Three Audiobook Recommendations for Holiday Travel

Brian Gongol


If you're taking any long trips by car or by airplane this holiday and are looking for something to put in your ear (other than the extensive archive of my recent radio shows, of course), here are three audiobooks that are worth enjoying as a set:

  1. "Theodore Rex", by Edmund Morris, which builds on the legend of the larger-than-life Theodore Roosevelt
  2. "The Imperial Cruise", by James Bradley, which counterbalances "Theodore Rex" by telling how Roosevelt's captivity to the prevailing racial prejudices of the time may have helped to set the stage for World War II (yes, really)
  3. "The Wright Brothers", by David McCullough, which breathes spectacular color and life into the story of powered flight, a revolution that took place while Roosevelt was in office -- and the surprising tale of the way the US government and military pursued the same technology and responded to the brothers' work.

Any one of these three makes for good entertainment. But if you enjoy the three in series, you will discover some profound connections among ideas and events from the dawn of the 20th Century that have profoundly shaped our lives today.