Download Popular Titles Audiobooks in History, American

Listen to this audiobook free with a 30-day trial. Go to http://hotaudiobook.com/free

Title: The Oklahoma City Bombing

Subtitle: The History of the Deadliest Domestic Terrorist Attack in American History

Author: Charles River Editors

Narrator: Scott Clem

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 13 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-21-17

Publisher: Charles River Editors

Ratings: 2.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Two days after Ramzi Yousef's attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the FBI and the Texas National Guard surrounded the Mount Carmel Center compound outside of Waco, Texas. They were there to search the property of the Branch Davidians, a religious cult, due to allegations that cult members were sexually abusing children and had assault weapons. When they began searching, the Branch Davidians, led by David Koresh, fired on them, starting a firefight and a nearly two month long siege of the compound.

The siege of the compound ended on April 19, 1993 with the deaths of over 75 cult members, including children, and in the wake of the event there was a lot of soul searching, but in addition to influencing how the government approached potential future conflicts with other groups, Waco's most important legacy was that it enraged people who already had an anti-government bent. As it turned out, the most notable was a young Gulf War veteran named Timothy McVeigh, who came to Waco during the siege and shouted his support for gun rights.

After the siege ended, McVeigh was determined to strike back at the federal government. In 1994, McVeigh and an old Army buddy, Michael Fortier, decided they would bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City because several federal agencies had offices inside, including the ATF. With the help of Terry Nichols, McVeigh constructed a bomb out of fertilizer that weighed over two tons and placed it in a rented Ryder truck, the same company Ramzi Yousef had rented a van from.

At about 9:00 a.m. on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the end of the siege in Waco, McVeigh's bomb exploded with a force so powerful that it registered seismic readings across much of Oklahoma and could be heard 50 miles away. The explosion killed 168 people, including young children in the building's day-care center. McVeigh was captured shortly after the explosion, and he never displayed remorse for his actions. When he later learned about the day-care center, McVeigh called the children "collateral damage".

At the time, the bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in history, and McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, three months before the bombing became the second deadliest terrorist attack on American soil in history.

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

Listen to this audiobook free with a 30-day trial. Go to http://hotaudiobook.com/free

Title: Doomed to Succeed

Subtitle: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama

Author: Dennis Ross

Narrator: Michael Kramer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-13-15

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 103 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A necessary and unprecedented account of America's changing relationship with Israel.

When it comes to Israel, US policy has always emphasized the unbreakable bond between the two countries and our ironclad commitment to Israel's security. Today, our ties to Israel are close - so close that when there are differences, they tend to make the news. But it was not always this way.

Dennis Ross has been a direct participant in shaping US policy toward the Middle East, and Israel specifically, for nearly 30 years. He served in senior roles, including as Bill Clinton's envoy for Arab-Israeli peace, and was an active player in the debates over how Israel fit into the region and what should guide our policies.

In Doomed to Succeed, he takes us through every administration from Truman to Obama, throwing into dramatic relief each president's attitudes toward Israel and the region, the often tumultuous debates between key advisers, and the events that drove the policies and at times led to a shift in approach. Ross points out how rarely lessons were learned and how distancing the United States from Israel in the Eisenhower, Nixon, Bush, and Obama administrations never yielded any benefits and why that lesson has never been learned.

Doomed to Succeed offers compelling advice for how to understand the priorities of Arab leaders and how future administrations might best shape US policy in that light.

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

Listen to this audiobook free with a 30-day trial. Go to http://hotaudiobook.com/free

Title: Sleeping with the Devil

Subtitle: How Washington Sold Its Soul for Saudi Crude

Author: Robert Baer

Narrator: Robert O'Keefe

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs

Language: English

Release date: 07-18-03

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 237 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

For decades, the United States and Saudi Arabia have been locked in a "harmony of interests." America counted on the Saudis for cheap oil, political stability in the Middle East, and lucrative business relationships for the United States, while providing a voracious market for the kingdom's vast oil reserves. With money and oil flowing freely between Washington and Riyadh, the United States has felt secure in its relationship with the Saudis and the ruling Al Sa'ud family. But the rot at the core of our "friendship" with the Saudis was dramatically revealed when it became apparent that fifteen of the nineteen September 11 hijackers proved to be Saudi citizens.

In Sleeping with the Devil, Baer documents with chilling clarity how our addiction to cheap oil and Saudi petrodollars caused us to turn a blind eye to the Al Sa'ud's culture of bribery, its abysmal human rights record, and its financial support of fundamentalist Islamic groups that have been directly linked to international acts of terror, including those against the United States. Drawing on his experience as a field operative who was on the ground in the Middle East for much of his twenty years with the agency, as well as the large network of sources he has cultivated in the region and in the U.S. intelligence community, Baer vividly portrays our decades-old relationship with the increasingly dysfunctional and corrupt Al Sa'ud family, the fierce anti-Western sentiment that is sweeping the kingdom, and the desperate link between the two.

Editorial Reviews:

Saudi Arabia is sitting on the world's largest reserve of crude oil, and that oil is much easier to extract in that country than anywhere else in the world. The Petrodollars pouring into the economy has seen massive investment in infrastructure, hospitals, schools, and of course - mosques. Yet in these holy places, the populace is exhorted to hate the United States, the western world, and non-Muslims. Some of the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 atrocity were from Saudi Arabia. But the United States, says Mr. Baer, desperately dependent on the flow of gasoline, still bows and scrapes...

Robert O'Keefe provides the narration, which totals just over six hours. This was another book that I listened to in one sitting, and thoroughly enjoyed. Mr. O'Keefe has a rich-voiced American accent, making for an easy listen despite, at times, being a difficult subject. The audio quality is superb, particularly at Audible Format 4, quite obviously a direct digital recording. This book is an interesting and enlightening way to spend six hours!

--Brad Jackson, UK

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

Listen to this audiobook free with a 30-day trial. Go to http://hotaudiobook.com/free

Title: American Reckoning

Subtitle: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity

Author: Christian G. Appy

Narrator: Sean Runnette

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-17-15

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 18 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

How did the Vietnam War change the way we think of ourselves as a people and a nation? Christian G. Appy now examines the relationship between the war's realities and myths and its impact on our national identity, conscience, pride, shame, popular culture, and postwar foreign policy.

Drawing on a vast variety of sources - from movies, songs, and novels to official documents, media coverage, and contemporary commentary - Appy offers an original interpretation of the war and its far-reaching consequences. Authoritative, insightful, sometimes surprising, and controversial, American Reckoning is a fascinating mix of political and cultural reporting that offers a completely fresh account of the meaning of the Vietnam War.

Critic Reviews:

"This current book, isn't a history of the war but of its impact on America's identity, policies, and popular culture, drawing on a blend of materials from song and film to fiction and official documents." (Library Journal)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

Listen to this audiobook free with a 30-day trial. Go to http://hotaudiobook.com/free

Title: The Majesty of the Law

Subtitle: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice

Author: Sandra Day O'Connor

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-28-04

Publisher: Books on Tape

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 73 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In this intimate portrait of an institution, America's first female Supreme Court Justice traces the Court's history to its inner workings in contemporary life. By couching her narrative in her personal reflections, she shows how landmark cases, key ideas, and influential people have built the Court as an edifice that continues to demand active interpretation. Her book particularly emphasizes the turbulent battle women have fought in the legal system since America's inception, her own position an expression of the labors of the suffrage movement and its efforts to change the lives of American women in voting booths, jury boxes, and homes. One of the most powerful women in American history tells us what she thinks matters most in American law.

©2003 The Arizona Community Foundation; (P)2003 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"O'Connor gets down to the nitty-gritty of her profession." (Library Journal)

"O'Connor's book is an engagingly written civics lesson, delivering a warm appreciation of legal history." (Publishers Weekly)

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]