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Before the Bear: The History and Legacy of California Before It Joined the United States
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 2 hrs and 6 mins
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Before the Bear: The History and Legacy of California Before It Joined the United States
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Publisher's summary
"As the spring and summer of 1848 advanced, the reports came faster and faster from the gold-mines at Sutter’s saw-mill. Stories reached us of fabulous discoveries, and spread throughout the land. Everybody was talking of “gold! gold!!” until it assumed the character of a fever. Some of our soldiers began to desert; citizens were fitting out trains of wagons and pack-mules to go to the mines. We heard of men earning fifty, five hundred, and thousands of dollars per day...” -William Tecumseh Sherman
The history of California is one that witnessed the rise and fall of several nations and peoples. From the first natives to settle the fertile lands to the encroaching foreigners from the south, east, west, and north, the land that eventually became the Golden State received them all. From across oceans, mountains, plains, and deserts, people came to take advantage of the region’s natural resources.
Despite the mythology and the romantic portrayals that helped make the California Gold Rush, most of the individuals who came to make a fortune struck out instead. The gold rush was a boon to business interests, which ensured important infrastructure developments like the railroad and the construction of westward paths, but ultimately, it also meant that big business reaped most of the profits associated with mining the gold. While the Forty-Niners are often remembered for panning gold out of mountain streams, it required advanced mining technology for most to make a fortune.
As the Gold Rush intensified and brought more people to California, it would officially join the Union in 1850, but even that was fraught with political turmoil.
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- 1763 and the Transformation of North America
- By: Colin G. Calloway
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
In February, 1763, Britain, Spain, and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War. In this one document, more American territory changed hands than in any treaty before or since. As the great historian Francis Parkman wrote, "half a continent...changed hands at the scratch of a pen."
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1 out of 5 stars
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Poor account - there are better
- By Brian on 07-18-06
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The Fortunes of Africa
- A 5000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 26 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 281
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 250
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 247
A sweeping history of the fortune seekers, adventurers, despots, and thieves who have ruthlessly endeavored to extract gold, diamonds, and other treasures from Africa and its people.
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5 out of 5 stars
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VAST & WELL RESEARCHED
- By Odomite on 02-03-21
By: Martin Meredith
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The Other Slavery
- The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
- By: Andrés Reséndez
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 279
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 244
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 245
Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Andrés Reséndez illuminates in his myth-shattering The Other Slavery, it was practiced for centuries as an open secret. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the "mouth of hell" of 18th-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos.
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4 out of 5 stars
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overall a good book
- By Paola V. Hidalgo on 01-23-17
By: Andrés Reséndez
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Born in Blackness
- Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War
- By: Howard W. French
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 168
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Story5 out of 5 stars 169
Born in Blackness vitally reframes the story of medieval and emerging Africa, demonstrating how the economic ascendancy of Europe, the anchoring of democracy in the West, and the fulfillment of so-called Enlightenment ideals all grew out of Europe's dehumanizing engagement with the "dark" continent. In fact, French reveals, the first impetus for the Age of Discovery was not—as we are so often told, even today—Europe's yearning for ties with Asia, but rather its centuries-old desire to forge a trade in gold with legendarily rich Black societies in the heart of West Africa.
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5 out of 5 stars
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American History World History Our History
- By Bill on 06-13-22
By: Howard W. French
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The British Empire
- By: Stephen W. Sears
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 30 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
Here is the story of how the English acquired their vast domain; how they ruled, maintained, and exploited it; and how, within decades, they presided over its dissolution. Here are Britain's triumphs and also her stinging defeats, her heroes and her scoundrels. It is a full and fascinating chronicle of the growth of the British Empire and its people and of the impact that empire had on the rest of the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Great presentation of a broad historical narrative
- By MiamiMe on 03-27-18
By: Stephen W. Sears
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An African American and Latinx History of the United States
- By: Paul Ortiz
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 454
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 399
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Story5 out of 5 stars 394
Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I had to return
- By Andrew Alvarez on 05-19-20
By: Paul Ortiz
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The Island at the Center of the World
- The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrated by: Russell Shorto
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 540
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 471
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Story5 out of 5 stars 468
In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Incomplete history, but fun. Performance is poor.
- By Matthew on 11-27-18
By: Russell Shorto
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The Comanche Empire
- By: Pekka Hamalainen
- Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer
- Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 305
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 274
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 272
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a Native American empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in American history. This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A comprehensive evaluation
- By A on 02-28-18
By: Pekka Hamalainen
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Lone Star
- A History of Texas and the Texans
- By: T. R. Fehrenbach
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 39 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 297
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 260
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 260
Here is a must-listen history of the Lone Star State, together with an insider's look at the people, politics, and events that have shaped Texas from the beginning right up to our days. Never before has the story been told with more vitality and immediacy. Fehrenbach re-creates the Texas saga from prehistory to the Spanish and French invasions to the heyday of the cotton and cattle empires. He dramatically describes the emergence of Texas as a republic, the vote for secession before the Civil War, and the state's readmission to the Union after the War.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Top -10
- By JNW on 03-29-18
By: T. R. Fehrenbach
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The Barbarous Years
- The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
- By: Bernard Bailyn
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 26 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
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Story4 out of 5 stars 105
Bernard Bailyn gives us a compelling account of the first great transit of people from Britain, Europe, and Africa to British North America, their involvements with each other, and their struggles with the indigenous peoples of the eastern seaboard.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A feast for genealogy/history buffs
- By judithh on 07-21-16
By: Bernard Bailyn
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1775
- A Good Year for Revolution
- By: Kevin Phillips
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 25 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4 out of 5 stars 52
What if the year we have long commemorated as America’s defining moment was in fact misleading? What if the real events that signaled the historic shift from colony to country took place earlier, and that the true story of our nation’s emergence reveals a more complicated - and divisive - birth process? In this major new work, iconoclastic historian and political chronicler Kevin Phillips upends the conventional reading of the American Revolution by puncturing the myth that 1776 was the struggle’s watershed year. Mythology and omission have elevated 1776, but the most important year, rarely recognized, was 1775.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Boring--couldn't finish it
- By Sean on 04-01-13
By: Kevin Phillips
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Gone to Texas
- A History of the Lone Star State
- By: Randolph B. Campbell
- Narrated by: Jacob Sommer
- Length: 28 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 142
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 133
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Story4 out of 5 stars 127
Gone to Texas engagingly tells the story of the Lone Star State, from the arrival of humans in the Panhandle more than 10,000 years ago to the opening of the 21st Century. Focusing on the state's successive waves of immigrants, the audiobook offers an inclusive view of the vast array of Texans who, often in conflict with each other and always in a struggle with the land, created a history and an idea of Texas.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good history from year zero through about 1962
- By Jim In Texas! on 03-24-14
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The Trail of Tears
- The Forced Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Dave Wright
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
The "Five Civilized Tribes" are among the best known Native American groups in American history, and they were even celebrated by contemporary Americans for their abilities to adapt to white culture. But tragically, they are also well known tribes due to the trials and tribulations they suffered by being forcibly moved west along the "Trail of Tears".
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2 out of 5 stars
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Not complete
- By Melissa on 06-14-15
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Fur, Fortune, and Empire
- The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 524
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 425
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 425
From the bestselling author of Leviathan comes this sweeping narrative of one of America’s most historically rich industries. Beginning his epic history in the early 1600s, Eric Jay Dolin traces the dramatic rise and fall of the American fur trade industry, from the first Dutch encounters with the Indians to the rise of the conservation movement in the late nineteenth century.
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2 out of 5 stars
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a compilation of trivia
- By D. Littman on 07-18-10
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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World History
- Ancient History, United States History, European, Native American, Russian, Chinese, Asian, Indian and Australian History, Wars Including World War 1 and 2
- By: Adam Brown
- Narrated by: Sarah Moore
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 79
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 79
Have you ever wondered how the world got to where it is today? Get ready to discover the rich history of our planet. You will be astonished to learn about some of the events that have occurred! Subjects include: Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, The Roman Empire, Constantine and Christianity, India, Ancient Korea, Chinese Dynasties, Napoleonic Europe, Foundation of USA, The 1812 War, Australia and Wars, World War I, World War II, The Ottoman Empire, Greece and North Africa, The Diem Regime, Pearl Harbor, and much more!
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5 out of 5 stars
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Truly a fine book
- By Zlady Neri on 09-08-19
By: Adam Brown
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The Worlds the Shawnees Made
- Migration and Violence in Early America
- By: Stephen Warren
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 68
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Story4 out of 5 stars 67
In 1779, Shawnees from Chillicothe, a community in the Ohio country, told the British, "We have always been the frontier." Their statement challenges an oft-held belief that American Indians derive their unique identities from longstanding ties to native lands. By tracking Shawnee people and migrations from 1400 to 1754, Stephen Warren illustrates how Shawnees made a life for themselves at the crossroads of empires and competing tribes, embracing mobility and often moving willingly toward violent borderlands.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Yawn
- By dagsog on 12-23-14
By: Stephen Warren