Audiobooks by Robert G. Parkinson

Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence

"An acclaimed historian presents a sweeping new look at the Declaration of Independence, focusing not on the lofty principles of the preamble but on the list of grievances leveled against King George III. For the 250 years since it was written and proclaimed to the world, the Declaration of Independence, and the immortal words of its preamble―'all men are created equal,' 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'―have animated those striving for freedom in the United States, and around the world. Yet as historian Robert G. Parkinson shows in this revelatory work, the men who wrote the Declaration did not view the preamble as the important part; rather, it was the list of twenty-seven grievances that they spent their time laboring over, in those hot summer days. The grievances identified the tyrants and rogues who oppressed the colonists with their attacks on colonial assemblies and courtrooms throughout the imperial crisis, and eventually waged war on them, inflamed slave revolts, forced them to fight against their countrymen, and more. Parkinson gives us the Declaration anew―and in the process opens up an expansive view of the contingency of the Revolutionary moment, showing that the patriots were not so much philosophers as they were politicians and war-makers."

Robert G. Parkinson (Author), Bob Souer (Narrator)

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Heart of American Darkness: Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier

"An acclaimed historian captures the true nature of imperialism in early America, demonstrating how the frontier shaped the nation. We are divided over the history of the United States, and one of the central dividing lines is the frontier. Was it a site of heroism? Or was it where the full force of an all-powerful empire was brought to bear on Native peoples? In this startlingly original work, historian Robert Parkinson presents a new account of ever-shifting encounters between white colonists and Native Americans. Drawing skillfully on Joseph Conrad's famous novella, Heart of Darkness, he demonstrates that imperialism in North America was neither heroic nor a perfectly planned conquest. It was, rather, as bewildering, violent, and haphazard as the European colonization of Africa, which Conrad knew firsthand and fictionalized in his masterwork. Parkinson argues that American history is, in fact, tied to the frontier, just not in the ways we are often told. Altering our understanding of the past, he also shows what this new understanding should mean for us today."

Robert G. Parkinson (Author), Shawn Compton (Narrator)

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