In this episode of Audicted, cohosts Katie O’Connor and Kat Johnson pick the brain of their colleague Christina Harcar on all things History and Historical Fiction. They examine trends in the genres, “rules” around the constructs of what makes fiction historical, and give History/Historical Fiction recommendations by era. Download or stream the full episode here.
On the popularization of History
Katie O’Connor: There is so much of a storytelling element in history. […] I appreciate the humanity that we get in history now. It's not just spitting out facts. You're really learning intimate details about humans who have shaped our present.
Christina Harcar: Yes, and I think, Katie, what you're describing is history moving into popular history. I think maybe that has always been done throughout history. But, the reason I enjoy being Audible's History Editor is that right now, at this present moment, we're in a golden age of history becoming more popular. And so I like to say, and I am not joking, that history is self-help for the civics crowd, because taking ourselves out of the present can show the way forward. Sometimes it's easier to do self-help as a citizen than it is as a person.
On the optimism in Historical Fiction
CH: I have a working hypothesis that I haven't disproved yet to myself, so let's put it up here and try to shoot it down. I think historical fiction needs to end optimistically, like romance. Yes, it can be very dark, because fiction needs conflict and history has plenty of conflict […], but I think historical fiction needs to end on an optimistic note. And if I'm right, then World War II generates so much inspiration for historical fiction, especially for Americans, because it's an inspirational topic, and aspirational, about who we want to be. We helped! We won! It was tough, but we prevailed!
Also in this episode:
This new full-cast recording - based on the most respected edition of Shakespeare's classic - expertly produced by the Folger Theatre, is perfect for students, teachers, and the everyday listener....
There’s no doubt that the late Shirley Jackson was a genius: her inventive prose, incredibly human characters, and nearly tangible settings make her work particularly outstanding—and all the scarier for it. Her 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House was adapted into two films (one in 1963 and another in 1999) and, more recently, served as the basis for a widely adored Netflix series that premiered in 2018. Jackson’s spooky classic follows a researcher and his companions as they investigate the mysteries that abound in the seemingly haunted, ghastly Hill House estate. But when night falls on Hill House, things become more far unearthly than what could be perceived during the light and hope of day.
This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with 24 equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range....
Jackson’s classic is the story of two sisters and their disabled uncle, the last of the Blackwoods after a ... mix-up, with the family sugar bowl. Mary Katherine, or Merricat, protects her older, exonerated sister from the townsfolk until cousin Charles Blackwood arrives, sniffing out any remaining family fortune, and gets Merricat’s back up. Narrator Bernadette Dunne gives the little sister a steadier voice than she deserves, serving up a story that is terrifyingly sweet.
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
Historian Alexis Coe draws heavily upon primary sources in this detailed but fast-moving biography of George Washington that dives into his private life as a son, husband, step-father, slave-owner, and corporeal person with lots of aches and pains; she also explores Washington’s public life as a British and Continental Army general and “father of his country.”
Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world. Told from Sutter's sardonic and often hilarious point of view, and laced with sexual passion and suspense, The Gold Coast is Nelson DeMille's captivating story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal.
The Oxford History of the United States is the most respected multivolume history of the American nation. In the newest volume in the series, The Republic for Which It Stands, acclaimed historian Richard White offers a fresh and integrated interpretation of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age as the seedbed of modern America.
A profound new rendering of the struggle by African Americans for equality after the Civil War and the violent counterrevolution that resubjugated them, as seen through the prism of the war of images and ideas that have left an enduring racist stain on the American mind.
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history....
To hear Ethiopian and Swedish chef, TV personality, and restauranteur Marcus Samuelsson cook with special guests at the Red Rooster restaurant is to make an audio pilgrimage to Harlem....
Pulitzer Prize, History, 2009
National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2008
This epic work tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826.
The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth’s integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Texas native....
National Book Award Winner
New York Times best seller
A renowned historian traces the life of a single object handed down through three generations of Black women to craft an extraordinary testament to people who are left out of the archives.
An essential journey through the American South - and the way it defines American identity - from one of our most extraordinary writers on race and culture at work today....
An epic love story and family drama set at the dawn of World War II....
Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the listener, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.
When he falls ill on his way home from school, 15-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover--then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.
Countess Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society....
Told from four-year-old Laura's point of view, this story begins in 1871 in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin....
This poetic, graceful love story celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage....
A classic work of historical fiction from the author of Rebecca and The Birds.
Honor Harris is only 18 when she first meets Richard Grenvile, proud, reckless - and utterly captivating. But following a riding accident, Honor must reconcile herself to a life alone. As the English Civil War is waged across the country, Richard rises through the ranks of the army, marries and makes enemies, and Honor remains true to him.
Decades later, an undaunted Sir Richard, now a general serving King Charles I, finds her. Finally they can share their passion in the ruins of her family's great estate on the storm-tossed Cornish coast - one last time before being torn apart, never to embrace again.
From number-one New York Times best-selling author and “queen of royal fiction” (USA Today) Philippa Gregory - a dazzling new novel about the intriguing, romantic, and maddening Mary, queen of Scots.
Fleeing violent rebellions in Scotland, Mary looks to Queen Elizabeth of England for sanctuary. Though promised protection, Mary, perceived as a serious threat to the English crown, is soon imprisoned by her former friend as a “guest” in the house of George Talbot, earl of Shrewsbury, and his indomitable wife, Bess of Hardwick.
Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2012
The sequel to Hilary Mantel's 2009 Man Booker Prize winner and New York Times best seller, Wolf Hall delves into the heart of Tudor history with the downfall of Anne Boleyn. Though he battled for seven years to marry her, Henry is disenchanted with Anne Boleyn. She has failed to give him a son and her sharp intelligence and audacious will alienate his old friends and the noble families of England. When the discarded Katherine dies in exile from the court, Anne stands starkly exposed, the focus of gossip and malice. At a word from Henry, Thomas Cromwell is ready to bring her down.
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
Called “wholly engrossing” by New York Times best-selling author Kathleen Grissom, this “fully immersive” (Lisa Wingate, number-one best-selling author of Before We Were Yours) story follows an enslaved woman forced to barter love and freedom while living in the most infamous slave jail in Virginia.
An enchanting historical epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most controversial empresses....
Set in the London of the 1660s and of the early 21st century, The Weight of Ink is the interwoven tale of two women of remarkable intellect: Ester Velasquez, an emigrant from Amsterdam who is permitted to scribe for a blind rabbi just before the plague hits the city, and Helen Watt, an ailing historian with a love of Jewish history.
Profoundly moving and gracefully told, Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea....
The international best seller! A masterful gothic thriller set against the turbulence of medieval Italy.
The year is 1327. Franciscans in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. But his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths that take place in seven days and nights of apocalyptic terror.
An electrifying novel about the meteoric rise of an iconic interracial rock duo in the 1970s, their sensational breakup, and the dark secrets unearthed when they try to reunite decades later for one last tour....
Nicola Marter was born with a gift. When she touches an object, she sometimes glimpses those who have owned it before. When a woman arrives with a small wooden carving at the gallery Nicola works at, she can see the object’s history and knows that it was named after the Firebird - the mythical creature from an old Russian fable.
Compelled to know more, Nicola follows a young girl named Anna who leads her into the past on a quest through the glittering backdrops of the Jacobites and Russian courts, unearthing a tale of love, courage, and redemption.
This stunning blend of historical romance and time traveling adventure has captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world....
From the New York Times best-selling author of Me Before You, a spellbinding love story of two women separated by a century but united in their determination to fight for what they love most
France, 1916: Artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his young wife, Sophie, to fight at the front. When their small town falls to the Germans in the midst of World War I, Edouard's portrait of Sophie draws the eye of the new Kommandant. As the officer's dangerous obsession deepens, Sophie will risk everything - her family, her reputation, and her life - to see her husband again.
It's just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery....
I was loving every moment of this book. It was so beautiful — the language poetic, insightful, and clever, and the story providing “a-ha” moments all the way through. The voices of the dual narration were so believable and real, making the friendship at the center of the story feel like one of my own. And heroic — these girls were crazy heroic — and oh so inspiring. So it almost came as a surprise when I found myself one minute folding laundry in my guest room while calmly listening to the last few chapters, and the next minute, BAM, I was sitting on the bed, clutching a few clean shirts to my stomach, while sobbing and spluttering for a good hour.
A never-before-told story of Virginia Hall, the American spy who changed the course of World War II, from the author of Clementine....
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of 20 years and marry Anne Boleyn....
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby....
A classic work of feminist scholarship, Ain't I a Woman has become a must for all those interested in the nature of Black womanhood. Examining the impact of sexism on Black women during slavery, the devaluation of Black womanhood, Black male sexism, racism among feminists, and the Black woman's involvement with feminism, hooks attempts to move us beyond racist and sexist assumptions. The result is nothing short of groundbreaking, giving this work a critical place in every feminist scholar's library.
James Baldwin grew disillusioned by the failure of the civil rights movement to force America to confront its lies about race....
Brother turns on brother. The throne of England is at stake. The deadly Wars of the Roses have begun....
They ruled England before the Tudors, and now internationally best-selling author Philippa Gregory brings the Plantagenets to life through the dramatic and intimate stories of the secret players: the indomitable women.
The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem....
In 1580’s England, during the Black Plague, a young Latin tutor falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman in this “exceptional historical novel” (The New Yorker) and best-selling winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction....
Many of us know the Black Death as a catastrophic event of the medieval world. But the Black Death was arguably the most significant event in Western history....
Number-one New York Times best-seller.
“A gifted writer...explores the bonds of sisterhood while powerfully evoking the often nightmarish American immigrant experience.” (USA Today)
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father’s prosperous rickshaw business, 21-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn’t be more different: Pearl is a dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true sheep, adorable and placid.
Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular best seller that has sold more than 13 million copies, a critically acclaimed history of China, a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty, and an uplifting story of bravery and survival. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother, and the daughter herself - Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's 20th century. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this masterpiece is extraordinary in every way.
This sweeping novel from the New York Times best-selling author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans 100 years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the 20th century.
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America....
Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage....
2018 Audie Award Finalist for Fiction
The number-one New York Times best-selling author of A Man Called Ove returns with a dazzling, profound novel about a small town with a big dream - and the price required to make it come true.
People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semifinals, and they actually have a shot at winning.
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality....
Jan. 4. "Olga Dies Dreaming is a love letter to Brooklyn brimming with the best music, with dreams and sorrows—the stuff of real life."
- Jennine Capó Crucet, author of My Time Among The Whites
From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world. Read by the author, this one-of-a-kind audio production features guest appearances by members of the cast of The Good Place.
Most people think of themselves as “good", but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad” - especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia, and they have guidance for us.
Who controls our stories? Christopher Chen’s expectation-defying new play takes an unpredictable trip into the ways storytelling can reshape what we believe about ourselves and others. The play starts with a series of intriguing and seemingly unconnected creative conversations. It then takes a sharp turn when Sylvia - host of the popular interview program, Art Beat - goes missing and her listeners are left to wonder, is this also an art piece?
The journey continues and the mysteries multiply in this mind-bending audio play that investigates the very nature of reality.
March 1. From New York Times best-selling author Sabaa Tahir comes a heart-wrenching story about love, loss, family and forgiveness. 
Distraction is key for harder runs. Engle says he chose this book on a whim only five minutes before a long training run. "Time flew by as I listened to the world disintegrate. Classic good guys versus bad guys kept me moving steadily for hours."
