Download Best Sellers Audiobooks in History, American

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Title: Year of Meteors

Subtitle: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, and the Election that Brought on the Civil War

Author: Douglas R. Egerton

Narrator: Michael Scherer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-29-13

Publisher: Audible Studios for Bloomsbury

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 22 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In early 1860, pundits across America confidently predicted the election of Illinois senator Stephen A. Douglas in the coming presidential race. Douglas, after all, led the only party that bridged North and South. But the Democrats would split over the issue of slavery, leading Southerners in the party to run their own presidential slate. This opened the door for the upstart Republicans, exclusively Northern, to steal the Oval Office. Dark horse Abraham Lincoln, not the first choice even of his own party, won the presidency with a record-low 39.8 percent of the popular vote.

Acclaimed scholar Douglas R. Egerton chronicles the contest with a historian's keen insight and a veteran political reporter's eye for detail. Vividly, Egerton re-creates the cascade of unforeseen events that confounded political bosses, set North and South on the road to disunion, and put not Stephen Douglas, but his greatest rival, in the White House.

We see Lincoln and his team outmaneuvering more prominent Republicans, like New York's grandiose William Seward, while Democratic conventions collapse in confusion. And we see the gifted, flawed Douglas marking his finest hour in defeat, as he strives, and fails, to save the Union.

Year of Meteors delivers a teeming cast of characters, minor and major, and a breakneck narrative of this most momentous year in American history.

Members Reviews:

about Year of Meteors

As a non-scholar, non-English speaker, I found this book fascinating. Although its detailed text, it provides a very good understanding of the historical scenery of Lincoln's rise to power.

I found very illustrative the author's proposition regarding Yancey's influence on the Southerners and his stubborn position during the Democrat conventions. Happily, ignorance gives me the privilege to be skeptical about the theory that slaveholders purposefully split their party.

I fully recommend this book to those who want to go deeper into understanding the development of the political environment that preceded the Civil War in the US.

The Dynamics of Change.

Douglas R. Egertaon's YEAR OF METEORS: Stephen Douglas, Abraham Lincoln And The Election That Brought On The Civil War is a must for those of you who have recently seen the film LINCOLN and found it fascinating. Great character development brings to life the people who were Lincoln's supporters and rivals at the time of his election to the presidency. Comparisons to contemporary political battles and society's resistance to change come to mind as I read this well researched historical novel. My interest was captured: THE KILLER ANGELS: by Michael Shaara was the next book I turned to in my interest to learn more about that period in our history.

Thorough Treatment of the 1860 Election & Southern Secession

Good, detailed acount of the election and its aftermath. The book is more focused on Stephen Douglas than any of the other characters. At times I got lost trying to keep track of the people involved. There were just too many people running for president that year. I forget where the book leaves off but it does follow the story all the way through to Lincoln taking office, so it is also about secession and how all of that unfolded in Washington D.C.

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Title: Virtue, Valor, and Vanity

Subtitle: The Inside Story of the Founding Fathers and the Price of a More Perfect Union

Author: Eric Burns

Narrator: Allen O'Reilly

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-28-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Their ambitions, intrigues, and jealousies shaped the birth of our nation, but they overcame their foibles and imperfections to throw off the chains of tyranny and form a more perfect union. We think of them now as faces on money or statues on pedestals, and, as Burns shows here in luminous prose, thats exactly what they wanted to be. They all possessed astonishing brilliance, expansive egos, and more than just a little vanity. In this fresh perspective, Burns brings the Founding Fathers down off their pedestals to reveal the flesh-and-blood men - vain and modest, sensitive and stubborn, brilliant and ambitious - who overcame their faults and squabbles to establish a new nation that would shine as a paragon of governance. For the armchair historian, here is an exciting new look at our countrys origins.

Editorial Reviews:

America's Founding Fathers included poets, politicians, philosophers, authors, and musicians, among other pursuits, and like their modern counterparts these men were, first and foremost, celebrities, consumed by the vain pursuit of fame, wealth, and the enduring legacy they successfully achieved. Author and Fox News host Eric Burns looks behind these almost mythical figures and dissects the ambition, insecurity, and self-conscious vanity that motivated these legends. Performer Alan O'Reilly imbues nine of these men with characteristic eloquence and insight, albeit mixed with a hefty dose of self-doubt, jealousy, and arrogance in this case. O'Reilly lends his jaunty baritone to such famous figures as George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.

Members Reviews:

absolutely worth buying

I really enjoyed this book, I learned a lot I didn't know. narrator was great author was very good every thing was excellent

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Title: The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left

Author: Landon R. Y. Storrs

Narrator: Hal Wiedeman

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-13-12

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The loyalty investigations triggered by the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s marginalized many talented women and men who had entered government service during the Great Depression seeking to promote social democracy as a means to economic reform. Their influence over New Deal policymaking and their alliances with progressive labor and consumer movements elicited a powerful reaction from conservatives, who accused them of being subversives. Landon Storrs draws on newly declassified records of the federal employee loyalty program - created in response to fears that Communists were infiltrating the U.S. government - to reveal how disloyalty charges were used to silence these New Dealers and discredit their policies.

Because loyalty investigators rarely distinguished between Communists and other leftists, many noncommunist leftists were forced to leave government or deny their political views. Storrs finds that loyalty defendants were more numerous at higher ranks of the civil service than previously thought, and that many were women, or men with accomplished leftist wives. Uncovering a forceful left-feminist presence in the New Deal, she shows how opponents on the Right exploited popular hostility to powerful women and their "effeminate" spouses. The loyalty program not only destroyed many promising careers, it prohibited discussion of social democratic policy ideas in government circles, narrowing the scope of political discourse to this day.

Through a gripping narrative based on remarkable new sources, Storrs demonstrates how the Second Red Scare undermined the reform potential of the New Deal and crippled the American welfare state.

Members Reviews:

A history that needs to be remembered now more than ever

Very informative! Amazing how we seem to be reliving the worst parts of this. I like reading how many people and organizations worked together to give us the New Deal . Hope we can do it again. There are a lot of names to deal with and most I don't even recognize so it was hard following that aspect.

Remarkable addition to postwar American history

Storrs has gone to great lengths to document the actual impact of the postwar Red Scare on the political life of the United States. He dug up an amazing amount of primary source material, and with it he is able to re-present the history of the 1950s and 60s in a way no one has done before. He does especially well in tracing the ways that many New Deal figures curtailed or completely abandoned their advocacy of New Deal social programs following the acid-bath experience of going through a loyalty investigation. More telling still is the way the loyalty investigations actually targeted women and tended to regard women in positions of authority and power as suspicious by their very interest in doing anything other than being wives and mothers. The same happened to people of color.

In the end, the portrait of the McCarthy-era investigations that emerges is of a radical defense of conformity itself.

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Title: The Scent of Scandal

Subtitle: Greed, Betrayal, and the World's Most Beautiful Orchid

Author: Craig Pittman

Narrator: Gary D. MacFadden

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-04-12

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 19 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

After its Peruvian discovery in 2002, Phragmipedium kovachii became the rarest and most sought-after orchid in the world. Prices soared to $10,000 on the black market. Then one showed up at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, where every year more than 100,000 people visit. They come for the lush landscape on Sarasota Bay and for Selby's vast orchid collection, one of the most magnificent in the world.

The collision between Selby's scientists and the smugglers of Phrag. kovachii, a rare ladyslipper orchid hailed as the most significant and beautiful new species discovered in a century, led to search warrants, a grand jury investigation, and criminal charges. It made headlines around the country, cost the gardens hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations, and led to tremendous internal turmoil.

Investigative journalist Craig Pittman unravels this tangled web to shine a spotlight on flaws in the international treaties governing trade in endangered wildlife-which may protect individual plants and animals in shipping but do little to halt the destruction of whole colonies in the wild.

The Scent of Scandal unspools like a riveting mystery novel, stranger than anything in Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief or the film Adaptation. Pittman shows how some people can become so obsessed-with beauty, with profit, with fame-that they will ignore everything, even the law.

Critic Reviews:

FANTASTIC. If I did not know most of the main players I would have thought the author had a vivid and twisted imagination.. (Paul Martin Brown, author of Wild Orchids of Florida)

A fascinating true story of obsession, greed, and lust for the unobtainable. Reminds me a great deal of The Maltese Falcon. This rare flower is definitely the stuff that dreams are made of. (Ace Atkins, author of Devil's Garden and Infamous)

Pittman has captured the extreme competition, unique characters, and general insanity that often typify the orchid world. The Scent of Scandal exemplifies how passion and profit can overrule common sense and the law. (Scott Steward, former associate editor, North American Native Orchid Journal)

Members Reviews:

Amazing World of Unethical Dirtbags No Pun Inended

As an avocational horticulturalist, I was shocked at the levels that the "professionals" will stoop to for glory and the almighty buck. If you love orchids, and nature in general, this book will make you sad, angry, and disgusted. Read it anyway, and bocott the scoundrels. Do your research and know where your money is going if you are an orchidist.

I smell a good book!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

In the Scent of Scandal, Craig Pittman perfectly balances the craziness of Florida (damn those transplants) the zealotry of protecting and promoting the image of cash soaked and starved nonprofits and those who love and support them and their causes and a little science, just to move the story along.Craig is a great storyteller. His understanding and love (as only a native can) appreciation of all that is Florida and what it does to people coupled with his knowledge of the environmental sector and their unique narrow-mindedness helps explain how this kind of thing could happen and how it shouldn't.

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Title: Superman Is Jewish?

Subtitle: How Comic Book Superheroes Came to Serve Truth, Justice, and the Jewish-American Way

Author: Harry Brod

Narrator: Peter Berkrot

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-12

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Zeddy Lawrence once said, "It may not be true in all cases, but it's a pretty good rule of thumb. If the word 'man' appears at the end of someone's name you can draw one of two conclusions: a) they're Jewish, as in Goldman, Feldman, or Lipman; or b) they're a superhero, as in Superman, Batman, or Spider-Man."

In Superman Is Jewish? Harry Brod reveals the links between Jews and superheroes in a penetrating investigation of iconic comic book figures. He describes how the role of each hero reflects the evolution of the Jewish place in American culture - an alien in a foreign land, like Superman; a figure plagued by guilt for not having saved his family, like Spider-Man; outsiders persecuted for being different (X-Men); a nice, smart guy afraid people won't like him when he's angry (the Hulk). Brod blends humor and sharp observation as he considers these well-known figures' overtly and discreetly Jewish characteristics and talks about how their creators - including Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby - integrated their Jewish identities and their creativity. His lively guided tour takes us from the Passover Haggadah's exciting action scenes of Moses's superpowers to acclaimed Pulitzer Prize winners and overseas animators.

Brod has written and lectured extensively on this fun and provocative topic and through his expertise explores the deeper story of how one immigrant group can influence the larger culture through entertainment and, in the process, see itself in new, more empowering ways. Not just for comic book fans, Superman Is Jewish? is a story of America, and is as poignant as it is fascinating.

Critic Reviews:

"This witty, insightful exposé delves into the secret identities of the world's most famous superheroes." (Publishers Weekly)

Members Reviews:

Origin of many super heroes, specially Superman

Found it quite interesting and as a matter of fact have discussed with my Rabbi!

more superman

Misleading title should read, Jewish influence on comics. Superman is minor part in the story. It is about Judaism and comics as serious literature.

more new inssights

as stated about other similar books, some of the material in this book was not new to me, since I've been reading many books lately on the history of comics, but this book has a lot in it that is new to me. I loved comix as a kid growing up. Now that I learn the story behind them, I have a a new appreciation of the subject

Everything just fine. I gave this as a Christmas gift and ...

Everything just fine. I gave this as a Christmas gift and the recipient was delighted.

Five Stars

great for family

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Title: The American Revolution

Author: George H. Smith

Narrator: George C. Scott

Format: Original Recording

Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-10-12

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 6 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In 1776 the 13 American colonies, refusing to pay unjust taxes, declared their independence from Britain. The resulting years of war became known as the American Revolution, but many of the Founding Fathers believed the real American revolution was not the war with Britain but the revolution in ideas that had preceded and caused the war. From 1760 to 1775, many Americans were transformed from loyal British subjects into rebels. Together, the 13 colonies set out to create something new: a government that derived its just authority from the consent of the governed.

To understand this unparalleled event, it is necessary to examine the character and ideas of 18th-century Americans, such as the vision that caused them to rebel and how faithfully they followed it.

The United States at War series is a collection of presentations that review the political, economic, and social tensions that have erupted in military conflict. They describe the historical context for each of the major US wars and examine how military conflict resolved, or failed to resolve, the issues that underlay them.

George H. Smith is an author, editor, educator, and speaker. His first book was the very popular Atheism: The Case against God. His many articles and book reviews have appeared in such publications as Reason, the New York Times, and the Journal of Libertarian Studies.

Members Reviews:

Great audio product on the American Revolution

Great audio product on the American War for Independence. Dramatized, with a full cast, so it is entertaining, even while being historically and academically rigorous. Covers the Sons of Liberty and the drive for freedom that was one of the moving forces behind the colonies' decision and effort to be free from rule by a faraway parliament and king.

Excellent!!!

Great audio cd--I would have liked it to be 100 times longer!!! Well written and George C. Scott is just classic!!! Arrived ahead of schedule

More of a "Review of Ideas" than a narrative of events

I can say that I enjoyed this set of audio cds, but that it was not what I had expected. Perhaps I had not properly read the introductory material, but I was assuming that it was an account of events that occurred during the war. Instead, it was mostly a study of the attitudes and ideas that led up to the break with England. It was well done and enlightening, but I would have preferred a more in depth account of the war itself, and how it played out in the lives of former colonists.

Great Lesson for History majors and non-majors alike

The United States at War series by Blackstone, and read by George C. Scott are very well done. They are brief enough to remain very interesting but detailed enough to provide much more information than the average high school or even college level history class below the graduate level. The character voices and use of relevant quotes really add to the value. I have read this one, the World War II volume, the World War I volume, the Civil War volume, and the Spanish American War volume and find them all to be equally fascinating and detailed. I have ordered the Korean War, Vietnam War, Mexican War, and War of 1812 volumes and expect that they will be equally great. For full disclosure purposes I have a Master's in Arts in History from Texas A&M University Central Texas.

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Title: Campaigns of the Civil War, Volume 1

Subtitle: The Outbreak of Rebellion

Author: John G. Nicolay

Narrator: Christopher Lee Philips

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-30-12

Publisher: Open Book Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A landmark of Civil War History, The Campaigns of the Civil War series was originally published in 1881, and has often been reprinted in facsimile editions. The series still remains of interest to historians for its eye-witness accounts of political and military events, as well as its portrayals of the soldiers and statesmen who waged the conflict.

The Outbreak of Rebellion is the first of 12 volumes in this series to be produced in audiobook format by Audio Americana.

John G. Nicolay was private secretary to Abraham Lincoln in Illinois and followed the president-elect to Washington D.C. where he continued to serve President Lincoln throughout the war. While modern historians may find Nicolay's objectivity occasionally wanting, especially in his vociferous condemnation of the southern "conspiracy", his contemporary account of the secession of South Carolina, the surrender of Fort Sumter, and the retreat from Bull Run provide the sort of vivid, first-person recollections that make The Outbreak of Rebellion an enduring classic, and the Campaigns of the Civil War series a cornerstone of Civil War literature.

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Title: Indian Massacre in Orlando

Author: Walter Parks

Narrator: Dennis Baker

Format: Unabridged

Length: 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-27-12

Publisher: UnknownTruths Publishing

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Arguably the last Indians living in Central Florida in 1883 were all massacred because the chief's favorite squaw loved White Man Cow.

John asked the President of the United States to send soldiers to remove the Indians. John didn't think his request was out of line; after all, the government had earlier been moving Indians to the "Indians Territory" (now Oklahoma) for years.

But the President wouldn't do it. So John had to do it.

He killed every man, woman, and child.

This is the story of why he did it.

This is the story of how he did it.

This is the story of the unbelievable consequences.

I believe that the Indian massacre in Orlando is basically a true story. I used old documents and interviews of John's decedents about stories passed down in the family. I also used other historical documents and research from the Internet. I had to fill in some gaps for some of the minor details which were not available from the interviews or historical data. I wanted to minimize such usages and therefore I have purposefully kept the story short and confined to the true data.

To help you grasp and understand the cause of the massacre, I have included a brief history of the relationships between the Indians and the pioneers. And I have included a description of the paradise in which the local Indians lived before we came. This paradise, while not in its "wild" form, still exists and I have lived in it for most of my adult life.

I believe you will enjoy the story.

Members Reviews:

What an insult to learned listeners

As a Floridian, graduate student in History, and someone with common sense, this hour long recitation about the massacre of Native Americans in the Orlando area by white settlers is poorly researched, poorly narrated, and ridiculous. No, Native Americans did not live in perfect harmony in a paradise, and no, white settlers were not blood lusting for the death of their neighbors.

The truth is always somewhere in the middle, and Parks' attempts to depict the extremes of the cultural spectrum expose his lack of historical research and nuance. The narration was horrible, as if Parks' got his son to read, tripping over punctuation and running sentences together. I should have known when he pronounced the first section Pre-Face!

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Title: "Negro President"

Subtitle: Jefferson and the Slave Power

Author: Garry Wills

Narrator: Garry Wills

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-26-12

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

New York Times best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills, a two-time National Book Critics Circle Award winner, takes a bold and fresh look at Thomas Jefferson. Negro President reveals just how strong slave influence was on determining Jeffersons policies. Through thorough research Wills shows precisely how this slave power helped shape the course of a fledgling nation.

©2003 Garry Wills (P)2003 Recorded Books

Critic Reviews:

Garry Wills is a thinker of first rate. He combines the vigor of the social critic with the depth of the historian, and to these he adds the even rarer gifts of the philosopher. (New Republic)

A thorough political analysis of another founding fathers involvement in slavery. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Members Reviews:

Interesting Book with a Misleading Title

What aspect of Garry Willss performance would you have changed?

The reading is competent, but contains odd pauses and cadences. Although Gary Wills wrote the book, he reads it like the text is unfamiliar.

Any additional comments?

The book covered an aspect of American history unknown to me. I had not realized how important the slave count was in determining representation, and hence votes in Congress. Wills does a reasonable job of making this point.

However, the title is misleading. Thomas Jefferson is not a major figure in the book. Much more time is spent on his opponents and opponents of slavery, such as Timothy Pickering. Since these are interesting men, I did not mind the odd title.

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Title: Reminiscences of Ulysses S. Grant

Subtitle: First-Hand Accounts of the General, The President, and the Man from Those Who Knew Him

Author: Adam Badeau, William T. Sherman, James Harrison Wilson, Horace Porter, Ely S. Parker, O. O. Howard, C. E. Meade, T. C. Crawford

Narrator: Andrew Mulcare

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-01-12

Publisher: Wetware Media

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 11 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant), 1822 - 1885, was a military commander during the American Civil War and post-war Reconstruction period, and later, President of the United States (1869 - 1877). Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate forces and ended the American Civil War.

These are personal reminiscences of Grant which allow us to peer back in time to see him through the eyes of those who knew him. Some of the anecdotes describe brief encounters with Grant, while others are from historically prominent men who knew Grant well. What they have in common are the intimate details that reveal the personality and character of General Grant.

Includes accounts from:

Members Reviews:

Disappointing

The beginning of the book almost became its end for me. The first couple chapters are less personal reminiscences than mini biographies. If I wasn't familiar with President Grant I would not have been interested in the book. I don't need nor do I want a brief recapitulation of the standard bio. Towards the middle and end the book greatly improved and started to deliver on its promise. Sometimes it was interesting to note how much was revealed of those remembering instead of Pres. Grant. If only the first half could have been true to the promise.