# Audie Award for History or Biography

The Audie Award for History or Biography is one of the Audie Awards presented annually by the Audio Publishers Association (APA). It awards excellence in narration, production, and content for a history or biography audiobook released in a given year. Before 2015 this was given as two distinct awards, the Audie Award for Biography or Memoir (awarded since 2003; also split into the modern Audie Award for Autobiography or Memoir) and the Audie Award for History (awarded since 2009).

## Winners and finalists

Winners are listed first and highlighted in green.

### 2010s

| Year | Title | Author(s) | Narrator(s) | Publisher |
| 2015 20th | The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism (2013) | Doris Kearns Goodwin | Edward Herrmann | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2015 20th | Enduring Courage: Ace Pilot Eddie Rickenbacker and the Dawn of the Age of Speed (2014) | John F. Ross | Edward Herrmann | Macmillan Audio |
| 2015 20th | Enemy Coast Ahead: Uncensored (2003) | Guy Gibson | Simon Vance | Tantor Audio |
| 2015 20th | In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette (2014) | Hampton Sides | Arthur Morey | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2015 20th | Lincoln's Gamble: The Tumultuous Six Months That Gave America the Emancipation Proclamation and Changed the Course of the Civil War (2014) | Todd Brewster | Todd Brewster | Brilliance Audio |
| 2015 20th | A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal (2014) | Ben Macintyre | John Rafter Lee | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2016 21st | A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (1994) | Andrew Chaikin and Tom Hanks | Bronson Pinchot | Audiobooks.com Publishing |
| 2016 21st | In Search of Sir Thomas Browne: The Life and Afterlife (2015) | Hugh Aldersey-Williams | Simon Vance | HighBridge Audio/Recorded Books |
| 2016 21st | Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide (2015) | Eric Bogosian | Eric Bogosian | Hachette Audio |
| 2016 21st | Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers (1991) | Simon Winchester | Simon Winchester | HarperAudio |
| 2016 21st | Texas Rising: The Epic True Story of the Lone Star Republic (2015) | Stephen L. Moore | P. J. Ochlan | HarperAudio |
| 2017 22nd | In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors (2001) | Doug Stanton | Mark Boyett | Audible |
| 2017 22nd | Paul McCartney: The Life (2016) | Philip Norman | Jonathan Keeble | Recorded Books |
| 2017 22nd | A Time to Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy (2002) | Robert Moore | Pete Cross | Dreamscape |
| 2017 22nd | Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution (2016) | Nathaniel Philbrick | Scott Brick | Penguin Random House Audio/Books on Tape |
| 2017 22nd | The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606 (2015) | James S. Shapiro | Robert Fass | Tantor Audio |
| 2018 23rd | Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case (2017) | Patricia Hruby Powell | Adenrele Ojo and MacLeod Andrews | Dreamscape |
| 2018 23rd | Bette and Joan: The Divine Feud (1989) | Shaun Considine | January LaVoy | Graymalkin Media |
| 2018 23rd | Born Survivors: Three Young Mothers and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage, Defiance, and Hope (2015) | Wendy Holden | Elizabeth Wiley | Tantor Audio |
| 2018 23rd | Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II (2017) | Liza Mundy | Erin Bennett | Hachette Audio |
| 2018 23rd | The Home Front: Life in America During World War II (2017) | Audible Originals, Martin Sheen, and Dan Gediman | Martin Sheen | Audible Originals |
| 2018 23rd | My Life, My Love, My Legacy (2017) | Coretta Scott King and Barbara Reynolds | Phylicia Rashad and January LaVoy | Macmillan Audio |
| 2019 24th | Darkest Hour: How Churchill Brought Us Back from the Brink (2018) | Anthony McCarten | John Rafter Lee | HarperAudio |
| 2019 24th | The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers (2018) | Maxwell King | LeVar Burton | Oasis Audio |
| 2019 24th | Indianapolis: The True Story of the Worst Sea Disaster in U.S. Navy History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man (2018) | Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic | John Bedford Lloyd | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2019 24th | Robin (2018) | Dave Itzkoff | Fred Berman and Dave Itzkoff | Macmillan Audio |
| 2019 24th | We Were Soldiers Once… and Young (1992) | Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway | Jonathan Davis | Tantor Audio |

### 2020s

| Year | Title | Author(s) | Narrator(s) | Publisher |
| 2020 25th | American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race (2019) | Douglas Brinkley | Stephen Graybill | HarperAudio |
| 2020 25th | The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington (2019) | Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch | Scott Brick | Macmillan Audio |
| 2020 25th | Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee (2019) | Casey Cep | Hillary Huber | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2020 25th | The Queen: The Forgotten Life Behind an American Myth (2019) | Josh Levin | January LaVoy | Hachette Audio |
| 2020 25th | Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense (2019) | Dan Abrams and David Fisher | Roger Wayne and Dan Abrams | Harlequin |
| 2021 26th | His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope (2020) | Jon Meacham | JD Jackson | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2021 26th | The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (2020) | Les Payne and Tamara Payne | Dion Graham | Recorded Books |
| 2021 26th | Deep Delta Justice: A Black Teen, His Lawyer, and Their Groundbreaking Battle for Civil Rights in the South (2020) | Matthew Van Meter | Brad Sanders | Hachette Audio |
| 2021 26th | J. R. R. Tolkien: The Making of a Legend (2012) | Colin Duriez | Simon Vance | Oasis Audio |
| 2021 26th | Just Us: An American Conversation (2020) | Claudia Rankine | Janina Edwards | Audible |
| 2021 26th | The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977) | Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch | Scott Brick | Macmillan Audio |
| 2022 27th | Clanlands: Whisky, Warfare, and a Scottish Adventure Like No Other | Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish | Sam Heughan and Graham McTavish | Hodder & Stoughton |
| 2022 27th | Music Is History | Ahmir Khalib Thompson (Questlove) | Ahmir Khalib Thompson (Questlove) | Recorded Books |
| 2022 27th | Somersett: Benjamin Franklin and the Masterminding of American Independence | Philip Goodrich | Robert Petkoff , Joe Morton, Simon Jones, Euan Morton, Nicola Barber, and the author (Author's note and afterword) | Blackstone Publishing and May Wuthrich Productions |
| 2022 27th | The Code Breaker (2021) | Walter Isaacson | Kathe Mazur with Walter Isaacson | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2022 27th | A Weekend with Pablo Picasso | Herbert Sigüenza | Herbert Sigüenza | L.A. Theatre Works |
| 2023 27th | Summer of '85 | Chris Morrow, Kevin Hart, Tara Thomas, Nicole Shelton, Charlamagne Tha God, Marc Gerald, Dave Becky, Mike Stein, Thai Randolph, Bryan Smiley, and Karen Kinney | Kevin Hart | Audible Originals |
| 2023 27th | An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States | Kyle T. Mays | Shaun Taylor-Corbett | Beacon Press Audio |
| 2023 27th | His Name is George Floyd (2022) | Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa | Dion Graham, Robert Samuels, and Toluse Olorunnipa | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2023 27th | Last Slave Ship | Ben Raines | Kevin R. Free | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2023 27th | Undelivered | Jeff Nussbaum | Adam Gifford, Brian Bowles, Elisa Roth, Garrick Hagon, Glen McCready, Greg Lockett, James Lailey, Jeff Nussbaum, Johnny Heller, Kathleen Chalfant, Kurt Kanazawa, and Lance Blair | Macmillan Audio |
| 2024 29th | Goodbye Christopher Robin: A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh | Ann Thwaite, preface by Frank Cottrell-Boyce | Simon Vance | Tantor Audio |
| 2024 29th | Elon Musk | Walter Isaacson | Jeremy Bobb and Walter Isaacson | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2024 29th | Empire of Ice and Stone: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk | Buddy Levy | Will Damron | Macmillan Audio |
| 2024 29th | The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder (2023) | David Grann | Dion Graham with David Grann | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2024 29th | King: A Life | Jonathan Eig | Dion Graham | Macmillan Audio |
| 2025 30th | The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created the President | Edward F. O'Keefe | Edward F. O'Keefe | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2025 30th | Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space | Adam Higginbotham | Jacques Roy | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2025 30th | Codename Nemo | Charles Lachman | Qarie Marshall | Dreamscape Media LLC |
| 2025 30th | The Demon of Unrest | Erik Larson | Will Patton and Erik Larson | Penguin Random House Audio |
| 2025 30th | The Showman | Simon Shuster | Daniel Gamburg | HarperAudio |

## Biography/Memoir winners and finalists 2003–2014
### 2000s

| Year | Title | Author(s) | Narrator(s) | Publisher |
| 2003 8th | Lucky Man: A Memoir (2002) | Michael J. Fox | Michael J. Fox | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2003 8th | Getting to Know William Shakespeare (2001) | Joy Wake | Fred Child | Echo Peak Productions |
| 2003 8th | Legacy (2002) | Doc Watson and David Holt | Doc Watson and David Holt | High Windy Audio |
| 2003 8th | Theodore Rex (2001) | Edmund Morris | Harry Chase | Random House Audio |
| 2003 8th | Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye Can See (2002) b | Erik Weihenmayer | Nick Sullivan | The Audio Partners Publishing Corp. |
| 2004 9th | The Nazi Officer's Wife: How One Jewish Woman Survived the Holocaust (1999) | Edith Hahn Beer | Barbara Rosenblat | Jewish Contemporary Classics |
| 2004 9th | A Long Way from Home: Growing Up in the American Heartland (2002) | Tom Brokaw | Tom Brokaw | Random House Audio |
| 2004 9th | Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003) | Walter Isaacson | Boyd Gaines | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2004 9th | Hannibal: One Man Against Rome (1958) | Harold Lamb | Charlton Griffin | Audio Connoisseur |
| 2004 9th | My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile (2003) | Isabel Allende | Blair Brown | HarperAudio |
| 2005 10th | Chronicles: Volume One (2004) | Bob Dylan | Sean Penn | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2005 10th | Big Russ and Me: Father and Son (2004) | Tim Russert | Tim Russert | Hyperion AudioBooks |
| 2005 10th | Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America (2003) | Firoozeh Dumas | Firoozeh Dumas | Audible |
| 2005 10th | Holy Cow: An Indian Adventure (2002) | Sarah McDonald | Kate Hosking | Bolinda Audio |
| 2005 10th | The House on Beartown Road (2003) | Elizabeth Cohen | Bernadette Dunne | Blackstone Audio |
| 2005 10th | Mornings on Horseback (1981) | David McCullough | Edward Herrmann | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2005 10th | The Twelve Caesars (AD 121) | Suetonius | Charlton Griffin | Audio Connoisseur |
| 2006 11th | Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise (2005) | Ruth Reichl | Ruth Reichl | Random House Audio |
| 2006 11th | iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business (2005) | Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon | Alan Sklar, Jeffrey S. Young, and William L. Simon | Penton Overseas |
| 2006 11th | The Tender Bar (2005) | J. R. Moehringer | J. R. Moehringer | Time Warner AudioBooks |
| 2006 11th | We Are All the Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love (2004) | Jim Wooten | Alan Sklar | Tantor Audio |
| 2006 11th | The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) | Joan Didion | Barbara Caruso | HighBridge Audio |
| 2007 12th | Teacher Man (2005) | Frank McCourt | Frank McCourt | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2007 12th | Diana: Finally, the Complete Story (2006) | Sarah Bradford | Katherine Kellgren | Penguin Audio |
| 2007 12th | Dispatches from the Edge (2006) | Anderson Cooper | Anderson Cooper | HarperAudio |
| 2007 12th | Elizabeth (2006) | J. Randy Taraborrelli | Lynne Maclean | Hachette Audio |
| 2007 12th | Sound and Fury: Two Powerful Lives, One Fateful Friendship (2006) | David Kindred | Dick Hill | Blackstone Audio |
| 2007 12th | The Great Escape: Nine Jews Who Fled Hitler and Changed the World (2006) | Kati Marton | Anna Fields | Tantor Audio |
| 2008 13th | Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007) | Walter Isaacson | Edward Herrmann | Simon & Schuster Audio |
| 2008 13th | My Lobotomy (2007) | Howard Dully and Charles Fleming | Johnny Heller | Tantor Audio |
| 2008 13th | Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography (2007) | David Michaelis | Holter Graham | HarperAudio |
| 2008 13th | Shakespeare: The World As Stage (2007) | Bill Bryson | Bill Bryson | HarperAudio |
| 2008 13th | Tearing Down the Wall of Sound (2008) | Mick Brown | Ray Porter | Blackstone Audio |
| 2009 14th | The Last Lecture (2008) | Randy Pausch | Erik Singer | HyperionAudio |
| 2009 14th | Black Wave: A Family's Adventure at Sea and the Disaster (2008) | John and Jean Silverwood and Malcolm McConnell | Carrington MacDuffie and Joe Barrett | Blackstone Audio |
| 2009 14th | The Legs Are the Last to Go (2008) | Diahann Carroll | Diahann Carroll | HarperAudio |
| 2009 14th | The Middle Place (2005) | Kelly Corrigan | Tavia Gilbert | Blackstone Audio |
| 2009 14th | Waiter Rant (2008) | Steve Dublanica | Dan John Miller | Brilliance Audio |

### 2010s

| Year | Title | Author(s) | Narrator(s) | Publisher |
| 2010 15th | Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped to Hide the Frank Family (1987) | Miep Gies and Leslie Gold | Barbara Rosenblat | Oasis Audio |
| 2010 15th | The Golden Willow: The Story of a Lifetime of Love (2009) | Harry Bernstein | Mike Kellogg | Oasis Audio |
| 2010 15th | The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister (2009) | Nonna Bannister and Denise George | Rebecca Gallagher | Oasis Audio |
| 2010 15th | True Compass (2009) | Edward Kennedy | John Bedford Lloyd | Hachette Audio |
| 2010 15th | Valkyrie: The Story of the Plot to Kill Hitler by Its Last Member (2009) | Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager and Florence and Jérôme Fehrenbach | Michael Prichard | Tantor Audio |
| 2011 16th | Life (2010) | Keith Richards | Johnny Depp and Joe Hurley | Hachette Audio |
| 2011 16th | The Slave Across the Street: The True Story of How an American Teen Survived the World of Human Trafficking (2010) | Theresa Flores | Renee Raudman | ChristianAudio |
| 2011 16th | Somewhere Inside (2010) | Lisa Ling and Laura Ling | Lisa Ling and Laura Ling | HarperAudio |
| 2011 16th | This Time Together (2010) | Carol Burnett | Carol Burnett | Random House Audio |
| 2011 16th | Abigail Adams: A Life (2009) | Woody Holton | Cassandra Campbell | Tantor Audio |
| 2012 17th | Bossypants (2011) | Tina Fey | Tina Fey | Hachette Audio |
| 2012 17th | The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love (2010) | Kristin Kimball | Tavia Gilbert | Tantor Audio |
| 2012 17th | Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life (2011) | Michael Moore | Michael Moore | Hachette Audio |
| 2012 17th | My Dog Tulip (1956) | J. R. Ackerley | Ralph Cosham | Blackstone Audio |
| 2012 17th | Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever (2011) | Luis Carlos Montalvan | Luis Carlos Montalvan | Audible |
| 2013 18th | The Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival (1999) | Sara Tuvel Bernstein, Louise Loots Thornton, and Marlene Bernstein Samuels | Wanda McCaddon | Tantor Audio |
| 2013 18th | Cronkite (2012) | Douglas Brinkley | George Guidall | HarperAudio |
| 2013 18th | Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey (2011) | Fiona Aitken, Lady Carnarvon | Wanda McCaddon | Tantor Audio |
| 2013 18th | My Cross to Bear (2012) | Gregg Allman and Alan Light | Will Patton | HarperAudio |
| 2013 18th | Two Rings: A Story of Love and War (2012) | Millie Werber and Eve Keller | Yelena Shmulenson and Eve Keller | HighBridge Audio |
| 2014 19th | The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild (2009) | Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence | Simon Vance | Tantor Audio |
| 2014 19th | [sic]: A Memoir (2011) | Joshua Cody | Edoardo Ballerini | Audible |
| 2014 19th | My Beloved World (1992) | Sonia Sotomayor | Rita Moreno | Random House Audio/Books on Tape |
| 2014 19th | World on a String (2012) | John Pizzarelli | Joseph Cosgriff | Audible |
| 2014 19th | I Am Malala: The Story of the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban (2013) | Malala Yousafzai | Archie Panjabi | Hachette Audio |

## History winners and finalists 2009–2014
### 2000s

| Year | Title | Author(s) | Narrator(s) | Publisher |
| 2009 14th | Gandhi and Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age (2008) | Arthur Herman | John Curless | Recorded Books |
| 2009 14th | Pictures at a Revolution (2008) | Mark Harris | Lloyd James | Tantor Audio |
| 2009 14th | The Bloody Shirt (2008) | Stephen Budiansky | Phil Gigante | Brilliance Audio |
| 2009 14th | The Ghost Mountain Boys (2007) | James Campbell | Stephen Hoye | Tantor Audio |
| 2009 14th | The Hemingses of Monticello (2008) | Annette Gordon-Reed | Karen White | Tantor Audio |

### 2010s

| Year | Title | Author(s) | Narrator(s) | Publisher |
| 2010 15th | Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath (2009) | Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman | Michael Prichard | Tantor Audio |
| 2010 15th | 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History (2009) | Charles Bracelen Flood | Mel Foster | Tantor Audio |
| 2010 15th | The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (2008) | Niall Ferguson | Simon Prebble | Tantor Audio |
| 2010 15th | Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West (1970) | Dee Brown | Grover Gardner | Blackstone Audio |
| 2010 15th | The Long Knives Are Crying (2008) | Joseph M. Marshall III | Joseph M. Marshall III | Blackstone Audio |
| 2011 16th | Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic (2009) | Gordon S. Wood | Robert Fass | Audible |
| 2011 16th | 1959: The Year Everything Changed (2009) | Fred Kaplan | Joe Barrett | Audible |
| 2011 16th | The History of Rome, Volume 1 (9 BC) | Livy | Charlton Griffin | Audio Connoisseur |
| 2011 16th | A People's History of the United States (1980) | Howard Zinn | Jeff Zinn | Harper Audio |
| 2011 16th | Vikings of the Ice: Being the Log of a Tenderfoot on the Great (1924) | George Allan England | Frank Holden | Rattling Books |
| 2012 17th | 1861: The Civil War Awakening (2011) | Adam Goodheart | Jonathan Davis | Audible |
| 2012 17th | 1812: The Navy's War (2011) | George C. Daughan | Marc Vietor | Audible |
| 2012 17th | Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (1963) | Hannah Arendt | Wanda McCaddon | Tantor Audio |
| 2012 17th | The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer (2010) | Siddhartha Mukherjee | Stephen Hoye | Tantor Audio |
| 2012 17th | In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin (2011) | Erik Larson | Stephen Hoye | Random House Audio/Books on Tape |
| 2013 18th | The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret (2012) | Kent Hartman | Dan John Miller | Tantor Audio |
| 2013 18th | Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image (2012) | Toby Lester | Stephen Hoye | Tantor Audio |
| 2013 18th | L.A. Noir: The Struggle for the Soul of America's Most Seductive City (2009) | John Buntin | Kirby Heyborne | Tantor Audio |
| 2013 18th | Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942 (2011) | Ian W. Toll | Grover Gardner | Audible |
| 2013 18th | Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love (2012) | David Talbot | Arthur Morey | Brilliance Audio |
| 2013 18th | Twelve Desperate Miles: The Epic World War II Voyage of the SS Contessa (2013) | Tim Brady | Joe Barrett | AudioGo |
| 2014 19th | Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (2012) | Gilbert King | Peter Francis James | HarperAudio |
| 2014 19th | C. C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (2007) | Geoff Williams | Robertson Dean | Tantor Audio |
| 2014 19th | Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II (2013) | Mitchell Zuckoff | Mitchell Zuckoff | HarperAudio |
| 2014 19th | The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War (2013) | Daniel Stashower | Edoardo Ballerini | Macmillan Audio |
| 2014 19th | Nero's Killing Machine: The True Story of Rome's Remarkable 14th Legion (2005) | Stephen Dando-Collins | Robert Fass | Audible |
| 2014 19th | One Summer: America, 1927 (2013) | Bill Bryson | Bill Bryson | Random House Audio/Books on Tape |