World Audiobooks | History

The Mark Steel Lectures: The BBC Radio Comedy Series

Radical comedian Mark Steel profiles sixteen historical figures who shaped their era Sony Award-winning satirist and stand-up comedian Mark Steel takes us through the life stories of some of his favourite historical characters in this acclaimed radio series, which ran for three series on BBC Radio 4 before transferring to TV in 2003. From Oliver Cromwell to Ludvig van Beethoven, Mark’s chosen personalities are all passionate, driven – and more than a little eccentric... Among the inspirational people he profiles are W. G. Grace, one of cricket’s greatest players and the first modern celebrity; Mary Shelley, a radical’s daughter who married a poet and invented science fiction; Che Guevara, who became a left-wing hero despite chronic asthma; and Aristotle, who deserves to be remembered for much more than a line in a Monty Python song. In addition, he delves into the lives of Renaissance genius (and absent-minded buffoon) Leonardo da Vinci; Carthaginian elephant-wrangler and scourge of the Romans, Hannibal; jazz singer Billie Holiday, whose trademark song ‘Strange Fruit’ was so inflammatory that Columbia refused to record it; and gravity-defining mathematician Isaac Newton, who was obsessed with alchemy and tried to turn lead into gold. Illustrated with idiosyncratic sketches featuring Melanie Hudson, Martin Hyder, Kim Wall, Carla Mendonça, Femi Elufowoju Junior and Debbie Isitt, these informative, accessible and hugely entertaining lectures celebrate the remarkable men and women whose ideas and enthusiasm changed the world. Written and performed by Mark Steel With Melanie Hudson, Martin Hyder, Kim Wall, Carla Mendonça, Femi Elufowoju Junior and Debbie Isitt Produced by Phil Clarke (Series 1) and Lucy Armitage (Series 2 & 3) Executive producer: Paul Schlesinger Contents: Series 1 Oliver Cromwell W. G. Grace Charlie Chaplin Thomas Paine Series 2 Lord Byron Aristotle Leonardo da Vinci Che Guevara Billie Holiday Karl Marx Series 3 Ludwig van Beethoven Hannibal Isaac Newton Mary Shelley Muhammad Ali Napoleon Bonaparte First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9-30 August 1999 (Series 1), 13 March – 17 April 2001 (Series 2), 18 September – 23 October 2002 (Series 3) © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Mark Steel (Author), Mark Steel (Narrator)

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An American Tale

Lauren Michele Jackson (Author), Tbd (Narrator)

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The Mark Steel Revolution: The BBC Radio Comedy Series

Radical comedian Mark Steel takes a sideways look at some of the most tumultuous moments in history Mark Steel turns his analytical mind to the theme of revolutions in these six entertaining lectures, examining some of the major historical forces at work and holding up a mirror to our own age. In these entertaining lectures, he reinterprets the French Revolution, examining everything from the storming of the Bastille to the guillotine; looks at the politics of the sexual revolution (taking in the pill, the women’s movement and the Stonewall riots); and assesses the motivating factors and key players in the Russian Revolution – including the Romanovs, Rasputin and the Red Guard. He also explores how the Industrial Revolution transformed our perception of time, work and money; argues that the American Civil War was not just a rebellion but a full-blown revolution; and shows how Darwin’s revolutionary theory of natural selection was so shocking, he kept it quiet for 20 years for fear of a backlash... With readings by Martin Hyder and Carla Mendonça and witty comic sketches, this amusing, informative series is packed with fantastic stories, extraordinary characters and fascinating historical facts. Written and presented by Mark Steel With Martin Hyder and Carla Mendonça Produced by Phil Clarke Contents: The French Revolution The Sexual Revolution The Russian Revolution The Industrial Revolution The American Civil War The Theory of Evolution First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 30 June – 4 August 1998 © 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Mark Steel (Author), Mark Steel (Narrator)

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Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World

Brought to you by Penguin. A story of staggering scope and drama, Revolusi is the masterful and definitive account of the epic revolution that sparked the decolonisation of the modern world. On a sunny Friday morning in August 1945, a handful of tired people raised a homemade cotton flag and on behalf of 68 million compatriots announced the birth of a new nation. With the fourth largest population in the world, inhabiting islands that span an eighth of the globe, Indonesia became the first colonised country to declare its independence after the Second World War. Four million civilians had died during the wartime occupation by the Japanese that ousted the Dutch colonial regime. Another 200,000 people would lose their lives in the astonishingly brutal conflict that ensued - as the Dutch used savage violence to reassert their control, and as the Allied troops of Britain and America became embroiled in pacifying Indonesia's guerrilla war of resistance: the 'Revolusi'. It was not until December 1949 that the newly created United Nations convinced the Netherlands to cede all sovereignty to Indonesia, finally ending 350 years of colonial rule and setting a precedent that would reshape the world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and eye-witness testimonies, David Van Reybrouck turns this vast and complex story into an utterly gripping narrative that is alive with human detail at every turn. A landmark publication, Revolusi shows Indonesia's struggle for independence to be one of the defining dramas of the twentieth century and establishes its author as one of the most gifted narrative historians at work in any language today. ©2024 David Van Reybrouck (P)2024 Penguin Audio

David Van Reybrouck (Author), Neil Gardner, TBD (Narrator)

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The Zong: A Massacre, the Law & the End of Slavery

The first full review of the mass murder by crew members on the slave ship Zong and the lasting repercussions of this horrifying event On November 29, 1781, Captain Collingwood of the British ship Zong commanded his crew to throw overboard one-third of his cargo: a shipment of Africans bound for slavery in America. The captain believed his ship was off course, and he feared there was not enough drinking water to last until landfall. This book is the first to examine in detail the deplorable killings on the Zong, the lawsuit that ensued, how the murder of 132 slaves affected debates about slavery, and the way we remember the infamous Zong today. Historian James Walvin explores all aspects of the Zong's voyage and the subsequent trial-a case brought to court not for the murder of the slaves but as a suit against the insurers who denied the owners' claim that their 'cargo' had been necessarily jettisoned. The scandalous case prompted wide debate and fueled Britain's awakening abolition movement. Without the episode of the Zong, Walvin contends, the process of ending the slave trade would have taken an entirely different moral and political trajectory. He concludes with a fascinating discussion of how the case of the Zong, though unique in the history of slave ships, has come to be understood as typical of life on all such ships.

James Walvin (Author), Derek Perkins (Narrator)

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The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the Middle East, 1979-2003

Brought to you by Penguin. The Achilles Trap masterfully untangles the people, ploys of power and geopolitics that led to America's disastrous war with Iraq and, for the first time, details America's fundamental miscalculations during its ruinous, decades-long relationship with Saddam Hussein. Beginning with Saddam's rise to power in 1979 and the birth of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons programme, Steve Coll traces Saddam's motives through understanding his inner circle. He brings to life the diplomats, scientists, family members and generals who had no choice but to defer to their leader - a leader directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, as well as the torture or imprisonment of many more. This was a man whose reasoning was impossible to reduce to a simple explanation, and the CIA and successive presidential administrations failed to grasp critical nuances in his paranoia, resentments and inconsistencies - even when the stakes were incredibly high. Using unpublished and underreported sources, interviews with surviving participants, and Saddam's own transcripts and audio files, The Achilles Trap is a remarkable picture of a dictator who was convinced the world was out to get him and acted accordingly. A work of great historical significance, it is the definitive account of how corruptions of power, lies of diplomacy and vanity - on both sides - led to avoidable errors of statecraft: ones that would enact immeasurable human suffering and forever change our political landscape. ©2024 Steve Coll (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Steve Coll (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner, TBD (Narrator)

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Freedom's Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution

During the Haitian Revolution of 1791-1804, arguably the most radical revolution of the modern world, slaves and former slaves succeeded in ending slavery and establishing an independent state. Yet on the Spanish island of Cuba barely fifty miles distant, the events in Haiti helped usher in the antithesis of revolutionary emancipation. When Cuban planters and authorities saw the devastation of the neighboring colony, they rushed to fill the void left in the world market for sugar, to buttress the institutions of slavery and colonial rule, and to prevent 'another Haiti' from happening in their own territory. Freedom's Mirror follows the reverberations of the Haitian Revolution in Cuba, where the violent entrenchment of slavery occurred at the very moment that the Haitian Revolution provided a powerful and proximate example of slaves destroying slavery. By creatively linking two stories-the story of the Haitian Revolution and that of the rise of Cuban slave society-that are usually told separately, Ada Ferrer sheds fresh light on both of these crucial moments in Caribbean and Atlantic history.

Ada Ferrer (Author), Vivia Font (Narrator)

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Basic Economics, Fifth Edition: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

In this fifth edition of Basic Economics, Thomas Sowell revises and updates his popular book on commonsense economics, bringing the world into clearer focus through a basic understanding of the fundamental economic principles and how they explain our lives. Drawing on lively examples from around the world and from centuries of history, Sowell explains basic economic principles for the general public in plain English. Basic Economics, which has now been translated into six languages and has additional material online, remains true to its core principle: that the fundamental facts and principles of economics do not require jargon, graphs, or equations and can be learned in a relaxed and even enjoyable way.

Thomas Sowell (Author), Stefan Rudnicki (Narrator)

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To the City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul

Walking along the crumbling defensive walls of Istanbul and talking to those he passes, Alexander Christie-Miller finds a distillation of the country’s history, a mirror of its present, and a shadow of its future. Caught between two seas and two continents, Istanbul lies at the centre of the most pressing challenges of our time. With environmental decay, rapacious development and tightening authoritarianism straining its social fabric to breaking point, it represents the precipitous moment civilizations around the world are currently facing. In and around its crumbling Byzantine-era fortifications, Alexander Christie-Miller meets people who are experiencing the looming crisis and fighting back, sometimes triumphing despite the odds. To the City seamlessly blends two narratives: the story of Turkey’s tumultuous recent past told through the lives of those who live around the walls, and the story of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II’s siege and capture of the city in 1453. That event still looms large in Turkey, as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan like a latter-day sultan invokes its memory as part of his effort to transform the country in an echo of its imperial past. This is a meditation on the soul of Istanbul, a paean to its resilience and fortitude. Walk with Christie-Miller and see the danger, beauty and hope.

Alexander Christie-Miller (Author), Mark Meadows (Narrator)

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A Brief History of the Countryside in 100 Objects

The untold story of rural Britain revealed through its artefacts For most of human history, we were rural folk. Our daily lives were bound up with working the land, living within the rhythm of the seasons. We poured our energies into growing food, tending to animals and watching the weather. Family, friends and neighbours were often one and the same. Life revolved around the village and its key spaces and places – the church, the green, the school and the marketplace. And yet rural life is oddly invisible our historical records. The daily routine of the peasant, the farmer or the craftsperson could never compete with the glamour of city life, war and royal drama. Lives went unrecorded, stories untold. There is, though, one way in which we can learn about our rural past. The things we have left behind provide a connection that no document can match; physical artefacts are touchstones that breathe life into its history. From farming tools to children’s toys, domestic objects and strange curios, the everyday items of the past reveal fascinating insights into an often-forgotten way of life. Birth, death, celebration, work, crime, play, medicine, beliefs, diet and our relationship with nature can all be read from these remnants of our past. From ancient artefacts to modern-day memorabilia, this startling book weaves a rich tapestry from the fragments of our rural past.

Sally Coulthard (Author), Deborah Balm, TBD (Narrator)

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Borrowed Time: Survivors of Nazi Terezín Remember

Documentation, through photographs and interviews, of those who survived the unique Nazi ghetto/camp located at Terezin, Czech Republic. Dennis Carlyle Darling has photographed and interviewed hundreds of Holocaust survivors who spent time at the German transit camp and ghetto at Terezin, a former eighteenth-century military garrison located north of Prague. Many of the prisoners were kept there until they could be transported to Auschwitz or other camps, but unlike German captives elsewhere, they were allowed to participate in creative activities that the Nazis used for propaganda purposes to show the world how well they were treating Jews. Although it was not classified as a 'death camp,' more than 33,000 prisoners died at Terezin from hunger, disease, and mistreatment. In Borrowed Time, Darling reveals Terezin as a place of painful contradictions, through striking and intimate portraits that retrace time and place with his subjects, the last remnants of those who survived the experience. Returning to sites of painful memories with his interview subjects to photograph them, Darling respectfully depicts these survivors and tells their stories. Contains mature themes.

Dennis Carlyle Darling (Author), Adam Barr (Narrator)

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Pox Romana: The Plague That Shook the Roman World

This audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell gives a dramatic account of the Antonine plague, the mysterious disease that struck the Roman Empire at its pinnacle In the middle of the second century AD, Rome was at its prosperous and powerful apex. The emperor Marcus Aurelius reigned over a vast territory that stretched from Britain to Egypt. The Roman-made peace, or Pax Romana, seemed to be permanent. Then, apparently out of nowhere, a sudden sickness struck the legions and laid waste to cities, including Rome itself. This fast-spreading disease, known now as the Antonine plague, may have been history’s first pandemic. Soon after its arrival, the Empire began its downward trajectory toward decline and fall. In Pox Romana, historian Colin Elliott offers a comprehensive, wide-ranging account of this pivotal moment in Roman history. Did a single disease—its origins and diagnosis still a mystery—bring Rome to its knees? Carefully examining all the available evidence, Elliott shows that Rome’s problems were more insidious. Years before the pandemic, the thin veneer of Roman peace and prosperity had begun to crack: the economy was sluggish, the military found itself bogged down in the Balkans and the Middle East, food insecurity led to riots and mass migration, and persecution of Christians intensified. The pandemic exposed the crumbling foundations of a doomed Empire. Arguing that the disease was both cause and effect of Rome’s fall, Elliott describes the plague’s “preexisting conditions”—Rome’s multiple economic, social, and environmental susceptibilities; recounts the history of the outbreak itself through the experiences of physician, victim, and political operator; and explores post-pandemic crises. The pandemic’s most transformative power, Elliott suggests, may have been its lingering presence as a threat both real and perceived.

Colin Elliott (Author), Cassandra Campbell (Narrator)

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World Audiobooks in History