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American Bloods
- The Untamed Dynasty That Shaped a Nation
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
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Publisher's summary
"American Bloods is an unflinching history of our nation . . . This is a breakout book for John Kaag―the natural extension of his genre-defining writing.”―Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times
A history of a family spanning centuries and continents―one that unfolds into a new portrait of America.
The Bloods were one of America’s first and most expansive pioneer families. They explored and laid claim to the frontiers―geographic, political, intellectual, and spiritual―that would become the very core of the United States. John Kaag’s American Bloods is the account of a remarkable American family, of its participation in the making of a nation, and of how its members embodied the elusive ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Kaag follows eight members of this family from the British Civil War in the seventeenth century through the founding of the colonies, the American Revolution, Transcendentalism, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and the rise of first-wave feminism, all the way to the beginning of the twentieth century.
The Bloods were active participants in virtually every pivotal moment in American history, coming into contact with everyone from Emerson and Thoreau to John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Victoria Woodhull, and William James. The genealogy of the family tracks the ebb and flow of what Thoreau called “wildness,” an original untamed spirit that would recede in the making of America but would never be extinguished entirely. American Bloods is an enduring reminder of the risks and rewards that were taken in laying claim to the lands that would become the United States, and a composite portrait of America like no other.
Critic reviews
"American Bloods is an unflinching history of our nation, told through the wild, fearful tales of a remarkable American dynasty. This is a breakout book for John Kaag—the natural extension of his genre-defining writing.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times
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Story
On October 7, 2023—the Sabbath and the final day of the holiday of Sukkot—the Gaza-based terror group Hamas launched an unprecedented assault on the people of Israel. Crashing through the border, attacking from the sea and air, militants indiscriminately massacred civilians in what became one of the worst terror attacks in modern history, and the most lethal day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
By: Lee Yaron
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The Memory Palace
- True Short Stories of the Past
- By: Nate DiMeo
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For more than a decade, Nate DiMeo has brought the big and small of American history to life in The Memory Palace, a podcast of crystalline short stories that are all completely true. In this beautifully designed collection, where DiMeo takes advantage of the visual form of a book by creating striking juxtapositions between images and text, he gathers the best of the show and adds brand-new stories exclusive to the book, which especially take their inspiration from photographs and the emergence of photography.
By: Nate DiMeo
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Hidden in Plain View
- A Secret Story of Quilts and the Underground Railroad
- By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, Raymond G. Dobard
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1993, author Jacqueline Tobin visited the Old Market Building in the historic district of Charleston, South Carolina, where local craftspeople sell their wares. Amid piles of beautiful handmade quilts, Tobin met African American quilter Ozella Williams and the two struck up a conversation. With the admonition to "write this down," Williams began to tell a fascinating story that had been handed down from her mother and grandmother before her.
By: Jacqueline L. Tobin, and others