like 80% normal speed, but give it a try, the audio sounds completely normal at 125% speed.

So with the narration fixed here's my comment on the book.

I was wanting a book that went more into the evacuation efforts, stories of the day of the storm, maybe some details on what was going on behind the scenes - this book offers almost none of that. This book is a tiny bit about the hurricane and then mostly a story about the clean-up. The person writing the book is clearly pretty far to the left since their answer to every issue is just give people, even if they don't deserve it, other people's money. You didn't buy insurance on your beach home - well not to worry, the government should pay for it. You're too "poor" to afford insurance for your beachfront condo - well not you're probably, the government should pay for it - that is basically the theme over and over and over again. The author seems to think you carry zero responsibility for your own actions and everyone else should pay for the mistakes you made.

So based on that it's about a zero star book, so let me explain the rest and why I gave it three stars. Despite the author not offering much of any insight into what was going on behind the scenes at the federal level he has some nice local stories and stories I've never heard before.

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Title: Playing for Keeps

Subtitle: A History of Early Baseball (20th Anniversary Edition)

Author: Warren Goldstein

Narrator: Robert J. Eckrich

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-30-13

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In the late 1850s organized baseball was a club-based fraternal sport thriving in the cultures of respectable artisans, clerks and shopkeepers, and middle-class sportsmen. Two decades later it had become an entertainment business run by owners and managers, depending on gate receipts and the increasingly disciplined labor of skilled player-employees. Playing for Keeps is an insightful, in-depth account of the game that became America's premier spectator sport for nearly a century.

Reconstructing the culture and experience of early baseball through a careful reading of the sporting press, baseball guides, and the correspondence of the player-manager Harry Wright, Warren Goldstein discovers the origins of many modern controversies during the game's earliest decades.

The 20th Anniversary Edition of Goldstein's classic includes information about the changes that have occurred in the history of the sport since the 1980s and an account of his experience as a scholarly consultant during the production of Ken Burns's Baseball.

The book is published by Cornell University Press.

Critic Reviews:

"Rich in delicious information, Playing for Keeps argues that the first years of baseball established patterns of double thinking that still govern the complaints and yearnings of fans. Playing for Keeps tells its story with affection. Its calming long perspective should reassure lovers of the game - or business - as we approach new crises and apparent transformations." (New York Times Book Review)

"This is a marvelous book, tightly structured, entertaining, beautifully written; and, like the best social history, it focuses on the particular [story] to enlarge our understanding of the general [American society and culture]." (The Nation)

"A strikingly original interpretation of baseball's early history, Playing for Keeps is imaginatively conceived and rich in texture. It is not only commendable for its treatment of baseball history but appreciably expands our knowledge of nineteenth-century American urban life in general." (Journal of American History)

Members Reviews:

Baseball History

What did you love best about Playing for Keeps?

Scholarship is outstanding. The author covers in detail an important and often lightly mentioned part of baseball in other books I have read about baseball history.

What other book might you compare Playing for Keeps to and why?

If you like books about old time players like Wagner, Radbourn, Cobb, or Hornsby, this book will be right down your alley.

Which scene was your favorite?

I liked how he showed the various arguments as to where baseball came from.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Baseball: The Early Days

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Title: In the Cause of Liberty

Subtitle: How the Civil War Redefined American Ideals

Author: William J. Cooper (editor), John M. McCardell (editor), James M. McPherson, Peter S. Onuf, Christa Dierksheide, Sean Wilentz, Richard Carwardine, George C. Rable, Nina Silber

Narrator: Eric Bodrero

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-30-13

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In this remarkable collection, ten premier scholars of nineteenth-century America address the epochal impact of the Civil War by examining the conflict in terms of three Americas - antebellum, wartime, and postbellum nations. Moreover, they recognize the critical role in this transformative era of three groups of Americans - white northerners, white southerners, and African Americans in the North and South. Through these differing and sometimes competing perspectives, the contributors astutely address crucial ongoing controversies at the epicenter of the cultural, political, and intellectual history of this decisive period in American history.

Coeditors William J. Cooper, Jr., and John M. McCardell, Jr., introduce the collection, which contains essays by the foremost Civil War scholars of our time: James M. McPherson considers the general import of the war; Peter S. Onuf and Christa Dierksheide examine how patriotic southerners reconciled slavery with the American Revolutionaries' faith in the new nation's progressive role in world history; Sean Wilentz attempts to settle the long-standing debate over the reasons for southern secession; and Richard Carwardine identifies the key wartime contributors to the nation's sociopolitical transformation and the redefinition of its ideals.

George C. Rable explores the complicated ways in which southerners adopted and interpreted the terms "rebel" and "patriot" and Chandra Manning finds three distinct understandings of the relationship between race and nationalism among Confederate soldiers, black Union soldiers, and white Union soldiers. The final three pieces address how the country dealt with the meaning of the war and its memory: Nina Silber discusses the variety of ways we continue to remember the war and the Union victory; W. Fitzhugh Brundage tackles the complexity of Confederate commemoration; and David W. Blight examines the complicated African American legacy of the war. In conclusion, McCardell suggests the challenges and rewards of using three perspectives for studying this critical period in American history.

Presented originally at the In the Cause of Liberty symposium hosted by The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar in Richmond, Virginia, these incisive essays by the most respected and admired scholars in the field are certain to shape historical debate for years to come.

The book is published by LSU Press.

Critic Reviews:

"Up to date in scholarship and brimming with insights, these essays are a vivid reminder of why the issues raised by the Civil War refuse to go away." (Journal of American History)

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Title: Half Moon

Subtitle: Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World

Author: Douglas Hunter

Narrator: Kurt Elftmann

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A bold new account of explorer Henry Hudson and the discovery that changed the course of history.

The year 2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudsons discovery of the majestic river that bears his name. Just in time for this milestone, Douglas Hunter, sailor, scholar, and storyteller, has written the first book-length history of the 1609 adventure that put New York on the map.

Hudson was commissioned by the mighty Dutch East India Company to find a northeastern passage over Russia to the lucrative ports of China. But the inscrutable Hudson, defying his orders, turned his ship around and instead headed west - far west - to the largely unexplored coastline between Spanish Florida and the Grand Banks.Once there, Hudson began a seemingly aimless cruise - perhaps to conduct an espionage mission for his native England - but eventually dropped anchor off Coney Island. Hudson and his crew were the first Europeans to visit New York in more than 80 years, and soon went off the map into unexplored waters.

Hudsons discoveries reshaped the history of the new world, and laid the foundation for New York to become a global capital. Hunter has shed new light on this rogue voyage with unprecedented research. Painstakingly reconstructing the course of the Half Moon from logbooks and diaries, Hunter offers an entirely new timeline of Hudsons passage based on innovative forensic navigation, as well as original insights into his motivations.

Half Moon offers a rich narrative of adventure and exploration, filled with international intrigue, backstage business drama, and Hudsons own unstoppable urge to discover. This brisk tale re-creates the espionage, economics, and politics that drove men to the edge of the known world and beyond.

Members Reviews:

Henry Hudson

Being from the Hudson Valley, I have always had a strong interest in the initial discovery of my home area. I figured picking up this book would be a good way to learn about Hudson's voyage more in depth than I ever had previously. While this book is well researched, and does give an engaging description of Hudson's voyage there are a few minor things about it that potential readers should know.

First off, this is not solely about Hudson's voyage. The author spends a great deal of time going through the politics involving the VOC, which of course is completely fine. Understanding Hudson's voyage does require some knowledge of what was going on the VOC, the Dutch East India Company which sponsored Hudson's voyage. The problem is that the author is unable to ignore a single detail of this subject, or for that matter, basically any subject that remotely pertained to Hudson and the voyage. Not only does the author excessively describe the VOC, we also find ourselves reading about early 17th century English politics, which while interesting, and a bit of a stretch for a book concerning the voyage of Henry Hudson. The author gets bogged down in endless amounts of detail that really should be covered in paragraphs, but instead is covered in dozens of pages. Hudson does not begin sailing up the river that would bear his name until almost page 200.

Secondly, the author spends a great deal of time speculating.

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Title: An Autobiography of Davy Crockett

Author: Stephen Brennan (editor)

Narrator: Lake Roberts

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 9 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The true story of Davy Crockett's life as a scout, statesman, and soldier.

Based in part on Davy Crocketts own writings, this is the true story about one of Americas most iconic historical figures. From his days as a scout for Andrew Jackson during the war of 1812, his time as a Congressman for the state of Tennessee, and his eventual death at the Alamo, Davy Crockett led a life that was admired and idealized by people all across America, to this very day. Hear about the monopolist and corporate misdeeds, environmental degradation, and foreign military adventures that he experienced during his amazing life. Discover the rich history - part myth and part fact - behind this great American man.

Editorial Reviews:

Young Davy Crockett hunted well and told stories beautifully. Crocketts hunting prowess led to life as a soldier. He rose to the rank of colonel in his native Tennessee then segued into a career in politics. Crockett butted heads with President Andrew Jackson while a member of Congress. Losing his seat in Congress, Crockett joined the Texas Revolution and died fighting in the Battle of the Alamo. In his time Crockett was pro-environment and anti-corporations. Crocketts daring and outspoken life was mythologized in his lifetime and since, making him an American folk hero. In this audiobook, editor Stephen Brennen organizes Crocketts own words and musings on Crockett into a fascinating text. Narrator Lake Roberts brings the earthy and smart legend to ghostly life.

Members Reviews:

Davy Crockett's autobiography

A Little hard to read because of how the words are written, but interesting. At least he said what was in the book was true and some of the biographies were not!

Five Stars

excellent.

ok

this was a good book genrally It's free so you really can't complain and I'd look at other things this author wrote

Davy Crockett Autobiography

I really did not enjoy this book much. Supposedly the book was written by events that Crockett wrote himself. I probably only read about half of it and gave up on it.

Good Autobiography

Enjoyed the stories about his life minus the politics.

Hunting was great, but I did not know about his running

off from his family so much.

Otherwise good biography.

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Title: An Artist in Treason

Subtitle: The Extraordinary Double Life of General James Wilkinson

Author: Andro Linklater

Narrator: Bill Hensel

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-26-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

For almost two decades, through the War of 1812, James Wilkinson was the senior general in the United States Army. Amazingly, he was also Agent 13 in the Spanish secret service at a time when Spain's empire dominated North America. Wilkinson's audacious career as a double agent is all the more remarkable because it was an open secret, circulated regularly in newspapers and pamphlets. His saga illuminates just how fragile and vulnerable the young republic was: No fewer than our first four presidents turned a blind eye to his treachery and gambled that the mercurial general would never betray the army itself and use it too overthrow the nascent union - a faith that was ultimately rewarded.

Members Reviews:

It's an amazing story. To live this double life and survive ...

I started reading about José Antonio Navarro from a book I found at an estate sale. In the book I found an interesting character named Philip Nolan. That led me to read the book Philip Nolan and Texas Expeditions to the Unknown Land. In this book I found another interesting character who was a mentor to Philip Nolan named James Wilkinson. This led me to this book by Andro Linklater. It's an amazing story. To live this double life and survive is somewhat amazing. Maybe he was predestined to survive his dastardly schemes. He was extremely lucky or just clever enough to convince all involved he was on their side.

The many lives of James Wilkinson

I had read small snippets here and there about General James Wilkinson. That he was in the pay of the Spanish. That he was in cahoots with Aaron Burr. But never anything in great detail. Thus, I was most intrigued when this book came out. At last, a chance to get to learn about the General in some detail.

James Wilkinson was born into a family with aristocratic pretensions. However, things did not work out so well--and his father ended up dying when James was quite young. At a young age, he began a profession as a doctor. However, with the British opening hostilities in Massachusetts, he joined the army and rapidly moved into the officers' rank, becoming a brevet Brigadier General at the age of twenty. He had some successes in the Revolutionary War as an officer and was involved in a number of battles. Here, he began to display his fastening on a father figure, only to turn on that person when disappointed (in this case, General Horatio Gates).

Wilkinson was rather cold to others--but one exception was his first wife, Ann Biddle, whom he married in 1778. After the war, he moved west to make his fortune. However, he enjoyed a high living style with his wife and was perpetually in debt. He tried to make money through land in Kentucky. He suffered from bad breaks over time. He reentered the military, and through a variety of breaks ended up being the senior military officer in the army (after the death of "Mad" Anthony Wayne). Too, he began to supply the Spanish with information and even plotted (apparently) to create favorable political situations for Spain--in return for a ready supply of Spanish money. Thus, he became, if you will, a double agent. He was the top American general--and in the employ of Spain.