Golden Voice narrator Bahni Turpin delivers "The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics during the Age of Roosevelt." This sweeping history covers the early twentieth century through the end of FDR's administration, including the New Deal and the WPA. Tirelessly, Turpin describes the lives and political careers of educator Mary McLeod Bethune, economist Robert Weaver, newspaper publisher Robert Vann, and other prominent Black intellectuals in government, federal positions, and politics. Adopting crisp and precise diction, Turpin barely differentiates quotations and documents from the historical discussion, making it difficult to separate narrative from analysis. As a result, this steady, uninflected, and unemotional reading on the state of civil rights, discrimination, and violence against African-Americans in mid-twentieth-century America, while appropriate, is sometimes tedious.
Pub Date: May 12, 2020
Duration: 19 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9780593285824
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Carol Matthau epitomizes a glamour and lifestyle not associated with the 1990's. Here is a life of privilege, tragedy and worry about what friends would think of her new frock or lover. Matthau possesses a voice and delivery that simply could not be improved on. In her coy whisper, she tells compelling stories involving everyone from William Saroyan (husband #1) and Truman Capote to Carson McCullers, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Walter Matthau (husband #2). This excellent audio presentation will leave you wanting to read the entire book to discover what juicy tidbits were left out.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: The Publishing Mills
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
More than 35 hours long, this comprehensive biography of Random House founder Bennett Cerf is equal to a workweek for many listeners. Cerf nurtured a roster of the 20th century's most consequential authors and was nationally known as a television panelist. His story is a fascinating panorama of American arts and society over 50 years, scrupulously researched but overburdened and slow. Listeners who've never heard of William Styron or Dorothy Kilgallen or the Famous Writers School will be fully educated here. Narrator Lisa Flanagan keeps a steady, unfussy pace that carries her listeners over the longueurs. But hers is a channel swim rather than a leisurely stroll through Central Park. This paunchy biography needed a stronger editorial hand.
Pub Date: Jan. 13, 2026
Duration: 35 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217346448
Publisher: Random House Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
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