Showing results by publisher "Recorded Books" in History & Culture

Jonell Joshua spent her childhood shuttling back and forth between Savannah and New Jersey—living in grandparents’ homes during the times her mother, struggling with mental illness, needed support to raise her and her brothers. Together the family found a way to keep going even in the darkest of times. How Do I Draw These Memories? is a memoir about nostalgia, faith, the preciousness of life, and unconditional love.

On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships.

Mildred Jeter Loving and Richard Perry Loving wanted to live out their married life near family in Virginia, but the state refused to let them. The reason: Richard was white and Mildred was black. After being arrested and charged with a crime, the Lovings were forced to leave their home—until they turned to the legal system. In one of the country’s landmark legal battles, Loving v. Virginia, the Lovings secured their future when the Supreme Court struck down all state laws prohibiting mixed marriage.

Yolanda Alvarez is having a good year. She’s starting to feel at home Julia De Burgos High, her school in the Bronx. She has her best friend Victory, and maybe something with José, a senior boy she’s getting to know. She’s confident her initiation into her family’s bruja tradition will happen soon. But then a white boy, the son of a politician, appears at Julia De Burgos High, and his vibes are off. And Yolanda’s initiation begins with a series of troubling visions of the violence this boy threatens.

The past is not past. We may think something ancient history, or something that doesn’t affect our present day, but we would be wrong. Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of oral histories told by Black people who grew up in the South during the time of Jim Crow. Jaha Nailah Avery is a lawyer, scholar, and reporter whose family has roots in North Carolina stretching back over 300 years. These interviews have been a personal passion project for years as she’s traveled across the South meeting with elders and hearing their stories.

Ethel Rosenberg's story is seldom told and not widely known. What tends to be told is the life of a convicted spy who was killed for her beliefs, a victim of social injustice. Barbara Krasner pays tribute to this complex and misunderstood woman and lets her sing—sing out about her childhood, her dreams to perform on stage, her love for a college boy with shared ideals, her tender love for her husband and sons, and her deep love for what she felt was right for her country and the world.

Charlotte Salomon was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is remembered for her autobiographical series of paintings, Life? or Theater?, which consists of 769 individual works painted between 1940 and 1942 while she was in hiding from the Nazis in the south of France, and which has been called a painted parallel to Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl and an early graphic novel. In 1943, she entrusted her collection of paintings to a friend.

Yuki Nakahara is an American. But it's the start of World War II, and America doesn't see it that way. Like many other Japanese Americans, Yuki and his family have been forced into an internment camp in the Utah desert. But Yuki isn't willing to sit back and accept this injustice - it's his country, too, and he's going to prove it by enlisting in the army to fight for the Allies.

It is 1946, a year after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II is over. But the U.S. government has decided that further tests of atomic bombs must be conducted. When Bikini Atoll is chosen for the testing site, the inhabitants of the tiny island are told they must relocate...

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.

Wrongful intolerance has existed in American society for more than four centuries. Us and Them illuminates the shadowy corners of our national past and traces the country’s continuing efforts to measure up to its lofty ideals. Through 14 dramatic narratives, listeners witness epic struggles that shaped our collective identity. These and eight other forgotten incidents of history come to life in clear and vibrant prose.

Rose Frampton is content with life on her family's plantation in South Carolina, but the year 1900 brings many changes for the 15-year-old. She could never imagine that she would marry a Yankee and become the mistress of a New York City estate. Uprooted from the tranquil shores of Saint Helena's Island, she comes to know and love Rene, learns to make her own decisions, and finds an untapped inner strength.

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.

A 2021 YALSA EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION FINALIST America is the greatest democracy in the world … isn’t it? Author Elizabeth Rusch examines some of the more problematic aspects of our government but, more importantly, offers a roadmap for teen activism and ways for young people to fix them...

The Blackbird Battle has left all sides devastated. The wind spirit Suriel has disappeared. A hard winter is coming, and famine stalks the land. Kateiko Rin returns to her people, ready at last to rejoin her community, but the dangers of the unsettled times come raging to her doorstep. Kako is left with no choice but to battle the forces that seek to open a rift between the worlds. Leading an unlikely alliance that includes her new love Airedain and her old one Tiernan, Kako must risk all to try and stop the coming disaster. 

Up until her 15th birthday, the most important thing in the world to Beatriz Mendez was her dream of becoming a professional dancer and getting herself and her family far from the gang life that defined their days - that and meeting her dance idol Debbie Allen on the set of her favorite TV show, Fame. But after the latest battle in a constant turf war leaves her gang leader brother, Junito, dead and her mother grieving, Beatriz has a new set of priorities. How is she supposed to feel the rhythm when her gang needs running and her mami can't brush her own teeth?

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family - the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead Artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them.

Best-selling author David Elliott explores how Joan of Arc changed the course of history and remains a figure of fascination centuries after her extraordinary life and death. Joan of Arc gets the Hamilton treatment in this evocative novel. Told through medieval poetic forms and in the voices of the people and objects in Joan of Arc's life (including her family and even the trees, clothes, cows, and candles of her childhood), Voices offers an unforgettable perspective on an extraordinary young woman.

Arkansas, 1984: The town of Griffin Flat is known for almost nothing other than its nuclear missile silos. MAD - Mutually Assured Destruction - is a fear every local lives with and tries to ignore. Unfortunately that’s impossible now that film moguls have picked Griffin Flat as the location for a new nuclear holocaust movie, aptly titled The Eve of Destruction. When 16-year-old Laura Ratliff wins a walk-on role (with a plus-one!) thanks to a radio call-in contest, she is more relieved than excited.

Rise Up! breaks down the origins of racial injustice and its continued impact today, connecting dots between the past and present. By including contemporary examples ripped from headlines and actionable ways young people can help create a more inclusive world, sociologist Crystal Fleming shares the knowledge and values that unite all antiracists: compassion, solidarity, respect, and courage in the face of adversity.