Experience our world: as it was, as it is, as it might become with these audiobooks about history, the arts, culture, education, and politics. Don't miss Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, or Fresh Air with Terry Gross: Writers, or Gwen Ifill's The Breakthrough.
A riveting, you-are-there account of the tightly-knit forest service engine crew that perished battling “the perfect storm of wildland fires,” which led to the first-ever conviction of a wildland arsonist for first degree murder. Learn More
edited and introduction by Jelani Cobb; with Matthew Guariglia; read by Mirron Willis
Recognizing that a historic study of American racism and police violence should become part of today's canon, Jelani Cobb contextualizes it for a new generation. Learn More
Everybody's Doin' It is the eye-opening story of popular music's seventy-year rise in the brothels, dance halls, and dives of New York City. Learn More
The audacious, improbable tale of how twentieth-century American hucksterism, outlandish daring, and vision resurrected a dying Encyclopedia Britannica. The Britannica's astonishing success changed newspaper and reference book publishing and resulted in the beloved eleventh edition. Learn More
Science is an astounding achievement, but are we really any wiser than the ancients? Has science revealed the secrets of fate and immortality? Has it provided protection from jealousy or love? There are those who believe that science has replaced faith, but must it also be a death knell for mythology? Learn More
by Marc Lamont Hill, Mitchell Plitnick; read by Paul Boehmer
A bold call for the American Left to extend their politics to the issues of Israel-Palestine, from a New York Times bestselling author and experts on US policy in the region. Learn More
Since 1973, The Exorcist and its progeny have scared and inspired half a century of filmgoers. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of the original movie release, this is the definitive, fascinating story of the scariest movie ever made and its lasting impact as one of the most shocking, influential, and successful adventures in the history of film. Written by Nat Segaloff, an original publicist for the movie and the acclaimed biographer of its director, with a foreword from John Russo, author and cowriter of the seminal horror film Night of the Living Dead. Learn More
The fascinating history and unnerving future of high-tech aerial surveillance, from its secret military origins to its growing use on American citizens. Learn More
From the Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, a gripping look at the most dangerous and unexpected threats to our national security and the actions needed to protect us. Learn More
by John Solomon & Seamus Bruner; read by John Solomon & Rick Adamson
An exhaustively researched book that reads like an investigative thriller, Fallout reveals how Obama's "Russian Reset" led to corruption, scandal, and a desperate bid to impeach Donald Trump. Learn More
During the Cold War, American policymakers sought nuclear advantages to offset an alleged Soviet edge. Policymakers hoped that US nuclear capabilities would safeguard deterrence, when backed perhaps by a set of coercive tactics. But policymakers also hedged their bets with plans to fight a nuclear war to their advantage should deterrence fail. In The False Promise of Superiority, James H. Lebovic argues that the US approach was fraught with peril and remains so today. Learn More
From Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time comes "a timely reminder of the power and possibility of words [and] the last love letter to the shaping spirit of Bloom's imagination" (front page, The New York Times Book Review) and an intimate, wise, deeply compelling portrait of Falstaff—one of Shakespeare's greatest enduring and most complex comedic characters. Learn More
Child abuse casts a long shadow over the history of childhood. This book looks at what constituted cruelty towards children in the past and at the social responses towards it. Focusing primarily on England, it is a history of violence against children in their own homes, covering a large timeframe which extends from medieval times to the present. Learn More
Murders committed to escape a marriage, or out of dire desperation, or from an insane separation from reality, these and other less comprehensible motivations fill the pages of Family, Friends and Neighbors. It's an unflinching look into humanity's dark side! Hear the stories, investigate the facts, and meet the vicious killers who murder the people who should have been nearest and dearest to them. Learn More
New York Times best-selling author Arianna Huffington takes another sweeping look at how right wing zealots have taken charge of the Republican Party and the governmentand the American leadership who let it happen. Learn More
A surprising, lively, and erudite history of horse and man, Farewell to the Horse paints a stunning panorama of a world shaped by hooves, and the imprint left on humankind. Learn More