In this episode of Audicted, cohosts Katie O’Connor and Kat Johnson pick the brain of their colleague Christina Harcar on all things History and Historical Fiction. They examine trends in the genres, “rules” around the constructs of what makes fiction historical, and give History/Historical Fiction recommendations by era. Download or stream the full episode here.
On the popularization of History
Katie O’Connor: There is so much of a storytelling element in history. […] I appreciate the humanity that we get in history now. It's not just spitting out facts. You're really learning intimate details about humans who have shaped our present.
Christina Harcar: Yes, and I think, Katie, what you're describing is history moving into popular history. I think maybe that has always been done throughout history. But, the reason I enjoy being Audible's History Editor is that right now, at this present moment, we're in a golden age of history becoming more popular. And so I like to say, and I am not joking, that history is self-help for the civics crowd, because taking ourselves out of the present can show the way forward. Sometimes it's easier to do self-help as a citizen than it is as a person.
On the optimism in Historical Fiction
CH: I have a working hypothesis that I haven't disproved yet to myself, so let's put it up here and try to shoot it down. I think historical fiction needs to end optimistically, like romance. Yes, it can be very dark, because fiction needs conflict and history has plenty of conflict […], but I think historical fiction needs to end on an optimistic note. And if I'm right, then World War II generates so much inspiration for historical fiction, especially for Americans, because it's an inspirational topic, and aspirational, about who we want to be. We helped! We won! It was tough, but we prevailed!
Also in this episode:
This new full-cast recording - based on the most respected edition of Shakespeare's classic - expertly produced by the Folger Theatre, is perfect for students, teachers, and the everyday listener....
There’s no doubt that the late Shirley Jackson was a genius: her inventive prose, incredibly human characters, and nearly tangible settings make her work particularly outstanding—and all the scarier for it. Her 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House was adapted into two films (one in 1963 and another in 1999) and, more recently, served as the basis for a widely adored Netflix series that premiered in 2018. Jackson’s spooky classic follows a researcher and his companions as they investigate the mysteries that abound in the seemingly haunted, ghastly Hill House estate. But when night falls on Hill House, things become more far unearthly than what could be perceived during the light and hope of day.
This collection, the only one to appear during Jackson's lifetime, unites "The Lottery" with 24 equally unusual stories. Together they demonstrate her remarkable range....
Jackson’s classic is the story of two sisters and their disabled uncle, the last of the Blackwoods after a ... mix-up, with the family sugar bowl. Mary Katherine, or Merricat, protects her older, exonerated sister from the townsfolk until cousin Charles Blackwood arrives, sniffing out any remaining family fortune, and gets Merricat’s back up. Narrator Bernadette Dunne gives the little sister a steadier voice than she deserves, serving up a story that is terrifyingly sweet.
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400....
At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon. Despite repeated warnings of possible danger, nothing was done about the dam. Then came May 31, 1889, when the dam burst, sending a wall of water thundering down the mountain, smashing through Johnstown, and killing more than 2,000 people. It was a tragedy that became a national scandal.
Historian Alexis Coe draws heavily upon primary sources in this detailed but fast-moving biography of George Washington that dives into his private life as a son, husband, step-father, slave-owner, and corporeal person with lots of aches and pains; she also explores Washington’s public life as a British and Continental Army general and “father of his country.”
Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared Gold Coast like a latter-day barbarian chief and draws Sutter and his regally beautiful wife, Susan, into his violent world. Told from Sutter's sardonic and often hilarious point of view, and laced with sexual passion and suspense, The Gold Coast is Nelson DeMille's captivating story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal.
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history....
An epic love story and family drama set at the dawn of World War II....
Countess Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society....
Told from four-year-old Laura's point of view, this story begins in 1871 in a little log cabin on the edge of the Big Woods of Wisconsin....
This poetic, graceful love story celebrates boldly and brilliantly African-American culture and heritage....
This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, Royal Navy, and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against the thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of life aboard a man-of-war in Nelson's navy are faultlessly rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the road of broadsides as the great ships close in battle.
An enchanting historical epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most controversial empresses....
Profoundly moving and gracefully told, Pachinko follows one Korean family through the generations, beginning in early 1900s Korea....
This stunning blend of historical romance and time traveling adventure has captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world....
It's just a small story really, about, among other things, a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery....
I was loving every moment of this book. It was so beautiful — the language poetic, insightful, and clever, and the story providing “a-ha” moments all the way through. The voices of the dual narration were so believable and real, making the friendship at the center of the story feel like one of my own. And heroic — these girls were crazy heroic — and oh so inspiring. So it almost came as a surprise when I found myself one minute folding laundry in my guest room while calmly listening to the last few chapters, and the next minute, BAM, I was sitting on the bed, clutching a few clean shirts to my stomach, while sobbing and spluttering for a good hour.
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby....
The first Plantagenet king inherited a blood-soaked kingdom from the Normans and transformed it into an empire that stretched at its peak from Scotland to Jerusalem....
Many of us know the Black Death as a catastrophic event of the medieval world. But the Black Death was arguably the most significant event in Western history....
Since its U.S. debut a quarter-century ago, this brilliant text has set a new standard for historical scholarship of Latin America....
Jan. 4. "Olga Dies Dreaming is a love letter to Brooklyn brimming with the best music, with dreams and sorrows—the stuff of real life."
- Jennine Capó Crucet, author of My Time Among The Whites
March 1. From New York Times best-selling author Sabaa Tahir comes a heart-wrenching story about love, loss, family and forgiveness.
Distraction is key for harder runs. Engle says he chose this book on a whim only five minutes before a long training run. "Time flew by as I listened to the world disintegrate. Classic good guys versus bad guys kept me moving steadily for hours."