Listen to Top 100 Audiobooks in History, American

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Title: The Grand Design

Subtitle: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War

Author: Donald Stoker

Narrator: Thomas Dunn

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-06-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 28 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Despite the abundance of books on the Civil War, not one has focused exclusively on what was in fact the determining factor in the outcome of the conflict: differences in union and southern strategy. In The Grand Design, Donald Stoker provides for the first time a comprehensive and often surprising account of strategy as it evolved between Fort Sumter and Appomattox. Reminding us that strategy is different from tactics (battlefield deployments) and operations (campaigns conducted in pursuit of a strategy), Stoker examines how Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis identified their political goals and worked with their generals to craft the military means to achieve them - or how they often failed to do so. Stoker shows that Davis, despite a West Point education and experience as Secretary of War, ultimately failed as a strategist by losing control of the political side of the war. Lincoln, in contrast, evolved a clear strategic vision, but he failed for years to make his generals implement it. And while Robert E. Lee was unerring in his ability to determine the Union's strategic heart - its center of gravity - he proved mistaken in his assessment of how to destroy it.

Historians have often argued that the North's advantages in population and industry ensured certain victory. In The Grand Design, Stoker reasserts the centrality of the overarching plan on each side, arguing convincingly that it was strategy that determined the result of America's great national conflict.

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Title: George Washington: History in an Hour

Author: David B. McCoy

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 18 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-25-13

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 48 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.

George Washington a figure synonymous with American history. His image is known worldwide, marked on American currency, postage stamps even a state is named after him. George Washington in an Hour explores the man beneath the symbol.

This is the essential chronicle of Washingtons life his rise from middle class Virginian upbringing to Americas first President, elected unanimously twice. Explore Washingtons legacy from securing Independence, to his instrumental role in writing and adopting the American constitution.

George Washington in an Hour covers Washingtons redefinition of greatness, relinquishing power not once but twice at the end of Revolution and his second term in Presidency. Learn why Washington is still considered one of the most influential people in history, and how his impact shaped the world in this engaging overview of his life.

Critic Reviews:

"If the past is a foreign country, History in an Hour is like a high-class tour operator, offering delightfully enjoyable short breaks in the rich and diverse continent of our shared past" (Dominic Sandbrook)

"The practice of History is ever-evolving, and the History In An Hour idea brings it back up to date for the digital age" (Andrew Roberts, Bookseller)

"This is genius" (MacWorld.com)

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Title: The Third Coast

Subtitle: When Chicago Built the American Dream

Author: Thomas Dyja

Narrator: David Drummond

Format: Unabridged

Length: 17 hrs and 51 mins

Language: English

Release date: 04-18-13

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 38 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A cultural history of Chicago at midcentury, with its incredible mix of architects, politicians, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, and actors who helped shape modern America

Though today it can seem as if all American culture comes out of New York and Los Angeles, much of what defined the nation as it grew into a superpower was produced in Chicago. Before air travel overtook trains, nearly every coast-to-coast journey included a stop there, and this flow of people and commodities made it Americas central clearinghouse, laboratory, and factory. Between the end of World War II and 1960, Mies van der Rohes glass-and-steel architecture became the face of corporate America, Ray Krocs McDonalds changed how people eat, Hugh Hefner unveiledPlayboy, and the Chess brothers supercharged rock and roll with Chuck Berry. At the University of Chicago, the atom was split and Western civilization was packaged into the Great Books.

Yet even as Chicago led the way in creating mass-market culture, its artists pushed back in their own distinct voices. In literature, it was the outlaw novels of Nelson Algren (then carrying on a passionate affair with Simone de Beauvoir), the poems of Gwendolyn Brooks, and Studs Terkels oral histories. In music, it was the gospel of Mahalia Jackson, the urban blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin Wolf, and the trippy avant-garde jazz of Sun Ra. In performance, it was the intimacy ofKukla, Fran, and Ollie, theChicago Schoolof television, and the improvisational comedy troupe Second City whose famous alumni are now everywhere in American entertainment.

Despite this diversity, racial divisions informed virtually every aspect of life in Chicago. The chaos - both constructive and destructive - of this period was set into motion by the second migration north of African Americans during World War II. As whites either fled to the suburbs or violently opposed integration, urban planners tried to design away "blight" with projects that marred a generation of American cities. The election of Mayor Richard J. Daley in 1955 launched a frenzy of new building that came at a terrible cost - monolithic housing projects for the black community and a new kind of self-satisfied provincialism that sped up the end of Chicagos role as Americas meeting place.

In luminous prose, Chicago native Thomas Dyja re-creates the story of the city in its postwar prime and explains its profound impact on modern America.

Critic Reviews:

"Thomas Dyjas

The Third Coast unravels the wondrous history of Chicago with cunning and aplomb. Every aspect of the Windy City is revealed anew from Mies van der Rohes skyscrapers to Chuck Berrys rock n roll. A truly gripping narrative. Highly recommended!" (Douglas Brinkley,

New York Times best-selling author of

Cronkite)

"I am an American, not Chicago-born, but at age nine Chicago was the first big city I visited, and it was love at first sight. Ive come to know it deeply, however, only through its writers: Saul Bellow, Richard Wright, Studs Terkel, Mike Royko - and now Thomas Dyja.

The Third Coast is a vivid, fascinating, surprising, altogether masterful chronicle of this quintessentially American citys mid-century cultural heyday." (Kurt Andersen,

New York Times best-selling author)

"Thomas Dyja has written a wonderful book about the cultural cauldron that seethed in twentieth-century Chicago.

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Title: The Remarkable Life of Kitty McInerney

Subtitle: How a Poor Irish Immigrant Raised 17 Children in Great Depression New York

Author: Christopher Prince

Narrator: Christopher Prince

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 32 mins

Language: English

Release date: 03-08-13

Publisher: Christopher Prince

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 7 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

On December 7th, 1955, Kitty McInerney lay dying in a New York hospital bed. The 47-year-old Irish immigrant, suffering from severe toxemia, was preparing for an emergency C-section to give birth to her 17th child. As a Catholic priest performed her last rites, Kitty succumbed to a rare moment of quiet reflection. While her thoughts centered on the fate of her many young children, Kitty found no solace in contemplating her improbable tale of survival... her impoverished youth in rural Ireland, her courageous journey from a small Irish village to the largest city in the world, and her tireless devotion to an ever-expanding family amidst impossible hardships in the impoverished South Bronx. Nor did Kitty realize how her modest life rode a wave of social and political transformation that would come to define modern America. Poor, burdened, and uncelebrated, Kitty McInerney is remarkable for her unrelenting faith, her unique, individual struggle and for exemplifying the American immigrant experience.

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Title: The Age of Edison

Subtitle: Electric Light and the Invention of Modern America

Author: Ernest Freeberg

Narrator: Sean Pratt

Format: Unabridged

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-21-13

Publisher: Gildan Media, LLC

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 57 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

The late 19th century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but arguably the most important invention of all was Thomas Edisons incandescent light bulb. Unveiled in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory in 1879, the light bulb overwhelmed the American public with the sense of the birth of a new age. More than any other invention, the electric light marked the arrival of modernity.

The light bulb became a catalyst for the nations transformation from a rural to an urban-dominated culture. City streetlights defined zones between rich and poor, and the electrical grid sharpened the line between town and country. "Bright lights" meant "big city". Like moths to a flame, millions of Americans migrated to urban centers in these decades, leaving behind the shadow of candle and kerosene lamp in favor of the exciting brilliance of the urban streetscape.

The Age of Edison places the story of Edisons invention in the context of a technological revolution that transformed America and Europe in these decades. Edison and his fellow inventors emerged from a culture shaped by broad public education, a lively popular press that took an interest in science and technology, and an American patent system that encouraged innovation and democratized the benefits of invention. And in the end, as Freeberg shows, Edison's greatest invention was not any single technology, but rather his reinvention of the process itself. At Menlo Park he gathered the combination of capital, scientific training, and engineering skill that would evolve into the modern research and development laboratory. His revolutionary electrical grid not only broke the stronghold of gas companies, but also ushered in an era when strong, clear light could become accessible to everyone.

In The Age of Edison, Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility, in which the greater forces of progress and change are made visible by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects.

Critic Reviews:

"A dynamo of a book powered by an infectious enthusiasm for the can-do spirit of Edison and rival geniuses racing to turn night into day. Freeberg writes with verve and uncommon clarity, all the while deeply enriching our understanding of an age raring to embrace modernity." (A. Roger Ekirch, author of

At Day's Close: Night in Times Past)

"Ernest Freeberg's fascinating account of the arrival and impact of electric lighting in America fills an important gap in the history of this subject. This well-written and insightful book should appeal both to scholars and lay readers, all of whom will learn much about the complex history of the adoption of this new technology." (Paul Israel, author of

Edison: A Life of Invention; General Editor, The Thomas Edison Papers)

"Freeberg's deft social history explores a remarkable period in Americas cultural and economic development.

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Title: How the Irish Won the West

Author: Myles Dungan

Narrator: Clinton Wade

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-18-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 2 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Now everyone will know the truth. Without the Irish, the American frontier may never have been tamed.Here is the full story of the Irish immigrants and their decedents, whose hard work helped make the West what it is today. Learn about the Irish members of the Donner party, forced to consume human flesh to survive the winter; mountain men like Thomas Fitzpatrick, who discovered the South Pass through the Rockies; Ellen Nellie Cashman, who ran boarding houses and bought and sold claims in Alaska, Arizona, and Nevada; and Maggie Hall, who became known as the whore with a heart of gold. A fascinating and entertaining look at the history of the American West, this book will surprise many and make every Irish American proud.

Editorial Reviews:

Students of the American West will be impressed with Myles Dungan's attempt to elevate the Irish from footnote status to the role of main character in How the Irish West Was Won, an audio survey of the Irish influence on the Western character and history. Dungan is no slouch - he gives his listeners a detailed timeline of the American West in which to place his drama of Irish resettlement. Dungan's story is not one of a single stereotype either - it runs the gamut from fur-trapping mountain men to brave Irish women to the famed Donner party. Narrator Clinton Wade admirably avoids caricature - he spurns the Irish brogue and lets this rip-roaring tale of a varied people set against an iconic landscape speak for itself.

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Title: Lee and His Men at Gettysburg

Subtitle: The Death of a Nation

Author: Clifford Dowdey

Narrator: Kevin Stillwell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-03-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 15 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

In this sweeping account Clifford Dowdey recreates one of the most important battles in U.S. history. With vivid and breathtaking detail, Lee and His Men at Gettysburg is both a historical work and an honorary ode to the almost 50,000 soldiers who died at the fields of Pennsylvania. Written with an emphasis on the Confederate forces, the book captures the brilliance and frustration of a general forced to contend with overwhelming odds and in-competent subordinates. Dowdey not only presents the facts of war, but brings to life the cast of characters that defined this singular moment in American history.

Editorial Reviews:

Kevin Stillwells rich voice captures the vivid nuances of Lee and His Men at Gettysburg. a comprehensive history of the Battle of Gettysburg by American writer Clifford Dowdey. His intense performance underlines the importance of the 1863 conflict, which resulted in nearly 50,000 deaths and is considered to be the turning point in the American Civil War. This meticulously researched audiobook focuses on the Confederate troops, led by the brilliant General Robert E. Lee, and the series of events that led to their ultimate downfall.

Critic Reviews:

"Lively, critical, judicious and scholarly." (Henry Steele Commager, New York Times)

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Title: George Washington's Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior

Author: George Washington

Narrator: Jason McCoy

Format: Unabridged

Length: 36 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-29-13

Publisher: BN Publishing

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 30 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Though many of the rules deal with matters of etiquette - such as who should rise for whom in mixed company - many concern far deeper matters that touch on personal philosophies about judgment, honor, success, and conscience. As a peek into the manners of a bygone age, this is an intriguing work. As a peek into a great mean in his formative years, this is an extraordinary one. He was an American Founding Father and the new nation's first president, but before that, George Washington (1732-1799) was an excruciatingly correct child with a passion for propriety.

At the age of 14, he copied out 110 rules for elegant deportment from a work created by Jesuits in the 16th century as a guide for young gentlemen of quality, and through these rules, which he took greatly to heart, we can see the beginning of the man Washington would become taking shape.

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Title: Breaking the Chains

Subtitle: African American Slave Resistance

Author: William Loren Katz

Narrator: Peter Francis James

Format: Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-15-13

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Generations of American history students grew up believing that slave rebellion was relatively rare, that slaves accepted their lot and became attached to their masters, and that they were ultimately liberated with little or no effort of their own. Liberally sprinkled with quotations from Civil War-era blacks, both slave and free, Breaking the Chains gives readers a well-researched look at the lives of real slaves. From their African abductions, through their brave resistance to harsh plantation owners, to their roles in the Civil War, their own indomitable spirits shine through as the driving force behind their emancipation.

Written by a teacher, world lecturer, and consultant to the Smithsonian Institution, this compelling look at history is an educational eye-opener for history buffs of all ages. Peter Francis James vivid narration gives listeners the impression of being in the presence of firsthand witnesses to one of the most turbulent periods of U.S. history.

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Title: A Concise History of the United States, Volume I

Subtitle: Native Americans the Indigenous People of America

Author: Henry Harrison Epps

Narrator: Ellery Truesdell

Format: Unabridged

Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-14-13

Publisher: Henry Epps Inc

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 5 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

A Concise History of the United States, Volume One talks about the history of the Native Americans from their beginning and their contact with Europeans. Native Americans have contributed math, art, agriculture, and government to the building of the American dream.

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