Audiobooks by Charles River Editors

African Americans and the Revolutionary War: The History of Black Soldiers in the American Revolutio

The American Revolution is replete with seminal moments that every American learns in school, from the “shot heard ‘round the world” to the Declaration of Independence, but the events that led up to the fighting at Lexington & Concord were borne out of 10 years of division between the British and their American colonies over everything from colonial representation in governments to taxation, the nature of searches, and the quartering of British regulars in private houses. From 1764-1775, a chain of events that included lightning rods like the Townshend Acts led to bloodshed in the form of the Boston Massacre, while the Boston Tea Party became a symbol of nonviolent protest. The political and military nature of the Revolutionary War was just as full of intrigue. While disorganized militias fought the Battles of Lexington & Concord, George Washington would lead the Continental Army in the field while men like Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia and Benjamin Franklin negotiated overseas in France. Benedict Arnold would become one of his nation’s most vital war heroes and its most notorious traitor, French forces would play a crucial role at the end of the war, and the Treaty of Paris would conclude the Revolution with one last great surprise. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Revolution was far more complex than often depicted, both demographically and politically. Not all the British colonies in North America joined the rebel colonies - East and West Florida remained British (although Britain almost lost both to Spain), while the Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Caribbean colonies remained in the empire. The colonies in what is now Canada also remained loyal, namely Quebec, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Rupert’s Land.

Charles River Editors (Author), KC Wayman (Narrator)

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The Columbia Disaster: The History of the Last Space Shuttle to Be Lost During a Mission

On February 1, the Columbia was due to land at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 09:16. Only a few members of the press were present to watch the landing - this was, after all, supposed to be a routine return from a routine mission, the 113th for the shuttle program and the 28th for Columbia, one of the oldest Space Shuttles. Reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere is always the most dangerous part of any space mission. The intense heat generated as a spacecraft enters the thin upper atmosphere at immense speed can be potentially lethal, but the shuttle was designed to deal with this heat, and Columbia had successfully done it 27 times in the past. For the five men and two women on board and the members of the press present, everything seemed normal, but there was a measure of concern among those in the ground control team. The team was aware that Columbia had possibly suffered damage to the thermal tiles forming the heat shield on one wing soon after liftoff, but no one knew how extensive the damage was or even if it existed at all. There was also some disagreement about how serious it might be - some on the ground were concerned this might compromise the shuttle wing’s ability to resist the heat of reentry, while others were sure it was a minor issue that would have no serious impact on the mission. Videos of the launch had been exhaustively reviewed by engineers on the ground, but it was impossible to be certain of the precise level of damage to the heat shielding on the underside and leading edge of the wing. There was no agreement on what should or could be done, so one thing was universally agreed upon: the crew would not be informed of the problem. There was nothing they could do to make repairs and no way to avoid reentry.

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Captain Robert Falcon Scott: The Controversial Life and Expeditions of the British Explorer

The golden age of polar exploration of the Northern and Southern continents did not reach its zenith until the turn of the 20th century, and national rivalries abounded between the major seafaring nations of the world. Where past explorers made glancing journeys to Antarctica, the superior technology of the coal engine, various new survival materials, and even the motorcar opened new possibilities for more daring treks. Backed by governments, banking organizations, and great newspapers, a small group of restless adventurers assaulted the polar continents with the intent of reaching and marking the exact locations of Earth’s northern and southernmost points. More than any other country, Britain staked its national pride on being the first to reach the poles. Britain made its first and finest statement for actually reaching the South Pole in the first years of the 20th century, even as the dangers of the Antarctic, including scurvy, dehydration, and hypothermia, were well known to all major explorers. They also understood that even the most incidental detail of an expedition going amiss could spell doom for all parties involved. The era was universally dubbed the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, and some of the explorers who were involved became household names around the world, including British explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. However, one name above all others has become associated with this period: Robert Falcon Scott. Widely referred to as “Scott of the Antarctic,” Captain Scott became an icon of tenacity in the face of incredible adversity, and his final expedition to the South Pole lives on as an example of the nobility of the human spirit, even in the face of utter disaster. A monument to Scott’s persistence still stands at Observation Point, inscribed with the last line of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

Charles River Editors (Author), Steve Knupp (Narrator)

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Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott: The History of the British Explorers’ Notorious Rivalry d

An earlier wave of explorers led to the opening of the New World, and early polar expeditions saw ancient ships of various nations sail along the coastlines of Greenland and within reach of the Arctic and Antarctic continents. Many 19th century figures approached the polar region with an eye to traversing it. Most notable among them was British explorer Sir James Clark Ross, who took the Erebus and the HMS Terror to the southernmost coastlines of the planet. Some of the explorers who were involved became household names around the world, including British explorer Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton and Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Perhaps the one that has become most closely associated with this period is Robert Falcon Scott. Widely referred to as “Scott of the Antarctic,” Captain Scott became an icon of tenacity in the face of incredible adversity, and his final expedition to the South Pole lives on as an example of the nobility of the human spirit, even in the face of utter disaster. A monument to Scott’s persistence still stands at Observation Point, inscribed with the last line of Tennyson’s “Ulysses”: “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Inevitably, as time passed, modern historians further removed from the romanticization of the expeditions began to more closely (and objectively) scrutinize the explorers and their missions. However, in the case of Scott, that has only furthered his renown, because historians still have wildly different opinions of him, from his personality and leadership to the results of his missions, especially his ill-fated final one. Likewise, Shackleton’s place in history is not the one he set out to make, but his extraordinary deeds have made his contributions to early exploration of Antarctica indelible. Despite the victor’s wreath eventually going to another, Shackleton’s name is essential to any discussion of Antarctic exploration.

Charles River Editors (Author), Jim Walsh (Narrator)

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Cochise and Geronimo: The Lives and Legacies of the Most Famous Apache Warriors

Among all the Native American tribes, the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans learned the hard way that the warriors of the Apache were perhaps the fiercest in North America. Based in the Southwest, the Apache fought all three in Mexico and the American Southwest, engaging in seasonal raids for so many centuries that the Apache struck fear into the hearts of all their neighbors. An article in the Arizona press dated Oct. 22, 1869, summed up the majority opinion of Arizona’s citizens by describing Apache as “low set, ugly powerful beings of a dark copper color covered with tiny black hair and so unstable of character that between a couple hours they will slip away from the military camp and carry off all the horses.” At the same time, Cochise’s name became mythical in its telling. His exploits and escapes were described as everywhere when least expected and nowhere when pursued. There are no known photos, and the scarcity of reliable quotes are excused by the erroneous belief of the day that any man close enough to talk to him never lived to tell about it. The name Cochise became so widely known throughout Arizona Territory that it became indiscriminately linked with all depredations both large and small. The name “Geronimo” evokes a number of different emotions. Those who believed in 19th century America’s “Manifest Destiny” viewed Geronimo and all Native Americans as impediments to God’s will for the nation. Descendants of people killed by “hostile” Natives certainly considered warriors like Geronimo to be murderers and thieves whose cultures and societies held no redeeming values. Even today, many Americans associate the name Geronimo with a war cry, and the name Geronimo itself only came about because of a battle he fought against the Mexicans. Over time, however, the historical perception of the relationship between America and Native tribes changed drastically. With that, Geronimo, or Goyahkla, was viewed in a far different light.

Charles River Editors (Author), Bill Caufield (Narrator)

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Leading the Dillinger Gang

America has always preferred heroes who weren’t clean cut, an informal ode to the rugged individualism and pioneering spirit that defined the nation in previous centuries. The early 19th century saw the glorification of frontier folk heroes like Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. After the Civil War, the outlaws of the West were more popular than the marshals, with Jesse James and Billy the Kid finding their way into dime novels. And at the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, there were the “public enemies”, common criminals and cold blooded murderers elevated to the level of folk heroes by a public frustrated with their own inability to make a living honestly. Two months after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration in 1933, a petty thief who had spent almost a decade behind bars for attempted theft and aggravated assault was released from jail. By the end of the year, that man, John Dillinger, would be America’s most famous outlaw: Public Enemy Number One. From the time of his first documented heist in early July 1933, until his dramatic death in late July of the following year, he would capture the nation’s attention and imagination as had no other outlaw since Jesse James. The man who became Public Enemy Number One after the deaths of John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd was Lester Joseph Gillis, whose alias “George Nelson” eventually gave way to the nickname “Baby Face Nelson”. Despite the almost playfully innocent nickname, and the fact that he was not as notorious as two of his partners in crime, Dillinger and Floyd, Baby Face Nelson was the worst of them all. In an era where the outlaws were glorified as Robin Hood types, Baby Face was a merciless outlier who pulled triggers almost as fast as he lost his temper. He was believed to have been responsible for the deaths of more FBI agents than anybody else in American history.

Charles River Editors (Author), Jim Walsh (Narrator)

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The Progressive Presidents

When William McKinley was assassinated in 1901, young Theodore Roosevelt was thrust into the presidency, one that would earn him a place on Mount Rushmore, Roosevelt’s “Square Deal” domestic policies favored average citizens while busting trusts and monopolies. Roosevelt also promoted conservation as an environmental stance, while his “speak softly and carry a big stick” foreign policy is still an oft used phrase today. Roosevelt even earned a Nobel Prize during his presidency. As one of the most influential men of the 20th century, there is no shortage of adjectives to use when describing Woodrow Wilson’s two terms as president of the United States. Wilson was a pioneer of the Progressive movement both before and during his presidency, becoming a populist champion a generation before Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. He ran for reelection by touting his neutrality during World War I, only to lead his nation into the war and become the architect of a world body that would lead to greater inter-connection among nations. Today Wilson is best remembered for his Fourteen Points, one of the most forceful arguments for an idealistic foreign policy in American history. Franklin Delano Roosevelt might be America’s greatest 20th century president, but there’s no question that he was the most unique. A well-connected relative of Theodore Roosevelt, FDR was groomed for greatness until he was struck down by what was widely believed to be polio at the time. Nevertheless, he persevered, rising through New York politics to reach the White House just as the country faced its greatest challenge since the Civil War. For over a decade, Roosevelt threw everything he had at the Great Depression, and then threw everything the country had at the Axis powers during World War II. Ultimately, he succumbed to illness in the middle of his fourth term, just before the Allies won the war.

Charles River Editors (Author), Mary Rossman (Narrator)

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Legends of the West: Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp

Space may be the final frontier, but no frontier has ever captured the American imagination like the “Wild West”, which still evokes images of dusty cowboys, outlaws, gunfights, gamblers, and barroom brawls over 100 years after the West was settled. A constant fixture in American pop culture, the 19th century American West continues to be vividly and colorful portrayed not just as a place but as a state of mind. In Charles River Editors’ Legends of the West series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America’s most famous frontier figures in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Though they have long been overshadowed by their more famous brother Wyatt, Virgil and Morgan Earp played decisive roles in some of the most famous events in the history of the Old West. Most notably, the two brothers were at Wyatt’s side for America’s most famous gunfight, the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Though the gunfight lasted less than a minute, it is still widely remembered as the climactic event of the period, representing lawlessness and justice, vendettas, and a uniquely Western moral code. Fought in the middle of Tombstone, Arizona, the gunfight pitted the three Earp brothers and Doc Holliday against Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury. By the time the 30 second gunfight was over, the McLaury brothers were dead in the street, Billy Clanton had suffered a painful and fatal gunshot wound to the chest, and Holliday, Virgil and Morgan Earp were all wounded. To this day, the motives behind the gunfight, and exactly how it all went down, remain heavily debated, but the aftermath of the gunfight is much better known. Both Virgil and Morgan were the targets of assassination attempts in the coming months, precipitating the Earp Vendetta Ride in 1882.

Charles River Editors (Author), Jim Walsh (Narrator)

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The Life and Death of John F. Kennedy: The Remarkable Life and Shocking Assassination of America’s Y

In many ways, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his young family were the perfect embodiment of the ‘60s. The decade began with a sense of idealism, personified by the attractive Kennedy, his beautiful and fashionable wife Jackie, and his young children. Months into his presidency, Kennedy exhorted the country to reach for the stars, calling upon the nation to send a man to the Moon and back by the end of the decade. In 1961, Kennedy made it seem like anything was possible, and Americans were eager to believe him. The Kennedy years were fondly and famously labeled “Camelot,” by Jackie herself, suggesting an almost mythical quality about the young President and his family. As it turned out, the ‘60s closely reflected the glossy, idealistic portrayal of John F. Kennedy, as well as the uglier truths. The country would achieve Kennedy’s goal of a manned moon mission, and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 finally guaranteed minorities their civil rights and restored equality, ensuring that the country “would live out the true meaning of its creed.” But the idealism and optimism of the decade was quickly shattered, starting with Kennedy’s assassination in 1963. The ‘60s were permanently marred by the Vietnam War, and by the time Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated in 1968, the country was irreversibly jaded. The events of the decade produced protests and countercultures unlike anything the country had seen before, as young people came of age more quickly than ever. The Life and Death of John F. Kennedy: The Remarkable Life and Shocking Assassination of America’s Youngest President chronicles the president’s life, and the assassination that rocked the country.

Charles River Editors (Author), Mary Rossman (Narrator)

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Conquistadors: The Lives and Legacies of Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro

During the Age of Exploration, some of the most famous and infamous individuals were Spain’s best known conquistadors. Naturally, as the best known conquistador, Hernán Cortés is also the most controversial. Like Christopher Columbus before him, Cortés was lionized for his successes for centuries without questioning his tactics or motives, while indigenous views of the man have been overwhelmingly negative for the consequences his conquests had on the Aztecs and other natives in the region. Just about the only thing everyone agrees upon is that Cortés had a profound impact on the history of North America. Of course, the lionization and demonization of Cortés often take place without fully analyzing the man himself, especially because there are almost no contemporaneous sources that explain what his thinking and motivation was. If anything, Cortés seemed to have been less concerned with posterity or the effects of the Spanish conquest on the natives than he was on relations with the Mother Country itself. If Columbus and Cortés were the pioneers of Spain’s new global empire, Pizarro consolidated its immense power and riches, and his successes inspired a further generation to expand Spain’s dominions to unheard of dimensions. Furthermore, he participated in the forging of a new culture: like Cortés, he took an indigenous mistress with whom he had two mixed-race children, and yet the woman has none of the lasting fame of Cortés’s Doña Marina. With all of this in mind, it is again remarkable that Pizarro remains one of the less well-known and less written about of the explorers of his age. On the other hand, there are certain factors that may account for the conqueror of Peru’s relative lack of lasting glory. Cortés’s reputation was built on being the first to overthrow a great empire, so Pizarro’s similar feat, even if it bore even greater fruit in the long run, would always be overshadowed by his predecessor’s precedent.

Charles River Editors (Author), Jim Walsh (Narrator)

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John & Abigail Adams: America’s First Political Couple

John Adams has become one of the more popular presidents in history relatively recently, but it was not always so. For most of his life he was seen as a bit of an outsider, different from his fellow first presidents in his temperament, birth, life and politics. Adams and his son were the only presidents out of the first seven who were born north of the Mason Dixon line, and he was not an easy man to understand or work with. Not only did he have few friends, but he also often fell into long term quarrels with those he had. Still, Adams remained a celebrated figure in Boston for all the work he did in Massachusetts before and after the Revolution, but his national reputation has experienced quite a renaissance over the past decade, beginning with David Mccullough’s best selling biography in 2001, followed in 2008 by the popular HBO series based on it. Then, in 2010, Dearest Friend, a record of the correspondence between Adams and his wife Abigail solidified his position as one of the most darling Founding Fathers of the 21st Century. While the First Ladies often remain overshadowed by their husbands, some have carved unique niches in their time and left their own lasting legacy. Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton may have been the most politically active First Ladies in American history, but Abigail Adams was the first to act as political advisor for her husband and the first to be dubbed “Mrs. President”. Indeed, Abigail was politically inclined to degree highly unusual among women of the 18th and 19th century, and she had originally impressed her future husband John because she was so well versed in poetry, philosophy and politics. Abigail was also very progressive, championing women’s rights and abolition long before they became widely held views even in traditionally liberal Massachusetts.

Charles River Editors (Author), Michelle Humphries (Narrator)

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The Civil War in 1862: The Battles that Saved Both the North and South

Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War and its biggest battles, particularly Gettysburg, Antietam, and Shiloh, all of which involved Robert E. Lee or Ulysses S. Grant. But one of the 6 biggest battles of the war, and the one that took the heaviest toll by % on both armies was fought at the end of 1862 in Tennessee, and it involved neither of those generals. In late December 1862, William Rosecrans’s Union Army of the Cumberland was contesting Middle Tennessee against Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee, and for three days the two armies savaged each other as Bragg threw his army at Rosecrans in a series of desperate assaults. Bragg’s army was unable to dislodge the Union army, and he eventually withdrew his army after learning that Rosecrans was on the verge of receiving reinforcements. Though the battle was stalemated, the fact that the Union army was left in possession of the field allowed Rosecrans to declare victory and embarrassed Bragg. Though Stones River is mostly overlooked as a Civil War battle today, it had a decisive impact on the war. The two armies had both suffered nearly 33% casualties, an astounding number in 1862 that also ensured Rosecrans would not start another offensive campaign in Tennessee until the following June. The Union victory also ensured control of Nashville, Middle Tennessee, and Kentucky for the rest of the war, prompting Lincoln to tell Rosecrans, “You gave us a hard-earned victory, which had there been a defeat instead, the nation could scarcely have lived over.' The battle and its results also set into motion a chain of events that would lead to Rosecrans and Bragg facing off at the crucial battle of Chickamauga in September 1863, a battle that is often viewed as the last gasp for the Confederates’ hopes in the West.

Charles River Editors (Author), Jim Walsh (Narrator)

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