Showing titles in History & Culture

A young Jewish pianist at Auschwitz, desperate to save her family, is chosen to play at the camp commandant's house. How could she know she would fall in love with the wrong boy?

This contemporary classic explores the role of boys who fought in the Civil War. No listener's vision of America’s most brutal and bloody war will be the same after listening to this audiobook.

This Series, in seven parts, tells the story of America from the earliest founding through the days of Woodrow Wilson and The Great War (World War I). In this volume, you'll hear stories of explorers and pioneers.

Natural and man-made disasters have the power to destroy thousands of lives very quickly. Both as they unfold and in the aftermath, these forces of nature astonish the rest of the world with their incredible devastation and magnitude. In this collection of 10 well-known catastrophes such as the great Chicago fire, the sinking of the Titanic, and hurricane Katrina, Brenda Guiberson explores the causes and effects, as well as the local and global reverberations of these calamitous events.

Fourteen-year-old Elvira Witsil lives in a remote area of Wisconsin with her mother, Connie, who acknowledges Elvira only when chores need doing; her grandma, a cantankerous woman who can't hold her tongue; and her baby sister, Jessie - who, the family discovers, is a seer. Along with the burdens of a difficult family, Elvira also bears a daunting secret - she encouraged her father to enlist in World War II. Ever since he was declared missing in action, Elvira has felt responsible for his presumed death.

On tonight’s broadcast, award-winning chronojournalist Jace Vern travels to one of the most turbulent periods of the Twentieth Century to show us a key moment in human history, a moment that opened the door to all the worlds beyond the Old Blue and Green. The Apollo 11 mission changed the world forever, but did everything happen the way the history books tell us?

They call Gabriela "Tree Girl". Gabi climbs trees to be within reach of the eagles and watch the sun rise into an empty sky. She is at home among the outstretched branches of the Guatemalan forests. Then one day from the safety of a tree, Gabi witnesses the sights and sounds of an unspeakable massacre. She vows to be Tree Girl no more and joins the hordes of refugees struggling to reach the Mexican border. She has lost her whole family; her entire village has been wiped out.

She's 17. She's been abused. She has a child. And she's HIV-positive. She is Ana, and this is her story. It begins the day she is born infected with HIV, transmitted from her young mother. Now she barely remembers her mama, who died when Ana was only three. From then on, Ana's childhood becomes a blur of faint memories and secrets: secrets about her illness and about the abuse she endures.

Kennedy's Last Days is a gripping account of the events leading up to the most notorious crime of the 20th century. Adapted from Bill O’Reilly’s best-selling historical thriller, Killing Kennedy, this audiobook will have young listeners - and grown-ups too - hooked on this fascinating and colorful period of history. In the first term of his presidency, as the Cold War escalates, John F. Kennedy struggles to contain the growth of Communism while dealing with the many other complexities facing him as president of the United States.

Twelve-year-old Johnny "No Good" Emmerstaff is an only child in a semi-rural section of Sanford, Florida in the late 1940s - until town snitch Tommy J drops in with the news that Johnny is getting a brother, an orphan named Josh. At first, Johnny doesn't know what to think of Josh. He's short, quiet, and he's butting into his life, sharing his bed, and eating his pancakes. But when Johnny's friend, Cully, picks on Josh, Johnny sticks up for him - his new brother.

As he prepares to recite the Declaration of Independence before his eighth grade social studies class in California, the thing Francisco has feared for 10 years finally happens. La migra, the immigration police, come to his classroom and pick him up for deportation to Mexico. Soon back in the United States with a "green card", Francisco struggles through adolescence, working two or three jobs a day and striving to excel at school.

From the acclaimed Modern Library Chronicles comes an exploration of a promising theory that when put to practice wreaked havoc on the world. An expert on communism, Richard Pipes follows the history of the Soviet Union from the 1917 revolution to the Cold War, and finally, to its deterioration and collapse.

The Environmental Movement is an informative introduction to this significant social movement, which arose in the United States in the late 1800s in response to the nation's dwindling forests and the pollution caused by an increasing number of factories. The vibrant text chronicles the accomplishments of conservationists such as Gifford Pinchot and John Muir, who helped the movement gain a foothold in the United States.

During a long, hot July in 1863, the worst race riots the United States has ever seen erupt in New York City. Earlier that year, desperate for more Union soldiers, President Abraham Lincoln instituted a draft - a draft that would allow the wealthy to escape serving in the army by paying a $300 waiver, more than a year's income for the recent immigrant Irish. And on July 11, as the first drawing takes place in Lower Manhattan, the city of New York explodes in rage and fire.

In May 1869, the U.S. railroad network unified when the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads came together in Promontory, Utah. The Transcontinental Railroad: The Gateway to the West discusses this important milestone in the expansion of the United States and its impact on the nation, both positive and negative. This book tells how the east-west railroad played an integral role in opening western markets to the residents of the eastern United States, but it also examines how the railroad led to the demise of many American Indian groups in the West.

In Lincoln's Last Days, Bill O'Reilly masterfully adapts his historical thriller to appeal to a younger audience. Shorter text and abundant photographs make this is a useful, inviting, and accessible audiobook for younger listeners interested in American history and the Civil War. Both adults and children are sure to find this volume irresistible on its own, or as a compelling companion to Killing Lincoln.

It's the summer of 1963, and JJ Green is a born songwriter--which is a major problem, considering her family considers the music business a cesspool of lowlifes and hustlers. Defying them, she takes an internship at the Brill Building, the epicenter of a new sound called rock and roll. JJ is finally living her dream. She even finds herself a writing partner in Luke Silver, a boy with mesmerizing green eyes who seems to connect instantly with her music.

Can you keep a beat and bust a rhyme? Did you know that learning can help you earn a hard dime? With rhythm and flow, the voices of U.S. history hip-hop to life.

Being 16 can be hell, and life at Liberty High is not doing Sarah Daniels any favors. Bullies, boys, an abusive mother, and now this: an old journal left to Sarah in her aunt's will. With each passing entry, she grows closer to transforming the skeletons in her mom's closet into proven facts. Everyone has a story. For Sarah, one boy's journey across Great Depression America will set her free.

Jackson fought poverty and sadness, rising to become one of the most extraordinary figures in American military history. His clever Civil War strategies were unmatched. While holding the line during one battle, he earned the nickname "Stonewall", and became a legend. From the world's most acclaimed Civil War historian, this is the complete story of Jackson's life.