
Mavericks
Life Stories and Lessons of History's Most Extraordinary Misfits
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Narrated by:
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Jenny Draper
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By:
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Jenny Draper
About this listen
In her first book, popular TikTok historian J Draper uses her characteristic wit and intellect to introduce us to extraordinary figures marginalized by history, and the lessons we can learn from them.
Witty and engaging TikTok historian J.D. Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals that have shaped the world, and discovers the lessons their unique experiences can teach us.
Breaking away from history as told through the lens of kings, queens and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers and oddballs. Through these stories you will meet characters such as:
The Chevalier d'Eon–a fencing master, spy and diplomat who came out as a woman in 18th-century London
Ellen and William Craft–a married couple who made a daring escape from slavery in the American south
Peter the Wild Boy–a child found living in the woods in Germany who was taken to the royal court in England
Caroline Herschel–the first British woman to be paid for scientific work, and a discoverer of comets
William Buckland–the man who wrote the first account of a dinosaur–yet who also ate the heart of a French king
Eleanor Rykener–a gender-bending sex worker from medieval England who spilled juicy gossip about her clients in the clergy
Juliana Popjoy–a society beauty who lived in a tree for years
Paul Robeson–athlete, singer, actor, polyglot, activist... and handsome to boot
The Rebecca Rioters–a roving crowd of Welshmen who destroyed tollbooths dressed in skirts and bonnets.
These poignant and often hilarious true stories show us that the world as we know it was built by a wider array of historical figures than we experienced in our schoolbooks.
©2025 Jenny Draper (P)2025 Watkins PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
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- How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
- By: Yoni Appelbaum
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In this illuminating debut, Yoni Appelbaum, historian and journalist for The Atlantic, shows us that this idea has been under attack since reformers first developed zoning laws to ghettoize Chinese Americans in nineteenth-century Modesto, California. The century of legal segregation that ensued—from the zoning laws enacted to force Jewish workers back into New York’s Lower East Side to the private-sector discrimination and racist public policy that trapped Black families in Flint, Michigan to Jane Jacobs’ efforts to protect her vision of the West Village.
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land of opportunity
- By Anonymous User on 03-16-25
By: Yoni Appelbaum
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Scandalous Women
- The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
- By: Elizabeth Kerri Mahon
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history women have caused wars, defied the rules, and brought men to their knees. Scandalous Women tells the stories of the risk takers who have flouted convention, beaten the odds, and determined the course of world events.
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The Second Book of General Ignorance
- Everything You Think You Know Is (Still) Wrong
- By: John Lloyd, John Mitchinson
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Just when you thought that it was safe to start showing off again, John Lloyd and John Mitchinson are back with another busload of mistakes and misunderstandings. Here is a new collection of simple, perfectly obvious questions you'll be quite certain you know the answers to. Whether it's history, science, sports, geography, literature, language, medicine, the classics, or common wisdom, you'll be astonished to discover that everything you thought you knew is still hopelessly wrong.
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It's all stuff from QI
- By Bonnie Kennedy on 04-07-21
By: John Lloyd, and others
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On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down
- By: James Fell
- Narrated by: Kelli Tager, James Fell
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Nazis are bad. The worst kind of bad. There are no very fine people among them. If you disagree, you won’t like this book. Still here? Cool. You are about to receive an education unlike any you’ve previously experienced. In this uproarious and informative tour from ancient times to the modern day and everything in between, James Fell, the self-proclaimed “sweary historian,” reveals a past replete with deeds both noble and despicable. Throughout the book, he provides insightful analysis of all the sh!t that went down. Behold!
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Rad.
- By Christine C. Keiser on 11-21-23
By: James Fell
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Firebrands
- The Untold Story of Four Women Who Made and Unmade Prohibition
- By: Gioia Diliberto
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In Gioia Diliberto's take on this period of history, we meet Ella Boole, the stern and ambitious leader of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, who campaigned to introduce Prohibition. We also meet Mabel Walker Willebrandt, who served as the top federal prosecutor charged with enforcing Prohibition. Diliberto tells the story, too, of silent film star Texas Guinan, who ran New York speakeasies backed by the mob and showed that Prohibition was not only absurd but unenforceable. And, she follows Pauline Morton Sabin, a glamorous Manhattan aristocrat who mobilized the movement to kill it.
By: Gioia Diliberto
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Blood and Mistletoe
- The History of the Druids in Britain
- By: Ronald Hutton
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 31 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Crushed by the Romans in the first century A.D., the ancient Druids of Britain left almost no reliable evidence behind. Historian Ronald Hutton shows how this lack of definite information has allowed succeeding British generations to reimagine, reinterpret, and reinvent the Druids. Hutton's captivating book is the first to encompass two thousand years of Druid history and to explore the evolution of English, Scottish, and Welsh attitudes toward the forever ambiguous figures of the ancient Celtic world.
By: Ronald Hutton
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The Book of General Ignorance
- By: John Mitchinson, John Lloyd
- Narrated by: uncredited
- Length: 4 hrs and 20 mins
- Abridged
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Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and flawed facts finally get the heave-ho in this humorous, downright humiliating book of reeducation based on the phenomenal British best seller. Challenging what most of us assume to be verifiable truths in areas like history, literature, science, nature, and more, The Book of General Ignorance is a witty “gotcha” compendium of how little we actually know about anything. It’ll have you scratching your head wondering why we even bother to go to school.
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Interesting.
- By Dad Hawkbird on 12-07-08
By: John Mitchinson, and others
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The Mental Floss History of the World
- An Irreverent Romp Through Civilization's Best Bits
- By: Steve Wiegand, Erik Sass
- Narrated by: Johny Heller
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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About 60,000 years ago, the first Homo sapiens were just beginning their move across the grasslands and up the ladder of civilization. Everything since then, as they say, is history. Just in case you were sleeping in class that day, the geniuses at mental_floss magazine have put together a hilarious (and historically accurate) primer on everything you need to know---and that means the good stuff.
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Brilliant and Funny. What more could you want?
- By Septimus MacGhilleglas on 01-22-09
By: Steve Wiegand, and others
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Talk to Me
- Lessons from a Family Forged by History
- By: Rich Benjamin
- Narrated by: Rich Benjamin
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Rich Benjamin’s mother, Danielle Fignolé, grew up the eldest in a large family living a comfortable life in Port-au-Prince. Her mother was a schoolteacher, her father a populist hero—a labor leader and politician. The first true champion of the black masses, he eventually became the country’s president in 1957. But two weeks after his inauguration, that life was shattered. Soldiers took Danielle’s parents at gunpoint and put them on a plane to New York, a coup hatched by the Eisenhower administration. Danielle and her siblings were kidnapped, and ultimately smuggled out of the country.
By: Rich Benjamin
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The Greatest Nobodies of History
- Minor Characters from Major Moments
- By: Adrian Bliss
- Narrated by: Adrian Bliss, Beth Rylance, Sebastian Humphreys, and others
- Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The lives of Leonardo da Vinci, Henry VIII, and Queen Victoria fill bookshelves and fascinate scholars all over the world. But little attention is given to the ferret who posed for the Renaissance master, the servant who oversaw the Tudor’s toilet time, or the famous horse who thrilled the miserable old monarch. These supporting cast members have been waiting in the wings for too long, and Adrian Bliss thinks it’s high time they join their glory-hogging contemporaries in the spotlight. Fortunately, now they can.
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Nothing like his video comedy
- By Jono on 11-14-24
By: Adrian Bliss
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Jesus from Outer Space
- What the Earliest Christians Really Believed About Christ
- By: Richard Carrier
- Narrated by: KC Gleason
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The earliest Christians believed Jesus was an ancient celestial being who put on a bodysuit of flesh, died at the hands of dark forces, and then rose from the dead and ascended back into the heavens. But the writing we have today from that first generation of Christians never says where they thought he landed, where he lived, or where he died. The idea that Jesus toured Galilee and visited Jerusalem arose only a lifetime later, in unsourced legends written in a foreign land and language. Many sources repeat those legends, but none corroborate them.
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Brilliant
- By George Piller on 03-05-25
By: Richard Carrier
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Who Ate the First Oyster?
- The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History
- By: Cody Cassidy
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Who wore the first pants? Who painted the first masterpiece? Who first rode the horse? Who invented soap? This madcap adventure across ancient history uses everything from modern genetics to archaeology to uncover the geniuses behind these and other world-changing innovations. With a sharp sense of humor and boundless enthusiasm for the wonders of our ancient ancestors, Who Ate the First Oyster? profiles the perpetrators of the greatest firsts and catastrophes of prehistory.
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It could be better...
- By Alex on 04-06-21
By: Cody Cassidy
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The History of the World
- The Story of Mankind from Prehistory to the Modern Day
- By: Alex Woolf
- Narrated by: Matt Bates
- Length: 20 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Humankind has come a long way since our ancestors first stood up on two feet, but how did we get to where we are today? This book tells our story, through conflict and intrigue, power won and lost, and great empires built and destroyed. Award-winning author Alex Woolf brings you an accessible, enjoyable exploration of human history. Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the first civilizations, follow marauding Mongols on their quest to conquer, find out what made colonial empires tick, or the more modern origins of current conflict, the answers lie in this book.
By: Alex Woolf
I had not heard of more than half these people, but I loved every story.
Funny and interesting
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excellent writing
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Interesting, Unusual Stories
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Jenny Draper’s storytelling made me listen to it in one sitting
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I gasped, I laughed, I cried…ABSOLUTELY worth the read!!!
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Love this book
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The chapter about Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was especially inspiring—I loved how she challenged norms and did what most women would have deemed unfathomable for their time. In a society where women and other disadvantaged communities are still navigating their roles and standing, her story offers powerful life lessons and inspiration.
A great cherry on top is that it is one of the better self-narrated audio books where the author does a very good job at the narration both in terms of speed, pronunciation, intonation and narration. Had a blast learning about the commoner and non-white mavericks in British history and being a non-British person, all stories were quite new to me and helped me also get an idea about the British society at different points from not just a royalty/aristocracy point of view but how regular people might have experienced life.
Detailed research into very interesting lives you probably never heard of
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Performance of the Author was captivating
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Interesting stories!!
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The narration is great!!
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