Large Library of Full Greatest Audiobooks in History, American Top 100

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Title: History of the Dallas Zoo: 1888 - 1940

Author: Clint Skinner

Narrator: Aaron Shook

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-01-13

Publisher: Clint Skinner

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

For the first time ever, read about the history of the Dallas Zoo - the oldest and biggest zoological park in Texas. It has entertained people of all ages since 1888, and it shows no signs of stopping. Learn about the zoo's humble beginnings. Follow its development as it struggles for survival. Enjoy a story filled with life, death, comedy, tragedy, and drama. Explore the History of the Dallas Zoo.

Members Reviews:

Well researched, poorly written

This book reads as if it is written by a third grader. The writer clearly is not a writer. He certainly did a lot of research into the topic. Virtually every single event or animal acquisition during the time frame is listed. The problem is the writing style is so dry and simplistic that it is actually painful to read - to the point that I could barely finish it. I hate to be negative, but I can say in all honesty this is the most poorly written book I have seen in my life. I appreciate the amount of research that went into this - Mr Skinner should have collaborated with another writer to put his research into words. As it is, I cannot recommend this to anyone. You would have to REALLY be in love with Dallas history and with zoos to suffer through this childish paperback. (There are also no page numbers, which is bizarre).

Excellent complete recording of history

This is an exceptional account of the Dallas Zoo who's history stretches way far back. I had a great time reading it.

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Title: Reagan's Star Wars

Author: Walter Parks

Narrator: Rich Germaine

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-03-13

Publisher: UnknownTruths Publishing

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

President Eisenhower led us to victory in World War II. He then led our country as President for 8 years. He understood war and he understood how Washington worked.

The major message he gave us as he left the presidency was: Beware of the Military Industrial Complex.

His warning was very appropriate but it was not heeded by our nation. I know because I not only witnessed it being ignored, but I participated in using the power of the Military Industrial Complex during my aerospace career.

By the early 1980's it was becoming clear that the USSR would fail. The major US Aerospace companies who were dependent on military spending were growing concerned that peace would be declared and the military budgets would be significantly decreased.

They had to do something!

Most of the major US Aerospace Companies maintained a study staff to assess military needs and likely budget actions; and, of course to try to influence such actions and budgets.

I know the details of the Martin Marietta Aerospace Company's studies and the resulting pitches to the military, congress, NATO, and all affected agencies including the President because I was a corporate Vice President and well aware of our studies. I also had some awareness of such studies at Lockheed Aerospace Company because we had a close relationship with them. The two Companies eventually merged and is now Lockheed Martin Aerospace Company.

Their studies viewed the sharp drops in military budgets at the end of military threats like World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. They feared that peace would break out and the budgets would be significantly decreased, maybe even as severe as happened after World War II. President Carter had already dropped the budget to the lowest it had been in over 25 years. The US military budgets would certainly be decreased. What could the Aerospace Giants do to continue our enriched lifestyles?

They reasoned that seeking funds for new weapons in a peace time or seeking funds to "patch" existing weapons would not result in the magnitude of budgets that they needed. They put a study together that showed the merits of pursuing a leap frog to the current weapons technology and jumping into technology of the future. They started preaching such a strategy to the US military, to Congress, to the President, NATO and any agency that would listen. The pitch got honed until it began to make sense. The Strategic Defense Initiative, later known as Star Wars, was about to be born. We honed our pitches first with the military staffs in the Pentagon, then the staffers of the key military committees in Congress. Then we were ready for the President.

I remember a key pitch to the President that I believe really convinced him in the merits of pursuing a leap frog to current technology. The pitch was about how we could use the workings of the brain of a tiny insect to control the battle field. President Reagan was sold. The military budgets ceased the Carter decline and began to rise. The military industrial complex was working; the military budgets were saved. >President Reagan absorbed and understood our "pitches" and proposed a new program: The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) on March 23, 1983. It was to replace the insane old strategic plan of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) that had been in place for many years.

The President's proposal was accepted by the military and Congress and SDI was set up in the Pentagon in 1984.

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Title: America in the Forties

Subtitle: America in the Twentieth Century

Author: Ronald Allen Goldberg

Narrator: Fred Filbrich

Format: Unabridged

Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-10-12

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In America in the Forties, Goldberg energetically argues that the decade of the 1940s was one of the most influential in American history, a period marked by war, sacrifice, and profound social changes. With superb detail, Goldberg traces the entire decade from the first stirrings of war in a nation consumed by the Great Depression through the conflicts with Europe and Japan, to the start of the Cold War and the dawn of the atomic age. Richly drawn portraits of the period's charismatic, brilliant, and often controversial leaders Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Harry Truman demonstrate their immense importance in shaping the era, and in turn, the course of American government, politics, and society.

Goldberg chronicles U.S. heroic accomplishments during World War II and the early Cold War, showing how these military and diplomatic achievements helped lay the foundation for the country's current role in economic and military affairs worldwide.

Combining an engrossing narrative with intelligent analysis, America in the Forties enriches our understanding of that pivotal era.

Critic Reviews:

Scholarly, readable, powerful, Goldberg's book is essential reading for anyone interested in twentieth century history and its impact on the present. (Metapsychology Online Reviews)

The book provides invaluable background for understanding the current political landscape in which hot debates center on the federal government's role in addressing both international and domestic crises. (Maurine H. Beasley, University of Maryland, College Park)

Members Reviews:

Excellent Work of History

I am by no means a history enthusiast and had no expectations before reading this book. However, I was greatly satisfied by Professor Goldberg's work. Analyzing an important era in American history, he carefully looks at key moments in both World War II and the dawn of the Cold War, explaining the significance of each period and event. Yet even more than a book that is factually sound, this book is very well written. Targeting an large audience that is either well-versed in history or not, Professor Goldberg makes the subject accessible and extremely interesting. Overall, this book is easily the best work of non-fiction I have ever read. Eloquent, interesting, and intellectually satisfying, Goldberg has achieved two great feats. He has made myself, a history layman, interested in the subject and he has turned a potentially dry subject into a fascinating examination of key characters and events that have greatly influenced the American story.

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Title: New York: The Ageless City

Subtitle: 1947 to 1963

Author: Deaver Brown

Narrator: Deaver Brown

Format: Unabridged

Length: 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-18-12

Publisher: Simply Media

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

America was the undisputed world power in 1947, just after the War, and New York was the center, and the center of everything from the arts, business, culture, and just living. The ambitious came here to get their start and it was the age of the New Yorker, at its finest. By 1963, marked by the Kennedy Assassination, that power drifted away with the Dodgers and Giants to California and Fortune 500 companies to Texas and elsewhere. But in this period, New York was the City of Ageless Grace.

Members Reviews:

Not worth the $1.95

What disappointed you about New York: The Ageless City?

This was more about his memories and his opinions. I was expecting something more ... well, I guess, scholarly.

Would you ever listen to anything by Deaver Brown again?

His voice wasn't bad, but the production quality was horrible. Sounded like it had been recorded via answering machine.

Alas, only sentiment--no substance.

Would you try another book from Deaver Brown and/or Deaver Brown?

I'm afraid, no.

What could Deaver Brown have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Researched further to correct mistakes of fact and to add more informational substance to his claims about NYC during this particular period (1947-1963). Unfortunately, most of the book is subjective and facts are sometimes wrong.

How could the performance have been better?

It's his work and I respect having an author read his or her work. I was occasionally reminded of the Simpsons' character Dr. Marvin Monroe with the accent on words such as "block".

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from New York: The Ageless City?

I would have asked the author to recognize the work as "one man's appreciation for the great city of New York", and along those lines combine chapters (some are strangely short). My impression of the packaging, description before listening was that this was a book that look at the history of that era, but it does not do that.

Any additional comments?

I'll begin by saying that I share the author's love for New York. It is, for me, an incredible place and I'm glad to be able to live here. Kudos to Mr. Brown for taking time to share the things he liked most about the city some years ago. Yet, it's familiar territory to have someone tell us about how X used to be "so much better" in earlier times (most often during that person's youth or young adult life). [As an aside, it's not uncommon to hear people say that the seedy, crime-ridden, bankrupt city of the 1970s was the heyday of the recent history.) Mr. Brown bemoans the current absence of so many aspects of times past which he feels made '47-'63 an untouchable age. There are too many corrections to this point of view, but in case anyone needs it say, there are so many aspects of life today that continue to thrive, including writing, the visual artists, film-making (which exploded post-1963). And a simple correction to Brown's lament that the Staten Island Ferry used to only cost a nickel--Good news. Now it's free.Brown's heart is in the right place--I can't disagree with the sentiment. New York is a treasure to so many and it continues to be so today.

Too lightly covered

Wrong format for the topic. Nothing covered in any form of adequate depth, In other words not worth the nickel

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Title: The Greatest Inventor In the West

Author: Bill Gulick

Narrator: Gene Engene

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 16 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-23-12

Publisher: Books in Motion

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Just as the big trees of the Pacific Northwest inspired the legend of Paul Bunyan, so did the Palouse Hills of southeastern Washington--where fantastic fields of wheat were raised on incredibly steep slopes--spawn tall tales about farmers, steamboat men, and the ingenious methods they used to get their grain to market. Though thirty-three-mule hitches and headers (whose downhill wheels were three times larger than the uphill ones) solved the harvesting problems, transporting the sacked grain two thousand vertical feet down to the steamboat landings took sheer genius.

The Greatest Inventor in the West tells the story of one Joseph Malone, who possessed just the kind of ingenuity necessary for such a feat and whose creations, though they might succeed later, often failed spectacularly the first time they were tried.

When the handsome young inventor falls in love with the beautiful, mute Mary Burke, whose wealthy banker father is financing Malone's new invention, he is forced to put all his talents to use--with rather surprising results.

Based on local legends of the Walla Walla area of Washington, this lively, humorous tale will appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of the Pacific Northwest. Adept at reshaping tall tales, Bill Gulick has given us such stories as "Hallelujah Trail", which was adapted into the award-winning film critics call "the funniest Western ever made." A longtime resident of the Northwest, Bill Gulick has written numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction, on the Northwest.

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Title: Shape of the States

Subtitle: Their Creation & Boundaries

Author: Deaver Brown

Narrator: Deaver Brown

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-12-12

Publisher: Simply Media

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Shape of the States starts with the shape of the whole United States, then the 13 colonies, the four acquired states, and the 33 ones Congress created. Each state's borders is discussed within a regional context with states next to them and discussions of common issues and specific disputes. The work demonstrates how Congress effectively worked to make these 33 relatively equal in size. It shows the actions presidents took to negotiate, acquire, and fight for certain properties to augment the states, such as the Gadsden Purchase. Supreme Court decisions to resolve matters are identified as well.

An excellent companion audiobook to Simply's US Presidents, Presidential Wisdom from Washington to Obama, and State Capitals and More.

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Title: Views from the Dark Side of American History (Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War)

Author: Michael Fellman

Narrator: Bill Fisher

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-09-12

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Throughout his long and influential career, Michael Fellman has explored the tragic side of American history. Best known for his path-breaking work on the American Civil War and for an interdisciplinary methodology that utilizes social psychology, cultural anthropology, and comparative history, Fellman has delved into issues of domination, exploitation, political violence, racism, terrorism, and the experiences of war. Incorporating essays written over the past thirty years - two of them previously unpublished, and the others not widely available - Views from the Dark Side of American History reveals some of the major personal and scholarly concerns of his career and illuminates his approach to history, research, applied theory, and analysis.

Each essay includes a thought-provoking preface and afterword that situate it in its time and explore its intellectual and political contexts. Fellman also grapples with the personal elements of developing as a historian - the people with whom he argued or agreed with, the settings in which he gave or published the papers, and the subjective as well as historical issues that he addressed. The collection encourages history students, historians, and general readers of history to think through the layers of their historical engagement and to connect their personal experiences and social commitments to their explorations.

Critic Reviews:

"Michael Fellman is one of the finest scholars writing the cultural history of the American nineteenth century." (Shane White, co-author of Playing the Numbers)

"Fellman offers us reflections that are immediate and accessible, remarkable for their insight and heart." (Orville Vernon Burton, author of The Age of Lincoln)

"Fellman exposes the complex political undercurrents (academic, racial, religious) that determine the way we approach our history of violence, and its continuing effects in the present." (Timothy O'Leary, author of Foucault and the Art of Ethics)

Members Reviews:

Save your money

As much as I like Fellman's "Inside War" this is book is terrible. It is not nothing but ramblings of a liberal that provides no insight whatsoever into this so-called dark side of history. I didn't even get through the whole book as it was just a bunch of recollections and useless blather.

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Title: The Last Days of General Grant

Author: Adam Badaeu

Narrator: Andrew Mulcare

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 09-16-11

Publisher: Wetware Media

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The Last Days of General Grant: This is a poignant and intimate account of General Ulysses S. Grant's last days, written by Adam Badeau. Badeau volunteered for military service in the United States in 1862, early in the Civil War. He was appointed military secretary to General Grant, with the rank, first of Lieutenant-Colonel and ultimately, colonel. He was with Grant throughout the Wilderness and Appomattox campaigns, and remained on his staff until his retirement from the army in 1869, with the full rank of captain and the brevet rank of Brigadier-General. He accompanied General Grant on his post-Civil War tour around the world. They remained close friends for the remainder of Grant's life.

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Title: Conquistadors

Author: Michael Wood

Narrator: John Telfer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-11

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century was one of the most important and cataclysmic events in history. Spanish expeditions endured incredible hardships in order to open up the lands of the 'New World', and few stories in history can match these for drama and endurance.

In Conquistadors, Michael Wood follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest of the Spanish adventurers, travelling from the forests of Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, the deserts of North Mexico, the snow peaks of the Andes and the heights of Machu Picchu. He experiences the epic journeys of Cortes, Pizarro, Orellana and Cabeza de Vaca, and explores the turbulent and terrifying events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.

Members Reviews:

A sad history of human nature

A well told but very sad narrative on the desolation of the indigenous peoples of the American continent.

Part of western history that's not told in great detail, probably due to guilt and embarrassment .

A gripping story.

Brilliant submersion into the New World

Absolutely loved this book. Quotes from primary texts brilliant woven into the narrative with breathtaking effect. Really took you back to the time and place of both the Spanish and Native cultures. The end becomes slower paced but the change in tone is very poignant.

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Title: Lewis and Clark

Author: Samuel Willard Compton

Narrator: Tony Craine

Format: Unabridged

Length: 2 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-15-10

Publisher: University Press Audiobooks

Ratings: 1 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Lewis and Clark is an informative introduction to the famous expedition. Personally selected by President Thomas Jefferson, Captain Meriwether Lewis was assigned to lead an expedition to the West, where the United States had just completed the Louisiana Purchase land transaction with France. Lewis selected William Clark to accompany him, and as leaders of the Corps of Discovery, the men became the first to find an overland route to the Pacific Ocean, the first to travel on the Missouri River in the future state of Montana, the first to cross the Continental Divide south of Canada, and the first white men to make direct contact with the Shoshone, the Flathead, and the Nez Perce Indians.

Perhaps most importantly, Lewis and Clark discovered and described 122 species of Western birds and animals and 178 plants. Their 200,000-word journals continue to be a source of fascination to Americans. In Lewis and Clark, listen to how these two adventurers are still celebrated as among the greatest of American explorers. The book is published by Chelsea House Publishers, a leading publisher of educational material.

Critic Reviews:

"Recommended." (Library Media Connection)