
Whack Job
A History of Axe Murder
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Pre-order for $14.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Jennifer Pickens
About this listen
A brilliant and bloody examination of the axe's foundational role in human history, from prehistoric violence, to war and executions, to newspaper headlines and popular culture.
For as long as the axe has been in our hands, we have used it to kill.
Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology—one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has endured: as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it.
Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. Whack Job sheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2025 Rachel McCarthy James (P)2025 Macmillan AudioCritic reviews
"[A] gleefully grisly cultural history... James keeps the pages turning. It’s a bit of macabre fun."—Publishers Weekly
“An intriguing historical perspective of the axe… An informative one-stop shop that is sure to provide a little something for a wide range of readers.”—Library Journal
"Whack Job is an engrossing historical analysis of how the axe has evolved as an instrument of change, retribution, and menace. In this exceptional book, James cites cases famed and obscure involving the axe, which will both inform readers and occasionally unsettle them.”—Booklist
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Murderland
- Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?
By: Caroline Fraser
-
So Many Stars
- An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world, how they pursued their passions, and how they continue to be at the vanguard of social change.
By: Caro De Robertis
-
Harmattan Season
- A Novel
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Veteran and private eye Boubacar doesn’t need much—least of all trouble—but trouble always seems to find him. Work has dried up, and he’d rather be left alone to deal with his bills as the Harmattan rolls in to coat the city in dust, but Bouba is a down on his luck deux fois, suspended between two cultures and two worlds.
By: Tochi Onyebuchi
-
Anatomy of a Con Artist
- The 14 Red Flags to Spot Scammers, Grifters, and Thieves
- By: Johnathan Walton
- Narrated by: Johnathan Walton
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Con artists are everywhere—your new boyfriend or girlfriend, your new neighbor or coworker, your new friend—and they don’t outsmart you; they out-feel you to get their hands on your money. In Anatomy of a Con Artist, Walton lays out “the tells” based on hundreds of real-life cases he’s investigated.
By: Johnathan Walton
-
Madame Queen
- By: Mary Kay McBrayer
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her heyday, Stephanie St. Clair went by many names, but one was best known by all: Madame Queen. The undeniable queen of the Harlem numbers game, St. Clair redefined what it meant to be a woman of means. After immigrating to America from the West Indies, St. Clair would go on to manage one of the largest policy banks in all of Harlem by 1923. She knew the power of reputation, and even though her business was illegal gambling, she ran it like any other respectable entrepreneur. Because first and foremost, Madame Queen was a lady.
-
Queen of All Mayhem
- The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West
- By: Dane Huckelbridge
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley—better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet “Belle Starr”—was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.
-
Murderland
- Crime and Bloodlust in the Time of Serial Killers
- By: Caroline Fraser
- Narrated by: Patty Nieman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Caroline Fraser grew up in the shadow of Ted Bundy, the most notorious serial murderer of women in American history, surrounded by his hunting grounds and mountain body dumps, in the brooding landscape of the Pacific Northwest. But in the 1970s and ’80s, Bundy was just one perpetrator amid an uncanny explosion of serial rape and murder across the region. Why so many? Why so weirdly and nightmarishly gruesome? Why the senseless rise and then sudden fall of an epidemic of serial killing?
By: Caroline Fraser
-
So Many Stars
- An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world, how they pursued their passions, and how they continue to be at the vanguard of social change.
By: Caro De Robertis
-
Harmattan Season
- A Novel
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Veteran and private eye Boubacar doesn’t need much—least of all trouble—but trouble always seems to find him. Work has dried up, and he’d rather be left alone to deal with his bills as the Harmattan rolls in to coat the city in dust, but Bouba is a down on his luck deux fois, suspended between two cultures and two worlds.
By: Tochi Onyebuchi
-
Anatomy of a Con Artist
- The 14 Red Flags to Spot Scammers, Grifters, and Thieves
- By: Johnathan Walton
- Narrated by: Johnathan Walton
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Con artists are everywhere—your new boyfriend or girlfriend, your new neighbor or coworker, your new friend—and they don’t outsmart you; they out-feel you to get their hands on your money. In Anatomy of a Con Artist, Walton lays out “the tells” based on hundreds of real-life cases he’s investigated.
By: Johnathan Walton
-
Madame Queen
- By: Mary Kay McBrayer
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her heyday, Stephanie St. Clair went by many names, but one was best known by all: Madame Queen. The undeniable queen of the Harlem numbers game, St. Clair redefined what it meant to be a woman of means. After immigrating to America from the West Indies, St. Clair would go on to manage one of the largest policy banks in all of Harlem by 1923. She knew the power of reputation, and even though her business was illegal gambling, she ran it like any other respectable entrepreneur. Because first and foremost, Madame Queen was a lady.
-
Queen of All Mayhem
- The Blood-Soaked Life and Mysterious Death of Belle Starr, the Most Dangerous Woman in the West
- By: Dane Huckelbridge
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On February 3, 1889, just two days shy of her forty-first birthday, Myra Maybelle Shirley—better known at that point by her outlaw sobriquet “Belle Starr”—was blown from her horse saddle and killed by a pair of shotgun blasts, delivered by an unseen assailant, only a few miles away from her home in the Indian Territory of present-day Oklahoma. Thus ended the life of one of the most colorful, authentic, and dangerous women in the history of the American West.