History - World

THE 1619 PROJECT: A NEW AMERICAN ORIGIN STORY

by Nikole Hannah-Jones

read by Nikole Hannah-Jones

running time 19hrs

A dramatic expansion of a ground breaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New American Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States."1619 Project" issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the centre of our national narrative.

AD AND WAL: VALUES, DUTY, SACRIFICE IN APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

by Peter Hain

read by Bob Rollett

running time 9hrs 30mins

This is the story of two modest parents who rebelled against the apartheid regime knowing they were putting themselves and their family in grave danger. Peter Hain, MP and former Cabinet minister, tells the story of his parents - campaigners, fighters, exiles - in this searing and inspiring account.

BE LIKE THE FOX: MACHIAVELLI'S LIFELONG QUEST FOR FREEDOM

by Erica Benner

read by Ann Clark

running time 16hrs

Was Niccolò Machiavelli really the cynical schemer of legend - or was he a profound ethical thinker, who tried to save the democratic freedom of Renaissance Florence as it was threatened by ruthless dynasties? This revelatory biography shows us a man of fox-like dissimulation: a master of disguise in dangerous times.

CAPITALISM AND SLAVERY

by Eric Williams

read by Bill Andrew Quinn

running time 8hrs 30mins

Williams traces the rise and fall of the Atlantic slave trade through the 18th and 19th centuries to show how it laid the foundations of the Industrial Revolution, and how racism arose as a means of rationalising an economic decision. Most significantly, he showed how slavery was only abolished when it ceased to become financially viable, exploding the myth of emancipation as a mark of Britain's moral progress.

THE DIARY OF LENA MUKHINA: A GIRL'S LIFE IN THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD

by Lena Mukhina

read by Rachel Reay

running time 10hrs

Lena Mukhina was an ordinary teenage girl, living in Leningrad, keeping a diary in which she recorded her hopes and dreams. Then, on 22 June 1941, Leningrad was besieged and life became a living hell. Lena records her experiences: the desperate hunt for food, the bitter cold of the Russian winter and the cruel deaths of those she loved, in this truly remarkable account of a terrible era in modern history

EMPRESS OF THE EAST

by Leslie Peirce

read by Clare Francis

running time 14hrs 30mins

Abducted by slave traders from her home in Ruthenia – modern-day Ukraine – around 1515, Roxelana was brought to Istanbul as a concubine for Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire and one of the world’s most powerful men. Until now Roxelana has been seen by historians as a seductress who brought ruin to the empire, but historian Leslie Peirce reveals the compelling story of an elusive woman who transformed the Ottoman harem into an institution of imperial rule.

FIRE AND FLOOD: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF CLIMATE CHANGE FROM 1979 TO THE PRESENT

by Eugene Linden

read by Paul Bellantoni

running time 9hrs

Fire and Flood is a comprehensive, compulsively readable history of climate change from veteran environmental journalist Eugene Linden. Linden retells the story of the modern climate change era decade by decade, tracking the progress of four ticking clocks: first, the reality of climate change itself; second, advances in scientific understanding; third, the spread of public awareness; and fourth, the business and finance response. Like no previous writer, Linden has drawn together the elements of the biggest story in the world, in a book that it is gripping as history, as economic investigation, and as scientific thriller.

GEORGE S. PATTON

by Steven J Zaloga

read by Trevor White

running time 2hrs

George S. Patton Jr. was the iconic American field commander of World War II, and widely regarded as the US Army's finest practitioner of mechanized warfare. This title examines Patton's colorful life and leadership in three wars, with a concentration on his command in World War II.

HIDDEN FIGURES

by Margot Lee Shetterly

read by Robin Miles

running time 10hrs 45mins

Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female mathematicians known as “human computers” calculated the numbers that would launch rockets into space. Among these were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, and even though they were segregated from their white counterparts, the women helped America achieve a decisive victory over the Soviet Union. These four African American women participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes.

I LOVE RUSSIA

by Elena Kostiuchenko

read by Tiana Yarik

running time 14hrs 17mins

To be a journalist is to tell the truth. To be patriotic is to be critical, honest and fearless. I Love Russia takes us to places that non-Russians have never seen and brings us voices we have never heard. It is Elena Kostyuchenko's courageous attempt to document Russia as experienced by those whom it systematically and brutally erases: village girls recruited into sex work, queer people in the outer provinces, patients and doc-tors at a Ukrainian maternity ward, and reporters like herself. At once uncompromising and deeply humane, it stitches reportage and personal essays into a kaleidoscopic, often other-worldly journey. Here is Russia as it is, not as we imagine it. I Love Russia may be the last work from her homeland Kostyuchenko will publish for a long time - perhaps ever. She writes driven by the conviction that the greatest form of love and patriotism is criticism. And because the threat of Putin's Russia extends beyond herself, beyond Crimea, and beyond Ukraine.

KINGDOM OF CHARACTERS: THE LANGUAGE REVOLUTION THAT MADE CHINA MODERN

by Jing Tsu

read by Jing Tsu

running time 11hrs 30mins

Kingdom of Characters follows the bold innovators who adapted the Chinese script - and the value-system it represents - to the technological advances that would shape the 20th century and beyond, from the telegram to the typewriter to the smartphone. From the exiled reformer who risked death to advocate for Mandarin as a national language to the imprisoned computer engineer who devised input codes for Chinese characters on the lid of a teacup, generations of scholars, missionaries, librarians, politicians, inventors, nationalists and revolutionaries alike understood the urgency of their task and its world-shaping consequences.

THE LAST RESORT: A MEMOIR OF ZIMBABWE

by Douglas Rogers

read by Alan Bowen

running time 14hrs

In The Last Resort, journalist Douglas Rogers tells the eye-opening, harrowing and, at times, surprisingly funny story of his parents' struggle for survival in war-torn Zimbabwe. An inspiring, edgy roller-coaster adventure, it is also a deeply moving testament to the love and loyalty inspired by Zimbabwe and her people.

MADE IN AMERICA

by Bill Bryson

read by Tony Lister

running time 22hrs

In his own inimitable style, Bill Bryson attempts to explain how American language, culture and society developed. Of course he illustrates his serious points with very funny anecdotes.

THE NEW SILK ROADS

by Peter Frankopan

read by Simon Evers

running time 7hrs 30mins

The world is changing dramatically, and the isolation and fragmentation permeating the western world stand in sharp contrast to events along the Silk Roads, where ties are being strengthened and mutual cooperation established. This contemporary history provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected. Following the Silk Roads from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, Peter Frankopan assesses the continual shifts in the centre of power - all too often absent from headlines in the west.

ONE SUMMER; AMERICA 1927

by Bill Bryson

read by Bill Bryson

running time 17hrs

Bill Bryson travels back in time to summer 1927, the year America stepped out onto the world stage. A gripping narrative featuring a handful of larger-than-life characters, including Charles Lindbergh, Al Capone, Herbert Hoover, Babe Ruth, Ernest Hemingway and Henry Ford.

PAUL SCOTT'S RAJ

by Robin Moore

read by Michael St. John

running time 10hrs 15mins

A critical view of the British rule in India based on the experience of living under the British Raj by the author of "Jewel in the Crown".

THE RADIUM GIRLS

by Kate Moore

read by Kate Moore

running time 14hrs

As the First World War spread across the world, young American women flocked to work in factories, painting clocks, watches and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. However, as the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious illnesses. It turned out that their work was slowly killing them: the radium paint was poisonous.Their employers denied all responsibility, but these courageous women became determined to fight for justice.

THE SECRET WAR

by Max Hastings

read by Steven Crossley

running time 30hrs 40mins

Max Hastings examines the espionage and intelligence machines of all sides in World War II and the impact of spies, code breakers and partisan operations on events. With accounts from British, American, German, Russian and Japanese sources he tells the story of a secret war waged unceasingly by men and women whose actions profoundly influenced the outcome.

THESE BODIES OF WATER: NOTES ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE, THE MIDDLE EAST AND WHERE WE MEET

by Sabrina Mahfouz

read by Sabrina Mahfouz

running time 4hrs 58mins

Sabrina Mahfouz once sat in a Whitehall interview room and was interrogated about everything from her political leanings to her private life. It was ostensibly a job interview, but implicit in their demands was the unspoken question: as a woman of Middle Eastern heritage, could she really be trusted? Years later, Sabrina found herself confronting the meaning behind this interrogation, and how it was specifically informed by the British Empire's historical dominance in the Middle East. These bodies of water investigates this history through the Middle Eastern coastlines and waterways that were so vital to the Empire's hold. Interwoven with her own personal experiences, Sabrina combines history, politics, myth and poetry in a devastating examination of this unacknowledged part of Britain's colonial past.

VIETNAM: AN EPIC HISTORY OF A DIVISIVE WAR 1945-1975

by Max Hastings

read by Peter Noble

running time 33hrs 30mins

Vietnam became the Western world's most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create this epic narrative of a huge struggle.

THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS

by Isabel Wilkerson

read by Robin Miles

running time 22hrs 39mins

From 1915 to 1970, an exodus of almost six million people would change the face of America. With stunning historical detail, Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson gives us this definitive, vividly dramatic account of how these journeys unfolded. Based on interviews with more than a thousand people, and access to new data and official records, The Warmth of Other Suns tells the story of America's Great Migration through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career.