The Last Slave Ship
The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Last Slave Ship
Buy for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kevin R. Free
-
By:
-
Ben Raines
About this listen
The “enlightening” (The Guardian) true story of the last ship to carry enslaved people to America, the remarkable town its survivors’ founded after emancipation, and the complicated legacy their descendants carry with them to this day—by the journalist who discovered the ship’s remains.
Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda became the last ship in history to bring enslaved Africans to the United States. The ship was scuttled and burned on arrival to hide the wealthy perpetrators to escape prosecution. Despite numerous efforts to find the sunken wreck, Clotilda remained hidden for the next 160 years. But in 2019, journalist Ben Raines made international news when he successfully concluded his obsessive quest through the swamps of Alabama to uncover one of our nation’s most important historical artifacts.
Traveling from Alabama to the ancient African kingdom of Dahomey in modern-day Benin, Raines recounts the ship’s perilous journey, the story of its rediscovery, and its complex legacy. Against all odds, Africatown, the Alabama community founded by the captives of the Clotilda, prospered in the Jim Crow South. Zora Neale Hurston visited in 1927 to interview Cudjo Lewis, telling the story of his enslavement in the New York Times bestseller Barracoon. And yet the haunting memory of bondage has been passed on through generations. Clotilda is a ghost haunting three communities—the descendants of those transported into slavery, the descendants of their fellow Africans who sold them, and the descendants of their fellow American enslavers. This connection binds these groups together to this day. At the turn of the century, descendants of the captain who financed the Clotilda’s journey lived nearby—where, as significant players in the local real estate market, they disenfranchised and impoverished residents of Africatown.
From these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continues to this day. And yet, at its heart, The Last Slave Ship remains optimistic—an epic tale of one community’s triumphs over great adversity and a celebration of the power of human curiosity to uncover the truth about our past and heal its wounds.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Barracoon
- The Story of the Last ""Black Cargo""
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,432
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,007
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,993
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
skip the introduction!
- By Earin on 10-16-18
-
Dreams of Africa in Alabama
- The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America
- By: Sylviane A. Diouf
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
In the summer of 1860, more than 50 years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Should be required reading in all schools.
- By Anonymous User on 12-31-21
-
Slaves in the Family
- By: Edward Ball
- Narrated by: Edward Ball
- Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 162
The Ball family hails from South Carolina - Charleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to 4,000 Black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gives a good insight for moving forward today
- By Wendy Wood on 05-05-19
By: Edward Ball
-
The 1619 Project
- A New Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Full Cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,638
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,029
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4,012
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Comprehensive and Cutting
- By Thomas Ray on 12-30-21
By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others
-
The Devil's Half Acre
- The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail
- By: Kristen Green
- Narrated by: Deanna Anthony
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
New York Times best-selling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre”. When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre”, a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Preachy
- By Elizabeth Combs on 09-13-22
By: Kristen Green
-
Africatown
- America's Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created
- By: Nick Tabor
- Narrated by: Chris Butler
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
In 1860, a ship called the Clotilda was smuggled through the Alabama Gulf Coast, carrying the last group of enslaved people ever brought to the US from West Africa. Five years later, the shipmates were emancipated, but they had no way of getting back home. Instead they created their own community outside the city of Mobile, where they spoke Yoruba and appointed their own leaders.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
So interesting!!!
- By Jamie McCoy on 07-03-23
By: Nick Tabor
-
Barracoon
- The Story of the Last ""Black Cargo""
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,432
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 3,007
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,993
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
skip the introduction!
- By Earin on 10-16-18
-
Dreams of Africa in Alabama
- The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America
- By: Sylviane A. Diouf
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
In the summer of 1860, more than 50 years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Should be required reading in all schools.
- By Anonymous User on 12-31-21
-
Slaves in the Family
- By: Edward Ball
- Narrated by: Edward Ball
- Length: 20 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 184
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 162
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 162
The Ball family hails from South Carolina - Charleston and thereabouts. Their plantations were among the oldest and longest-standing plantations in the South. Between 1698 and 1865, close to 4,000 Black people were born into slavery under the Balls or were bought by them. In Slaves in the Family, Edward Ball recounts his efforts to track down and meet the descendants of his family's slaves.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Gives a good insight for moving forward today
- By Wendy Wood on 05-05-19
By: Edward Ball
-
The 1619 Project
- A New Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine, Caitlin Roper - editor, and others
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Full Cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 4,638
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 4,029
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 4,012
The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new book substantially expands on that work, weaving together 18 essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with 36 poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Comprehensive and Cutting
- By Thomas Ray on 12-30-21
By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others
-
The Devil's Half Acre
- The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail
- By: Kristen Green
- Narrated by: Deanna Anthony
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 111
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
New York Times best-selling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre”. When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre”, a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Preachy
- By Elizabeth Combs on 09-13-22
By: Kristen Green
-
Africatown
- America's Last Slave Ship and the Community It Created
- By: Nick Tabor
- Narrated by: Chris Butler
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 8
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 7
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7
In 1860, a ship called the Clotilda was smuggled through the Alabama Gulf Coast, carrying the last group of enslaved people ever brought to the US from West Africa. Five years later, the shipmates were emancipated, but they had no way of getting back home. Instead they created their own community outside the city of Mobile, where they spoke Yoruba and appointed their own leaders.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
So interesting!!!
- By Jamie McCoy on 07-03-23
By: Nick Tabor
-
The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 14,069
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 12,438
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 12,379
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
-
Master Slave Husband Wife
- An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom
- By: Ilyon Woo
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards, Leon Nixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 520
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 437
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 436
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation in American history. Posing as master and slave, while sustained by their love as husband and wife, they made their escape together across more than 1,000 miles, riding out in the open on steamboats, carriages, and trains that took them from bondage in Georgia to the free states of the North.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Necessary story well told!
- By Marc W Rhoades on 01-19-23
By: Ilyon Woo
-
Ancient African Kingdoms
- A Captivating Guide to Civilizations of Ancient Africa Such as the Land of Punt, Carthage, the Kingdom of Aksum, the Mali Empire, and the Kingdom of Kush
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
Africa is the continent where the first humans were born. They explored the vast land and produced the first tools. And although we migrated from that continent, we never completely abandoned it. From the beginning of time, humans lived and worked in Africa, leaving evidence of their existence in the sands of the Sahara Desert and the valleys of the great rivers such as the Nile and the Niger.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A wealth of information about African history
- By Windchill-06 on 02-20-21
-
A Fever in the Heartland
- The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Timothy Egan
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,407
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,259
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,258
The Roaring Twenties—the Jazz Age—has been characterized as a time of Gatsby frivolity. But it was also the height of the uniquely American hate group, the Ku Klux Klan. Their domain was not the old Confederacy, but the Heartland and the West. They hated Blacks, Jews, Catholics and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps to keep these people from the American promise. And the man who set in motion their takeover of great swaths of America was a charismatic charlatan named D.C. Stephenson.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This is a must read!
- By V. Richmond on 04-14-23
By: Timothy Egan
-
Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,274
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,125
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,118
A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
History never taught
- By Scott P ODonnell on 02-16-21
By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
-
How the Word Is Passed
- A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
- By: Clint Smith
- Narrated by: Clint Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 3,629
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 3,243
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 3,229
Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the listener on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks—those that are honest about the past and those that are not—that offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in shaping our nation's collective history, and ourselves.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Sincerely grateful read
- By Kelvin Dixon on 06-08-21
By: Clint Smith
-
The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy
- And the Path to a Shared American Future
- By: Robert P. Jones
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 101
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 91
Beginning with contemporary efforts to reckon with the legacy of white supremacy in America, Jones returns to the fateful year when a little-known church doctrine emerged that shaped the way five centuries of European Christians would understand the “discovered” world and the people who populated it. From this vantage point, Jones illuminates how the enslavement of Africans was not America’s original sin but, rather, the continuation of acts of genocide and dispossession flowing from the first European contact with Native Americans.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Doctrine of discovery matters to our history
- By Adam Shields on 09-13-23
By: Robert P. Jones
-
By Hands Now Known
- Jim Crow's Legal Executioners
- By: Margaret A. Burnham
- Narrated by: Diana Blue
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 38
Margaret A. Burnham challenges our understanding of the Jim Crow era by exploring the relationship between formal law and background legal norms in harrowing cases between 1920 and 1960. From rendition, the legal process by which states make claims to other states for the return of their citizens, to battles over state and federal jurisdiction and the outsize role of local sheriffs in enforcing racial hierarchy, Burnham maps the criminal legal system of the mid-twentieth-century South, and traces the line from slavery to the legal structures of this period—and through to today.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Heartbreaking
- By sharon on 11-24-22
-
Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 15,404
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 13,088
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 13,064
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
-
King Leopold's Ghost
- A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
- By: Adam Hochschild
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Howard
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,976
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,639
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,640
In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor could account for these cargoes, Morel almost singlehandedly made this slave-labor regime the premier human rights story in the world.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating
- By Edith on 01-20-11
By: Adam Hochschild
-
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
- By: Harriet Jacobs
- Narrated by: Audio Élan
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 507
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 440
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 438
Harriet Jacobs’ autobiography, written under the pseudonym Linda Brent, details her experiences as a slave in North Carolina, her escape to freedom in the north, and her ensuing struggles to free her children. The narrative was partly serialized in the New York Tribune, but was discontinued because Jacobs’ depictions of the sexual abuse of female slaves were considered too shocking. It was published in book form in 1861.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Another impossible narration
- By JPALJ on 06-11-18
By: Harriet Jacobs
-
The Book of Lost Friends
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Wingate
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss, Sullivan Jones, Robin Miles, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 11,075
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 9,576
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 9,513
From the best-selling author of Before We Were Yours comes a dramatic historical novel of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post-Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I want more!!!
- By Mrstlg on 04-11-20
By: Lisa Wingate
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Last Witnesses
- An Oral History of the Children of World War II
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
- Narrated by: Julia Emelin, Allen Lewis Rickman
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 91
Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style, Last Witnesses is Alexievich’s collection of the memories of those who were children during World War II. They had sometimes been soldiers as well as witnesses, and their generation grew up with the trauma of the war deeply embedded - a trauma that would change the course of the Russian nation. Collectively, this symphony of children’s stories, filled with the everyday details of life in combat, reveals an altogether unprecedented view of the war.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
And how many years to forget?
- By Darwin8u on 09-16-21
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
The Walls Have Ears
- The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II
- By: Helen Fry
- Narrated by: Jean Gilpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
At the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners' cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites - and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis. In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
inresting look into a secret world.
- By Christopher Daniels on 05-22-20
By: Helen Fry
-
Fatherland
- A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets
- By: Burkhard Bilger
- Narrated by: Burkhard Bilger
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
What do we owe the past? How to make peace with a dark family history? Burkhard Bilger hardly knew his grandfather growing up. His parents immigrated to Oklahoma from Germany after World War II, and though his mother was an historian, she rarely talked about her father or what he did during the war. Then one day a packet of letters arrived from Germany, yellowing with age, and a secret history began to unfold.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a window into a little-explored aspect of WWII
- By Marjorie on 09-23-23
By: Burkhard Bilger
-
The Curse of the Marquis de Sade
- A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History
- By: Joel Warner
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Described as both “one of the most important novels ever written” and “the gospel of evil,” 120 Days of Sodom was written by the Marquis de Sade, a notorious eighteenth-century aristocrat who waged a campaign of mayhem and debauchery across France, evaded execution, and inspired the word “sadism,” which came to mean receiving pleasure from pain. Despite all his crimes, Sade considered this work to be his greatest transgression.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A very fascinating historical story
- By Jeremy on 04-27-23
By: Joel Warner
-
Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 393
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 328
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 330
Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Slow
- By Gary V Howell on 06-07-20
By: Steven Johnson
-
Last Stand
- George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West
- By: Michael Punke
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 201
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 176
In the last three decades of the 19th century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to 23. It was the era of Manifest Destiny, a gilded age that viewed the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up or shot down. Supporting hide hunters was the US Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Depressing history of American tragedy
- By J. A. Bowen on 05-16-16
By: Michael Punke
-
Last Witnesses
- An Oral History of the Children of World War II
- By: Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
- Narrated by: Julia Emelin, Allen Lewis Rickman
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 99
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 91
Bringing together dozens of voices in her distinctive style, Last Witnesses is Alexievich’s collection of the memories of those who were children during World War II. They had sometimes been soldiers as well as witnesses, and their generation grew up with the trauma of the war deeply embedded - a trauma that would change the course of the Russian nation. Collectively, this symphony of children’s stories, filled with the everyday details of life in combat, reveals an altogether unprecedented view of the war.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
And how many years to forget?
- By Darwin8u on 09-16-21
By: Svetlana Alexievich, and others
-
The Walls Have Ears
- The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II
- By: Helen Fry
- Narrated by: Jean Gilpin
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
At the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners' cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites - and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis. In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
inresting look into a secret world.
- By Christopher Daniels on 05-22-20
By: Helen Fry
-
Fatherland
- A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets
- By: Burkhard Bilger
- Narrated by: Burkhard Bilger
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
What do we owe the past? How to make peace with a dark family history? Burkhard Bilger hardly knew his grandfather growing up. His parents immigrated to Oklahoma from Germany after World War II, and though his mother was an historian, she rarely talked about her father or what he did during the war. Then one day a packet of letters arrived from Germany, yellowing with age, and a secret history began to unfold.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
a window into a little-explored aspect of WWII
- By Marjorie on 09-23-23
By: Burkhard Bilger
-
The Curse of the Marquis de Sade
- A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History
- By: Joel Warner
- Narrated by: Stephen Mendel
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Described as both “one of the most important novels ever written” and “the gospel of evil,” 120 Days of Sodom was written by the Marquis de Sade, a notorious eighteenth-century aristocrat who waged a campaign of mayhem and debauchery across France, evaded execution, and inspired the word “sadism,” which came to mean receiving pleasure from pain. Despite all his crimes, Sade considered this work to be his greatest transgression.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A very fascinating historical story
- By Jeremy on 04-27-23
By: Joel Warner
-
Enemy of All Mankind
- A True Story of Piracy, Power, and History's First Global Manhunt
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 393
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 328
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 330
Henry Every was the 17th century’s most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular - and wildly inaccurate - reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every’s most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event - the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew - and its surprising repercussions across time and space.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Slow
- By Gary V Howell on 06-07-20
By: Steven Johnson
-
Last Stand
- George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West
- By: Michael Punke
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 201
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 177
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 176
In the last three decades of the 19th century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to 23. It was the era of Manifest Destiny, a gilded age that viewed the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up or shot down. Supporting hide hunters was the US Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Depressing history of American tragedy
- By J. A. Bowen on 05-16-16
By: Michael Punke
-
The Accursed Tower
- The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades
- By: Roger Crowley
- Narrated by: Matt Kugler
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 145
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 145
In The Accursed Tower, Roger Crowley delivers a lively narrative of the lead-up to the siege and a vivid, blow-by-blow account of the climactic battle. Drawing on extant Arabic sources as well as untranslated Latin documents, he argues that Acre is notable for technical advances in military planning and siege warfare, and extraordinary for its individual heroism and savage slaughter. A gripping depiction of the crusader era told through its dramatic last moments, The Accursed Tower offers an essential new view on a crucial turning point in world history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Another great book by Roger Crowley
- By tp on 03-13-20
By: Roger Crowley
-
The Quiet Before
- On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas
- By: Gal Beckerman
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 21
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 21
We tend to think of revolutions as loud: frustrations and demands shouted in the streets. But the ideas fueling them have traditionally been conceived in much quieter spaces, in the small, secluded corners where a vanguard can whisper among themselves, imagine alternate realities, and deliberate about how to achieve their goals. This extraordinary book is a search for those spaces, over centuries and across continents, and a warning that—in a world dominated by social media—they might soon go extinct.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thoughtful Survey with No Magic Solutions
- By Haim Watzman on 04-25-22
By: Gal Beckerman
-
One Square Mile of Hell
- The Battle for Tarawa
- By: John Wukovits
- Narrated by: Gregory Jones
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 23
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 23
In November 1943, the men of the 2d Marine Division were instructed to clear out Japanese resistance on the Pacific island of Betio, a speck at the end of the Tarawa Atoll. When the Marines landed, the Japanese poured out of their underground bunkers — and launched one of the most brutal and bloody battles of World War II.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Brilliant
- By Chandler on 02-17-22
By: John Wukovits
-
Stony the Road
- Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
- By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 347
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 344
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Valuable examination of Jim Crow and Rise of White Supremacy in America
- By William J Brown on 05-14-19
-
The Sword and the Shield
- The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
- By: Peniel E. Joseph
- Narrated by: Zeno Robinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 398
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 338
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 336
To most Americans, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. represent contrasting ideals. The struggle for Black freedom is wrought with the same contrasts. While nonviolent direct action is remembered as an unassailable part of American democracy, the movement's militancy is either vilified or erased outright. In The Sword and the Shield, Peniel E. Joseph upends these misconceptions and reveals a nuanced portrait of two men who, despite markedly different backgrounds, inspired and pushed each other throughout their adult lives.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Helpful contribution to civil rights history.
- By Adam Shields on 05-13-20
By: Peniel E. Joseph
-
Money for Nothing
- The Scientists, Fraudsters, and Corrupt Politicians Who Reinvented Money, Panicked a Nation, and Made the World Rich
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 83
In the heart of the Scientific Revolution, when new theories promised to explain the affairs of the universe, Britain was broke, facing a mountain of debt accumulated in war after war it could not afford. But that same Scientific Revolution - the kind of thinking that helped Isaac Newton solve the mysteries of the cosmos - would soon lead clever, if not always scrupulous, men to try to figure a way out of Britain’s financial troubles.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Financial innovation's first song of the siren.
- By Michael Barnett on 09-06-20
By: Thomas Levenson
-
The Enemy at the Gate
- Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for Europe
- By: Andrew Wheatcroft
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 81
The Great Siege of Vienna is the centerpiece for historian Andrew Wheatcroft's richly drawn portrait of the centuries-long rivalry between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires for control of the European continent. A gripping work by a master historian, The Enemy at the Gate offers a timely examination of an epic clash of civilizations.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Look elsewhere
- By Ben H. on 09-20-21
-
The Unidentified
- Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 10 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 267
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 235
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 235
In a world where rational, scientific explanations are more available than ever, belief in the unprovable and irrational - in fringe - is on the rise: from Atlantis to aliens, from Flat Earth to the Loch Ness monster, the list goes on. It seems the more our maps of the known world get filled in, the more we crave mysterious locations full of strange creatures. Enter Colin Dickey, cultural historian and tour guide of the weird.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Skeptic's Analysis of Weird America
- By Adrian on 11-23-20
By: Colin Dickey
-
Salmon
- A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Mark Kurlansky
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 180
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 147
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 147
In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
More about people than salmon
- By BigJay on 02-10-21
By: Mark Kurlansky
-
Mother Tongue
- The Surprising History of Women's Words
- By: Jenni Nuttall
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 16
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 15
Mother Tongue is a historical investigation of feminist language and thought, from the dawn of Old English to the present day. Dr. Jenni Nuttall guides readers through the evolution of words that we have used to describe female bodies, menstruation, women’s sexuality, the consequences of male violence, childbirth, women’s paid and unpaid work, and gender. Along the way, she challenges our modern language’s ability to insightfully articulate women’s shared experiences by examining the long-forgotten words once used in English for female sexual and reproductive organs.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding on all counts!
- By Emily Austin on 01-21-24
By: Jenni Nuttall
-
What You Have Heard Is True
- A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
- By: Carolyn Forché
- Narrated by: Carolyn Forché
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 339
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 302
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 302
What You Have Heard is True is a devastating, lyrical, and visionary memoir about a young woman’s brave choice to engage with horror in order to help others. Written by one of the most gifted poets of her generation, this is the story of a woman’s radical act of empathy, and her fateful encounter with an intriguing man who changes the course of her life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful story
- By Norhilda on 05-09-19
By: Carolyn Forché
-
The Map of Knowledge
- A Thousand-Year History of How Classical Ideas Were Lost and Found
- By: Violet Moller
- Narrated by: Susan Duerden
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 92
The foundations of modern knowledge - philosophy, math, astronomy, geography - were laid by the Greeks, whose ideas were written on scrolls and stored in libraries across the Mediterranean and beyond. But as the vast Roman Empire disintegrated, so did appreciation of these precious texts. Christianity cast a shadow over so-called pagan thought, books were burned, and the library of Alexandria, the greatest repository of classical knowledge, was destroyed. Yet some texts did survive and The Map of Knowledge explores the role played by seven cities around the Mediterranean....
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Terrible narration.
- By nathan535 on 11-05-19
By: Violet Moller
Great book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
being able to immerse myself into each character through the narrative.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very newsworthy
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
About time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Wow. Just Wow.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great Book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
History revealed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Last Slave Shop
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Refreshing!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.