Showing results by narrator "David Zarbock" in All Categories

Among all the Native American tribes, the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans learned the hard way that the warriors of the Apache were among the fiercest in North America. Based in the Southwest, the Apache fought all three in Mexico and the American Southwest, engaging in seasonal raids for so many centuries that the Apache struck fear into the hearts of all their neighbors. Given the group's reputation, it's fitting that they are inextricably associated with one of their most famous leaders, Geronimo.

One of the most influential Native American tribes on the Great Plains was the Arapaho, a group so renowned among neighboring Native Americans that it's believed their name came from a Pawnee word for "trader. Like other notable Plains tribes, the Arapaho split off from other groups around the 16th-17th centuries and shifted from a sedentary agricultural society to the kind of nomadic group many envision when thinking of groups on the Plains.

During the last 100 years, Susan B. Anthony has been one of the most venerated women in American history, but in the 80 years before that, she was one of the most hated women in American history. Today, of course, every American is taught about their nation’s most famous suffragist, who tirelessly advocated and lobbied for women to be granted the right to vote. History for Kids: An Illustrated Biography of Susan B. Anthony for Children chronicles the life of America’s greatest human rights champion, examining her writings and her work across the political spectrum.

Eleanor is one of her country’s most famous and admired first ladies, an ironic fact considering she was worried being the wife of a successful politician would force her to take on what she considered to be irrelevant ceremonial roles. History for Kids: An Illustrated Biography of Eleanor Roosevelt for Children chronicles the amazing life and career of one of the nation’s most important First Ladies, but it also humanizes her to paint the fuller picture.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt might be America’s greatest 20th century president, but there’s no question that he was the most unique. Eleanor is one of her country’s most famous and admired first ladies, but history might remember Eleanor more for what she did outside of the White House, as she became a critically acclaimed author and advocate of civil and women's rights. This audiobook covers all the well-known highlights of their lives, their relationship, and their work.

History for Kids: The Illustrated Life of Franklin D. Roosevelt covers all the well known highlights of Roosevelt's life and presidency, but it also humanizes the nation's longest-serving president, covering Roosevelt's family and famous wife, the philosophical shift Roosevelt led the country through with the New Deal, and the tenacious fighter who battled polio and Adolf Hitler.

Teddy Roosevelt is remembered for being an explorer, hunter, author, soldier, president, and safari adventurer, all of which combine into one unique reputation. Roosevelt is often portrayed more as a quintessential man’s man, to the point that the legend obscures the actual man. History for Kids: The Illustrated Life of Theodore Roosevelt covers the amazing and various facets of Roosevelt’s life and career, while also looking at his personal life and assessing his ongoing legacy.

In the 19th century, one of the surest ways to rise to prominence in American society was to be a war hero, like Andrew Jackson and William Henry Harrison. But few would have predicted such a destiny for Hiram Ulysses Grant, who had been a career soldier with little experience in combat and a failed businessman when the Civil War broke out in 1861. However, while all eyes were fixed on the Eastern Theater at places like Manassas, Richmond, the Shenandoah Valley, and Antietam, Grant went about a steady rise up the ranks through a series of successes in the West. 

With the possible exception of Martin Luther King, Jr., no African American has been more instrumental in the fight for minorities' civil rights in the United States than Frederick Douglass 1818 - 1895), an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. His list of accomplishments would be impressive enough even without taking into account the fact that he was born into slavery. Douglass' father was a white man, even perhaps his master Aaron Anthony. When Douglass was about 12, his slaveowner's wife, Sophia Auld, began teaching him the alphabet in defiance of the South's laws against teaching slaves how to read. When her husband Hugh found out, he was furious, reminding her that if the slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. Those words would prove prophetic.

The name "Geronimo" evokes a number of different emotions. Those who believed in 19th-century America’s "Manifest Destiny" viewed Geronimo and all Native Americans as impediments to God's will for the nation. Descendants of people killed by "hostile" natives certainly considered warriors like Geronimo to be murderers and thieves, whose cultures and societies held no redeeming values. Even today, many Americans associate the name Geronimo with a war cry, and the name Geronimo itself only came about because of a battle he fought against the Mexicans. Over time, however, the historical perception of the relationship between America and native tribes changed drastically.

Crockett had the distinction of being a living legend in his own life. Known as a hardscrabble frontiersman who could spin a good yarn but who also took a no-nonsense approach that brought him from the backwoods of Tennessee to the halls of Congress. Though he served during the presidency of another Westerner, Andrew Jackson, Crockett was very much his own man, and he was distrustful of other politicians, a sentiment that has only endured him further to subsequent generations of Americans.

For the United States, the Battle of the Alamo is in many ways its version of the Greeks' Thermopylae. In February 1836, a few hundred defenders of a small fort, which once served as a mission, found themselves besieged by several thousand Mexican soldiers under Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Rather than withdraw, the defenders requested reinforcements and made a determined stand at the Alamo, eventually falling down to nearly the last man on March 6, 1836.

Porter Alexander spent 1861 as an intelligence officer, and he served as part of a signal guard, but he soon became chief of ordnance for Joseph Johnston's army near Richmond. Half a year later, Johnston would be injured during the Peninsula Campaign at the Battle of Seven Pines, after which he was replaced by Robert E. Lee. Over the course of 1862, Porter Alexander took on more roles in the Army of Northern Virginia's artillery branch, particularly under James Longstreet's 1st Corps.

The essence of the event commonly known as the Roswell Crash is that someone saw something in the sky during the summer of 1947. Days later someone else found some odd foil, paper, and wood on the grounds of a ranch in the New Mexico desert nearly a hundred miles from Roswell. A day or two after that, the debris was taken to a military airbase in Roswell, New Mexico, where it remained overnight before the military flew it to another airbase in Ohio.

Few things in American history are as controversial as Roswell. The one undeniable fact is that something happened near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, but beyond that, the facts become murky as memories and evidence lose their luster over the years. That said, the impact of an unidentified object continues to mystify residents, visitors and the curious, and it has not only put Roswell on the map but has kept it there for thousands of tourists.

The rugged island of Sicily, dominated in the east by the snow-crowned eminence of the active volcano Mount Etna (which rises to a height of 11,000 feet), lies in the ocean just off the "toe" of the "boot" of Italy. This spectacular setting witnessed one of 1943's pivotal battles as the theater of Allied operations shifted from North Africa to Europe - Operation Husky, a mixed victory wresting control of Sicily from the Axis.

The title of Iron Brigade has been given to a number of different US Army brigades over the last century and a half, but it has become almost entirely synonymous with the Civil War soldiers who fought in the brigade for the Army of the Potomac. Also known as the Iron Brigade of the West, Rufus King’s Brigade and the Black Hat Brigade, the Iron Brigade was comprised of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiments, the 19th Indiana, Battery B of the 4th US Light Artillery, and later, the 24th Michigan.

Unlike many aspects of other conspiracy theories, Area 51 is a frequently-documented fact. UFO seekers can theorize to their hearts' content about what might have gone on there or whether Area 51 even exists, but Area 51 is quite real.

The West Coast of the United States has always been a center of mystery. Native American legends, tantalizing traces of Chinese visits in the Middle Ages, lost gold mines, and supernatural visitations are only some of the phenomena in a region rich with stories of the unknown.

Buddy Baker was Disney music. Mostly known as the composer of the Haunted Mansion song and score, he was also a composer of films ( Wicked Woman, The Fox and the Hound), television shows (the original Mickey Mouse Club), and numerous theme park attractions (World of Motion, Wonders of China, Kitchen Kaberet, Impressions de France) around the globe.