Audio only
The Explorers
A New History of America in Ten ExpeditionsBy Amanda BellowsNarrated by Kirsten Potter, Leon NixonLength9h 41m
About this audiobook
A fascinating new history of America, told through the stories of a diverse cast of ten extraordinary—and often overlooked—adventurers, from Sacagawea to Matthew Henson to Sally Ride, who pushed the boundaries of discovery and determined our national destiny.
"Brilliantly imaginative, beautifully written." —David Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
"A considerable undertaking. … [Bellows's] keen sense of story and her appreciation of her individual subjects tell us much that is new, and vividly." —Wall Street Journal
The archetype of the American explorer, a rugged white man, has dominated our popular culture since the late eighteenth century, when Daniel Boone’s autobiography captivated readers with tales of treacherous journeys. But our commonly held ideas about American exploration do not tell the whole story—far from it.
The Explorers rediscovers a diverse group of Americans who went to the western frontier and beyond, traversing the farthest reaches of the globe and even penetrating outer space in their endeavor to find the unknown. Many escaped from lives circumscribed by racism, sexism, poverty, and discrimination as they took on great risk in unfamiliar territory. Born into slavery, James Beckwourth found freedom as a mountain man and became one of the great entrepreneurs of Gold Rush California. Matthew Henson, the son of African American sharecroppers, left rural Maryland behind to seek the North Pole. Women like Harriet Chalmers Adams ascended Peruvian mountains to gain geographic knowledge while Amelia Earhart and Sally Ride shattered glass ceilings by pushing the limits of flight.
In The Explorers, readers will travel across the vast Great Plains and into the heights of the Sierra Nevada mountains; they will traverse the frozen Arctic Ocean and descend into the jungles of South America; they will journey by canoe and horseback, train and dogsled, airplane and space shuttle. Readers will experience the exhilarating history of American exploration alongside the men and women who shared a deep drive to discover the unknown.
Across two centuries and many thousands of miles of terrain, Amanda Bellows offers an ode to our country’s most intrepid adventurers—and reveals the history of America in the process.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 3.5 (621)
Includes Goodreads
GenreHistory, Biography and Memoir
Length9 hrs 41 mins
Narrated byKirsten Potter, Leon Nixon
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateJun 4, 2024
LanguageEnglish
A Brief History of IntelligenceMax S. Bennett12h 18m4.6 (6.6K)$29 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
On Democracies and Death CultsDouglas Murray10h 38m4.6 (6.5K)$29 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m4.6 (927)$29 · $0.00
Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and BeyondJohn Lyons12h 37m4.6 (1.4K)$33 · $0.00
BeyondStephen Walker15h 39m4.6 (3.2K)$33 · $0.00
Kings and PawnsHoward Bryant10h 9m4.6 (678)$29 · $0.00
No EscapeNury Turkel9h 30m4.6 (809)$28 · $0.00
Jubal Stone: U.S. Marshal: Blood Trail To Hell: A Western Adventure NovelCasey Nash3h 42m4.6 (3.2K)$18 · $0.00
Fall and RiseMitchell Zuckoff17h 23m4.6 (9.8K)$40 · $0.00
The SurvivorJosef Lewkowicz, Michael Calvin9h 22m4.6 (2.5K)$29 · $0.00
Always FaithfulThomas Schueman, Zainullah Zaki12h 12m4.6 (977)$29 · $0.00
The State of Society in France Before the Revolution of 1789 (Annotated)Alexis de Tocqueville17h 25m4.6 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
All the Gallant MenDonald Stratton, Ken Gire5h 55m4.6 (11.8K)$24 · $0.00
Saint Joan (Annotated)George Bernard Shaw6h 20m4.6 (1.2K)$1.20 · $0.00
Medgar and MyrlieJoy-Ann Reid10h 52m4.5 (27.8K)$29 · $0.00
The History of the Peloponnesian War (Annotated)Thucydides24h 3m4.6 (1.1K)$2 · $0.00
Where the Birds Never SingJack Sacco10h 31m4.6 (3.8K)$29 · $0.00
Serviceman J: The Untold Story of an NZSAS SoldierJamie Pennell5h 51m4.6 (452)$24 · $0.00
You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00
The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00
MotherlandJulia Ioffe17h 52m4.7 (2.5K)$40 · $0.00
Evidence Not SeenDarlene Deibler Rose11h 11m4.6 (11.9K)$29 · $0.00
Where Cowards Go to DieBenjamin Sledge8h 42m4.7 (351)$20 · $0.00
Will You Love Me?Cathy Glass9h 5m4.6 (9.3K)$29 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m4.7 (343)$20 · $0.00
HostageEli Sharabi5h 25m4.6 (10.8K)$24 · $0.00
Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00
The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (385)$20 · $0.00
Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m4.6 (3.5K)$29 · $0.00
I Am The StormJanice Dean9h4.6 (1.5K)$8 · $0.00
Black History CollectionFrederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs, Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Du Bois27h 9m4.6 (2.6K)$18 · $0.00
Just as I AmCicely Tyson16h 8m4.6 (99K)$33 · $0.00
Unbroken Bonds of BattleJohnny Joey Jones8h 31m4.6 (2.6K)$8 · $0.00
The Daughter of AuschwitzTova Friedman, Malcolm Brabant7h 54m4.6 (16.7K)$26 · $0.00
My Bondage and My Freedom (Annotated)Frederick Douglass15h 30m4.6 (2.4K)$2 · $0.00
Lily's PromiseLily Ebert, Dov Forman8h 54m4.6 (16.1K)$29 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00
You may also like
Travels in West AfricaMary Kingsley19h 57m4.0 (1.8K)$21 · $0.00
The Far TravelerNancy Marie Brown9h 39m3.9 (1.8K)$29 · $0.00
SacajaweaJoseph Bruchac6h 15m3.8 (1.4K)$20
Travels in Tartary, Tibet, and China During the Years 1844-1846Evariste Régis Huc27h 55m4.3 (385)$1.99 · $0.00
The Oregon TrailFrancis Parkman13h 41m3.8 (6K)$20 · $0.00
The Winning of the West (Complete Edition)Theodore Roosevelt47h 7m4.1 (975)$2 · $0.00
The Malay Archipelago (Vol. 1&2) (Annotated)Alfred Russel Wallace25h 28m4.3 (2.2K)$3 · $0.00
The Last of the PlainsmenZane Grey7h 30m3.9 (2.3K)$17
Bartram's TravelsWilliam Bartram16h 46m4.3 (321)$2 · $0.00
The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain LifeFrancis Parkman13h 27m3.8 (16.3K)$1 · $0.00
EndeavourPeter Moore19h 36m4.1 (1.1K)$25
The Life and Times of Col. Daniel Boone, Hunter, Soldier, and Pioneer (Annotated)Edward Sylvester Ellis8h 59m3.9 (1.2K)$2 · $0.00
TypeeHerman Melville10h 34m3.6 (6.2K)$20
The Voyage of the BeagleCharles Darwin21h 21m4.2 (17.1K)$1.20 · $0.00
The Story of North American Discovery and ExplorationJulius E. Olson, Edward Everett Hale, Elizabeth Hodges, Frederick A. Ober, Stephen Leacock, Charles W. Colby, Thomas A. Janvier29h 50m$1.99 · $0.00
From Peking to MandalayReginald Fleming Sir Johnston16h 10m4.0 (52)$1 · $0.00
RemingtonFrederic Remington, Emerson Hough5h 4m$18 · $0.00
The Polar WorldG. Hartwig25h 59m4.1 (23)$1 · $0.00
Travels in Syria and the Holy LandJohn Lewis Burckhardt21h 14m4.1 (67)$1 · $0.00
Voyages from Montreal Through the Continent of North AmericaAlexander Mackenzie17h 4m4.0 (24)$2 · $0.00