American Entertainment History

Product List
    • A History
    • By: Jeremy Dauber
    • Narrated by: Jeremy Dauber
    • Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
    • Release date: 11-30-21
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 125 ratings
    • Starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, author Jeremy Dauber whizzes listeners through comics’ progress in the 20th century and beyond....

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    • The Life of Alain Locke
    • By: Jeffrey C. Stewart
    • Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
    • Length: 45 hrs and 34 mins
    • Release date: 05-28-19
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 65 ratings
    • In The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke, Jeffrey C. Stewart offers the definitive biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance, based on the extant primary sources of his life and on interviews with those who knew him personally....

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    • Sex, Deviance, and Drama from the Golden Age of American Cinema
    • By: Anne Helen Peterson
    • Narrated by: Romy Nordlinger
    • Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
    • Release date: 09-30-14
    • Language: English
    • 3.5 out of 5 stars 165 ratings
    • Based on Anne Helen Petersen's popular column on the Hairpin, Scandals of Classic Hollywood is sensationalism made smart....

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    • The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music
    • By: Ted Gioia
    • Narrated by: Chris Abernathy
    • Length: 17 hrs and 17 mins
    • Release date: 03-16-21
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 77 ratings
    • Tracing the history of the Delta blues from the field hollers and plantation music of the 19th century to the exploits of modern-day musicians in the Delta tradition, Delta Blues tells the full story of this timeless and unforgettable music....

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    • The Story of Kiss's Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon
    • By: James Campion
    • Narrated by: Stephen Borne
    • Length: 16 hrs and 7 mins
    • Release date: 01-26-21
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 55 ratings
    • Shout It Out Loud is a serious examination of the circumstance and serendipity that fused the creation of the band's seminal work, Destroyer....

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    • An Oral History of the Comedy Club That Revolutionized Stand-Up
    • By: Budd Friedman, Tripp Whetsell, Jay Leno - foreword
    • Narrated by: Johnny Heller
    • Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
    • Release date: 09-29-17
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 46 ratings
    • In 1963, 30-year-old Friedman - who had recently quit a job as a Boston advertising executive and came to New York to become a theatrical producer - opened a coffee house for Broadway performers....

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    • The Lives and Times of Sun Ra
    • By: John Szwed
    • Narrated by: Leon Nixon
    • Length: 16 hrs and 55 mins
    • Release date: 11-09-21
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 28 ratings
    • Considered by many to be a founder of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra - a.k.a. Herman Blount - was a composer, keyboardist, bandleader, philosopher, entrepreneur, poet, and self-proclaimed extraterrestrial from Saturn....

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    • American Made Music Series
    • By: Clarence Bernard Henry
    • Narrated by: Charles Johnson
    • Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
    • Release date: 11-15-19
    • Language: English
    • 3 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
    • Quincy Jones (b. 1933) is one of the most prolific composers, arrangers, bandleaders, producers, and humanitarians in American music history and the recording and film industries....

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    • An Autobiography
    • By: Dick Gregory, Dr. Christian Gregory - introduction, Robert Lipsyte
    • Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi, Dr. Christian Gregory
    • Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
    • Release date: 01-28-20
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 1,263 ratings
    • Fifty-five years ago, in 1964, an incredibly honest and revealing memoir by one of the America's best-loved comedians and activists, Dick Gregory, was published. With a shocking title and breathtaking writing, Dick Gregory defined a genre and changed the way race was discussed in America....

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    • The Life and Afterlife of J Dilla, the Hip-Hop Producer Who Reinvented Rhythm
    • By: Dan Charnas, Jeff Peretz - contributor
    • Narrated by: Dan Charnas
    • Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
    • Release date: 02-01-22
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 665 ratings
    • He wasn’t known to mainstream audiences, even though he worked with renowned acts like D’Angelo and Erykah Badu and influenced the music of superstars like Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. He died at the age of 32, and in his lifetime he never had a pop hit....

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    • By: Elizabeth Partridge
    • Narrated by: June Angela
    • Length: 1 hr and 15 mins
    • Release date: 10-25-22
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
    • This important work of nonfiction discusses powerful images of the Japanese American incarceration captured by three photographers—Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams—along with firsthand accounts of this grave moment in history....

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    • Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History
    • By: Yunte Huang
    • Narrated by: Rebecca Lam
    • Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
    • Release date: 10-10-23
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 9 ratings
    • Born into the steam and starch of a Chinese laundry, Anna May Wong (1905-1961) emerged from turn-of-the-century Los Angeles to become Old Hollywood's most famous Chinese American actress. Now, more than a century after her birth, Yunte Huang narrates Wong's tragic life story....

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    • An Epic Friendship, the Rise of Improv, and the Making of an American Film Classic
    • By: Daniel De Visé
    • Narrated by: Johnny Heller
    • Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
    • Release date: 03-19-24
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 76 ratings
    • Based on original research and dozens of interviews probing the memories of principals from director John Landis and producer Bob Weiss to Aykroyd himself, The Blues Brothers illuminates an American masterpiece while vividly portraying the creative geniuses behind modern comedy....

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    • A History of Black American Horror from the 1890s to Present
    • By: Robin R. Means Coleman
    • Narrated by: Julienne Irons
    • Length: 17 hrs and 27 mins
    • Release date: 05-16-23
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
    • From King Kong to Candyman, the boundary-pushing genre of horror film has always been a site for provocative explorations of race in American popular culture. This book offers a comprehensive chronological survey of Black horror from the 1890s to present day....

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    • Drunks, Thieves, Scoundrels and the History of American Comedy
    • By: Kliph Nesteroff
    • Narrated by: Kliph Nesteroff
    • Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
    • Release date: 04-11-17
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 564 ratings
    • Comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff brings to life a century of American comedy with real-life characters, forgotten stars, mainstream heroes and counterculture iconoclasts....

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    • A Memoir
    • By: Daniel R. Day
    • Narrated by: Omari Hardwick, Daniel R. Day
    • Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
    • Release date: 07-09-19
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 2,346 ratings
    • With his now-legendary store on 125th Street in Harlem, Dapper Dan pioneered high-end streetwear in the 1980s, remixing classic luxury-brand logos into his own innovative, glamorous designs. But before he reinvented haute couture, he was a hungry boy with holes in his shoes....

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    • How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America
    • By: Larry Tye
    • Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
    • Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
    • Release date: 05-07-24
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
    • From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz—Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie.

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