Browse audiobooks narrated by Bill Caufield, listen to samples and when you're ready head over to Audiobooks.com where you can get 3 FREE audiobooks on us
5 audiobooks in our catalogue, every one with its narrator named.
America’s Most Notorious Natural Disasters
"It had taken about 40 years for Chicago to grow from a small settlement of about 300 people into a thriving metropolis with a population of 300,000, but in just two days in 1871, much of that progress was burned to the ground. In arguably the most famous fire in American history, a blaze in the southwestern section of Chicago began to burn out of control on the night of October 8, 1871. In 2005, the world watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina decimated New Orleans, and the calamity seemed all the worse because many felt that technology had advanced far enough to prevent such tragedies, whether through advanced warning or engineering. However, the failure of human engineering like that seen in New Orleans was nothing new, and it had previously had even deadlier consequences in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Although floods rarely get as much coverage as other kinds of natural disasters like volcanic explosions, the Johnstown Flood of 1889 has remained an exception due to the sheer destruction and magnitude of the disaster. As bad as Hurricane Katrina was, the hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas on September 8, 1900 killed several times more people, with an estimated death toll between 6,000-12,000 people. Prior to advanced communications, few people knew about impending hurricanes except those closest to the site, and in the days before television, or even radio, catastrophic descriptions were merely recorded on paper, limiting an understanding of the immediate impact. On April 18, 1906, most of the residents of the city of San Francisco were sound asleep when the ground started to shake around 5:15 a.m., but what started as fairly soft tremors turned into a violent shaking in all directions. The earthquake lasted about a minute, but it had enough destructive force to divert the course of entire rivers and level much of the 9th largest city in America at the time. "
Charles River Editors (Author), Bill Caufield (Narrator)
Audiobook · 6 hrs 30 mins
Abraham Lincoln’s Greatest Speeches: The History of the Addresses that Changed America
"Abraham Lincoln was still not considered a real option for the Republican presidential nomination until he delivered a speech at New York City’s Cooper Union in February 1860, just a few months before the Republicans’ convention in May. Lincoln had gained a bit of a national profile by debating Stephen Douglas during an Illinois Senate Race in 1858, and though he lost that election, Lincoln continued discussing the same themes, most notably slavery and Dred Scott in his Cooper Union speech. Although just 7,000 words long, the Cooper Union Address was almost universally praised in the North. Over 160 years later, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is still considered arguably the greatest speech in American history. The address only took a few minutes, but in those few minutes, Lincoln invoked the principles of human equality espoused by the Declaration of Independence. In the process, he redefined the Civil War as a struggle not merely for the Union but as 'a new birth of freedom' that would bring true equality to all of its citizens, ensure that democracy would remain a viable form of government, and would also create a unified nation in which states' rights were no longer dominant. Lincoln wasn’t given a chance to finish his work, but his thoughts and visions were eloquently saved for posterity in his Second Inaugural Address, delivered a month before his death and considered one of America’s greatest speeches. With the war nearing the end, Lincoln struck a conciliatory tone, reminding both sides that they prayed to the same God for victory and that neither side could divine God’s will. “With malice toward none, with charity for all,” Lincoln called for peace and reunion, his eye clearly on Reconstruction. Nobody will ever know how Lincoln would’ve managed Reconstruction, but in many respects, the Second Inaugural Address was a fitting postscript of sorts to his life and legacy."
Audiobook · 4 hrs 57 mins
Apollo 1 and the Space Shuttle Challenger: The History of NASA’s Two Most Notorious Disasters
"As Apollo 11’s name suggests, there were actually a number of Apollo missions that came before, many of which included testing the rockets and different orbital and lunar modules in orbit. In fact, it wasn’t until Apollo 8 that a manned vehicle was sent towards the Moon and back, and before that mission, the most famous Apollo mission was Apollo 1, albeit for all the wrong reasons. There were no delusions regarding the dangers of manned space travel, but they were brought home on January 27, 1967, when all three astronauts were killed by a fire that ignited in the cabin during a launch rehearsal. To this day, there is still debate over what ignited the fire, but the disaster made clear that the modules being used by NASA had a series of fatal flaws. After the Apollo 1 tragedy, NASA changed its plans by first running a series of unmanned missions to test the Saturn rockets and the different modules throughout 1967 and early 1968. and it would not be until Apollo 7 launched about 20 months after the disaster that NASA dared to conduct another manned mission. On the morning of January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched for the 10th time, beginning mission STS-51-L. Space shuttles had already successfully completed 24 missions, and no American spacecraft had ever failed to reach orbit during an official mission. On this mission, the Challenger was carrying a satellite for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites system, which was to be deployed in orbit. The crew included Ronald McNair, who had already been the second African-American in space, and Ellison Onizuka, who had already been the first Asian-American astronaut in space. But the highlight of the mission was to be the “NASA Teacher in Space Project,” in which a civilian teacher would give teaching lessons to his or her class while onboard the space shuttle."
Audiobook · 3 hrs 21 mins
Challenger and Columbia: The History of the Space Shuttles that Suffered Deadly Disasters
"In the decades after the Apollo program, American space shuttles flew over 130 missions and successfully completed over 98% of them, but unfortunately, the two most famous missions were the ones that ended tragically aboard the Challenger and Columbia. The Space Shuttle Challenger was the most heavily used space shuttle in the three years it was operational, carrying the first minority astronaut and woman astronaut into space. Challenger was also the first space shuttle to complete a landing at night. On the morning of January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger launched for the 10th time, beginning mission STS-51-L. Space shuttles had already successfully completed 24 missions, and no American spacecraft had ever failed to reach orbit during an official mission. On this mission, the Challenger was carrying a satellite for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites system, which was to be deployed in orbit. Ascent seemed to be going normally during the first minute, but about 75 seconds into the ascent, a plastic O-ring used to seal a joint in one of the solid rocket boosters failed, causing a breach of hot gas. That gas spread to the other rocket booster and the external fuel tank, causing an explosion. When the spectators saw the explosion, many of them started cheering, unaware of what was really happening. The notorious date of the Challenger disaster was commemorated by the crew of the Columbia while they were in space in 2003, and a few days later, 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."
Audiobook · 2 hrs 48 mins
The FBI’s Most Controversial Operations: The History of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Notorious Activities in the 20th Century
"No single figure in 20th century American history inspires such opposing opinions as J. Edgar Hoover, the iconic first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In his time, he was arguably the most powerful non-elected figure in the federal government. Serving under eight presidents (and outliving two of them), he remains the longest-serving head of a major government office, and Hoover died as he began: a civil servant, having been appointed by the Attorney General and serving at the pleasure of the president. That said, no civil servant had ever accrued to themselves the power and public attention that Hoover did. To many Americans in mid-20th century, Hoover seemed like a real American hero. In a country suffering from the Great Depression and the crime wave of the early 1930s, Hoover was the symbol of law and order as his “G-Men” used the newest in scientific crime solving methods to bring gangsters like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson to justice. During World War II, the FBI helped protect a country at war from German and Japanese spies and saboteurs. In the 1950s, at the dawn of the Cold War, Americans saw the FBI leading the charge against Soviet spies and domestic communists who seemed to be undermining the institutions of the country. Many boys across the country wanted to be G-Men, helping Mr. Hoover ferret out anyone who would harm the United States. Few things have colored Hoover’s reputation quite like COINTELPRO, which has become the FBI’s most notorious operation, one that still has lasting ramifications. From 1956-1971, the FBI waged a secret war in America through a series of projects against groups believed to be potentially subversive, including various people and organizations involved in women’s rights, civil rights, Native American rights, anti-war groups, and even groups that supported animal rights."
Audiobook · 5 hrs 20 mins
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