History, on the surface, doesn't seem like a great subject for audiobooks. Getting through almost any serious work of history involves some speed reading, as it's not unusual for award-winning books like Mary Fulbrook's Reckonings, the winner of the 2019 Wolfson Prize, to stretch to 500+ pages. (And if you're working your way through a tome by the Annales school of historians, you'd be getting off lightly with 500 pages).
Below is a list of all the most recommended titles in our history book section, specially selected so they are also manageable as audiobooks.
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
by Christopher Browning
How was it that a group of middle-aged men from Hamburg, most not even members of the Nazi party, led by a 53-year-old career policeman, carried out some of the worst atrocities of the Holocaust? Ordinary Men by American historian Christopher Browning, first published in 1992, sifts through their testimony to try and find some answers. In doing so, it reveals some unsettling truths for any human being reading its pages.
Narrator: Kevin Gallagher
Length: 10 hours
The Spy and the Traitor
by Ben Macintyre
***Shortlisted for the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction***
The Spy and the Traitor by British journalist Ben MacIntyre is a true story which reads like a thriller. It’s the story of Oleg Gordievsky, a Soviet KGB officer who became a double agent and worked for Britain’s CIA equivalent, MI6. He’s also the only double agent Britain ever managed to get out of the Soviet Union alive. John le Carré called The Spy and the Traitor the “best true spy story” he had ever read, and it was shortlisted for the prestigious Baillie Gifford Prize as one of the best nonfiction books of 2018. If that’s not enough of a reason to start listening, Five Books CEO Juliet Frost says it’s the best audiobook she’s listened to all year.
Narrator: Ben MacIntryre
Length: 14 hours and 32 minutes
“It’s the story of Oleg Gordievsky, who was probably the most important British spy in Soviet Russia since the Second World War…it’s an incredible read. It’s like a truly rip-roaring piece of the absolutely best spy fiction.” Read more...
The Best Nonfiction Books of 2018
Fiammetta Rocco, Artists & Art Critic
“This is an incredibly powerful, horrifying, and utterly brilliant study of Belgian colonialism of the Congo and the brutality and genocide that followed in its wake. It is riveting and deeply important; a must-read book and the real Heart of Darkness.” Read more...
The Best History Books to Take on Holiday
Suzannah Lipscomb, Historian
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic
by Steven Johnson
In The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson explores the cholera epidemic in London of 1854. It tells the story of how John Snow, a doctor working in the Soho area and the Reverend Henry Whitehead, a local priest, put together, thanks to their local knowledge and Snow's scientific interests, the real source of the epidemic and how it was transmitted—through drinking water—and overturning other widely held views that had as much to do with social prejudice (that the poor were dirty and unhygienic) as science.
Clausewitz's on War: A Biography
by Hew Strachan
Clausewitz’s On War is one of our most recommended history books and clearly a vital book to read if you take history seriously. It’s quite hard to listen to as an audiobook, however. As a result, we recommend listening, instead, to the audiobook of Clausewitz’s on War: A Biography by military historian Sir Hew Strachan. It’s part of a series called ‘books that changed the world’ published by Grove Atlantic. It’s fascinating—not least to see how the reputation of an important book evolves over time.
Narrator: Simon Vance
Length: 5 hours and 28 minutes
“This book tells the fascinating story of Martin Guerre: a mysterious tale of imposture, love, and honour among sixteenth-century French peasants. It is a brilliant bit of historical detective work and a captivating read that plunges the reader deep into the world of the past.” Read more...
The Best History Books to Take on Holiday
Suzannah Lipscomb, Historian
“It’s a spectacular production from the printed book. It was an incredible labour of love and meticulous care, with 45 actors and Holter Graham doing the surrounding narrative. The integration of all that material is extraordinary.” Read more...
First Light
by Geoffrey Wellum
This is the memoir of one of the youngest British fighter pilots to take part in World War II about his experiences. It explains exactly what it was like: the camaraderie, the fear, the emotions, how he was recruited, what it’s like to fly a Spitfire. The audiobook is convincingly narrated in an understated, stiff upper lip, British way.
Narrator: Andrew Brooke
Length: 11 hours and 29 minutes
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler
Life and Fate, a novel set in World War II by Soviet writer Vasily Grossman, is one of our most recommended books on Five Books (including by historians). Modeled on Tolstoy's War and Peace, Grossman brought into it his experience as a journalist, accompanying the Red Army at major battles, including Stalingrad and Berlin. He was also among the first to enter Treblinka and witness firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust. Sadly for Grossman, the book was considered too harmful to be published in his lifetime.
Life and Fate is a long novel. If you want to listen to it as an audiobook, there's no unabridged version, BUT there is a dramatised version of Life and Fate, starring Kenneth Branagh and David Tennant, that lasts a manageable 8 hours.
(Stalingrad is the precursor to Life and Fate, translated into English for the first time in 2019 and also well worth reading)
The Things They Carried
by Tim O’ Brien
The Things They Carried is a semi-fictional collection of short stories about an American platoon in the Vietnam War.
Narrator: Bryan Cranston
Length: 7 hours and 47 minutes
White House Diary
by Jimmy Carter
White House Diary covers Jimmy Carter's four years in the White House. It's based on the notes he dictated to himself at the end of every day, and which his secretary helped write up. When his presidency came to an end, those private thoughts covered more than 5,000 pages. The audiobook is introduced by Jimmy Carter, who explains how he cut the material down to include things that are important and relevant, and not to make himself look better by cutting out the bits that showed him as lacking in judgement or foresight.
“Much as I’m not a big fan of George W. Bush for his politics, it was an important time in history, and his take on it is important too, and hearing him talk about it.” Read more...
The Best Presidential Memoirs as Audiobooks
Robin Whitten, Journalist
“He has a very good presentational style…My Life follows very much the form of mixing personal and political life, which, of course, is completely intertwined for all of them. But I think that intersection of the personal and political in the Clinton memoir was a particularly interesting aspect of it, as he tells it.” Read more...
The Best Presidential Memoirs as Audiobooks
Robin Whitten, Journalist
A Promised Land
by Barack Obama
Barack Obama is an experienced—and talented—audiobook narrator so it’s no surprise he’s the one reading aloud his presidential memoir. This is only the first volume and it’s already more than 29 hours, so it’s quite a commitment, but also a unique opportunity to be told, firsthand, what it’s actually like to be President of the United States (POTUS). Hint: you’re dealing with a lot of complicated things, like healthcare reform.
Narrator: Barack Obama
Length: 29hr 10mins
The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
by Ulysses S Grant and Elizabeth Samet (editor), Mark Bramhall (narrator)
“The audiobook of the memoir is read by a professional narrator, Mark Bramhall. This is again very long, nearly 30 hours. Particularly for this long form, you have to engage your listeners and the narrator needs to be engaged with the material. In order to sustain your listeners, you have to keep a pace. What I really liked about Mark’s narration is that he was able to do that.” Read more...
The Best Presidential Memoirs as Audiobooks
Robin Whitten, Journalist
“He published Promise Me, Dad in 2017 and it’s more or less a memoir about his time as vice president at the time of his son Beau’s death. It’s a moving, personal story delivered with empathy.” Read more...
The Best Presidential Memoirs as Audiobooks
Robin Whitten, Journalist
The Best Presidential Memoirs as Audiobooks, recommended by Robin Whitten
When you listen to presidential memoirs as audiobooks, you can often hear an American president telling you their own story. Veteran audiobook reviewer Robin Whitten, editor of Audiofile magazine, recommends the best audiobooks about US presidents, and explains the crucial role of professional narrators in bringing big books to life.
