Audiobooks narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist 1968-1976

"Brazen, incisive, and outrageous as ever, Hunter S. Thompson is back with another astonishing volume of private correspondence, the highly anticipated follow-up to THE PROUD HIGHWAY. Spanning the years between 1968 and 1976, these never-before-published letters show Thompson building his legend: running for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado, creating the seminal road book FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, twisting political reporting to new heights for ROLLING STONE and making sense of it all in the landmark FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72. To read Thompson's dispatches from these years addressed to authors and friends, enemies, editors and creditors, and such notables as Jimmy Carter, Tom Wolfe and Kurt Vonnegut - is to read a raw, revolutionary eyewitness account of one of the most exciting and pivotal eras in American history."

Hunter S. Thompson (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

"'Brilliant' - Observer 'Vivid, hyperactive, combative, ferociously intelligent and iconoclastic' - Guardian 'Splendidly corrosive' - Independent The Proud Highway is a literary milestone. The first volume in Hunter S. Thompson's intimate letters begins with a high school essay written in 1955, and takes us through 1967, when the publication of Hell's Angels made the author an international celebrity. Thompson's prolific and often profound correspondence gives us an unforgettable insight into the world during the Cold War era, as well as an authoritative introduction to the cultural revolution of the sixties. With a vicious eye for detail and rude wit he writes to such luminaries as Norman Mailer, Tom Wolfe, Lyndon Johnson and Joan Baez. These letters represent the evolution of the original, a singular voice defying an era of banality, and cements Thompson's reputation as one of the great romantic journalistic figures of our time."

Hunter S. Thompson (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Murder by the Numbers: 199 Chilling Tales of True Crime

"The expert author of Murderabilia brings a fresh new approach to the irresistible subject of true crime with this statistic-based telling of some of the most notorious murders of all time. Veteran true crime master Harold Schechter presents hundreds of chilling tales of murder and mayhem told through the fascinating lens of numerology. Each story begins with a number or statistic, followed by a thrilling account of its relevance to a notorious crime or an aspect of forensic investigation, all starting with the number 1—marking the first murder in Colonial America—and reaching into the millions. Readers will learn why the number 215,000 finally put Al Capone into prison, or how the number 2915 played into the case of alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. How the infamous Dr. H. H. Holmes, the “Chicago Bluebeard,” was acutely aware of his 27-victim body count, or how the number 70 helps shed light on the criminal profiles of serial killers. With stunning and grisly photos throughout, Murder by the Numbers is a must-have for any true crime obsessive."

Harold Schechter (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Driven: A Life in Public Service and Journalism from LBJ to CNN

"Driven brings a seasoned perspective to today's conversations about government, media, and the future of truth in the form of a deeply personal and long-awaited autobiography by Tom Johnson, an award-winning journalist who helped shape the twenty-four-hour news media as we know it. Johnson's storied career in public service and journalism that began as a reporter at the Macon Telegraph in Georgia spans the Lyndon B. Johnson administration, where he was an eyewitness to painful negotiations on Vietnam and notified the president that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated, through the executive leadership of the LA Times and, finally, Ted Turner's upstart CNN in Atlanta. From his perspective 'inside the room,' Johnson provides eyewitness accounts of LBJ’s triumphs and failings as well as an on-the-ground view of the magnificent achievements and significant shortfalls of late twentieth-century American journalism. Johnson is also candid about his lifelong struggle with depression and has actively worked in retirement as a leader in mental health, cancer research, Alzheimer's, and addiction treatment and recovery. With more than eight decades behind him, Driven is not just Johnson's look at the past but a chance for his story to offer guidance about finding balance in an uncertain future."

Tom Johnson (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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The Forgotten World War: Exploring the Secret History of the American Revolution, from Spain to India and Back Again

"Rediscover the Revolutionary War as a global fight for freedom What does Bunker Hill have in common with a jungle in Central America, a fort in India, and the towering Rock of Gibraltar? The answer—that they were all battlefields in the Revolutionary War—might astonish you. Blending modern experiences with historical research, Derek Baxter embarks on an adventure-filled quest across four continents, uncovering the truth behind the American Revolution and revealing the unlikely group of nations that united to take on the British Empire. On the windswept island of Jersey in the English Channel, Baxter discovers how France attempted a full-scale invasion of England. At a Fourth of July party in Spain, he helps the descendent of Spanish leaders make a giant paella. In India, he investigates one of the most surprising victories of the entire war. And in upstate New York, he discovers the story of the Oneida warriors, America’s first allies. Along the way, he meets historians, reenactors, and others who have helped keep the hidden history of the war alive. This is the other half of the story of the American Revolution, the one you probably didn’t learn in school. With his trademark humor and empathy, Baxter finds the human stories behind this long-ago conflict, expanding the universe of those who contributed to the cause. He delivers a powerful message: The United States only exists because peoples of different races, languages, and religions learned how to fight together, writing an unexpected story of independence that continues to resonate and inspire today."

Derek Baxter (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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University: A Reckoning

"The American university―one of the most successful institutions in human history―is facing an unprecedented assault from the president of the US. Experts on authoritarianism have drawn comparisons to other countries where strongmen subdued universities as part of their power grabs. Yet as former Columbia president Lee C. Bollinger points out in his account of the university's significance, in such dire times one has no choice but to state clearly and forcefully what one stands for. Bollinger reveals how the structure of the university contributes to the success of the American system―because it provides those who study and work within it a degree of creative freedom hard to find elsewhere―and why that structure is both impossible to recreate and vulnerable to outside attack. The fundamental mission of the university is to enhance knowledge, but this is not merely a high-minded idea. It is, as Bollinger demonstrates, a notion rooted deeply in the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment, the basis of our political and social life. The university helps realize the First Amendment; the First Amendment helps make the university. Bollinger argues that, with the press diminished, the university remains the only source of truth-seeking for those who still believe in democracy. The university must be defended if the American experiment is to continue."

Lee C. Bollinger (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Palace of Deception: Museum Men and the Rise of Scientific Racism

"From 1908 to 1933, the American Museum of Natural History launched more scientific field expeditions than at any other time in its existence. Sponsoring lavish trips to Africa and Central Asia, the museum filled its halls with artifacts and an aura of adventure, supported by some of New York City's most prominent men. All the while, the museum's then president, Henry Fairfield Osborn, attempted to use his adventurers' expeditions to fulfill a personal agenda: to propagate his belief in racial hierarchy. Palace of Deception uncovers the complicated legacy of three iconic figures of the American Museum: the preeminent explorer Roy Chapman Andrews; Carl Akeley, the pioneering taxidermist; and Osborn, the museum's president. Darrin Lunde tells the story of the American's Museum foundational years. Lunde also shows how the achievements of the museum's adventurers were used to introduce residents of New York to a version of the natural world endorsed by the museum's leader. Palace of Deception recreates some of the most celebrated, globe-trotting journeys from natural history's heyday. It also traces the larger, racially infused milieu that underwrote the golden age of exploration, uncovering the simmering anxieties about race behind the era's greatest adventures. It is a legacy that still haunts natural history institutions today."

Darrin Lunde (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Ripple: An Intimate Exchange of Urgency and Hope Between An Ecologist and His Daughter

"Ripple: An Intimate Exchange of Urgency and Hope Between An Ecologist and His Daughter is a narrative of letters written by an ecologist dad to his daughter upon her coming-of-age. Drawing upon his personal history, family anecdotes, and shared memories, Powers envisions a path for humanity's reintegration with nature, and a chance to save the life force that runs through all of us. A story of separation has long gripped the human race: that people are separate—with more advanced habitats, technologies, and values—from our natural surroundings and fellow creatures. We have been told this story for generations. But as Powers watches his daughter approach adulthood, with all of society's expectations, he knows that the story we pass down has to change. In Ripple, he tells a different tale, one of community and family, inner wisdom, and shared existence within a living planet."

William Powers (Author), Bianca Bryan, Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Escaping Madness: Eyewitness Accounts from World War II

"This fascinating collection of personal narratives challenges the view that all Germans knew of the crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich and were complicit. The five accounts recall the lives of individuals born in the 1920s who resisted joining the SS, were horrified by atrocities, or otherwise remained true to their principals. Spanning their early life during the rise of the Nazi Party, through their adolescence in the war, to the early post-war years, they offer a compelling perspective on the diverse experiences and beliefs of Germans of the wartime generation. From Wehrmacht infantrymen to a Luftwaffe officer and a young woman on the home front, the accounts range from the relative comfort of German-occupied territories to the harrowing front lines against the Soviets. Standout stories include Heinz Polke's haunting description of the Warsaw Ghetto Rising, and three accounts of the often-overlooked aspect of being a prisoner of war in the USSR, providing valuable insights into the post-war German experience. Skillfully compiled by journalist Klaus Förg and with additional commentary by historian Roger Moorhouse, this is a powerful and worthy addition to World War II literature."

Klaus G. Förg (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II

"From award-winning and bestselling author David Nasaw, a brilliant re-examination of post-World War II America that looks beyond the victory parades and into the veterans'-and nation's-unhealed traumas In its duration, geographical reach, and ferocity, World War II was unprecedented, and the effects on those who fought it and their loved ones at home, immeasurable. The heroism of the men and women who won the war may be well documented, but we know too little about the pain and hardships the veterans endured upon their return home. As historian David Nasaw makes evident in his masterful recontextualization of these years, the veterans who came home to America were not the same people as those who had left for war, and the nation to which they returned was not the one they had left behind. Contrary to the prevailing narratives of triumph, here are the largely unacknowledged realities the veterans-and the nation-faced that radically reshaped our understanding of this era as a bridge to today. The Wounded Generation tells the indelible stories of the veterans and their loved ones as they confronted the aftershocks of World War II. Veterans suffering from recurring nightmares, uncontrollable rages, and social isolation were treated by doctors who had little understanding of PTSD. They were told that they were suffering from nothing more than battle fatigue and that time would cure it. When their symptoms persisted, they were given electro-shock treatments and lobotomies, while the true cause of their distress would remain undiagnosed for decades to come. Women who had begun working outside the home were pressured to revert to their prewar status as housewives dependent on their husbands. Returning veterans and their families were forced to double up with their parents or squeeze into overcrowded, substandard shelters as the country wrestled with a housing crisis. Divorce rates doubled. Alcoholism was rampant. Racial tensions heightened as White southerners resorted to violence to sustain the racial status quo. To ease the veterans' readjustment to civilian life, Congress passed the GI Bill, but Black veterans were disproportionately denied their benefits, and the consequences of this discrimination would endure long after the war was won. In this richly textured examination, Nasaw presents a complicated portrait of those who brought the war home with them, among whom were the period's most influential political and cultural leaders, including John F. Kennedy, Robert Dole, and Henry Kissinger; J. D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut; Harry Belafonte and Jimmy Stewart. Drawing from veterans' memoirs, oral histories, and government documents, Nasaw illuminates a hidden chapter of American history-one of trauma, resilience, and a country in transition."

David Nasaw (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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King of Kings: The Fall of the Shah and the Revolution That Forged Modern Iran

"Brought to you by Penguin. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NEW STATESMAN, ATLANTIC AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BOOK OF THE YEAR A spellbinding narrative history of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its devastating consequences by the Sunday Times bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia. Before the revolution, the Shah of Iran seemed invincible. The world watched in awe as he commanded a huge army and oversaw an economy awash with billions of dollars of oil revenues. The regime’s secret police had crushed communist opposition and the Shah appeared to have bought off the conservative Muslim clergy inside the country. On the international stage, Iran had become an invaluable ally to the West during the Cold War. But village streets spoke of a different country – people derided the Shah as an American lackey and blamed him for economic inequality, for spending recklessly on lavish parties and for ignoring the Muslim majority. When a volcanic religious revolution erupted, led by a fiery cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini, the Shah was forced off the throne and into exile. How did it all go so wrong? Brilliantly brought to life by the Sunday Times bestselling author Scott Anderson, this gripping behind-the-scenes narrative reveals how the Iranian Revolution was as world-shattering an event as the French and Russian revolutions, and how its repercussions are still felt around the world today. In the Middle East, in India, in Southeast Asia, and now in Europe and the United States, the hatred of economically-marginalized, religiously-fervent masses for a wealthy secular elite has led to violence and upheaval – and Iran was the template. 'A brilliant tale of greed, paranoia and hubris... a good place to start for anyone seeking to understand the current crisis' Financial Times 'If you want to understand the turmoil in Gaza, Syria and beyond, the Iranian Revolution of 1979 is a good place to start' The Times 'Excellent' Telegraph 'Brilliant' Financial Times 'Exceptional' New York Times © Scott Anderson 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025"

Scott Anderson (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner, Scott Anderson (Narrator)

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Homer's Iliad and Odyssey: A Biography (Revised and Expanded Edition)

"A worldwide exploration of the history, purpose, and inescapable influence of the Iliad and the Odyssey that will inspire listeners to think anew about Homer's work No one knows whether Homer was a real person, but there is no doubt that the epic poems assembled under his name are foundations of Western literature. The Iliad and the Odyssey—with their tales of the Trojan War, Achilles, Odysseus and Penelope, the Cyclops, the beautiful Helen of Troy, and the petulant gods—have inspired us for over two and a half millennia and influenced writers from Plato to Virgil, Pope to Joyce, and Dante to Margaret Atwood. In this graceful and sweeping book, Alberto Manguel traces the lineage of Homer's poems. He examines their original purpose, either as allegory or record of history; surveys the challenges the pagan poems presented to the early Christian world; and looks at their reception after the Reformation through the present day. In this revised and expanded edition, Manguel ignites new ways of thinking about these classic works."

Alberto Manguel (Author), Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

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