Showing results by publisher "Audible Originals" in History

An audio dramatisation of July 1914 Countdown to War by Sean McMeekin.

Welcome to the summer of 1985 in Philadelphia, when the city was rocked—in almost every sense of the word—by two unprecedented events: Mayor W. Wilson Goode’s May 13 decision to bomb the headquarters of MOVE, a controversial Philadelphia-based radical communal organization, and the July 13 Live Aid concert, where international rock royalty convened in Philly to raise money for victims of the Ethiopian famine. Separated by just two months and eight miles, these events would showcase both the best and the worst of the so-called City of Brotherly Love.

The Berlin Wall is perhaps modern history’s most infamous edifice. The Berlin Wall: A World Divided is more than just the story of brick, concrete, and barbed wire. It’s the story of a city, a country, and a world - all of them divided. To hear how the Berlin Wall exemplified this division is to gain insights into a central tension of world history: between the human drive for freedom and the political will that would control and repress that drive.  

In 10 lectures, award-winning historian Patrick N. Allitt transports listeners to England in the 1840s and 1850s. During those two decades, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, became one of the most influential people in the country and remains a figure of fascination even today. In fact, the British royal family as we know it wouldn't exist without the private and public actions of this detached, impartial, and upright political figure.

From the birth of hip-hop in the 1970s to today, women have been just as integral to the growth and development of the rap game as their male counterparts. Nonetheless, they’re consistently shortchanged as artists, creators, renegades, and cultural visionaries in prevailing histories of the genre. The Motherlode changes that.

Why did a remote police station, built to combat pirates, find itself at the centre of a murder-suicide after a constable went on the rampage? How did Chinese gangsters avoid conviction after serving a deadly dinner to Frenchtown’s elite? And why is the Foreign Office still withholding a key document to solving a murder that took place in the Gobi desert in 1935? By delving deep into 12 of China’s most fascinating murder cases, Murders of Old China delivers a fast-paced journey through China’s early 20th-century history - including its criminal underbelly. 

New religious movements aren’t earthquakes - they’re not generated by blind natural forces, and they’re not inevitable. Social and spiritual change requires a catalyst to set it in motion. And in the case of Islam, that catalyst has a name: Muhammad. He was a charismatic individual, born of the existing culture of sixth-century Arabia and yet somehow alienated from it. He drew on existing religious ideas in radically new ways that would change his world - and ours - forever. Join Maria Dakake of George Mason University for a riveting exploration of Islam’s founding prophet. 

Welcome to the era of true marriages of convenience. Discover the reality of trading someone’s hand in marriage, such as an American heiress, in exchange for money, power, or political clout through compelling history lectures. Showcased in novels such as Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and in present day pop culture through works like Downtown Abbey, the Gilded Age was an era of contradictions. Life on both sides of the Atlantic was grimy and glamorous, prosperous and impoverished, traditional and revolutionary. 

The 1980s was a decade of change for many countries, but for Great Britain, it could be considered radical. The economic transformation of Britain during that period bears the indelible mark of Margaret Thatcher and her policies. In this Audible Original, Professor Amy Edwards takes you through the life and leadership of Margaret Thatcher. See how she went from being a shopkeeper’s daughter who lived above her parent’s corner shop to holding Britain’s top job and earning a reputation as one of the most influential politicians of the 20th century.

In The Culture of Knighthood and Medieval Romance, join scholar of medieval literature Larissa Tracy for a fascinating dive into the deeper context of narratives about knights and their world. Her Audible Original takes you through the evolution of knighthood and courtly literature, dispelling prevalent myths about chivalry and romance with an eye to revealing just how textured and complex these ideas actually were.

Whatever the form, whatever the treat - sugar drives us wild like nothing else. It’s lingered on our tongues for millennia and found its way into almost every household in the world. Alas, the history of sugar is far from sweet. Long before it was linked to America’s obesity epidemic, sugar was fueling the dark forces of exploitation, colonization, conquest, and slavery. More than just candy and cake, sugar has drastically altered the diets, cultures, and economies of the modern world. How can we love sugar while having a healthy relationship with its bittersweet history? 

The history of the Boston Tea Party is a hidden one. Why? Since it was a clandestine operation, all sorts of rumors and legends grew up around the event—many collected decades after the American Revolution had ended. At its core, however, the night of December 16, 1773, when colonials dumped tea from British ships into Boston Harbor, was more than a fight over tea and taxes. It was a struggle over the very nature of democracy and self-governance.

Piña coladas. Mojitos. Hurricanes. Daiquiris. Mai tais. Nothing makes a vacation like one of these delightful rum drinks, right? But whether blended with ice and fruit or sipped neatly from a glass tumbler, this sweet and fiery spirit brings with it a fascinating, complicated history that stretches back to colonial times of the 17th century in the Caribbean.

The period between Bloody Sunday in 1972 and Good Friday in 1998 was one of the most troubled, turbulent, and triumphant periods for the Irish. The island went from financial depression to quietly becoming an economic powerhouse, while at the same time, bridging the violent divide between past and present, Catholic and Protestant, Unionist and Republicans, North and South. Join famed historian and master storyteller Edward Lengel to trace the roots and evolution of the Irish Troubles. 

The history of mankind is riddled with fear. Fear of terrible forces of nature and dangerous new technology. Fear of revolutionary ideologies and supposedly ominous numbers. Inventors in the 19th century patented dozens of “safety coffins” with notification devices like bells and hollow tubes, so that anyone afraid of being buried alive could rest easy. In 1999, ordinary citizens went to great lengths to guard against an apocalypse they feared would strike at midnight on the new year. Some of these fears still exist today, while others have been lost to history. In The History of Fear, we go on a journey through time, through the collective fears of entire eras and countries, and trace the often terrifying and strange roots of those fears all the way to where they give us goosebumps today.

In 1968, the Democratic Party fractured.

In 10 Big Questions of the American Civil War, join noted author and Civil War historian Dr. Caroline E. Janney, a professor at the University of Virginia, for a pointed examination of some of the most intriguing, provocative, and enduring questions about the Civil War era. The aim of these 10 eye-opening lectures is to separate myth from memory.  

Why are humans seemingly hardwired to worship gold? It is unique amongst metals: it is malleable, it doesn’t tarnish, and it shines like nothing else. Over time it has come to symbolise wealth and status. It can represent goodness and fidelity but also greed and lust. Financial educator, author and broadcaster Alvin Hall explores why we are so obsessed with this particular metal, and what it represents around the world - in terms of wealth and symbolism - both historically and now.

The 16th century was a time of immense change across the globe. For many historians, it marks a massive shift in the way the world operated; it is often considered the beginning of modernity. We may regard the 16th century as the time of Shakespeare and the conquistadors, but women also played a powerful role in many of the major events around the world. In 10 Women Who Ruled the Renaissance, you will explore the lives of 10 extraordinary women who exemplified the spirit of the 1500s - an era dominated by adventure, discovery, and cross-cultural exchange. 

There have been literally hundreds of books about T. E. Lawrence, best known as Lawrence of Arabia, but never a work quite like Legion. Legion tells the astonishing life story of an man who was far more than a war hero; for Lawrence was also an archaeologist, a linguist and translator, a historian and classicist, a marine engineer, an airman and one of the great English writers of the 20th century. He was also an enigma, even at times to himself, tormented by guilt and shame, by his masochism, self-loathing and his fear of his own sexuality.