Listen to Top 100 Audiobooks in History, American

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Title: Hero Tales

Subtitle: How Common Lives Reveal the Uncommon Genius of America

Author: Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Cabot Lodge

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-27-09

Publisher: Oasis Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Theodore Roosevelt proved that a political figure could also excel in military matters and literary endeavors. This work covers a most interesting list of heroes in American history, from Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark through various Revolutionary War participants, to activities during the Civil War. Daniel Boone will always occupy a unique place in our history as the archetype of the hunter and wilderness wanderer. He was a true pioneer, and stood at the head of that class of Indian-fighters, game-hunters, forest-fellers, and backwoods farmers who, generation after generation, pushed westward the border of civilization from the Alleghenies to the Pacific. As he himself said, he was "an instrument ordained of God to settle the wilderness".

(P)2009 Oasis

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Title: New Deal or Raw Deal?

Subtitle: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America

Author: Burton Folsom

Narrator: Alan Sklar

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins

Language: English

Release date: 06-04-09

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 252 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In this shocking and groundbreaking new book, economic historian Burton Folsom, Jr., exposes the idyllic legend of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a myth of epic proportions. With questionable moral character and a vendetta against the business elite, Roosevelt created New Deal programs marked by inconsistent planning, wasteful spending, and opportunity for political gain---ultimately elevating public opinion of his administration but falling flat in achieving the economic revitalization that America so desperately needed from the Great Depression. Folsom takes a critical, revisionist look at Roosevelt's presidency, his economic policies, and his personal life. Elected in 1932 on a buoyant tide of promises to balance the increasingly uncontrollable national budget and reduce the catastrophic unemployment rate, the charismatic thirty-second president not only neglected to pursue those goals, he made dramatic changes to federal programming that directly contradicted his campaign promises. Price fixing, court packing, regressive taxes, and patronism were all hidden inside the alphabet soup of his popular New Deal, putting a financial strain on the already suffering lower classes and discouraging the upper classes from taking business risks that potentially could have jostled national cash flow from dormancy. Many government programs that are widely used today have their seeds in the New Deal. Farm subsidies, minimum wage, and welfare, among others, all stifle economic growth---encouraging decreased productivity and exacerbating unemployment. Roosevelt's imperious approach to the presidency changed American politics forever, and as he manipulated public opinion, American citizens became unwitting accomplices to the stilted economic growth of the 1930s. More than sixty years after FDR died in office, we still struggle with the damaging repercussions of his legacy.

©2009 Burton Folson, Jr.; (P)2009 Tantor

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Title: The Speed of Sound

Subtitle: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution 1926 - 1930

Author: Scott Eyman

Narrator: Adams Morgan

Format: Unabridged

Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-15-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Here is the epic story of the transition from silent films to talkies, that moment when movies were totally transformed and the American public cemented its love affair with Hollywood. As Scott Eyman demonstrates in his fascinating account of this exciting era, it was a time when fortunes, careers, and lives were made and lost, when the American film industry came fully into its own.

In this mixture of cultural and social history that is both scholarly and vastly entertaining, Eyman dispels the myths and gives us the missing chapter in the history of Hollywood, the ribbon of dreams by which America conquered the world.

Critic Reviews:

"Eyman captures the tenor and the terror of the times....A fascinating account of what Eyman terms 'the destruction of one great art and the creation of another.'" (Booklist)

"Eyman combines a historian's zeal for detail and context with a storyteller's talent for the perfect illustrative anecdote....A remarkable book that belongs in every film history collection." (Library Journal)

"Eyman is particularly good at conveying the beauty of the fully developed art that was silent cinema....Eyman tells this story with wit and skill, detailing a surprisingly overlooked but crucial period in Hollywood history." - Kirkus Reviews

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Title: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

Author: Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas

Narrator: David Strathairn, Richard Dreyfuss

Format: Unabridged

Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-21-09

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 145 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates made history and changed its course through seven legendary match-ups between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senatorial race. Although he lost the election, Lincoln's gift for oratory and his anti-slavery stance made him a nationally known figure, and led to his election to the presidency in 1860.

Never before presented in audio, these debates and great statesmen are brought to life by narrators Richard Dreyfuss (Douglas) and David Strathairn (Lincoln). Perfectly timed for the Lincoln Bincentennial celebrations, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates provide a soundtrack to a nation discovering its better self.

Editorial Reviews:

A relatively inexperienced progressive Illinois orator debates a well-regarded and powerful Senator in an election that grabs the nation's headlines. No, this isn't 2008 and it isn't Obama-McCain. These are the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, a series of seven one-on-one town halls between two men looking to decide Illinois' future at a key moment in United States history. While Abraham Lincoln would go on to lose the Senate seat to the incumbent Stephen A. Douglas, these storied debates established Lincoln's presence on the national stage as a leading voice in the then newly established Republican Party. Much is made of his later success in abolishing slavery from the United States and rightfully so, but in these debates Lincoln tones down any abolitionist stance he may have had. He makes clear that any personal arguments against slavery would never tread on his responsibilities as a representative of the people of Illinois. Douglas on the other hand is fervent about the rights of states over the federal government in deciding any law regarding slavery. Not surprisingly, these debates mostly cover the 'slavery question' and, thankfully for the listener, not the multitude of other everyday issues facing citizens in 1858. This makes listening to seven separate town hall debates much easier, as the arguments over slavery get repeated and honed to perfection with each passing debate.

David Strathairn stars here as the thoughtful, level-headed Abraham Lincoln, opposite Richard Dreyfuss' condescendingly pushier voicing of Stephen A. Douglas. Neither put on any accents nor otherwise inject any unnecessary melodrama into the already powerful text of these debates. Whether purposefully sober or not, the result is that neither actor (nor the Senate candidate they represent) shines in this fairly straightforward reading. Strathairn's voicing bests Dreyfuss' Douglas but never soars to the rhetorical heights history attributes Lincoln. In admirably 'acting' out the debates verbatim, these Hollywood actors are not afforded the text of an author with masterful prose, much less a plot that thickens with each passing chapter. Instead Strathairn and Dreyfuss dutifully voice the debates with the clarity of tone and diction needed to facilitate understanding the finer points of arguments made over 150 years ago. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates are a challenging listen, but an appropriately timely one that these actors make worthwhile.

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Title: The Battle of New Orleans

Author: Robert V. Remini

Narrator: Raymond Todd

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-17-08

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The Battle of New Orleans sets its scenes with an almost unbelievably colorful cast of characters - a happenstance coalition of militia-men, regulars, untrained frontiersmen, free blacks, Indians, townspeople, and of course, Jackson himself. His glorious, improbable victory will catapult a once-poor, uneducated orphan boy into the White House and forge the beginning of a true nation.

Critic Reviews:

"Todd provides a spirited, unvoiced presentation. He reads in a clear, distinct voice that is easy to follow. The dramatic text needs no further embellishment." (

KLIATT)"Todd skillfully handles this well-documented history of the final battles of the War of 1812." (

Booklist)

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Title: The Modern Scholar

Subtitle: Law of the Land: A History of the Supreme Court

Author: Kermit Hall

Narrator: Kermit Hall

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-27-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 45 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The Judiciary in general and the Supreme Court of the United States in particular represent the republic's most unusual and least understood branch of government. Unlike the elected executive and legislative branches, the justices of the Supreme Court are appointed and serve during good behavior. Therefore they enjoy a degree of independence from the direct winds of politics that truly sets them apart. Moreover, while the cases before them are always heard in public, they are always decided in private - in conferences that the justices alone attend. What goes on both in open court and behind closed doors? What is the decision-making process and what considerations are taken into account? To what degree do tradition, politics, and precedent play a role? How are the justices, through their decisions, direct interpreters of constitutional law?This course explores the court as a living, breathing institution - one subject to the press of public opinion yet removed from its direct impact - one whose members have as often as not been vilified or praised. Listeners will come to know the court through a thorough study of its most significant decisions. The individual lectures explore both the personalities and legal reasoning behind, as well as the political impact of, these landmark cases. In the end, students will arrive at a solid understanding of the high court, its justices, its traditions, and, most importantly, its impact on the American Republic, not only today, but over the previous two centuries.

©2003 Kermit L. Hall; (P)2003 Recorded Books

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Title: A Voyage Long and Strange

Author: Tony Horwitz

Narrator: Tony Horwitz

Format: Abridged

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-29-08

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 37 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Horwitz decides to find out, and in A Voyage Long and Strange he uncovers the neglected story of America's founding by Europeans. He begins a thousand years ago, with the Vikings, and then tells the dramatic tale of conquistadors, castaways, French voyageurs, Moorish slaves, and many others who roamed and rampaged across half the states of the present-day U.S. continent, long before the Mayflower landed.

To explore this history and its legacy in the present, Horwitz embarks on an epic quest of his own - trekking in search of grape-rich Vinland, Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth, Coronado's Cities of Gold, Walter Raleigh's Lost Colonists, and other mysteries of early America. And everywhere he goes, Horwitz probes the revealing gap between fact and legend, between what we enshrine and what we forget.

An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.

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Title: Southern Storm

Subtitle: Sherman's March to the Sea

Author: Noah Andre Trudeau

Narrator: Eric Conger

Format: Abridged

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-05-08

Publisher: HarperAudio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

With Lincoln's hard-fought reelection victory in hand, Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces, allowed Sherman to lead the largest and riskiest operation of the war. In rich detail, Trudeau explains why General Sherman's name is still anathema below the Mason-Dixon Line, especially in Georgia, where he is remembered as "the one who marched to the sea with death and devastation in his wake".

Sherman's swath of destruction spanned more than 60 miles in width and virtually cut the South in two, badly disabling the flow of supplies to the Confederate army. He led more than 60,000 Union troops to blaze a path from Atlanta to Savannah, ordering his men to burn crops, kill livestock, and decimate everything that fed the Rebel war machine.

Grant and Sherman's gamble worked, and the march managed to crush a critical part of the Confederacy and increase the pressure on General Lee, who was already under siege in Virginia.

Told through the intimate and engrossing diaries and letters of Sherman's soldiers and the civilians who suffered in their path, Southern Storm paints a vivid picture of an event that would forever change the course of America.

Editorial Reviews:

Eric Conger gives a dignified performance of award-winning American Civil War historian Noah Andre Trudeaus nonfiction book Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea. This audiobook features Trudeaus account of General William Tecumseh Sherman's scorched-earth campaign from Atlanta to Savannah. The general ordered 60,000 Union troops to burn crops and kill livestock along the way in order to cripple the opposing forces. The narrative features the diaries and letters of soldiers and civilians, which illuminate the event that altered the course of American history.

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Title: The Bloody Shirt

Subtitle: Terror after Appomattox

Author: Stephen Budiansky

Narrator: Phil Gigante

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-16-08

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Over the years, this fact would not only be forgotten, but a series of exculpatory myths would arise to cover the tracks of this orchestrated campaign of atrocity and violence. Little memory would persist of the simple truth: that a well-organized and directed terrorist movement, led by ex-Confederates who refused to accept the verdict of Appomattox and the enfranchisement of the freedmen, succeeded in overthrowing the freely elected representative governments of every Southern state.

Stephen Budiansky brings to life this largely forgotten but epochal chapter of American history through the intertwining lives of five courageous men who tried to stop the violence and keep the dream of freedom and liberty alive. They include James Longstreet, the ablest general of the Confederate army, who would be vilified and ostracized for insisting that the South must accept the terms of the victor and the enfranchisement of black men; Lewis Merrill of the 7th Cavalry, who fought the Klan in South Carolina; and Prince Rivers, who escaped from slavery, fought for the Union, became a state representative and magistrate, and died performing the same menial labor he had as a slave.

Using letters and diaries left by these men, as well as startlingly hateful diatribes published in Southern newspapers after the war, Budiansky proves beyond a doubt that terrorism is hardly new to America.

Critic Reviews:

"Budiansky brings the unpleasant details of the era alive in a smoothly written narrative." (Publishers Weekly)

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Title: The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears

Author: Theda Perdue, Michael Green

Narrator: George Wilson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-10-08

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 35 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Acclaimed historians Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green paint a moving portrait of the infamous Trail of Tears. Despite protests from statesmen like Davy Crockett, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay, a dubious 1838 treaty drove 17,000 mostly Christian Cherokee from their lush Appalachian homeland to barren plains beyond the Mississippi. For 4,000, this brutal forced march lead only to their deaths.

©1993 Theda Purdue; ©1993 Michael Green; (P)2007 Recorded Books

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