History Audiobooks

The Killing Age: How Violence Made the Modern World

"'Combines brilliant storytelling with rich and deeply researched evidence . . . essential reading for anyone seeking a global history that reexamines the past on a massive scale' - Caroline Elkins, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Imperial Reckoning and Legacy of Violence 'Synoptic in its reach, overwhelming in its detail, The Killing Age leaves one feeling like Jonathan Swift's Gulliver, who came to prefer the company of peaceable horses to membership of humankind' - J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of Disgrace A bold, trailblazing history that asks: what if the movements that built the modern world - the Enlightenment, democracy, the Industrial Revolution - were more catastrophic than we ever imagined? In this radical rethinking of modernity, Professor Clifton Crais argues that the era between 1750 and the early 1900s - seen by many as the birth of the Anthropocene - should instead be known as the Mortecene: the Age of Killing. Killing brought the world together and tore it apart, as violence and commerce converged to create a new and terrible world order that drove the growth of global capitalism. Profiteering warlords left a trail of devastation across Africa, Asia, and the Americas, committing mass-scale slaughter of humans and animals, and sparking an environmental crisis that remains the most pressing threat facing the world today. Drawing on decades of scholarship and a range of new sources, The Killing Age turns our vision of past and present on its head, illuminating the Mortecene in all its horror: how it has shaped who we are, what we value, what we fear, and the precarious planet we must now confront. 'Crais obliges us to confront the naked reality of a modern world order spawned from the barrel of a gun . . . This is a courageous and highly readable work' - David Wengrow, co-author of The Dawn of Everything"

Clifton Crais (Author), Jason Keller (Narrator)

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History Hiding Around Broadway: Backstage Lore, Secrets, and Surprises from New York's Famed Theater

"Go behind the scenes of the Great White Way with this illustrated guide to the Theater District's hidden history--an essential book for your explorations of the district from a seasoned Broadway guide. Broadway is one of New York's greatest treasures, and where there is treasure, there is a backstory. When it comes to Broadway, that backstory is fittingly juicy, dramatic, and unexpected. And no one knows these hidden histories like Teale Dvornik, who has been leading Broadway fans on tours of the theater district since 2017. With her immense knowledge and passion for the theater, Dvornik now takes readers on her one-of-a-kind tour of Broadway, "stopping" at each of the 41 theaters to tell us fun facts, lesser-known history, ghost tales, and interesting stories about actors, performances, stage flukes, blunders, and more, involving the biggest names and productions in theater history. Learn about the Tiffany chandeliers of the Belasco Theater, the trove of hidden jewels at the Gershwin (which houses years of history from the beloved musical Wicked), and the impresarios and players who influenced Broadway. Readers will also learn the fascinating back stories of theater myths, legends, and traditions. Where did the stage ghost light come from? What started the tradition of intermissions? Which theaters have secret connecting hallways? And much, much more! Along the way, Teale takes detours to explain stage lingo and dives into some of Broadways most popular shows, including CATS, Hello, Dolly!, and Rent. "

Teale Dvornik (Author), James Monroe Iglehart, Teale Dvornik (Narrator)

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Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today: (and other lessons from history about living through an inform

"Brought to you by Penguin. An electrifying, thought-provoking exploration of how the digital era is reshaping our world, by bestselling, Women's Prize-winning writer Naomi Alderman From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Power What’s the most useful thing you could know about your own life? In this era-defining book, developed from her ground-breaking Radio 4 essay series, Naomi Alderman turns her boundless curiosity and incisive thinking to a question that affects us all – how do we understand, and navigate, the epoch we’re living through? She calls this epoch the Information Crisis. The internet has flooded us with more knowledge, opinions, ideas, opportunities, as well as verbal attacks and misinformation than ever before. It lets us learn more quickly and also spread falsehood more quickly, it brings us together and also divides us in new ways, it is now the lens through which we perceive and understand the world. There is no going back. But we have been here before. In fact, this is humanity's third information crisis. The first, the invention of writing 5,000 years ago and the second, the invention of the printing press, 600 years ago, drastically reshaped our perceptions, interactions and mental landscapes in ways that feel acutely familiar. Overwhelmed by information, people become afraid and angry, unsettled and distressed as well as more knowledgeable, educated and curious. By looking at those previous information crises, both the turmoil and the advances, Alderman asks what we can learn from the past to better understand, and navigate, our present and our future. Drawing on the work of philosophers and historians, Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today explores how new technology opens up new ways of being and helps us chart a way forward (once again), through the turbulent seas of information overload. 'Alderman is one of our most surprising and delightful public intellectuals, and this book grapples wonderfully with our current schisms and their historical precedents' JON RONSON © Naomi Alderman 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Naomi Alderman (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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The Five Blessings of Ifá: Reclaiming Black Futures Through Afro-Indigenous Spirituality

"A fierce and inspirational guide to Black resistance, resilience, and healing, using the principles of Afro-Indigenous spiritual practices Understanding where you came from is crucial to understand where you are going. The Five Blessings of Ifá explores how Black communities across the diaspora draw strength from ancestral wisdom, family, community care, and mutual aid, using the principles of Ifá-a West African spiritual tradition-as a guiding framework. Gabrielle Felder provides a blueprint for living a more fulfilled and abundant life through the blessings of Aiku (longevity), Aje (wealth), Aya and Oko (relationships), Omo (children), and Isegun (victory over negative forces), providing practical examples of how Black folks have built resilience and learned to thrive in the face of oppression. - Longevity exists in ancestral traditions that we cultivate over generations, which Felder explores through practices of traditional herbalism as well as contemporary sustainability and food sovereignty movements. - Wealth, in Felder's interpretation, has to do with the richness created by community, including cultural traditions of food, dance, and music that connect seemingly disparate African diasporic cultures. - Partnership, traditionally understood in Ifá as husband and wife, is reconsidered by Felder to include a wide variety of relationship structures, including familial bonds and queer families. - To explore the blessing of children, Felder dives into the important history of doulas and midwives in Black communities, and their crucial role in combatting the high maternal mortality rate among Black women in the US. - Finally, Felder draws out the meanings of the blessing of victory through a wide range of examples of Black autonomy: slave rebellions; the rejection of Euro-centric beauty standards; mutual aid practices among Black revolutionary groups; and the contemporary Black witch movement. As a collective, Black folks have managed to usher in the five blessings of Ifá into our lives despite all odds. This book is a love letter to those who have come before us, and a guide to the possibilities that lie in our collective future."

Gabrielle Felder (Author), A'rese Emokpae (Narrator)

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Muslim Europe: A Journey in Search of a Fourteen Hundred Year History

"Brought to you by Penguin. This revelatory history explores the ancient roots of Muslim Europe, tracing their journey through the Mediterranean. Our odyssey begins in the little-known Sufi lodges in Cyprus, where Muslims arrived in 647AD. From there, we travel through the continent – visiting places such as Sicily, Malta, Portugal and Spain – encountering red-haired European Sultans and Arabic-speaking Christian Kings. We meet forgotten Muslim pioneers, such as Abbas Ibn Firnas who gave us flight and Ibn Sina who gave us modern medicine. We see the Islam-inspired mudejar art of fourteenth-century Christians in Spain, and how such cross fertilisation birthed Europe’s ‘Renaissance’. We discover the long-forgotten tombs of European Muslims who knew the Prophet Muhammad, and the author – award-winning writer Tharik Hussain – becomes the first Muslim in over 900 years to pray inside the remains of a nameless Sicilian Mosque. To remedy Europe’s Islamic amnesia, this ambitious history reveals that Islam is no side show to Western culture – but rather has been integral to its development over 1,400 years. 'A book I’ve been longing for someone to write and Hussain is the man to write it’ William Dalrymple ‘Uncovers a world of which few are fully aware’ Colin Thubron © Tharik Hussain 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Tharik Hussain (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Omaha Beach: D-Day, June 6, 1944

Joseph Balkoski (Author), Basil Sands (Narrator)

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Dianarama: Deception, Entrapment, Cover-up: The Betrayal of Princess Diana

"Brought to you by Penguin. Revealed for the first time: the true story of the entrapment and deception of Princess Diana The death of Princess Diana in August 1997 was one of the most shocking events in recent history. Many events surrounding the tragedy have been shrouded in mystery, in particular the BBC Panorama interview Diana gave to journalist Martin Bashir less than two years before she died. However, the true extent of the deception the princess experienced as well as the elaborate cover-up which ensued has never before been revealed – until now. Dianarama: Entrapment, Deception, Cover-Up: The Betrayal of Princess Diana is the story of one of the biggest scandals in public life and broadcasting history, revealing a cover-up of staggering proportions, and around which questions persist to the present day. Andy Webb, the writer and award-winning filmmaker who obtained the secret files that first broke the story of Princess Diana's betrayal, offers unrivalled insider access to the key players in the drama in a thrilling first-hand narrative, putting the reader inside the room where each key decision was taken, from the moment BBC reporter Martin Bashir first contrived his dossier of forged bank statements in 1995 to the 2024 courtroom where Webb faced the BBC's elite legal squad to demand the publication of 10,000 pages of highly contested documents relating to the scandal. A story for the ages, the fate of Princess Diana will be debated by scholars and gossips centuries from now. This book, filled with revelations which have not yet entered the public record, will become a key part in the first draft of history. © Andy Webb 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Andy Webb (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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When Caesar Was King: How Sid Caesar Reinvented American Comedy

"From longtime New York Times and Vanity Fair writer David Margolick comes the first definitive biography of Sid Caesar: founding father of television comedy and icon to generations of Americans. By the spring of 1954, Sid Caesar was the most influential, highly paid, and enigmatic comedian in America. Every week, twenty million people tuned their TVs to his NBC extravaganza, Your Show of Shows, and witnessed his versatility and virtuosity in sketches and film spoofs, pantomime and soliloquy. Onstage, Caesar could play any character and make it funny: a befuddled game-show contestant, a pretentious expert, a beleaguered husband (opposite his redoubtable co-star Imogene Coca), even a gumball machine and a bottle of seltzer. To his mostly urban audience, Caesar's comedy was an era-defining leap forward from the days of vaudeville, launching a new comedic style that was multilayered, language-drunk, full of character, and uproarious. To his rivals, Caesar was the man to beat. To his fellow American Jews, his show's success meant something more: It was a post-Holocaust symbol of security and a source of pride. But behind all that Caesar represented was the real Sid. Introverted and volatile, ill at ease in his own skin, he could terrorize his collaborators but reserved his harshest critiques for himself. Soon enough, he would be off the air. Beset by exhaustion, addiction, a fickle viewership, and his own impossible standards, TV's first true star was also its first fall from grace. But in his wake he left the disciples he personally nurtured-including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, and Neil Simon-and an indelible impact on what still makes us laugh. In When Caesar Was King, veteran journalist David Margolick conjures this complex man as never before. Deeply researched, brimming with love for Caesar and the culture from which he sprang, and reanimating a New York City that has all but vanished, this rollicking and poignant book traces the rise and fall of a legend."

David Margolick (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Mexico: A History

"Brought to you by Penguin. This sweeping new history of Mexico spans 500 dramatic years of conquest, innovation and revolution It begins in 1511 with the shipwreck of two Spanish sailors in Yucatán. Only ten years later, an army of European adventurers and indigenous rebels seized the island city of Tenochtitlán, seat of one of the world’s great empires. It would become Mexico City, and marked the collision of two radically different worlds. Spaniards discovered tomatoes, chocolate and the most sophisticated city they had ever seen. For Mexicans the encounter brought horses, wheels, but also lethal germs – sparking a cataclysmic century of disease that would kill a majority of the indigenous population. Paul Gillingham’s superb history chronicles how this convulsion led to a startling recombination of cultures. He shows how the industrial mining of Mexico’s silver transformed the wealth and trade of the world, making it the centre of the first truly global economy. We then see how independence from Spain went on to bring calamitous wars with the United States and France. One of the world’s great social revolutions then remade Mexico and ushered in a one-party state that, whatever its shortcomings, brought peace throughout many of the global horrors of the twentieth century – before the country collapsed into violence in the drug wars of the 2000s. Mexico: A History uses the latest research to dazzling effect, showing how often Mexico has been one of the world’s great innovators; a dynamic and vital shaper of world affairs. © Paul Gillingham 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Paul Gillingham (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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A Short History of America: From Tea Party to Trump

"Brought to you by Penguin. The global powerhouse that is the United States of America is younger even than the British Museum, Guinness and the flushing toilet. In 2026 it will celebrate its 250th birthday. How did this vast land, long inhabited by diverse indigenous cultures, come to be dominated by English speakers? How has it grappled with the stark contradictions between its ideals of liberty and the grim reality of genocide and slavery? This extraordinary collection of fifty distinct states has weathered immense – and recent – challenges, including a Civil War that was still raging as the first London Underground station opened. How did this melting pot of peoples and ideas not only endure but rise to dominate global politics, commerce, culture and warfare? What insights does this rich history offer about an increasingly divided nation – and the world that moves to its rhythm? Is this the twilight of American supremacy, signalling a shift toward a more introspective nation? A Short History of America is rich with vivid characters – from arrogant conquistadors and idealistic revolutionaries to imperial presidents – and presents a narrative so astonishing it often feels like fake news. This is a gripping must-read for anyone seeking to make sense of our world today. © Simon Jenkins 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Simon Jenkins (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa

"A "meticulously researched and comprehensive" (Financial Times) history of the devastating war in the heart of Africa's Congo At the heart of Africa is the Congo, a country the size of western Europe. It borders nine other nations, and since 1996 it has been racked by a brutal war in which millions have died. In Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, renowned political activist and researcher Jason Stearns has written a compelling and deeply reported narrative of how Congo became a failed state that collapsed into a war of retaliatory massacres. Stearns brilliantly describes the key perpetrators, many of whom he met personally, and highlights the nature of the political system that brought these people to power, as well as the moral decisions with which the war confronted them. Now updated with a new introduction, Dancing in the Glory of Monsters tells the full story of Africa's great war. "

Jason K. Stearns (Author), Robert Fass (Narrator)

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Winning the Earthquake: How Jeannette Rankin Defied All Odds to Become the First Woman in Congress

"The first major biography of Jeannette Rankin, a groundbreaking suffragist, activist, and the first American woman to hold federal office. “Few members of Congress have ever stood more alone while being true to a higher honor and loyalty.” ―President John F. Kennedy on Jeannette Rankin Born on a Montana ranch in 1880, Jeannette Rankin knew how to ride a horse, make a fire, and read the sky for weather. But most of all, she knew how to talk to people, how to convince them of her vision for America. It was this rare skill that led her, in 1916, to become the first woman ever elected to the House of Representatives. As her first act, Rankin introduced the legislation that would become the 19th Amendment. Throughout her two terms in 1916 and 1940, she continued to introduce and pass legislation benefiting unions, protecting workers, and increasing aid for children in poverty. In 1941, she stood tall as the sole anti-war voice in Congress during WWII, advocating for pacifism in the face of tragedy and stating that you can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake. A suffragist, feminist, peace activist, workers' rights advocate, progressive, and Republican, Rankin remained ever true to her beliefs―no matter the price she had to pay personally. Yet, despite the momentous steps she made for women in politics, overcoming the boys club of capitalists and career politicians who never wanted to see a woman in Congress, Jeannette Rankin’s story has been largely forgotten. In Winning the Earthquake, Lorissa Rinehart deftly uncovers the compelling history behind this singular American hero, bringing her story back to life."

Lorissa Rinehart (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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