HISTORY
WINNER: You Never Forget Your First
Performed by Brittany Pressley, Alexis Coe
The year of the pandemic, #BLM demonstrations, and our presidential election encouraged a lot of us to ask the questions of history with new eyes: how did we get here? And what do we need to know for the future?
Best of the Year Alexis Coe’s You Never Forget Your First portrays our first president come alive as a man who suffered and overcame physical ailments, enslaved others unflinchingly, and somehow also established the mechanism of a peaceful transfer of power. Through the lens of James Baldwin’s life and work, Eddie S. Glaude's Begin Again declaims with passion and urgency that American democracy has never valued Black lives as ''created equal.'' As role models, Winston Churchill and Jimmy Carter stand out as intelligent, forceful leaders willing to take great risk in the service of freedom. In their sweeping and richly detailed audios, Erik Larson and Jonathan Alter place Churchill and Carter, respectively, within the context of their times, their families, and their limitations and triumphs. Finally, Brian C. Muraresku zones out a bit in The Immortality Key, because throughout human history, people need inspiration to continue the fight for progress.
Best of History: Four More
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The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,595
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,912
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,833
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
John Lee’s narration is a struggle
- By Leslie Rathjens on 03-05-20
-
His Very Best
- Jimmy Carter, a Life
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 31 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 550
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 478
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 474
Growing up in one of the meanest counties in the Jim Crow South, Carter is the only American president who essentially lived in three centuries: his early life on the farm in the 1920s without electricity or running water might as well have been in the nineteenth; his presidency put him at the center of major events in the twentieth; and his efforts on conflict resolution and global health set him on the cutting edge of the challenges of the 21st.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Unbiased biography of a complex president
- By P Willis on 10-08-20
-
The Immortality Key
- The Secret History of the Religion with No Name
- By: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock - foreword
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock, Brian C. Muraresku
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 6,257
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 5,508
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5,479
A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A Fun ‘Trip’—But Not a Sober One
- By Joshua on 11-28-20
-
Begin Again
- James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
- By: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
- Narrated by: Eddie S. Glaude
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,650
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,415
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,404
Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s “after times,” argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I Understand.
- By Carrie Johnson on 07-01-20
-
The Splendid and the Vile
- A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
- By: Erik Larson
- Narrated by: John Lee, Erik Larson
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,595
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,912
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,833
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally - and willing to fight to the end. In The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson shows how Churchill taught the British people "the art of being fearless."
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
John Lee’s narration is a struggle
- By Leslie Rathjens on 03-05-20
-
His Very Best
- Jimmy Carter, a Life
- By: Jonathan Alter
- Narrated by: Michael Boatman
- Length: 31 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 550
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 478
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 474
Growing up in one of the meanest counties in the Jim Crow South, Carter is the only American president who essentially lived in three centuries: his early life on the farm in the 1920s without electricity or running water might as well have been in the nineteenth; his presidency put him at the center of major events in the twentieth; and his efforts on conflict resolution and global health set him on the cutting edge of the challenges of the 21st.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Unbiased biography of a complex president
- By P Willis on 10-08-20
-
The Immortality Key
- The Secret History of the Religion with No Name
- By: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock - foreword
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock, Brian C. Muraresku
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 6,257
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 5,508
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 5,479
A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
A Fun ‘Trip’—But Not a Sober One
- By Joshua on 11-28-20
-
Begin Again
- James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own
- By: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
- Narrated by: Eddie S. Glaude
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,650
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,415
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,404
Begin Again is one of the great books on James Baldwin and a powerful reckoning with America’s ongoing failure to confront the lies it tells itself about race. Just as in Baldwin’s “after times,” argues Eddie S. Glaude Jr., when white Americans met the civil rights movement’s call for truth and justice with blind rage and the murders of movement leaders, so in our moment were the Obama presidency and the birth of Black Lives Matter answered with the ascendance of Trump and the violent resurgence of white nationalism.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I Understand.
- By Carrie Johnson on 07-01-20