-
Smoketown
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $18.03
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The other great Renaissance of black culture, influence, and glamour burst forth joyfully in what may seem an unlikely place - Pittsburgh, PA - from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Today black Pittsburgh is known as the setting for August Wilson's famed plays about noble but doomed working-class strivers. But this community once had an impact on American history that rivaled the far larger black worlds of Harlem and Chicago. It published the most widely read black newspaper in the country, urging black voters to switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party and then rallying black support for World War II. It fielded two of the greatest baseball teams of the Negro Leagues and introduced Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Pittsburgh was the childhood home of jazz pioneers Billy Strayhorn, Billy Eckstine, Earl Hines, Mary Lou Williams, and Erroll Garner; Hall of Fame slugger Josh Gibson - and August Wilson himself. Some of the most glittering figures of the era were changed forever by the time they spent in the city, from Joe Louis and Satchel Paige to Duke Ellington and Lena Horne.
Mark Whitaker's Smoketown is a captivating portrait of this unsung community and a vital addition to the story of black America. It depicts how ambitious Southern migrants were drawn to a steel-making city on a strategic river junction; how they were shaped by its schools and a spirit of commerce with roots in the Gilded Age; and how their world was eventually destroyed by industrial decline and urban renewal. Whitaker takes listeners on a rousing, revelatory journey - and offers a timely reminder that Black History is not all bleak.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Saying It Loud
- 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Mark Whitaker
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In gripping, novelistic detail, Saying It Loud tells the story of how the Black Power phenomenon began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in the turbulent year of 1966. Saying It Loud takes you inside the dramatic events in this seminal year, from Stokely Carmichael’s middle-of-the-night ouster of moderate icon John Lewis as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Carmichael’s impassioned cry of “Black Power!” during a protest march in rural Mississippi.
-
-
Detailed and Compelling
- By Nick on 06-26-23
By: Mark Whitaker
-
Barracoon
- The Story of the Last ""Black Cargo""
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
-
-
skip the introduction!
- By Earin on 10-16-18
-
Half American
- The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
- By: Matthew F. Delmont
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.”
-
-
Great!
- By Patrice Ghezzi on 01-24-23
-
The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
-
-
Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
-
Black AF History
- The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
- By: Michael Harriot
- Narrated by: Michael Harriot
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie. In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history.
-
-
LOVE It!
- By KMB on 09-29-23
By: Michael Harriot
-
The Original Black Elite
- Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era
- By: Elizabeth Dowling Taylor
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This cultural biography tells the enthralling story of the high-achieving Black elites who thrived in the nation's capital during Reconstruction. Daniel Murray (1851-1925), an assistant librarian at the Library of Congress, was a prominent member of this glorious class. Murray's life was reflective of those who were well-off at the time. This social circle included African American educators, ministers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, US senators and representatives, and other government officials.
-
-
Our History
- By Deidre Jackson on 02-23-19
-
Saying It Loud
- 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement
- By: Mark Whitaker
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In gripping, novelistic detail, Saying It Loud tells the story of how the Black Power phenomenon began to challenge the traditional civil rights movement in the turbulent year of 1966. Saying It Loud takes you inside the dramatic events in this seminal year, from Stokely Carmichael’s middle-of-the-night ouster of moderate icon John Lewis as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to Carmichael’s impassioned cry of “Black Power!” during a protest march in rural Mississippi.
-
-
Detailed and Compelling
- By Nick on 06-26-23
By: Mark Whitaker
-
Barracoon
- The Story of the Last ""Black Cargo""
- By: Zora Neale Hurston
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 3 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview 86-year-old Cudjo Lewis. Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation's history. Hurston was there to record Cudjo's firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States. In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile.
-
-
skip the introduction!
- By Earin on 10-16-18
-
Half American
- The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad
- By: Matthew F. Delmont
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Over one million Black men and women served in World War II. Black troops were at Normandy, Iwo Jima, and the Battle of the Bulge, serving in segregated units and performing unheralded but vital support jobs, only to be denied housing and educational opportunities on their return home. Without their crucial contributions to the war effort, the United States could not have won the war. And yet the stories of these Black veterans have long been ignored, cast aside in favor of the myth of the “Good War” fought by the “Greatest Generation.”
-
-
Great!
- By Patrice Ghezzi on 01-24-23
-
The Warmth of Other Suns
- The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
-
-
Superior non-fiction
- By Lila on 05-20-11
By: Isabel Wilkerson
-
Black AF History
- The Un-Whitewashed Story of America
- By: Michael Harriot
- Narrated by: Michael Harriot
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America’s backstory is a whitewashed mythology implanted in our collective memory. It should come as no surprise that the dominant narrative of American history is blighted with errors and oversights—after all, history books were written by white men with their perspectives at the forefront. It could even be said that the devaluation and erasure of the Black experience is as American as apple pie. In Black AF History, Michael Harriot presents a more accurate version of American history.
-
-
LOVE It!
- By KMB on 09-29-23
By: Michael Harriot
-
The Original Black Elite
- Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era
- By: Elizabeth Dowling Taylor
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This cultural biography tells the enthralling story of the high-achieving Black elites who thrived in the nation's capital during Reconstruction. Daniel Murray (1851-1925), an assistant librarian at the Library of Congress, was a prominent member of this glorious class. Murray's life was reflective of those who were well-off at the time. This social circle included African American educators, ministers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, US senators and representatives, and other government officials.
-
-
Our History
- By Deidre Jackson on 02-23-19
-
Black Eden
- The Idlewild Community
- By: Lewis Walker, Benjamin C. Wilson
- Narrated by: Padre Mickey
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Black Eden chronicles the history of Idlewild, a Michigan black community founded during the aftermath of the Civil War. As one of the nation’s most popular black resorts, Idlewild functioned as a gathering place for African Americans, and more importantly, as a touchstone of black identity and culture. Benjamin C. Wilson and Lewis Walker examine Idlewild’s significance within a historical context, as well as the town’s revitalization efforts and the need for comprehensive planning in future development.
-
-
Idlewild….. Michigan’s best kept secret!
- By RKB on 10-27-21
By: Lewis Walker, and others
-
American Sirens
- The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America's First Paramedics
- By: Kevin Hazzard
- Narrated by: Gilbert Glenn Brown
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Until the 1970s, if you suffered a medical crisis, your chances of survival were minimal. A 9-1-1 call might bring police or even the local funeral home. But that all changed with Freedom House EMS in Pittsburgh, a group of Black men who became America’s first paramedics and set the gold standard for emergency medicine around the world, only to have their story and their legacy erased—until now.
-
-
Deep, eye-opening, educational, life-changing . . . dramatic and engaging . . .
- By The Flash on 01-21-23
By: Kevin Hazzard
-
The Fifties
- An Underground History
- By: James R. Gaines
- Narrated by: James Fouhey
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An “enchanting, beautifully written book about heroes and the dark times to which they refused to surrender” (Todd Gitlin, bestselling author of The Sixties). In a series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental radicals—people motivated not by politics but by their own most intimate conflicts—who sparked movements for change in their time and our own. Among many others, we meet legal pathfinder Pauli Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her “in between” sexuality.
By: James R. Gaines
-
Terror in the City of Champions
- Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit
- By: Tom Stanton
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens - even, possibly, a beloved athlete.
-
-
Interesting stories but oversold
- By Theron Schultz on 09-15-18
By: Tom Stanton
-
One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
-
-
Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
-
Path Lit by Lightning
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrated by: David Maraniss
- Length: 23 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jim Thorpe rose to world fame as a mythic talent who excelled at every sport. Most famously, he won gold medals in the decathlon and pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, he was an All-American football player at the Carlisle Indian School, the star of the first class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and played major league baseball for John McGraw’s New York Giants. Even in a golden age of sports celebrities, he was one of a kind.
-
-
Authors can’t always narate
- By SH on 09-05-22
By: David Maraniss
-
The Big Fella
- Babe Ruth and the World He Created
- By: Jane Leavy
- Narrated by: Jane Leavy, Fred Sanders
- Length: 22 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After hitting his 60th home run in September 1927, Ruth embarked on the mother of all barnstorming tours, a three-week victory lap across America, accompanied by Yankee teammate Lou Gehrig. In The Big Fella, acclaimed biographer Jane Leavy recreates that 21-day circus and in so doing captures the romp and the pathos that defined Ruth’s life and times. Drawing from more than 250 interviews, a trove of previously untapped documents, and Ruth family records, Leavy breaks through the mythology that has obscured the legend and delivers the man.
-
-
Babe Ruth and American History
- By ALKinNYC on 10-21-18
By: Jane Leavy
-
Once in a Great City
- A Detroit Story
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrated by: David Maraniss
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1963, and Detroit is on top of the world. The city's leaders are among the most visionary in America. It was the American auto makers' best year; the revolution in music and politics was underway. Walter Reuther's UAW had helped lift the middle class. Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then. Yet so much of what Detroit gave America lasts.
-
-
Great read
- By Jordanel on 01-02-16
By: David Maraniss
-
Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
-
-
the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
-
Tigerland
- 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing
- By: Wil Haygood
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history, as riots and demonstrations spread across the nation, the Tigers of poor, segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio, did something no team from one school had ever done before: They won the state basketball and baseball championships in the same year. They defeated bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state and along the way brought blacks and whites together, eased a painful racial divide throughout the state, and overcame extraordinary obstacles on their road to success.
-
-
Flashback to the Late 1960s
- By Toni Bowes on 09-05-19
By: Wil Haygood
-
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
-
-
Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
-
Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
-
-
Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
Critic reviews
"Prentice Onayemi offers an engaging, easy-on-the-ears narration...the stories are interesting, and Onayemi tells them well." (AudioFile)
Related to this topic
-
Terror in the City of Champions
- Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit
- By: Tom Stanton
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens - even, possibly, a beloved athlete.
-
-
Interesting stories but oversold
- By Theron Schultz on 09-15-18
By: Tom Stanton
-
Once in a Great City
- A Detroit Story
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrated by: David Maraniss
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1963, and Detroit is on top of the world. The city's leaders are among the most visionary in America. It was the American auto makers' best year; the revolution in music and politics was underway. Walter Reuther's UAW had helped lift the middle class. Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then. Yet so much of what Detroit gave America lasts.
-
-
Great read
- By Jordanel on 01-02-16
By: David Maraniss
-
Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
-
-
the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
-
One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
-
-
Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
-
Tigerland
- 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing
- By: Wil Haygood
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history, as riots and demonstrations spread across the nation, the Tigers of poor, segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio, did something no team from one school had ever done before: They won the state basketball and baseball championships in the same year. They defeated bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state and along the way brought blacks and whites together, eased a painful racial divide throughout the state, and overcame extraordinary obstacles on their road to success.
-
-
Flashback to the Late 1960s
- By Toni Bowes on 09-05-19
By: Wil Haygood
-
Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
-
-
Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
-
Terror in the City of Champions
- Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society That Shocked Depression-Era Detroit
- By: Tom Stanton
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Detroit, mid-1930s: In a city abuzz over its unrivaled sports success, gun-loving baseball fan Dayton Dean became ensnared in the nefarious and deadly Black Legion. The secretive, Klan-like group was executing a wicked plan of terror, murdering enemies, flogging associates, and contemplating armed rebellion. The Legion boasted tens of thousands of members across the Midwest, among them politicians and prominent citizens - even, possibly, a beloved athlete.
-
-
Interesting stories but oversold
- By Theron Schultz on 09-15-18
By: Tom Stanton
-
Once in a Great City
- A Detroit Story
- By: David Maraniss
- Narrated by: David Maraniss
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1963, and Detroit is on top of the world. The city's leaders are among the most visionary in America. It was the American auto makers' best year; the revolution in music and politics was underway. Walter Reuther's UAW had helped lift the middle class. Once in a Great City shows that the shadows of collapse were evident even then. Yet so much of what Detroit gave America lasts.
-
-
Great read
- By Jordanel on 01-02-16
By: David Maraniss
-
Supreme City
- How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America
- By: Donald L. Miller
- Narrated by: Frangione Jim
- Length: 29 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In four words - "the capital of everything" - Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: The Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history.
-
-
the background to the NYC we now live in
- By Marcie on 03-05-15
By: Donald L. Miller
-
One Summer
- America, 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most admired nonfiction writers of our time retells the story of one truly fabulous year in the life of his native country - a fascinating and gripping narrative featuring such outsized American heroes as Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and yes Herbert Hoover, and a gallery of criminals (Al Capone), eccentrics (Shipwreck Kelly), and close-mouthed politicians (Calvin Coolidge). It was the year Americans attempted and accomplished outsized things and came of age in a big, brawling manner. What a country. What a summer. And what a writer to bring it all so vividly alive.
-
-
Why 1927?
- By Mark on 10-18-13
By: Bill Bryson
-
Tigerland
- 1968-1969: A City Divided, a Nation Torn Apart, and a Magical Season of Healing
- By: Wil Haygood
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Against the backdrop of one of the most tumultuous periods in recent American history, as riots and demonstrations spread across the nation, the Tigers of poor, segregated East High School in Columbus, Ohio, did something no team from one school had ever done before: They won the state basketball and baseball championships in the same year. They defeated bigger, richer, whiter teams across the state and along the way brought blacks and whites together, eased a painful racial divide throughout the state, and overcame extraordinary obstacles on their road to success.
-
-
Flashback to the Late 1960s
- By Toni Bowes on 09-05-19
By: Wil Haygood
-
Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
-
-
Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
-
My Song
- A Memoir
- By: Harry Belafonte, Michael Shnayerson
- Narrated by: Harry Belafonte, Mirron Willis
- Length: 19 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the struggles, the tragedies, and, most of all, the inspiring triumphs.
-
-
Amazing
- By Khafre on 12-30-11
By: Harry Belafonte, and others
-
New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
-
-
My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
-
A Flame of Pure Fire
- Jack Dempsey and the Roaring '20s
- By: Roger Kahn
- Narrated by: Kevin Yon
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Through most of the Roaring '20s, Jack Dempsey was the heavyweight champion of the world. With his fierce good looks and matchless dedication to the kill, he was a fighter perfectly suited to his time. In A Flame of Pure Fire, renowned sports writer Roger Kahn not only chronicles the thrilling, brutal bouts of the Manassa Mauler, but also illustrates how the tumultuous 1920s shaped Dempsey - and how the champ, in turn, left an indelible mark on sports and American history.
-
-
Ambitious but poorly executed
- By Keith on 10-02-19
By: Roger Kahn
-
The Black Calhouns
- From Civil War to Civil Rights with One African American Family
- By: Gail Lumet Buckley
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Black Calhouns, Gail Lumet Buckley - daughter of actress Lena Horne - delves deep into her family history, detailing the experiences of an extraordinary African American family from Civil War to civil rights. Beginning with her great-great-grandfather, Moses Calhoun, a house slave who used the rare advantage of his education to become a successful businessman in postwar Atlanta, Buckley follows her family's two branches: one that stayed in the South and the other that settled in Brooklyn.
-
-
The Black Calhouns
- By Marva on 10-15-24
-
Black Detroit
- A People's History of Self-Determination
- By: Herb Boyd
- Narrated by: James Shippy
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author of Baldwin's Harlem looks at the evolving culture, politics, economics, and spiritual life of Detroit - a blend of memoir, love letter, history, and clear-eyed reportage that explores the city's past, present, and future and its significance to the African American legacy and the nation's fabric.
-
-
Selective Recall
- By Rick on 07-19-17
By: Herb Boyd
-
Beale Street Dynasty
- Sex, Song, and the Struggle for the Soul of Memphis
- By: Preston Lauterbach
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Following the Civil War, Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee, thrived as a cauldron of sex and song, violence and passion. But out of this turmoil emerged a center of black progress, optimism, and cultural ferment. Preston Lauterbach tells this vivid, fascinating story through the multigenerational saga of a family whose ambition, race pride, and moral complexity indelibly shaped the city that would loom so large in American life.
-
-
Narration Speed...It's Half the Battle
- By B. Westman on 03-21-17
-
The Masters
- Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia
- By: Curt Sampson
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Masters golf tournament weaves a hypnotic spell. It is the toughest ticket in sports, with black-market tickets selling for $10,000 and more. Success at Augusta National breeds legends, while failure can overshadow even the most brilliant of careers. But as Curt Sampson reveals in The Masters, a cold heart beats behind the warm antebellum facade of this famous Augusta course.
-
-
Okay Listen, but
- By Scott D. Loeffler on 05-02-08
By: Curt Sampson
-
King of the Blues
- The Rise and Reign of B.B. King
- By: Daniel De Visé
- Narrated by: Cary Hite
- Length: 17 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Riley “Blues Boy” King (1925-2015) was born into deep poverty in Jim Crow Mississippi. Wrenched away from his sharecropper father, B.B. lost his mother at age 10, leaving him more or less alone. Music became his emancipation from exhausting toil in the fields. Inspired by a local minister’s guitar and by the records of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker and encouraged by his cousin, the established blues man Bukka White, B.B. taught his guitar to sing in the unique solo style that, along with his relentless work ethic and humanity, became his trademark.
-
-
Excellent
- By Sonny Garcia on 01-02-24
By: Daniel De Visé
-
42 Faith
- The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story
- By: Ed Henry
- Narrated by: Ed Henry
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Journalist and baseball lover Ed Henry reveals for the first time the backstory of faith that guided Jackie Robinson into not only the baseball record books but the annals of civil rights advancement as well. Through recently discovered sermons, interviews with Robinson's family and friends, and even an unpublished book by the player himself, Henry details a side of Jackie's humanity that few have taken the time to see.
-
-
42Faith
- By Phillip L. on 04-11-17
By: Ed Henry
-
Unbeaten
- By: Mike Stanton
- Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling author of The Prince of Providence comes a revelatory biography of Rocky Marciano, the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.The son of poor Italian immigrants, with short arms and stubby legs, Rocky Marciano accomplished a feat that eluded legendary heavyweight champions like Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson: He never lost a professional fight. His record was a perfect 49-0.
-
-
Great book, terrible accents in the reading
- By Ishmael Angaluuk Hope on 11-02-21
By: Mike Stanton
-
Levittown
- Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb
- By: David Kushner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the decade after World War II , one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. The Levitts, William, Alfred, and their father, Abe, pooled their talents to create storybook towns with affordable little houses. They laid out the welcome mat - but not to everyone. Levittown had a Whites-only policy.
By: David Kushner
-
1969
- The Year Everything Changed
- By: Rob Kirkpatrick
- Narrated by: Jonah Cummings
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Woodstock, the moon landing, Charles Manson, Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and more. A must-have for baby boomers and the generations that came after! In this rich and comprehensive narrative, Rob Kirkpatrick chronicles an unparalleled year in American society in all its explosive ups and downs.
-
-
What a year!!
- By kathy deal on 11-17-20
By: Rob Kirkpatrick
What listeners say about Smoketown
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jasen
- 11-28-22
Interesting historical perspective
It was fascinating to learn about Pittsburgh's place in African American history and that of the nation at large.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 02-27-24
An Untold History of Pittsburgh
I grew up around Pittsburgh and have read pretty widely, and almost everything here was news to me. No surprise there. Smoketown doesn’t set out to be a comprehensive history of Black Pittsburgh; it’s a series of histories that, together, form a kind of Romare Bearden collage of many of the people, places, and things that made twentieth century Black Pittsburgh, and by extension Pittsburgh itself, great. As the stories pile up, it’s hard not to feel moved by the staggering level of accomplishment arising from just a few neighborhoods. There is also a profound sense of injustice as the effects of systemic discrimination begin to compound and literally eat away at the superstructure of what was. An informative, gripping, necessary read, well-written and equally well-performed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr. Pepper
- 05-01-18
Hopes for Pittsburgh aka "Up South"
This book provides an outstanding history of Pittsburgh as a city, but more so Black life in Pittsburgh. It lays out the struggles and challenges Blacks faced at the hands of racism, hate and ignorance. A sometimes tragic story of segregation and opportunities denied, told with as much eloquence as a gruesome story can be told. There were many stories of success celebrated in this book, mostly in sports and entertainment, but each an up hill battle. Hopefully Pittsburgh and America will one day see beyond skin color... but until then, books like this are vitally important to prevent history from repeating itself.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Renee Bryant
- 09-03-19
I learned so much!
You shall perish from a lack of knowledge!! There are so many beautiful stories about our “Black” American history. I’m grateful that someone made this available to us. This book is a gem.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Monique AJ Smith
- 04-04-24
Pittsburgh surprises
it was full of surprises of Pittsburgh greats. So well intertwined. From Lena Horne to August Wilson, who knew they were from Pittsburgh. The characters were so well fleshed out. Well done.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mortimer Jones
- 09-30-21
Absolutely stellar scholarly effort
One of the better historical pieces I listened to in quite some time. Bravo!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- all our stories
- 01-01-24
A very informative book.
Just when I thought I knew all about the Harlem Renaissance, I came to find this book. I throughly enjoyed this book. It peeked my interest about August Wilson and others. I’ll be looking to learn more about him now.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-04-23
Good book, well written
I love the way the author surreptitiously introduces one story or historical figure into the next era of Pittsburgh. It’s very interesting learning the background of many famous individuals and the geopolitical circumstances that led them to fame. You can tell an immense amount of research was completed for every aspect of this book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dee
- 03-06-23
Enjoyed this book
I found this book interesting and I learned from reading it. I loved reading about Jackie Robinson, Lena Horne and Billy Strayhorne, and all the others that broke through barriers. It was interesting and the way the chapters were written was excellent. I would recommend this book highly. Also the narration was very good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Patricia Don
- 02-20-22
History Telling At Its Best!
How did I miss this book? An iconic cultural Renaissance in Pennsylvania! I was amazed at all of the talented people who came up from the South to this place called Smoketown. This well written and narrated piece of fiction is a treasure that history lovers will cherish. My Book Club will love it!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!