New Reviews: History

History lovers, rejoice! This audiobook is for you. As it surveys the major and sometimes minor revolutions of the past 500 or so years, Fareed Zakaria takes the listener through their causes and effects. Many of these upheavals, he says, changed the world in ways both obvious and surprising. It may take the listener a bit of time to get used to Zakaria's Indian accent, but... Read More

Robert Petkoff holds a steady course through an audiobook that links the legend of Alexander the Great to archaeological evidence and an array of histories, classic and modern. Alexander is arguably the most celebrated, most storied, most enigmatic figure in ancient history. Most historians focus on the Macedonian general's early conquest of the Persian Empire, slighting his... Read More

This very personal work chronicles patterns of Chinese history through the lives of the author and his father. Edward Wong, a NEW YORK TIMES correspondent, provides an adequate narration of his prologue and epilogue. Narrating the body of the work, Will Dao provides superb pronunciation and enunciation as he presents the moral dilemmas of the Mao and Xi eras. Dao tends not to... Read More

Oxford professor Adam Smyth narrates his book with considerable brio and, of course, a deep understanding of the subject. Ranging from Wynkyn de Worde (assistant and successor to William Caxton, Britain's first printer) to contemporary zine publishers, he tells the history of the book in English through the lives of 18 people who represent different aspects of publishing.... Read More

Jay Myers narrates this fascinating audiobook about American bookstores with enthusiasm for its subject, neutrality toward its facts, and admiration for its stories. The wealth of topics discussed is astounding: early bookstores, past and present bibliophiles, particular bookstores' scents, and more. Myers's pacing is leisurely, and he highlights meaningful quotes, such as the... Read More

The very word "Belle Epoque" is melodious to the ear. Not surprisingly, a particular appeal of this richly detailed history of France's most fabled era, beginning in 1871, is narrator Paul Daintry's deft rendering of proper names such as Eiffel, Toulouse-Lautrec, Clemenceau, and Proust. Daintry's voice is not the most silken, but he effectively delivers the clamor of a divided... Read More

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Welsh professor of ancient history at Cardiff University, presents a fascinating look at seven Cleopatras, the strong women who ruled ancient Egypt over generations in the last centuries BCE. His Welsh accent is smooth and consistent; even slight variations between British and American English pronunciations of some words flow smoothly. He is up to the... Read More

Golden Voice narrator Cassandra Campbell handles this nonfiction audiobook about the discovery of dinosaur bones in the early 1800s as effectively as she does the contemporary novels of Judy Bloom and John Grisham. Her brisk, commanding, highly flexible voice maintains its hold on the listener's ear even while traversing species names and fossil characteristics. A mismatched... Read More

Livingstone's audiobook surveys theories about the impact of climate on humankind from classic times to modern. Derek Perkins's interpretation helps keep the deeply learned and formally written work more approachable than it might be if read on one's own. His voice is strong, his accent pleasing, and his speech crisp, clear, and finely attuned to the sense of the text. Perkins... Read More

Narrator David de Vries turns what could have been a ponderous story of a major scientific rivalry into a fascinating study of the legacies of two inquisitive men with two difficult temperaments. Swede Carl Linneaus (1707-1778) and Frenchman George-Louis LeClerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788) tried, simultaneously, to define and classify all life on earth. While their approaches... Read More

Narrators Kirsten Potter and Leon Nixon deliver assured performances of the women and men who helped shape nineteenth- and twentieth- century American history and culture through their explorations of its terrain, flora, and fauna--and the lands beyond. These individuals represent diverse perspectives that will take listeners outside traditional narratives of exploratory... Read More

These concise histories of 12 vanished civilizations began as a series of podcasts but prove unexpectedly cohesive and powerful coming together as an audiobook. Author Paul Cooper's narration is distinctly accented and a bit repetitive in his cadences; nonetheless, he is an effective and highly agreeable guide through four millennia of strife and mayhem. Cooper's chapters... Read More

This deep dive into African American athletic greats, written by the late tennis star Arthur Ashe, is a who's who of both well-known and under-the-radar names in American sports. Landon Woodson narrates the chronology that moves listeners sport by sport--from baseball to basketball to football, track, boxing, and more. Woodson steadily guides listeners through the encyclopedic... Read More

David Gibbins's essays on historic shipwrecks, some of which he has seen firsthand as a diver, branch out into a lot of detail about what was found when exploring them and what was going on around the times of the wrecks. Kent Klineman pauses a lot as he narrates, sounding cautious about getting names and details right. It's rough listening at first, but Klineman's staccato... Read More

Michael Taylor traces the history of the conflicts between the Bible and theories of evolution, particularly those considering dinosaur fossils. He considers thinkers--including Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley--as he traces the evolving views and the many fossil discoveries that fueled those shifts. Michael Langan's British-accented narration poses the questions of the past... Read More

Author and narrator Steven Johnson earns high praise for this dramatic history of dynamite as a terror weapon, a tangled tale that begins with Alfred Nobel and ends with J. Edgar Hoover. Cause and effect shape a narrative as compelling as any thriller. Dynamite enabled the large constructions of the modern age but offered a powerful tool for anarchists, whose outrages, in turn,... Read More

On the face of it, an audiobook about the publication of and critical reaction to Charles Darwin's ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES wouldn't appear to be engaging. But Mike Cooper's smooth narration and charming British accent make this audiobook more accessible than its print cousin. Nonetheless, a rudimentary knowledge of Darwin's life and theories is necessary to understand the... Read More

Narrator Timothy Andrés Pabon vividly conveys the struggle, passion, and extreme hardship that define Sir Walter Raleigh's quest for an elusive city of gold in the jungles of Guiana. Pabon narrates from deep in the throat in a kind of stage whisper that's highly effective for scenes of suspense and horror, of which this story has plenty. Raleigh was a colorful, controversial... Read More

Peter Noble has narrated several audiobooks by historian Patrick Bishop. Here he brings subtlety and nuance to this richly detailed account of the German occupation of Paris during WWII and its exuberant liberation by the Allies in August 1944. Stories of the French Resistance provide drama enough, and the narrative is filled with celebrity names--among them Picasso, Hemingway,... Read More

Heni Zoutomou performs this audiobook on the politics of food in a clear tone, convincing style, and purposeful cadence. Her narration focuses on its powerful message that the U.S. government in its various guises has allowed the suffering of Indigenous, Black, and Latino people through harmful food programs. The feeding of enslaved people was horrific, as was the food at... Read More

Bob Souer narrates this horrific account of the two failed expeditions in Arctic Canada led by Captain Sir John Franklin. Listeners hear excerpts from journals, letters, and scientific notes, along with the oral history of Indigenous peoples. The author, who has written extensively on Canada's arctic wilderness, incorporates the latest theories on why Franklin failed so... Read More

Fred Sanders gives a solid narration of this account of the air supply route over the Himalayas, known as "The Hump," during WWII. These Allied missions flew supplies from India to China after its coast was blockaded by the Japanese. The author goes into great detail about the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater: the many people involved and the various motives of the countries... Read More

British historian Giles Milton regularly narrates his own books, all devoted to aspects of WWII, and this illuminating account of the wartime dealings among Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin has a flavor no professional narrator could convey. Milton's voice is not schooled or melodious; it has the bark and urgency of a wartime announcer. Pitched but not strident, unvarnished but... Read More

Narrator Sarah Welborn informs listeners about synchronized swimming. Part history lesson, part commentary on the evolution of sports, this well-researched audiobook begins with vaudeville aquatic performances and travels the sport's growth over the last 40 years. Welborn pulls listeners in and keeps them engaged with stories about people listeners may be familiar with--like... Read More

This action-filled audiobook chronicles a theater of the Revolutionary War that has been given little attention, the struggle fought in the Southern colonies. There the terrain thwarted maneuvers by large detachments of troops and favored militia and crackerjack tactics. By degrees, that strategy demoralized the British and ultimately pushed them to Vicksburg and to a decisive... Read More

Edoardo Ballerini's perfect pacing and smooth delivery are worthy of the podium in this narrative about a little-remembered episode from the 1924 Paris Olympics. Author Todd Balf weaves together the stories of three very different men who faced each other in swimming's marquee event, the 100-meter freestyle: a Native Hawaiian who was already a legend in the water; a brash... Read More

Curtis Michael Holland brings an even yet conversational tone to this expansive four-century (1540-1940) history of the North American Indian. Concentrating on marginalized and often overlooked peoples of the American Southwest, this audiobook focuses on how the Paiute, Ute, and the author's own Shoshone tribes used their unique geography, lifeways, and violence to attempt to... Read More

This excellent full-cast production uses the recollections of those who participated in D-Day--its planning, training, and actual combat--to tell the story of the largest amphibious assault in history, which took place in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. The author, Edoardo Ballerini, and nearly 25 other narrators portray the 700 roles in this book. Also included are actual... Read More

Narrator Karen Murray invites listeners into the personal and professional lives of three women who influenced the rise of the American fashion industry between the 1930s and the 1960s: Hortense Odlum, Dorothy Shaver, and Geraldine Stutz. Murray's strong pacing and intelligent phrasing reveal the passion and drive of these women who encouraged young American designers, created... Read More

In a measured yet appreciative tone, Elizabeth Wiley narrates a fascinating, fact-filled celebration of the first women scholars, diarists, and collectors to help uncover the historic riches of ancient Egypt. Amelia Edwards, Marianne Brocklehurst, and Maggie Benson, who was the first woman granted permission to excavate in Egypt, may not be household names, but their... Read More