NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Audible, Inc., the world’s largest seller and producer of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, today announced the release of The Home Front: Life in America During WWII, a moving exploration of the uncertain lives of Americans at home during the war, hosted by celebrated actor and WWII aficionado Martin Sheen. The sixteen-episode series is available for free until November 22nd on audible.com/HomeFront.
The Home Front recounts the firsthand stories of Americans who lived through the Second World War through rarely heard archival audio, radio broadcasts and contemporary interviews with historians presented by Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen. Engineers, factory workers, homemakers, female fighter pilots and others recall the life-changing cultural shifts of WWII through personal stories, revealing how the ideologies and social movements that emerged during this pivotal period reverberate strongly today.
“The Home Front is an intimate look at how people were living and thinking and dreaming during that critical period,” said Sheen. “Japanese internment, the plight of refugees, particularly the European Jewish refugees desperately trying to reach the United States or any safe shore, the story of the women, and how women filled so much of the vacuum, and the horrible reality of racism are really very challenging to accept as part and parcel of our history. And all of these experiences are capsulized in this series.”
“Listeners will be riveted as The Home Front uncovers harrowing facts and personal accounts from those who endured the war at home during WWII,” said Audible Chief Content Officer Andy Gaies. “Martin Sheen’s emotional narration of this time illuminates themes that continue to animate our discourse, underscoring the lasting imprint the war left on life in America today.”
Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen is one of America’s most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen’s acting range is striking. Sheen is best recognized for his six-time Emmy-nominated performance as President Josiah Bartlet in The West Wing (1999). Sheen won six of his eight Golden Globe nominations as well as an ALMA Award–and two individual SAG Awards–for the White House series. In addition to series television, Sheen has appeared in several important made-for-television movies and mini-series including playing President John F. Kennedy in the television mini-series Kennedy (1983) for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.
Audible invented and commercialized the first digital audio player in 1997, and has since been at the forefront of the explosively growing audiobook download segment. In 2016, Audible members downloaded an average of 17 books over the course of the year. More than half of new Audible members are first-time audiobook buyers.
ABOUT AUDIBLE, INC.
Audible, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. subsidiary (NASDAQ:AMZN), is the leading provider of premium digital spoken audio information and entertainment, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible was created to unleash the emotive music in language and the habituating power and utility of verbal expression. Audible content includes more than 375,000 audio programs from leading audiobook publishers, broadcasters, entertainers, magazine and newspaper publishers, and business information providers. Audible is also the provider of spoken-word audio products for Apple’s iTunes Store.
