
Red Dead's History
A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past
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Narrated by:
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Roger Clark
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By:
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Tore C. Olsson
About this listen
"A must-listen for fans of the beloved game."—Den of Geek
This program is read by Roger Clark, the iconic and award-winning full performance-capture actor of Red Dead Redemption 2's Arthur Morgan, who returns to the wildly dramatic and gritty world of the American frontier in this audiobook edition of Red Dead's History. It also features a prologue and epilogue read by the author.
A pathbreaking new way to examine US history, through the lens of a bestselling video game
Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II, set in 1911 and 1899, are the most-played American history video games since The Oregon Trail. Beloved by millions, they’ve been widely acclaimed for their realism and attention to detail. But how do they fare as re-creations of history?
In this engaging audiobook, award-winning American history professor Tore Olsson takes up that question and more. Weaving the games’ plots and characters into an exploration of American violence between 1870 and 1920, Olsson shows that it was more often disputes over capitalism and race, not just poker games and bank robberies, that fueled the bloodshed of these turbulent years. As such, this era has much to teach us today. From the West to the Deep South to Appalachia, Olsson reveals the gritty and brutal world that inspired the games, but sometimes lacks context and complexity on the digital screen. Colorful, fast-paced, and dramatic, Red Dead’s History sheds light on dark corners of the American past for gamers and history buffs alike.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2024 Tore C. Olsson (P)2024 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"A landmark in writing about video games. Never before has a trained historian dived so deeply (and enthusiastically!) into a game's politics and milieu. From puncturing the sacred American cowboy myth to figuring out how violent, really, the West actually was, Professor Olsson effortlessly illuminates one of the greatest games ever made."—Tom Bissell, screenwriter, author of Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter
“Like taking a college class from a brilliant, funny professor—except the professor is also a gamer.”—Daniel Immerwahr, author of How to Hide an Empire
"Millions of people have imagined the United States of 1899 through the lens of the video game, Red Dead Redemption 2. Tore Olsson explores that virtual world with the sympathetic insight of a skilled historian and devoted gamer... Immersive, unflinching, and fast-moving."—Edward Ayers, Tucker-Boatwright Professor of the Humanities and President Emeritus, University of Richmond
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Story
Grand Theft Auto is one of the biggest and most controversial videogame franchises of all time. Since its first release in 1997, GTA has pioneered the use of everything from 3D graphics to the voices of top Hollywood actors and repeatedly transformed the world of gaming. Despite its incredible innovations in the $75 billion game industry, it has also been a lightning rod of debate, spawning accusations of ethnic and sexual discrimination, glamorizing violence, and inciting real-life crimes.
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Kushner Writes Well, Verner Drops the Ball
- By L. Productions on 03-24-13
By: David Kushner
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The United States of Cryptids
- A Tour of American Myths and Monsters
- By: J. W. Ocker
- Narrated by: Mark Sanderlin
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Welcome to the United States of Cryptids, where mysterious monsters lurk in the dark forests, deep lakes, and sticky swamps of all fifty states. From the infamous Jersey Devil to the obscure Snallygaster, travel writer and chronicler of the strange J. W. Ocker not only uncovers the bizarre stories of these creatures but investigates the ways in which communities have embraced and celebrated their local cryptids.
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US Cryptid Tour
- By Admiralu on 10-15-24
By: J. W. Ocker
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The First World War
- A Complete History
- By: Martin Gilbert
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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It was to be the war to end all wars, and it began at 11:15 on the morning of June 28, 1914, in an outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire called Sarajevo. It would officially end nearly five years later. Unofficially, however, it has never ended: Many of the horrors we live with today are rooted in the First World War. The Great War left millions of civilians and soldiers maimed or dead. It also saw the creation of new technologies of destruction: tanks, planes, and submarines; machine guns and field artillery; poison gas and chemical warfare.
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Unbiased true facts of the first world war
- By troy a myers on 07-27-20
By: Martin Gilbert
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The Searcher
- A Novel
- By: Tana French
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Cal Hooper thought a fixer-upper in a bucolic Irish village would be the perfect escape. After 25 years in the Chicago police force and a bruising divorce, he just wants to build a new life in a pretty spot with a good pub where nothing much happens. But when a local kid whose brother has gone missing arm-twists him into investigating, Cal uncovers layers of darkness beneath his picturesque retreat, and starts to realize that even small towns shelter dangerous secrets.
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WONDERFULLY DREARY IRISH ATMOSPHERE & STORY
- By McSusie on 10-06-20
By: Tana French
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Tombstone
- The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell
- By: Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The true story of the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the famous Battle at the OK Corral, by the New York Times best-selling author of Dodge City and Wild Bill. On the afternoon of October 26, 1881, nine men clashed in what would be known as the most famous shootout in American frontier history. Thirty bullets were exchanged in 30 seconds, killing three men and wounding three others. The fight sprang forth from a tense, hot summer.
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Great fun read, western history.
- By Dennis on 06-03-20
By: Tom Clavin
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Blood, Sweat, and Pixels
- The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made
- By: Jason Schreier
- Narrated by: Ray Chase
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Developing video games—hero's journey or fool's errand? The creative and technical logistics that go into building today's hottest games can be more harrowing and complex than the games themselves, often seeming like an endless maze or a bottomless abyss. In Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, Jason Schreier takes listeners on a fascinating odyssey behind the scenes of video game development, where the creator may be a team of 600 overworked underdogs or a solitary geek genius.
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Behind the Scenes
- By SAMA on 11-27-17
By: Jason Schreier
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Batman: Resurrection
- By: John Jackson Miller
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The Joker is dead, but not forgotten. Gotham City is saved, but it is still not safe. By night, its new symbol of hope, Batman, continues his fight to protect the innocent and the powerless. By day, his alter ego, Bruce Wayne, wonders whether there may someday be a future beyond skulking the city’s rooftops or the cavernous halls of his stately manor alongside the ever-dutiful Alfred Pennyworth. But even after death, the Clown Prince of Crime’s imprint can be seen in more than just the pavement.
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Great Exploration Of Gotham
- By Ben Prewitt on 10-16-24
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True Grit
- By: Charles Portis
- Narrated by: Donna Tartt
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Mattie Ross, a 14-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out to avenge her Daddy who was shot to death by a no-good outlaw. Mattie convinces one-eyed "Rooster" Cogburn, the meanest U.S. marshal in the land, to ride along with her. In True Grit, we have a true American classic, as young Mattie, as vital as she is innocent, outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten men of the trail in a legend that will last through the ages.
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So worth it!
- By Tommygaus on 12-29-10
By: Charles Portis
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Guns Up!
- A Firsthand Account of the Vietnam War
- By: Johnnie Clark
- Narrated by: John Fehskens
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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"Guns up!" was the battle cry that sent machine gunners racing forward with their M60s to mow down the enemy, hoping that this wasn't the day they would meet their deaths. Marine Johnnie Clark heard that the life expectancy of a machine gunner in Vietnam was seven to ten seconds after a firefight began. Johnnie was only eighteen when he got there, at the height of the bloody Tet Offensive at Hue, and he quickly realized the grim statistic held a chilling truth.
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0331
- By PowerRN on 04-03-25
By: Johnnie Clark
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Iron and Blood
- A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Rory Alexander
- Length: 34 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the result a specifically German way of war. Peter Wilson challenges this narrative. Looking beyond Prussia to German-speaking Europe across the last five centuries, Wilson finds little unique or preordained in German militarism or warfighting. Iron and Blood takes as its starting point the consolidation of the Holy Roman Empire, which created new mechanisms for raising troops but also for resolving disputes diplomatically.
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Awesome
- By Will Georgiadis on 04-11-23
By: Peter H. Wilson
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Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
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Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
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Six of Crows
- By: Leigh Bardugo
- Narrated by: Jay Snyder, Brandon Rubin, Fred Berman, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price - and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone.
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7 Narrators, But That's Not a Good Thing
- By KM on 03-18-16
By: Leigh Bardugo
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Challenger
- A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
- By: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl comes the definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster, based on fascinating in-depth reporting and new archival research—a riveting history that flows like a thriller.
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Best book about Challenger so far
- By Bruce Baumbush on 06-05-24
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Oathbreakers
- The War of Brothers That Shattered an Empire and Made Medieval Europe
- By: Matthew Gabriele, David M. Perry
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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By the early ninth century, the Carolingian empire was at the height of its power. The Franks, led by Charlemagne, had built the largest European domain since Rome in its heyday. Though they jockeyed for power, prestige, and profit, the Frankish elites enjoyed political and cultural consensus. But just two generations later, their world was in shambles. Civil war, once an unthinkable threat, had erupted after Louis the Pious’s sons tried to overthrow him—and then placed their knives at the other’s neck. Families who had once charged into battle together now drew each other’s blood.
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The drama is exceptional
- By Nathan on 04-03-25
By: Matthew Gabriele, and others
What listeners say about Red Dead's History
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- Frank Rebholz
- 08-12-24
Interesting Retrospective of Acclaimed Game
Enjoyed hearing Roger Clark narrating and offering a gravitas performance when referring to moments in the game. Majority of the chapters on several historical aspects I was familiar with through my education. Though there was some new material of history I’ve never did learn in college or high school. But that’s just me in my historian lens. Nothing I can recall I disliked, I agreed with the author on his points and he clearly did his research. If you enjoyed Red Dead Redemption 2, this is a great companion piece to get immersed into and reflect the next time you pop in the game. Would highly recommend!
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- Sheila Sine
- 08-14-24
Excellent Listen, Compelling and Accessible History
Roger Clark is an excellent voice actor and he shines throughout the reading of this book. The contents of the book itself are a fascinating insight into a period of history (the late 1800s) that is often not given as much attention in high school US history classes as other periods of time. Using the game Red Dead Redemption 2, Olsson dives into the history of different regions of the US, specifically the west, Deep South, and southern Appalachia, and discusses major political, cultural, and social changes and developments going on in that time and ties it to our understanding of those regions today. It’s not dense or condescending. Olsson is blunt but clearly loves teaching and wants this history to be as accessible as possible. If you loved the game and love history, definitely check out this book.
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- Josh Sweeney
- 08-10-24
Fantastic
Great purchase. Zero regrets. Y’all need to learn our pathetic history of the US. Roger Clark is amazing.
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- Brandon Slater
- 09-05-24
Amazing for fans of the game and fans of history!
This book is amazing! The mix of real history intertwined into the story of Red Dead is just simply awesome! Highly recommend to any fans of westerns, history or video games!
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- John Barnes
- 10-31-24
A must read for any fan ininterested in history and the era.
It's both informative and entertaining. It was interesting to hear how much accuracy was in the game. Not to mention what was the same and different for that era and those around it.
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- Daniel Hilmarsson
- 08-22-24
Fantastic
Kept me hooked from beginning to end. Starting each chapter with a scene from the game really put everything to perspective and gave a very “real” image of the current scenery. Listening to Arthur Morgan reading it all really made this a next level audiobook.
Now I want to start a new game and travel through history with open eyes .
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- Anonymous User
- 09-25-24
different than expected! but no less amazing!
this book isn't exactly what I was expecting but lord did i have such an amazing time listening. truth be told I was brought here purely by Roger Clark, and his performance was fantastic as always! But Tore C. Olsson is the reason I stayed, the author of this book pored passion and soul into this project and it never dampens for a moment!
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- Dustin
- 09-12-24
Compelling comparison
This book does an excellent job of separating fact from fiction while still giving credit where it's due to the things Rockstar did well when it's deserved while still being critical of the areas they could have reached further in to be even more exemplary in a sea of stereotypes and misconceptions.
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- Colby
- 09-20-24
When video games inspire you to know the world around you
It’s hard to summarize how incredible this book was! If you are even remotely interested in true American history, prepare to find your new obsession after reading this book!
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- Anonymous User
- 08-19-24
Informative, compelling and accessible
Not being American myself (and thus not very well versed in its history beyond the very surface level information) I was excited to hear about this book, as I wanted to know more about the historical context of the game's setting and expand my historical knowledge. It did not disappoint! The scope of this book is fairly large but it felt surprisingly accessible and easy to follow even to someone with relatively little prior knowledge, while also being very interesting. I definitely feel like I've learned a lot through it! The author points out both the successes and failures of the game's representation while providing a lot of the context that goes unseen. Roger Clark's narration is of course a lovely bonus and he kills it throughout.
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