Audiobooks narrated by Dan Cashman

Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters

"Howard Hughes (1905-1976) was a true American original: legendary lover, record-setting aviator, idiosyncratic film producer, talented inventor, ultimate eccentric—and, for much of his lifetime, the richest man in the United States. His desire for privacy was so fierce and his isolation so complete that even several decades after his death, inaccurate stories continue to circulate about him. Richard Hack explodes the illusion of Hughes' life and exposes the man behind the myth--a playboy whose sexual exploits with Hollywood stars were legendary, an entrepreneur without ethics, an explorer without maps, and ultimately, an eccentric trapped by his own insanity. Drawing on secreted letters, declassified FBI files, autopsy reports, more than 110,000 pages of court testimony, and exclusive interviews, Hack reveals a man so devious in his thinking and so perverse in his desires that his impact continues to be felt even today. From entertainment to politics, aviation to espionage, the influence and manipulation of Howard Hughes has left an indelible and unique mark on the American cultural landscape."

Richard Hack (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover

"For over fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover was the most powerful lawman in America. He was also the country's most controversial and feared public servant. His career as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation spanned nine different presidential administrations and survived a dozen attempts to sweep him from office. During that time, Hoover completely reshaped domestic law enforcement as he expanded the reach of the FBI and transformed his G-men into an elite national crime fighting division. Despite his contributions to the criminal justice system, Hoover fell from favor soon after his death, the victim of rampant rumors and innuendo. In Puppetmaster, Richard Hack separates truth from fiction to reveal the most hidden secrets of Hoover's private life and exposes previously undisclosed conduct that threatened to compromise the security of the entire nation. Based on files, documents, and over 100,000 pages of FBI memos and State Department papers, Hack rips the lid off Hoover's façade of propriety to detail a life replete with sexual indiscretions, criminal behavior, and a long-standing alliance with the Mafia."

Richard Hack (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Murdering Mr. Lincoln: A New Detection of the 19th Century's Most Famous Crime

"In this startling and original work, best-selling author Charles Higham (Howard Hughes: The Secret Life) addresses one of the greatest historical mysteries: Did John Wilkes Booth act alone on the night of Good Friday, 1865, or was he part of a wide conspiracy? Drawing from letters, diaries, previously unstudied records of official hearings, railway timetables, and obscure shipping manifests, Higham weaves a spellbinding account of intrigue. He proves that Lincoln unwittingly sealed his own doom by enriching a circle of powerful people who marked him for assassination—high-level figures, including those in government and trade who were involved in the murder plot— and not John Wilkes Booth alone. Most of all, Murdering Mr. Lincoln resolves the disputed participation of accused co-conspirator John Surratt, whose mother was hanged for the crime."

Charles Higham (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life

"NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this inspiring meditation on courage, Senator John McCain shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear. "We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear but the capacity for action despite our fears," McCain reminds us, as a way of introducing the stories of ﬁgures both famous and obscure that he ﬁnds most compelling-from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to Sgt. Roy Benavidez, who ignored his own well-being to rescue eight of his men from an ambush in the Vietnam jungle; from 1960s civil rights leader John Lewis, who wrote, "When I care about something, I'm prepared to take the long, hard road," to Hannah Senesh, who, in protecting her comrades in the Hungarian resistance against Hitler's SS, chose a martyr's death over a despot's mercy. These are some of the examples McCain turns to for inspiration and offers to others to help them summon the resolve to be both good and great. He explains the value of courage in both everyday actions and extraordinary feats. We learn why moral principles and physical courage are often not distinct quantities but two sides of the same coin. Most of all, readers discover how sometimes simply setting the right example can be the ultimate act of courage. Written by one of our most respected public ﬁgures, Why Courage Matters is that rare book with a message both timely and timeless. This is a work for anyone seeking to understand how the mystery and gift of courage can empower us and change our lives. Praise for Why Courage Matters "[John] McCain the man remains one of the most inspiring public figures of his generation."-The Washington Post Book World "Thrilling . . . John McCain's profiles in courage offer inspiration. . . . A marvelous collection of stories featuring honest-to-God heroes."-Fort Worth Star-Telegram "Extraordinary . . . McCain proves how courage can change lives and improve the world."-New York Daily News "[McCain] is open and candid, a refuge from spin and arrogance."-The Washington Post "Wise words from a man who personifies courage."-The Sunday Oklahoman"

John McCain, Mark Salter (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind

"Though he was a great statesman, one of America's founding fathers, and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson suffered from depression. In Jefferson's Demons, Michael Knox Beran examines episodes of melancholia in Jefferson's life. In particular, he focuses on the journey Jefferson made to Europe in 1787 to escape the depression that set in due to his tumultuous experience as governor of Virginia following the Revolution and his wife Martha's death. Beran's revelatory narrative weaves together intellectual history with biography to show how Jefferson embraced the idea of classicism. In the end, the author offers a new assessment of Jefferson that demonstrates that this enigmatically cool and collected intellectual was also a man of great passion."

Michael Knox Beran (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global

"A dual biography of two media titans— Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner.When Ted Turner started out in business, he owned a small billboard company in rural Georgia. Over the decades, he built a multi-billion empire that included CNN, Turner Classic Movies (TCM), MGM studios, and the Atlanta Braves. Risk-taking, careful planning, and steely determination are the hallmarks of this brash, outspoken, and wildly successful media mogul. On the other side of the world, his counterpart— Australian-born Rupert Murdoch— began with one small newspaper and parlayed it into more than 100 newspapers and magazines around the globe, and ultimately assumed control of the Fox Corporation. These two men— controllers of much of the news and entertainment we receive every day— have long traded barbs and vitriolic attacks, creating an intense competition for complete domination of the media. Based on meticulous research, Clash of the Titans profiles these two outsized figures. In addition to chronicling their professional accomplishments, author Richard Hack also delves into their complicated personal lives— family squabbles, high-profile romances, and public divorces— which have often seen both moguls plastered on the front pages of their own papers and news magazine programs. This dual biography is an eye-opening and riveting account about two public figures and their enormous effect on American daily life."

Richard Hack (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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A Long Way From Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland

"Reflections on America and the American experience as he has lived and observed it, by the bestselling author of The Greatest Generation. In this beautiful memoir, Tom Brokaw writes of America and of the American experience. From his parents' life in the 1930s, on to his boyhood along the Missouri River and on the prairies of South Dakota in the '40s, into his early journalism career in the '50s and the tumultuous '60s, up to the present, this personal story is a reflection on America in our time. Tom Brokaw writes about growing up and coming of age in the heartland, and of the family, the people, the culture and the values that shaped him then and still do today. His father, Red Brokaw, a genius with machines, followed the instincts of Tom's mother Jean, and took the risk of moving his small family from an Army base to Pickstown, South Dakota, where Red got a job as a heavy equipment operator in the Army Corps of Engineers' project building the Ft. Randall dam along the Missouri River. Tom Brokaw describes how this move became the pivotal decision in their lives, as the Brokaw family, along with others after World War II, began to live out the American Dream: community, relative prosperity, middle-class pleasures, and good educations for their children. "Along the river and in the surrounding hills, I had a Tom Sawyer boyhood," Brokaw writes. As he describes his own pilgrimage as it unfolded-from childhood to love, marriage, the early days in broadcast journalism, and beyond-he also reflects on what brought him and so many Americans of his generation to lead lives a long way from home, yet forever affected by it."

Tom Brokaw (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Worth the Fighting For: The Education of an American Maverick, and the Heroes Who Inspired Him

"NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Senator John McCain tells the story of his great American journey, from the U.S. Navy to his electrifying campaign for the presidency in 2000, interwoven with heartfelt portraits of the mavericks who have inspired him through the years. After five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, naval aviator John McCain returned home a changed man. Regaining his health and flight-eligibility status, he resumed his military career, commanding carrier pilots and serving as the navy's liaison to what is sometimes ironically called the world's most exclusive club, the United States Senate. Accompanying Senators John Tower and Henry "Scoop" Jackson on international trips, McCain began his political education in the company of two masters, leaders whose standards he would strive to maintain upon his election to the U.S. Congress. There, he learned valuable lessons in cooperation from a good-humored congressman from the other party, Morris Udall. In 1986, McCain was elected to the U.S. Senate, inheriting the seat of another role model, Barry Goldwater. During his time in public office, McCain has seen acts of principle and acts of craven self-interest. He describes both extremes in these pages, with his characteristic straight talk and humor. He writes honestly of the lowest point in his career, the Keating Five savings and loan debacle, as well as his triumphant moments-his return to Vietnam and his efforts to normalize relations between the U.S. and Vietnamese governments; his fight for campaign finance reform; and his galvanizing bid for the presidency in 2000. Writes McCain: "A rebel without a cause is just a punk. Whatever you're called-rebel, unorthodox, nonconformist, radical-it's all self-indulgence without a good cause to give your life meaning." This is the story of McCain's causes, the people who made him do it, and the meaning he found. Worth the Fighting For reminds us of what's best in America, and in ourselves. Praise for Worth the Fighting For "When [John] McCain writes of people and patriotism, his pages shine with a devotion, a loving awe, that makes Worth the Fighting For worth the shelling out for. . . . McCain the man remains one of the most inspiring public figures of his generation."-Jonathan Raunch, The Washington Post "[An] unpredictable, outspoken memoir . . . a testimonial to heroism from someone who has first-hand knowledge of what it takes."-The New York Times"

John McCain, Mark Salter (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Empire

"The world's most famous skyscraper, the Empire State Building is an icon as immediately recognizable as the Eiffel Tower, the Great Pyramids, or the Taj Mahal; and for some of the world's most powerful men, it is the ultimate prize. From the day it was erected, it has been the object of obsession for the heads of empires, conjuring their most hidden vices. In a riveting chronicle of betrayal, revenge, family rivalry, and raw greed, award-winning journalist Mitchell Pacelle tells the compelling tale of the history of the Empire State Building and the battle for ownership which reveals the inner workings of a world of powerful, self-made men. Pacelle brings to life the colorful cast of characters involved-a dramatis personae including the most powerful players in the international real estate markets both old and new, including John Raskob and Pierre du Pont alongside Donald Trump, the Helmsleys, Peter Malkin, and the eccentric Japanese billionaire Hideki Yokoi. Before the tale is over, Yokoi will accuse his beloved illegitimate daughter of stealing the building from him, several participants will land in jail, one will die suddenly, and a tense legal standoff will leave the landmark in limbo. One of the most fascinating characters to emerge from this richly layered story is the building itself, with its legendary romances and suicides, its odd tenants, and the countless human triumphs and tragedies that have been played out within its towering walls."

Mitchell Pacelle (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000

"The Last Empire is a collection of provocative, witty, and eloquent essays by Gore Vidal about all things USA. In more than two dozen essays, Vidal brings his keen intellect, experience, and razor-edged wit to bear on an astonishing range of subjects, offering incisive observations about terrorism, civil liberties, the CIA, Al Gore, and the Clintons—interwoven with a rich tapestry of personal anecdote, critical insight, and historical detail. Erudite, forever curious, argumentative, irascible, and often very funny, Gore writes that the United States is, 'a unique society in which we have free enterprise for the poor and socialism for the rich.' The Last Empire is a sweeping coda to the still-existing conflicted vision of the American dream—leaving no need to imagine what trenchant barbs Vidal would have uttered concerning the state and level of discourse of American society right now."

Gore Vidal (Author), Dan Cashman (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Dan Cashman