Texas Obscurities
Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional & Nefarious
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Texas Obscurities
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Narrated by:
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Jessica Schell
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By:
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E.R. Bills
About this listen
Some of these quirky true stories might surprise even the most proud Texan. Austin sat the first all-woman state supreme court in the nation in 1925. A utopian colony thrived in Kristenstad during the Great Depression. Bats taken from the Bracken and Ney Caves and Devil's Sinkhole were developed as a secret weapon that vied with the Manhattan Project to shorten World War II. In Slaton in 1922, German priest Joseph M. Keller was kidnapped, tarred, and feathered amid anti-German fervor following World War I.
Author E.R. Bills offers this collection of trials, tribulations, and intrigue that is sure to enrich one's understanding of the biggest state in the Lower 48.
©2013 E. R. Bills (P)2021 E. R. BillsListeners also enjoyed...
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5 out of 5 stars
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“Watch Tombstone?” You are an idiot
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The Feud
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Filled with bitter quarrels, reckless affairs, treacherous betrayals, relentless mercenaries, and courageous detectives, The Feud is the riveting story of two frontier families struggling for survival within the narrow confines of an unforgiving land. It is a formative American tale, and in it, we see the reflection of our own family bonds and the lengths to which we might go in order to defend our honor, our loyalties, and our livelihood.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Get out the pad and pencil .....
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Dark Tide
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 376
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 327
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 327
Around noon on January 15, 1919, a group of firefighters were playing cards in Boston's North End when they heard a tremendous crash. It was like, "a roaring surf," one of them said later. Like, "a runaway two-horse team smashing through a fence," said another. A third firefighter jumped up from his chair to look out a window - "Oh my God!" he shouted to the other men, "Run!" A 50-foot-tall steel tank filled with 2.3 million gallons of molasses had just collapsed on Boston's waterfront, disgorging its contents as a 15-foot-high wave of molasses that at its outset traveled at 35 miles an hour.
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3 out of 5 stars
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 134
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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4 out of 5 stars
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Worth a listen
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By: Lee Sandlin Jeff
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Lindbergh
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 233
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 200
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 204
Few American icons provoke more enduring fascination than Charles Lindbergh - renowned for his one-man transatlantic flight in 1927, remembered for the sorrow surrounding the kidnapping and death of his firstborn son in 1932, and reviled by many for his opposition to America's entry into World War II.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Needs updating
- By R. Taylor on 03-14-15
By: A. Scott Berg
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The White Devil's Daughters
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
During the first hundred years of Chinese immigration - from 1848 to 1943 - San Francisco was home to a shockingly extensive underground slave trade in Asian women, who were exploited as prostitutes and indentured servants. In this gripping, necessary book, best-selling author Julia Flynn Siler shines a light on this little-known chapter in our history - and gives us a vivid portrait of the safe house to which enslaved women escaped.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Well researched
- By Qats reads on 08-05-19
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Cattle Kingdom
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- By: Christopher Knowlton
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
The Open Range cattle era lasted barely a quarter-century, but it left America irrevocably changed. These few decades following the Civil War brought America its greatest boom-and-bust cycle until the Depression, the invention of the assembly line, and the dawn of the conservation movement. It inspired legends, such as that icon of rugged individualism, the cowboy. Yet this extraordinary time and its import have remained unexamined for decades. Cattle Kingdom reveals the truth of how the West rose and fell, and how its legacy defines us today.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing - Author has an Agenda
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The Devil Is Here in These Hills
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- By: James Green
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 118
From before the dawn of the 20th century until the arrival of the New Deal, one of the most protracted and deadly labor struggles in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were 50,000 mine workers, the nation's largest labor union, and the legendary "miners' angel", Mother Jones.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Phenomenal labor history, riveting narrative
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By: James Green
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The Happy Bottom Riding Club
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- By: Lauren Kessler
- Narrated by: Hollis McCarthy
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- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 30
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Pancho Barnes was a force of nature, a woman who lived a big, messy, colorful, unconventional life. She ran through three fortunes, four husbands, and countless lovers. She outflew Amelia Earhart, outsmarted Howard Hughes, outdrank the Mexican Army, and outmaneuvered the US government. In The Happy Bottom Riding Club, award-winning author Lauren Kessler tells the story of a high-spirited, headstrong woman who was proud of her successes, unabashed by her failures, and the architect of her own legend.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Never a dull moment
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By: Lauren Kessler
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West Like Lightning
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 67
The thrilling narrative history of one of the most enduring icons of the American West, the Pony Express, from the number-one New York Times bestselling co-author of American Sniper - an exciting tale of daring young men pushing limits to the extremes across the vast, rugged, and unsettled American West.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Picture of Wild West Life and the Pony
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- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Over the course of less than 24 hours in the spring of 1921, Tulsa’s infamous “Black Wall Street” was wiped off the map - and erased from the history books. Official records were disappeared, researchers were threatened, and the worst single incident of racial violence in American history was kept hidden for more than 50 years. But there were some secrets that would not die. A riveting and essential new book, The Ground Breaking not only tells the long-suppressed story of the notorious Tulsa race massacre.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book on the Tulsa Massacre
- By vivabooks on 08-15-21
By: Scott Ellsworth
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Chicago's Great Fire
- The Destruction and Resurrection of an Iconic American City
- By: Carl Smith
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
From an acclaimed historian, the full and authoritative story of one of the most iconic disasters in American history, told through the vivid memories of those who experienced it. Carl Smith’s compelling narrative at last gives this epic event its full and proper place in our national chronicle.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Fairly good
- By Jennett M. Harrell on 07-24-24
By: Carl Smith
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Tulsa 1921
- Reporting a Massacre
- By: Randy Krehbiel
- Narrated by: Kevin Meyer
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
In 1921, Tulsa’s Greenwood District - known then as the nation’s “Black Wall Street” - was one of the most prosperous African American communities in the United States. But on May 31 of that year, a white mob, inflamed by rumors that a young black man had attempted to rape a white teenage girl, invaded Greenwood. By the end of the following day, thousands of homes and businesses lay in ashes, and perhaps, as many as 300 people were dead.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Exceptional and
- By Heath on 03-07-20
By: Randy Krehbiel
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Blood at the Root
- A Racial Cleansing in America
- By: Patrick Phillips
- Narrated by: Patrick Phillips
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 325
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 284
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Story5 out of 5 stars 284
National Book Award finalist Patrick Phillips tells Forsyth's tragic story in vivid detail and traces its long history of racial violence all the way back to antebellum Georgia. Recalling his own childhood in the 1970s and '80s, Phillips sheds light on the communal crimes of his hometown and the violent means by which locals kept Forsyth all white well into the 1990s.
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5 out of 5 stars
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when is white history month?
- By Bailey on 03-06-18
By: Patrick Phillips
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Jesse James
- Last Rebel of the Civil War
- By: T. J. Stiles
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 203
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 178
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 177
In this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a new understanding of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Although he has often been portrayed as a Robin Hood of the old west, in this ground-breaking work Stiles places James within the context of the bloody conflicts of the Civil War to reveal a much more complicated and significant figure.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Borderline woke retelling of the era JJ live in
- By Rodney on 08-24-22
By: T. J. Stiles
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Here Is Where
- Discovering America's Great Forgotten History
- By: Andrew Carroll
- Narrated by: Andrew Carroll
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 61
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Story4 out of 5 stars 60
The centerpiece of a major national campaign to indentify and preserve forgotten history, Here Is Where is acclaimed historian Andrew Carroll’s fascinating journey of discovery in which he travels to each of America’s 50 states and explores locations where remarkable individuals once lived or where the incredible or momentous occurred.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Man who Loves his Country
- By Daryl on 03-12-17
By: Andrew Carroll
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Black Birds in the Sky
- The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
- By: Brandy Colbert
- Narrated by: Brandy Colbert, Kristyl Dawn Tift
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 315
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 269
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 269
In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a White mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District - a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives. In a few short hours, they'd razed 35 square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incredible story and sooo well written
- By Deby on 02-17-22
By: Brandy Colbert
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Slavery by Another Name
- The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
- By: Douglas A. Blackmon
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,001
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,705
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,696
In this groundbreaking historical expose, Douglas A. Blackmon brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history - an Age of Neoslavery that thrived from the aftermath of the Civil War through the dawn of World War II.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Steel Yourself
- By Mark on 05-23-14
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Stolen
- The Astonishing Odyssey of Five Boys Along the Reverse Underground Railroad
- By: Richard Bell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
Philadelphia, 1825: Five young, free Black boys fall into the clutches of the most fearsome gang of kidnappers and slavers in the US. Lured onto a small ship with the promise of food and pay, they are instead met with blindfolds, ropes, and knives. Over four long months, their kidnappers drive them overland into the Cotton Kingdom to be sold as slaves. Determined to resist, the boys form a tight brotherhood as they struggle to free themselves and find their way home.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Should have been a fact based novel
- By Cate F. on 01-11-21
By: Richard Bell
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The Eagles of Heart Mountain
- A True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America
- By: Bradford Pearson
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 40
In the spring of 1942, the United States government forced 120,000 Japanese Americans from their homes in California, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and sent them to incarceration camps across the West. Nearly 14,000 of them landed on the outskirts of Cody, Wyoming, at the base of Heart Mountain. Behind barbed wire fences, they faced racism, cruelty, and frozen winters. Trying to recreate comforts from home, they established Buddhist temples and sumo wrestling pits. Kabuki performances drew hundreds of spectators — yet there was little hope.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I wanted to like it
- By Happy Mountain on 06-04-22
By: Bradford Pearson
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Revolver
- Sam Colt and the Six-Shooter That Changed America
- By: Jim Rasenberger
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 66
Brilliantly told, Revolver brings the brazenly ambitious and profoundly innovative industrialist and leader Samuel Colt to vivid life. In the space of his 47 years, he seemingly lived five lives: He traveled, womanized, drank prodigiously, smuggled guns to Russia, bribed politicians, and supplied the Union Army with the guns they needed to win the Civil War. Colt lived during an age of promise and progress, but also of slavery, corruption, and unbridled greed, and he not only helped to create this America, he completely embodied it.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Sam Colt, but not the Revolver
- By Eggleston on 08-01-20
By: Jim Rasenberger
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Murder at the Mission
- A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West
- By: Blaine Harden
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 36
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 36
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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Ghosts of Gold Mountain
- The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
- By: Gordon H. Chang
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 110
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 110
From across the sea, they came by the thousands, escaping war and poverty in southern China to seek their fortunes in America. Converging on the enormous western worksite of the Transcontinental Railroad, the migrants spent years dynamiting tunnels through the snow-packed cliffs of the Sierra Nevada and laying tracks across the burning Utah desert. Their sweat and blood fueled the ascent of an interlinked, industrial United States. But those of them who survived this perilous effort would be pushed to the margins of American life and then to the fringes of public memory.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very inspiring, educational, and enlightening!
- By Amazon Customer on 06-25-19
By: Gordon H. Chang
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Engineering Eden
- The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight over Controlling Nature
- By: Jordan Fisher Smith
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 66
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
When 25-year-old Harry Walker was killed by a bear in Yellowstone Park in 1972, the civil trial prompted by his death became a proxy for bigger questions about American wilderness management that had been boiling for a century. At immediate issue was whether the Park Service should have done more to keep bears away from humans, but what was revealed as the trial unfolded was just how fruitless our efforts to regulate nature in the parks had always been.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Riveting true story, well performed
- By Kerry Cox on 04-07-20
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City of the Century
- The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 94
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 95
Here, witness Chicago's growth from a desolate fur-trading post in the 1830s to one of the world's most explosively alive cities by 1900. Donald Miller's powerful narrative embraces it all: Chicago's wild beginnings, its reckless growth, its natural calamities (especially the Great Fire of 1871), its raucous politics, its empire-building businessmen, its world-transforming architecture, its rich mix of cultures, its community of young writers and journalists, and its staggering engineering projects.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A STORY THAT TRIES TOO HARD....AND FAILS
- By The Louligan on 02-01-15
By: Donald L. Miller