Explore the Latest Full Audiobooks in History, The Americas

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/814990 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Dancing Down the Barricades: Sammy Davis Jr. and the Long Civil Rights Era

Author: Matthew Frye Jacobson

Narrator: Jonathan Yen

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 13 hours 36 minutes

Release date: November 12, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

A deep dive into racial politics, Hollywood, and Black cultural struggles for liberation as reflected in the extraordinary life and times of Sammy Davis Jr. Through the lens of Sammy Davis Jr.'s six-decade career in show business—from vaudeville to Vegas to Broadway, Hollywood, and network TV—Dancing Down the Barricades examines the workings of race in American culture. The title phrase holds two contradictory meanings regarding Davis's cultural politics: Did he dance the barricades down, as he liked to think, or did he simply dance down them, as his more radical critics would have it? Davis was at once a pioneering, barrier-busting, anti–Jim Crow activist and someone who was widely associated with accommodationism and wannabe whiteness. Historian Matthew Frye Jacobson attends to both threads, analyzing how industry norms, productions, scripts, roles, and audience expectations and responses were all framed by race against the backdrop of a changing America. In the spirit of better understanding Davis's life and career, Dancing Down the Barricades examines the complexities of his constraints, freedoms, and choices for what they reveal about Black history and American political culture.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/812626 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Driver’s Story: Labor and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery

Author: Randy M. Browne

Narrator: Tom Parks

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 6 hours 32 minutes

Release date: November 12, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

The story of the driver is the story of Atlantic slavery. Starting in the seventeenth-century Caribbean, enslavers developed the driving system to solve their fundamental problem: how to extract labor from captive workers who had every reason to resist. In this system, enslaved Black drivers were tasked with supervising and punishing other enslaved laborers. In The Driver’s Story, Randy M. Browne illuminates the predicament and harrowing struggles of these men—and sometimes women—at the heart of the plantation world. Browne shows that on plantations across the Americas, drivers were at the center of enslaved people's working lives, social relationships, and struggles against slavery. Drivers enforced labor discipline and confronted the resistance of their fellow enslaved laborers, aiming to maintain a position that helped them survive in a world where enslaved people were treated as disposable. Drivers also protected the people they supervised, negotiating workloads and customary rights to essentials. Within the slave community, drivers helped other enslaved people create a sense of belonging. Sometimes, drivers even organized rebellions, sabotaging the very system they were appointed to support. The Driver's Story enriches our understanding of the war between enslavers and enslaved laborers by focusing on its front line.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/812561 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: A Conquering Spirit: Fort Mims and the Redstick War of 1813–1814

Author: Gregory A. Waselkov

Narrator: Stephen Caffrey

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 13 hours 1 minute

Release date: November 12, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

Nationwide repercussions to a bloody battle on the southern frontier. The Fort Mims massacre changed the course of American history in many ways, not the least of which was the ensuing rise of one Andrew Jackson to the national stage. The unprecedented Indian victory over the encroaching Americans who were bent on taking their lands and destroying their culture horrified many and injured the young nation's pride. Tragedies such as this one have always rallied Americans to a common cause: a single-minded determination to destroy the enemy and avenge the fallen. The August 30, 1813, massacre at Fort Mims, involving hundreds of dead men, women, and children, was just such a spark. Gregory Waselkov tells compellingly the story of this fierce battle at the fortified plantation home of Samuel Mims in the Tensaw District of the Mississippi Territory. Waselkov looks closely at the battle to cut through the legends and misinformation that have grown around the event almost from the moment the last flames died at the smoldering ruins. At least as important as the details of the battle, though, is his elucidation of how social forces remarkably converged to spark the conflict and how reverberations of the battle echo still today, nearly two hundred years later.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/825278 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Pirates of the Slave Trade: The Battle of Cape Lopez and the Birth of an American Institution

Author: Angela C. Sutton

Narrator: Christopher Grove

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 19 minutes

Release date: November 5, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

No one present at the Battle of Cape Lopez off the coast of West Africa in 1722 could have known that they were on the edge of history. This obscure yet fierce naval battle would have a monumental impact on British colonies and the future of slavery in America. Pirates of the Slave Trade follows three figures whose fates would violently converge: John Conny, a charismatic leader of the Akan people who made lucrative deals with pirates and smugglers while fending off British and Dutch slavers; the infamous pirate Black Bart, who worked his way from an anonymous navigator to one of the British Empire's most notorious enemies in the region; and naval captain Chaloner Ogle, tasked by the Crown with hunting down and killing Black Bart at all costs. At the Battle of Cape Lopez, these three men and the massive historical forces at their backs would finally find each other—and the world would be transformed forever. In this landmark narrative history, historian Angela Sutton outlines the complex network of trade routes spanning the Atlantic Ocean trafficked by agents of empire, private merchants, and brutal pirates alike. Drawing from a wide range of primary historical sources, Sutton offers a new perspective on how a single battle played a pivotal role in reshaping the trade of enslaved people in ways that affect America to this day.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/824576 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Royal Scandals and Conspiracies

Author: Liam Dale

Narrator: Liam Dale

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 0 hours 44 minutes

Release date: November 5, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

There are some who would argue that in the 21st Century a monarchy, of any description, is an outdated institution, but paradoxically, it only takes the merest hint of a Royal scandal or conspiracy for the world press to be in hot pursuit of the story. What’s more, any newspaper or magazine fortunate enough to get a Royal exclusive, even in our modern age, is guaranteed to increase circulation dramatically, suggesting that there is as much interest in the monarchy as there has ever been. So how did it all begin? Well, for the British, the answer to that question is quite simply when the first Kings and Queens emerged from the warring tribes of ancient times to wear a crown and sit upon a throne. However they had to do a great deal more than that!

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/812520 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Grocer Who Sold McCarthyism: The Rise and Fall of Anti-Communist Crusader Laurence A. Johnson

Author: Fred M. Fiske

Narrator: Patrick Lawlor

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 11 hours 45 minutes

Release date: November 5, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

Laurence A. Johnson, a supermarket chain owner in Syracuse, New York, wasn't just passionate about fresh produce; he was equally fervent about purging communism from America's airwaves in the early 1950s. Teamed with like-minded anti-communists, Johnson targeted food giants like Borden and Kraft. He threatened to hurt sales of their products if they sponsored TV and radio shows employing anyone blacklisted for alleged communist ties. Manufacturers gave in, effectively giving Johnson veto power over hiring and firing of actors, directors, and writers. As a result, the careers of stars such as Jack Gilford, Judy Holliday, Uta Hagen, Kim Hunter, Jose Ferrer, and Joseph Cotten suffered. Fred M. Fiske's The Grocer Who Sold McCarthyism exposes this little-known chapter of American history, including a libel suit by CBS radio host John Henry Faulk in 1956 that aimed to end the blacklist, and to punish Johnson and others for their reckless attacks. Fiske's powerful biography explores Johnson's ascent from small-time grocery operator to kingmaker wielding Red Scare hysteria as a cudgel to shape the landscape of American entertainment and commerce. Through Johnson's journey, we gain insight into a pivotal moment in U.S. history when the nation grappled with fear, ideology, and the delicate balance between security and freedom.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/785588 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance

Author: David T. Beito

Narrator: Michael Ward

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 12 hours 59 minutes

Release date: November 5, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

“This book is not mere history; it is an exposé. You won’t know which is more shocking: the lengths to which FDR and New Dealers like Senators (and future Supreme Court justices) Hugo Black and Sherman Minton went to suppress freedom of speech, privacy, and civil rights; or the degree to which these efforts have been concealed by pro-FDR and New Deal propagandists.”—Randy E. Barnett, Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center Spying on citizens. Censoring critics. Imprisoning minorities. These are the acts of dictators, not American presidents…. Or are they? The legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt enjoys regular acclaim from historians, politicians, and educators. Lauded for his New Deal policies, leadership as a wartime president, cozy fireside chats, and groundbreaking support of the “forgotten man,” FDR, we have been told, is worthy of the same praise as men like Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln…. But is that true? Does the father of today’s welfare state really deserve such generous approbation? Or is there a dark side to this golden legacy? The New Deal’s War on the Bill of Rights: The Untold Story of FDR’s Concentration Camps, Censorship, and Mass Surveillance unveils a much different portrait than the standard orthodoxy found in today’s historical studies. Deploying an abundance of primary source evidence and well-reasoned arguments, historian and distinguished professor emeritus David T. Beito masterfully presents a complete account of the real Franklin D. Roosevelt: a man who abused power, violated human rights, targeted dissidents, and let his crude racism imprison American citizens merely for being of Japanese descent. Read it, and discover how FDR: shamelessly censored critics of his administration, barred them from the public square, destroyed their careers, and even bankrupted them when possible; locked up Japanese-American citizens in concentration camps built on American soil; sowed the seeds of today’s out-of-control surveillance state; and much, much more… Here is an all too rare portrait of a man who changed the course of American history … not for the better. Read it, and you’ll never view the fireside president the same again.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/770577 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn

Author: Christopher Cox

Narrator: Jonathan Davis

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 25 hours 31 minutes

Release date: November 5, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

A timely reassessment of Woodrow Wilson and his role in the long national struggle for racial equality and women’s voting rights. More than a century after he dominated American politics, Woodrow Wilson still fascinates. With panoramic sweep, Woodrow Wilson: The Light Withdrawn reassesses his life and his role in the movements for racial equality and women’s suffrage. The Wilson that emerges is a man superbly unsuited to the moment when he ascended to the presidency in 1912, as the struggle for women’s voting rights in America reached the tipping point. The first southern Democrat to occupy the White House since the Civil War era brought with him to Washington like-minded men who quickly set to work segregating the federal government. Wilson’s own sympathy for Jim Crow and states’ rights animated his years-long hostility to the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, which promised universal suffrage backed by federal enforcement. Women demonstrating for voting rights found themselves demonized in government propaganda, beaten and starved while illegally imprisoned, and even confined to the insane asylum. When, in the twilight of his second term, two-thirds of Congress stood on the threshold of passing the Anthony Amendment, Wilson abruptly switched his position. But in sympathy with like-minded southern Democrats, he acquiesced in a “race rider” that would protect Jim Crow. The heroes responsible for the eventual success of the unadulterated Anthony Amendment are brought to life by Christopher Cox, an author steeped in the ways of Washington and political power. This is a brilliant, carefully researched work that puts you at the center of one of the greatest advances in the history of American democracy.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/761429 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: Lincoln vs. Davis: The War of the Presidents

Author: Nigel Hamilton

Narrator: Rick Adamson

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 32 hours 2 minutes

Release date: November 5, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

From a renowned biographer comes the greatest untold story of the Civil War: how two American presidents faced off as the fate of the nation hung in the balance—and how Abraham Lincoln came to embrace emancipation as the last, best chance to save the Union.  Of all the books written on Abraham Lincoln, there has been one surprising gap: the drama of how the “railsplitter” from Illinois grew into his critical role as U.S. commander-in-chief, and managed to outwit his formidable opponent, Jefferson Davis, in what remains history's only military faceoff between rival American presidents. Davis was a trained soldier and war hero; Lincoln a country lawyer who had only briefly served in the militia. Confronted with the most violent and challenging war ever seen on American soil, Lincoln seemed ill-suited to the task: inexperienced, indecisive, and a poor judge of people’s motives, he allowed his administration's war policies to be sabotaged by fickle, faithless cabinet officials while entrusting command of his army to a preening young officer named George McClellan – whose defeat in battle left Washington, the nation’s capital, at the mercy of General Robert E. Lee, Davis’s star performer.   The war almost ended there. But in a Shakespearean twist, Lincoln summoned the courage to make, at last, a climactic decision: issuing as a “military necessity” a proclamation freeing the 3.5 million enslaved Americans without whom the South could not feed or fund their armed insurrection. The new war policy doomed the rebellion—which was in dire need of support from Europe, none of whose governments now would dare to recognize rebel “independence” in a war openly fought over slavery. The fate of President Davis was sealed.   With a cast of unforgettable characters, from first ladies to fugitive coachmen to treasonous cabinet officials, Lincoln vs. Davis is a spellbinding dual biography from renowned presidential chronicler Nigel Hamilton: a saga that will surprise, touch, and enthrall.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/837259 to listen full audiobooks.

Title: The Secrets of the Federal Reserve

Author: Eustace Mullins

Narrator: John Riddle

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Release date: October 30, 2024

Genres: The Americas

Publisher's Summary:

The Secrets of the Federal Reserve* by Eustace Mullins investigates the origins, structure, and influence of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, arguing that it was created not solely to stabilize the economy but to serve the interests of an elite banking group. Mullins traces the Reserve’s formation back to a secret meeting on Jekyll Island and explores how this institution has impacted U.S. and global economics. The book examines key figures, banks, and historical contexts behind the Reserve, presenting a controversial view that challenges mainstream narratives about its purpose and control. This work is often cited by those critical of centralized banking power and has sparked much debate in economic and historical circles.