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The Polygamist King
- A True Story of Murder, Lust, and Exotic Faith in America
- Narrated by: John J. Miller
- Length: 1 hr and 46 mins
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The Polygamist King
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Publisher's summary
The astonishing story of James Strang - a religious rebel who became a figure of curiosity, sympathy, and murderous hatred.
James Strang was a lawyer, a newspaper editor, and a failed politician before he found his true calling as a self-declared Mormon prophet. Following the shocking murder of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, Strang lost a power struggle to Brigham Young. He went on to form a dissident sect and build a personal theocracy on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan.
Strang was one of the most colorful people of his time - a political boss who called himself a king, a cult leader who proclaimed himself a prophet, and a con man who tricked his way to power. At first, many of his followers shared his fierce opposition to polygamy. By the time of his death, however, Strang had five wives, four of them pregnant.
This compelling historical narrative delivers a remarkable tale of Gothic drama and high tragedy, full of sex, violence, pride, fanaticism, and conspiracy.
John J. Miller - “one of the best literary journalists in the country” according to the Chronicle of Higher Education - is the author of several books, including The Big Scrum: How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football and The First Assassin, a thriller set during the Civil War. He runs the journalism program at Hillsdale College and writes for National Review and the Wall Street Journal. He lives on a dirt road in rural Michigan.
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 34
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
In 1836, two missionaries and their wives were among the first Americans to cross the Rockies by covered wagon on what would become the Oregon Trail. Dr. Marcus Whitman and Reverend Henry Spalding were headed to present-day Washington state and Idaho, where they aimed to convert members of the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes. Both would fail spectacularly as missionaries.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good history; wanted more indigenous perspective.
- By Anonymous User on 07-06-21
By: Blaine Harden
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One Nation, Under Gods
- A New American History
- By: Peter Manseau
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
At the heart of the nation's spiritual history are audacious and often violent scenes. But the Puritans and the shining city on the hill give us just one way to understand the United States. Rather than recite American history from a Christian vantage point, Peter Manseau proves that what really happened is worth a close, fresh look.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tapestry of different pieces makes for a whole
- By Gary on 03-23-15
By: Peter Manseau
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American Crucifixion
- The Murder of Joseph Smith and the Fate of the Mormon Church
- By: Alex Beam
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 169
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 148
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 149
On June 27, 1844, a mob stormed the jail in the dusty frontier town of Carthage, Illinois. Clamorous and angry, they were hunting down a man they saw as a grave threat to their otherwise quiet lives: The founding prophet of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. They wanted blood. At thirty-nine years old, Smith had already lived an outsized life. In addition to starting the Church of Latter-Day Saints and creating his own "Golden Bible" - the Book of Mormon - he had worked as a water-dowser and treasure hunter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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All religious histories are not created equal
- By Kendra on 07-01-14
By: Alex Beam
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The Wordy Shipmates
- By: Sarah Vowell
- Narrated by: Sarah Vowell
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,908
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,173
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,167
Sarah Vowell's special brand of armchair history makes the bizarre and esoteric fascinatingly relevant and fun. She takes us from the modern-day reenactment of an Indian massacre to the Mohegan Sun casino, from old-timey Puritan poetry, where "righteousness" is rhymed with "wilderness," to a Mayflower-themed waterslide. Throughout, The Wordy Shipmates is rich in historical fact, humorous insight, and social commentary by one of America's most celebrated voices.
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5 out of 5 stars
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I love Sarah Vowell
- By Audiophile on 10-25-09
By: Sarah Vowell
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Anne Hutchinson
- A Captivating Guide to the Puritan Leader in Colonial Massachusetts Who Is Considered to Be One of the Earliest American Feminists
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Colin Fluxman
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
If you want to discover the captivating life of Anne Hutchinson, then pay attention.... Her steps were determined and steady, even though the plank of the wooden ship bobbed up and down in the glittering but frigid water that splashed against the wet dock. In the first light of day, these were the times tinged with the hues of promise shadowed only by the vague unknown. Anne Hutchinson was just a follower, or so she thought, but she had many queued up behind her as she followed her spiritual mentor to Boston in the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good Book
- By Amazon Customer on 06-04-22
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A Storm of Witchcraft
- The Salem Trials and the American Experience
- By: Emerson W. Baker
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 12 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 252
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 220
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 219
Beginning in January 1692, Salem Village in colonial Massachusetts witnessed the largest and most lethal outbreak of witchcraft in early America. Villagers - mainly young women - suffered from unseen torments that caused them to writhe, shriek, and contort their bodies, complaining of pins stuck into their flesh and of being haunted by specters. Believing that they suffered from assaults by an invisible spirit, the community began a hunt to track down those responsible for the demonic work.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wow....riveting and tragic
- By TeamDowager on 10-23-15
By: Emerson W. Baker
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Mayflower Lives
- Pilgrims in a New World and the Early American Experience
- By: Martyn Whittock
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 46
Leading into the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower, Martyn Whittock examines the lives of the "saints" (members of the Separatist Puritan congregations) and "strangers" (economic migrants) on the original ship. Collectively, these people would become known to history as "the Pilgrims". The story of the Pilgrims has taken on a life of its own as one of our founding national myths - their escape from religious persecution, the dangerous transatlantic journey, that brutal first winter.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful!
- By Dennis Coello on 11-25-20
By: Martyn Whittock
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Forged in Faith
- How Faith Shaped the Birth of the Nation 1607-1776
- By: Rod Gragg
- Narrated by: Maurice England
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 52
The true drama of how faith motivated America's Founding Fathers, influenced the Declaration of Independence, and inspired the birth of the nation. Forged in Faith recounts how faith motivated Pilgrims, Puritans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Quakers, Catholics, and Anglicans alike in a unique and fascinating history of early America and the faith that forged a nation.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible must read.
- By Tim Patt on 07-29-21
By: Rod Gragg
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Away Off Shore
- Nantucket Island and Its People, 1602-1890
- By: Nathaniel Philbrick
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 96
In his first book of history, Away Off Shore, New York Times best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond its charm, quaint local traditions, and whaling yarns, Philbrick explores the origins of Nantucket in this comprehensive history. From the English settlers who thought they were purchasing a "Native American ghost town" but actually found a fully realized society, the story of Nantucket is a truly unique chapter of American history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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There once were some (wo)men in Nantucket...
- By Darwin8u on 02-03-19
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Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul
- Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 190
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 169
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 168
This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fascinating Story and Legacy
- By Bruce on 04-11-12
By: John M. Barry
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The Mayflower
- The Families, the Voyage, and the Founding of America
- By: Rebecca Fraser
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
The voyage of the Mayflower and the founding of Plymouth Colony is one of the seminal events in world history. But the poorly equipped group of English Puritans who ventured across the Atlantic in the early autumn of 1620 had no sense they would pass into legend. They had 80 casks of butter and two dogs but no cattle for milk, meat, or ploughing. They were ill prepared for the brutal journey and the new land that few of them could comprehend.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I kept saying "Oh My Goodness!"
- By Midwestern on 11-29-19
By: Rebecca Fraser
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Heaven’s Ditch
- God, Gold, and Murder on the Erie Canal
- By: Jack Kelly
- Narrated by: Andrew Reilly
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 57
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4 out of 5 stars 46
The technological marvel of its age, the Erie Canal grew out of a sudden fit of inspiration. Proponents didn't just dream; they built a 360-mile waterway entirely by hand and largely through wilderness. As excitement crackled down its length, the canal became the scene of the most striking outburst of imagination in American history. Zealots invented new religions and new modes of living. The Erie Canal made New York the financial capital of America and brought the modern world crashing into the frontier.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An under told story of the United States.
- By JayHey on 08-28-16
By: Jack Kelly
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Covered with Night
- A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
- By: Nicole Eustace
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two White fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. This act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America. Leading historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the crime and its aftermath, bringing us into the overlapping worlds of white colonists and Indigenous peoples in this formative period.
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2 out of 5 stars
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YES! I GET IT! I've read history before - JUST STOP!!!!! British settlers were arrogant jerks!! Aaaaaaaargh
- By Anonymous From MA on 06-02-22
By: Nicole Eustace
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The Fearless Benjamin Lay
- The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist
- By: Marcus Rediker
- Narrated by: Cornell Womack
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
The Fearless Benjamin Lay chronicles the transatlantic life and times of a singular and astonishing man - a Quaker dwarf who became one of the first ever to demand the total, unconditional emancipation of all enslaved Africans around the world. He performed public guerrilla theater to shame slave masters, insisting that human bondage violated the fundamental principles of Christianity.
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5 out of 5 stars
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stunning story
- By Austin Choi-Fitz on 10-05-17
By: Marcus Rediker
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Captive Paradise
- A History of Hawaii
- By: James L. Haley
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 354
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 317
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 315
The most recent state to join the union, Hawaii is the only one to have once been a royal kingdom. After its discovery by Captain Cook in the late 18th century, Hawaii was fought over by European powers determined to take advantage of its position as the crossroads of the Pacific. The arrival of the first missionaries marked the beginning of the struggle between a native culture with its ancient gods, sexual libertinism, and rites of human sacrifice and the rigid values of the Calvinists.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good, but not enough history of the Island.
- By Jonathan on 07-09-15
By: James L. Haley
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Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
From New York Times best-selling author and Founding Fathers' biographer Harlow Giles Unger comes the astonishing biography of the man whose pen set America ablaze, inspiring its revolution, and whose ideas about reason and religion continue to try men's souls.
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5 out of 5 stars
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well written and researched
- By K D on 09-29-19
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The Craft
- How the Freemasons Made the Modern World
- By: John Dickie
- Narrated by: Simon Slater
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 160
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 160
Founded in London in 1717 as a way of binding men in fellowship, Freemasonry proved so addictive that within two decades it had spread across the globe. Masonic influence became pervasive. Under George Washington, the Craft became a creed for the new American nation. Masonic networks held the British empire together. Under Napoleon, the Craft became a tool of authoritarianism and then a cover for revolutionary conspiracy. Both the Mormon Church and the Sicilian mafia owe their origins to Freemasonry.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The best book about Freemasonry out there.
- By Isaac Pea on 02-19-21
By: John Dickie