As Charles Darwin's ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES reached U.S. shores in 1859, the debate over slavery was in the minds of readers. In particular, abolitionist John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry was in the news. Here, listeners hear the story of Darwin's book and its influence on American thinking. Narrator Stefan Rudnicki's deep voice delivers the factual information with an emphasis on the passions of the principals, including notables such as Asa Gray, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau. The author explains the science of natural selection and re-creates the emotions of a nation on the brink of war. Listeners will be riveted as they learn more about a key period in American history.
Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2017
Duration: 9 hrs, 30 mins
DD ISBN: 9781524708368
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.
Kevin R. Free’s voice is the perfect vehicle for this fascinating portrait of a remarkable group of artists, philosophers, abolitionists, and social reformers who all happened to live in Concord, Massachusetts in the 19th century. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott and her father, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, and many others called themselves transcendentalists and became the first truly American philosophical movement. With his genial delivery, Free is up to the task of narrating this complicated account of many intersecting lives; his inflections add character to the correspondence and inject life into the often formal writings the Circle left behind.
Listeners will find much worth discovering in the lives of these vanguards of American intellectual life.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
Duration: 9 hrs, 53 mins
DD ISBN: 9781668132777
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.
Author Hale presents the case of his young cousin Haley's disappearance on Cave Mountain in 2001 and the ensuing search and rescue operation, the largest in Arkansas history. Hale connects this with the murder of 3-year-old Bethany by a small and isolated religious sect decades earlier on the same mountain. Narrating these two stories in a low, slightly gruff tone, Hale weaves together family anecdotes, Ozark lore, local and broader history, and Christian theology. While the two cases are intriguing, the work lacks focus and contains extraneous details.
An interesting Ozark history that doesn’t quite cohere.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
Duration: 11 hrs, 9 mins
DD ISBN: 9780063398153
Publisher: Harper Audio
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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