29 Best Democracy Books
Democracy is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Democracy audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 Democracy audiobooks below.
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Freedom’s Dominion
- By: Jefferson Cowie
- Narrator: Andre Chapoy
- Length: 16 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 22, 2022
- Language: English
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4.54(26 ratings)
4.54(26 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0038.99 USDA prize-winning historian chronicles a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans’ freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way. American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressedA prize-winning historian chronicles a sinister idea of freedom: white Americans’ freedom to oppress others and their fight against the government that got in their way.
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American freedom is typically associated with the fight of the oppressed for a better world. But for centuries, whenever the federal government intervened on behalf of nonwhite people, many white Americans fought back in the name of freedom–their freedom to dominate others.
In Freedom’s Dominion, historian Jefferson Cowie traces this complex saga by focusing on a quintessentially American place: Barbour County, Alabama, the ancestral home of political firebrand George Wallace. In a land shaped by settler colonialism and chattel slavery, white people weaponized freedom to seize Native lands, champion secession, overthrow Reconstruction, question the New Deal, and fight against the civil rights movement.
A riveting history of the long-running clash between white people and federal authority, this book radically shifts our understanding of what freedom means in America. -
Conservatism
- By: Yoram Hazony
- Narrator: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 16 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.45(76 ratings)
4.45(76 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDThe idea that American conservatism is identical to “classical” liberalism–widely held since the 1960s–is seriously mistaken. The award-winning political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracyThe idea that American conservatism is identical to “classical” liberalism–widely held since the 1960s–is seriously mistaken.
The award-winning political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that the best hope for Western democracy is a return to the empiricist, religious, and nationalist traditions of America and Britain–the conservative traditions that brought greatness to the English-speaking nations and became the model for national freedom for the entire world.
Conservatism: A Rediscovery explains how Anglo-American conservatism became a distinctive alternative to divine-right monarchy, Puritan theocracy, and liberal revolution. After tracing the tradition from the Wars of the Roses to Burke and across the Atlantic to the American Federalists and Lincoln, Hazony describes the rise and fall of Enlightenment liberalism after World War II and the present-day debates between neoconservatives and national conservatives over how to respond to liberalism and the woke left.
Going where no political thinker has gone in decades, Hazony provides a fresh theoretical foundation for conservatism. Rejecting the liberalism of Hayek, Strauss, and the “fusionists” of the 1960s, and drawing on decades of personal experience in the conservative movement, he argues that a revival of authentic Anglo-American conservatism is possible in the twenty-first century.
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The Return of the State
- By: Graeme Garrard
- Narrator: Thom Rivera
- Length: 5 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.38(8 ratings)
4.38(8 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDA vigorous and timely defense of the state as a force for good For decades now wealth and power have been shifting from states to markets. This experiment has been a failure for all but a privileged few. But this trend is beginning to reverse,A vigorous and timely defense of the state as a force for good
For decades now wealth and power have been shifting from states to markets. This experiment has been a failure for all but a privileged few. But this trend is beginning to reverse, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen the state play the most direct and positive role in citizens’ everyday lives in living memory.
Graeme Garrard makes a powerful case for the state as our only realistic hope of countering the rising power of multinational corporations, organized crime, and international organizations that will always put their own interests first. Today, the state is essential to the health and welfare of everyone except the rich and powerful. Yet it is being rolled back and whittled away, leaving the well-being of most of us at the mercy of unaccountable private powers that are increasingly free from external control. As Garrard shows, the state is the only realistic way of promoting the public good in our time.
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American Exception
- By: Aaron Good
- Narrator: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.34(103 ratings)
4.34(103 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDAmerican Exception seeks to explain the breakdown of US democracy, to understand the uncanny continuity of American foreign policy, the breakdown of the rule of law, and the extreme concentration of wealth and power into an overworld of theAmerican Exception seeks to explain the breakdown of US democracy, to understand the uncanny continuity of American foreign policy, the breakdown of the rule of law, and the extreme concentration of wealth and power into an overworld of the corporate rich.
To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term “deep state” was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.
Key institutions involve the relationships between the overworld of the corporate rich, the underworld of organized crime, and the national security actors that mediate between them. History-making interventions include the toppling of foreign governments, the launching of aggressive wars, and the political assassinations of the 1960s.
In its long history before World War II, the United States had a deep political system, a system of governance in which decision-making and enforcement were carried out within–and outside of–public institutions. It was a system that always included some degree of secretive collusion and law-breaking. After World War II, US elites decided to pursue global dominance over the international capitalist system.
Setting aside the liberal rhetoric, this project was pursued in a manner that was by and large imperialistic rather than progressive. To administer this covert empire, US elites created a massive national security state characterized by unprecedented levels of secrecy and lawlessness. The “Global Communist Conspiracy” provided a pretext for exceptionism–an endless “exception” to the rule of law. What gradually emerged after World War II was a tripartite state system of governance. The open democratic state and the authoritarian security state were both increasingly dominated by an American deep state.
Aaron Good concludes by assessing the prospects for a revival of US democracy.
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United States of Fear
- By: Mark McDonald
- Narrator: Axel Bosley
- Length: 3 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.3(293 ratings)
4.3(293 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDPsychiatrist Mark McDonald diagnoses our country as suffering from a mass delusional psychosis, driven by a pandemic of fear in response to COVID-19. As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, LA-based psychiatrist Mark McDonald grew increasingly concernedPsychiatrist Mark McDonald diagnoses our country as suffering from a mass delusional psychosis, driven by a pandemic of fear in response to COVID-19.
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, LA-based psychiatrist Mark McDonald grew increasingly concerned by the negative mental health effects he witnessed among his patients–and Americans nationwide. These negative effects–stress, anxiety, depression, addiction, domestic violence, suicidal ideation–were all directly traceable to the climate of fear being stoked by public health authorities and irresponsibly amplified by national media. These fears in turn drove a hysterical overreaction from government in the form of draconian lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates of questionable value. But the fear did not abate and quickly took on a life of its own, becoming an unstoppable force in all our lives.
At last McDonald began to speak out, explaining that America is actually suffering from two pandemics: a viral one and a psychological one, a “pandemic of fear” that is in many ways more dangerous and damaging than the virus itself. Rooted in the natural anxieties of women on behalf of their children and families, inflamed and amplified by sensationalistic media, and driven over the top by hamfisted authoritarian measures from those in power, McDonald diagnoses the country at large as suffering from a mass delusional psychosis. This is not a metaphor. The malady itself is very real. Whether we can regain our collective sanity as a society remains to be seen.
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The Death of Democracy
- By: Benjamin Carter Hett
- Narrator: Steven Crossley
- Length: 11 hours 25 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: April 03, 2018
- Language: English
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4.28(1545 ratings)
4.28(1545 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USD“[Narrator Steven Crossley’s] British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout.” — AudioFile“[Narrator Steven Crossley’s] British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout.” — AudioFile Magazine
The Death of Democracy is a riveting audiobook account of how the Nazi Party came to power, and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen.Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In this dramatic audiobook, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time.
To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. From the late 1920s, the Weimar Republic’s very political success sparked insurgencies against it, of which the most dangerous was the populist anti-globalization movement led by Hitler. But as Hett shows, Hitler would never have come to power if Germany’s leading politicians had not tried to coopt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler’s hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship.
Benjamin Carter Hett is one of America’s leading scholars of twentieth-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.
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Let the People Pick the President
- By: Jesse Wegman
- Narrator: Jesse Wegman
- Length: 7 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: March 17, 2020
- Language: English
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4.28(902 ratings)
4.28(902 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USD“People have been arguing against the Electoral College from the beginning. But no one, at least in recent years, has laid out the case as comprehensively and as readably as Jesse Wegman does in ‘Let the People Pick the“People have been arguing against the Electoral College from the beginning. But no one, at least in recent years, has laid out the case as comprehensively and as readably as Jesse Wegman does in ‘Let the People Pick the President.'” — The New York Times Book Review
This program is read by the author
The framers of the Constitution battled over it. Lawmakers have tried to amend or abolish it more than 700 times. To this day, millions of voters, and even members of Congress, misunderstand how it works. It deepens our national divide and distorts the core democratic principles of political equality and majority rule. How can we tolerate the Electoral College when every vote does not count the same, and the candidate who gets the most votes can lose?
Twice in the last five elections, the Electoral College has overridden the popular vote, calling the integrity of the entire system into question–and creating a false picture of a country divided into bright red and blue blocks when in fact we are purple from coast to coast. Even when the popular-vote winner becomes president, tens of millions of Americans–Republicans and Democrats alike–find that their votes didn’t matter. And, with statewide winner-take-all rules, only a handful of battleground states ultimately decide who will become president.
Now, as political passions reach a boiling point at the dawn of the 2020 race, the message from the American people is clear: The way we vote for the only official whose job it is to represent all Americans is neither fair nor just. Major reform is needed–now. Isn’t it time to let the people pick the president?
In this thoroughly researched and engaging call to arms, Supreme Court journalist and New York Times editorial board member Jesse Wegman draws upon the history of the founding era, as well as information gleaned from campaign managers, field directors, and other officials from twenty-first-century Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns, to make a powerful case for abolishing the antiquated and antidemocratic Electoral College. In Let the People Pick the President he shows how we can at long last make every vote in the United States count–and restore belief in our democratic system.A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
“Wegman combines in-depth historical analysis and insight into contemporary politics to present a cogent argument that the Electoral College violates America’s ‘core democratic principles’ and should be done away with…” —Publishers Weekly
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Understanding Democracy in America
- By: Ken Masugi
- Narrator: Ken Masugi
- Length: 4 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: March 22, 2013
- Language: English
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4.25(4 ratings)
4.25(4 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDThe coauthor, editor, or coeditor of seven books on American politics, Ken Masugi of Johns Hopkins University has been a speechwriter for two cabinet members. Examining the founding of the American political system through the classic works ofThe coauthor, editor, or coeditor of seven books on American politics, Ken Masugi of Johns Hopkins University has been a speechwriter for two cabinet members. Examining the founding of the American political system through the classic works of Democracy in America author Alexis de Tocqueville, this course explores the big ideas of the American experiment. Taking into account matters from liberty and independence to self-government and civil associations, these lectures highlight issues of states’ rights, church and state, race, and public versus private charity.
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A New World Begins
- By: Jeremy D. Popkin
- Narrator: Pete Cross
- Length: 21 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: December 08, 2020
- Language: English
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4.23(676 ratings)
4.23(676 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThe principles of the French Revolution remain the only possible basis for a just society–even if, after more than two hundred years, they are more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting accountThe principles of the French Revolution remain the only possible basis for a just society–even if, after more than two hundred years, they are more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton, in all of their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror. Based on decades of scholarship, A New World Begins will stand as the definitive treatment of the French Revolution.
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By the Light of Burning Dreams
- By: David Talbot
- Narrator: Soneela Nankani
- Length: 13 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: June 08, 2021
- Language: English
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4.18(78 ratings)
4.18(78 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDNew York Times bestselling author David Talbot and New Yorker journalist Margaret Talbot illuminate “America’s second revolutionary generation” in this gripping history of one of the most dynamic eras of the twentiethNew York Times bestselling author David Talbot and New Yorker journalist Margaret Talbot illuminate “America’s second revolutionary generation” in this gripping history of one of the most dynamic eras of the twentieth century–brought to life through seven defining radical moments that offer vibrant parallels and lessons for today.
The political landscape of the 1960s and 1970s was perhaps one of the most tumultuous in this country’s history, shaped by the fight for civil rights, women’s liberation, Black power, and the end to the Vietnam War. In many ways, this second American revolution was a belated fulfillment of the betrayed promises of the first, striving to extend the full protections of the Bill of Rights to non-white, non-male, non-elite Americans excluded by the nation’s founders.
Based on exclusive interviews, original documents, and archival research, By the Light of Burning Dreams explores critical moments in the lives of a diverse cast of iconoclastic leaders of the twentieth century radical movement: Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers; Heather Booth and the Jane Collective, the first underground feminist abortion clinic; Vietnam War peace activists Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda; Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers; Craig Rodwell and the Gay Pride movement; Dennis Banks, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Russell Means and the warriors of Wounded Knee; and John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s politics of stardom. Margaret and David Talbot reveal the epiphanies that galvanized these modern revolutionaries and created unexpected connections and alliances between individual movements and across race, class, and gender divides.
America is still absorbing–and reacting against–the revolutionary forces of this tumultuous period. The change these leaders enacted demanded much of American society and the human imagination. By the Light of Burning Dreams is an immersive and compelling chronicle of seven lighting rods of change and the generation that engraved itself in American narrative–and set the stage for those today, fighting to bend forward the arc of history.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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Virtual Country
- By: Richard Lang
- Narrator: Todd Haberkorn
- Length: 4 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.17(6 ratings)
4.17(6 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDVirtual Country examines the current nexus of technology and western democracy, pointing to a historical opportunity for We the People to evolve our democracy to include a new public institution that enables a coherent, collective voice on theVirtual Country examines the current nexus of technology and western democracy, pointing to a historical opportunity for We the People to evolve our democracy to include a new public institution that enables a coherent, collective voice on the issues that affect us all. The book’s centerpiece is a proposal for a new online institution for citizen reengagement–the National Town Square. The Square would be a transparent, citizen-led, noncorporate, nongovernmental, nonpartisan online venue for individual advisory voting, moderated discussion, and fact-verified education on issues selected by citizens themselves. Virtual Country also examines the surround issues and risks associated with allowing the influence of big money in politics to be extended to online democracy. A must-listen for anyone interested in both the risks and opportunities presented at this historic moment in democracy’s evolution.
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The Despot’s Apprentice
- By: Brian Klaas
- Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 9 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.17(243 ratings)
4.17(243 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAn ex-US campaign advisor who has sat with the world’s dictators explains Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian tactics and the threat they pose to American democracy. Donald Trump isn’t a despot. But he is increasingly actingAn ex-US campaign advisor who has sat with the world’s dictators explains Donald Trump’s increasingly authoritarian tactics and the threat they pose to American democracy.
Donald Trump isn’t a despot. But he is increasingly acting like the “despot’s apprentice,” an understudy in authoritarian tactics that threaten to erode American democracy, including
attacking the press,threatening rule of law by firing those who investigate his alleged wrongdoings,using nepotism to staff the White House, andcountless other techniques.
Donald Trump is borrowing tactics from the world’s dictators and despots. Trump’s fascination for the military, his obsession with his own cult of personality, and his deliberate campaign to blur the line between fact and falsehood are nothing new to the world of despots. But they are new to the United States. With each authoritarian tactic or tweet, Trump poses a unique threat to democratic government in the world’s most powerful democracy.
At the same time, Trump’s apprenticeship has serious consequences beyond the United States. His bizarre adoration and idolization of despotic strongmen–from Russia’s Putin, to Turkey’s Erdogan, or to the Philippines’ Duterte–has transformed American foreign policy into a powerful cheerleader for some of the world’s worst regimes.
The Despot’s Apprentice: Donald Trump’s Attack on Democracy explores how Trump uniquely threatens democracy–and how to save it from him.
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Christ in Crisis
- By: Jim Wallis
- Narrator: Charles Constant
- Length: 8 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 24, 2019
- Language: English
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4.17(328 ratings)
4.17(328 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDWriting in response to our current “constitutional crisis,” New York Times bestselling author and Christian activist Jim Wallis urges America to return to the tenets of Jesus once again as the means to save us from the polarizingWriting in response to our current “constitutional crisis,” New York Times bestselling author and Christian activist Jim Wallis urges America to return to the tenets of Jesus once again as the means to save us from the polarizing bitterness and anger of our tribal nation.
In Christ in Crisis Jim Wallis provides a path of spiritual healing and solidarity to help us heal the divide separating Americans today. Building on “Reclaiming Jesus”–the declaration he and other church leaders wrote in May 2018 to address America’s current crisis–Wallis argues that Christians have become disconnected from Jesus and need to revisit their spiritual foundations. By pointing to eight questions Jesus asked or is asked, Wallis provides a means to measure whether we are truly aligned with the moral and spiritual foundations of our Christian faith.
“Christians have often remembered, re-discovered, and returned to their obedient discipleship of Jesus Christ–both personal and public–in times of trouble. It’s called coming home,” Wallis reminds us. While he addresses the dividing lines and dangers facing our nation, the religious and cultural commentator’s focus isn’t politics; it’s faith.
As he has done throughout his career, Wallis offers comfort, empathy, and a practical roadmap. Christ in Crisis is a constructive field guide for all those involved in resistance and renewal initiatives in faith communities in the post-2016 political context.
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There Is Nothing For You Here
- By: Fiona Hill
- Narrator: Fiona Hill
- Length: 15 hours 35 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 05, 2021
- Language: English
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4.16(2484 ratings)
4.16(2484 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0011.99 USD“This book has a miraculous quality….¬†As a memoir this is hard to put down; if you are seeking a better American future you should pick it up.‚Äù‚ÄîTimothy Snyder,¬†New York Times¬†best-selling author of¬†On“This book has a miraculous quality….¬†As a memoir this is hard to put down; if you are seeking a better American future you should pick it up.‚Äù‚ÄîTimothy Snyder,¬†New York Times¬†best-selling author of¬†On Tyranny
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A celebrated foreign policy expert and key impeachment witness reveals how declining opportunity has set America on the grim path of modern Russia—and draws on her personal journey out of poverty, as well as her unique perspectives as an historian and policy maker, to show how we can return hope to our forgotten places.
Fiona Hill grew up in a world of terminal decay. The last of the local mines had closed, businesses were shuttering, and despair was etched in the faces around her. Her father urged her to get out of their blighted corner of northern England: “There is nothing for you here, pet,” he said.  
 The coal-miner’s daughter managed to go further than he ever could have dreamed. She studied in Moscow and at Harvard, became an American citizen, and served three U.S. Presidents. But in the heartlands of both Russia and the United States, she saw troubling reflections of her hometown and similar populist impulses. By the time she offered her brave testimony in the first impeachment inquiry of President Trump, Hill knew that the desperation of forgotten people was driving American politics over the brink—and that we were running out of time to save ourselves from Russia’s fate. In this powerful, deeply personal account, she shares what she has learned, and shows why expanding opportunity is the only long-term hope for our democracy.
“Of every book written by anybody associated with the Trump administration, in any way, [this] is absolutely the one to read.”—Rachel Maddow  
A New York Times Bestseller | A Washington Post Bestseller | A Washington Post Notable Book of the Year | A Financial Times Best Book of the Year
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The Big Lie
- By: Jonathan Lemire
- Narrator: Jonathan Lemire
- Length: 10 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: July 26, 2022
- Language: English
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4.08(511 ratings)
4.08(511 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDThis program is read by the author. A probing and illuminating analysis of current state of American politics, focusing on Donald Trump’s lie about election fraud, by the White House Bureau Chief of Politico and the host of MSNBC’s WayThis program is read by the author.
A probing and illuminating analysis of current state of American politics, focusing on Donald Trump’s lie about election fraud, by the White House Bureau Chief of Politico and the host of MSNBC’s Way Too Early
Jonathan Lemire uncovers that “The Big Lie,” as it’s been termed, isn’t just about the 2020 election. It’s become a political philosophy that has only further divided the two parties.
Donald Trump first tried it out in 2016, at an August rally in Ohio. He said that perhaps he wouldn’t accept the election results in his race against Hillary Clinton, that the election was “rigged.” He then mentioned it at more rallies and even at one of the fall debates. He didn’t have to challenge the result that year, but the stage was set. When he lost in 2020, he started the lie back up again and to devastating results: an insurrection at the Capitol in January 2021.
Republicans are still wholly under Trump’s sway. From his retirement at his Florida and New Jersey clubs he meets with Republican officials, aspiring candidates, and advisers and demands loyalty about this twisted way of thinking. And Democrats still deal with him as their opposition party is driven by a blatant lie. The parties aren’t divided by the aisle–they’re on different planets.
In the more than five tumultuous, paradigm-shifting years of Donald Trump’s presidency and beyond, his near-constant lying has become a fixture of political life. It is inextricably linked with how his party behaves, how the Democrats respond to it, and how he remains relevant, even after a decisive loss in 2020. Jonathan Lemire brings his connections, profile, and dogged reportorial instincts to bear in his first book that explores how this phenomenon shapes our politics.
Written with sharp political insight and detailed with dozens of interviews, The Big Lie is the first audiobook to examine this unprecedented and tenuous moment in our nation’s politics.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
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Mortal Republic
- By: Edward J. Watts
- Narrator: Matt Kugler
- Length: 10 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 06, 2018
- Language: English
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4.06(619 ratings)
4.06(619 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDLearn why the Roman Republic collapsed — and how it could have continued to thrive — with this insightful history from an award-winning author. In Mortal Republic, prize-winning historian Edward J. Watts offers a new history of the fallLearn why the Roman Republic collapsed — and how it could have continued to thrive — with this insightful history from an award-winning author.
In Mortal Republic, prize-winning historian Edward J. Watts offers a new history of the fall of the Roman Republic that explains why Rome exchanged freedom for autocracy. For centuries, even as Rome grew into the Mediterranean’s premier military and political power, its governing institutions, parliamentary rules, and political customs successfully fostered negotiation and compromise.
By the 130s BC, however, Rome’s leaders increasingly used these same tools to cynically pursue individual gain and obstruct their opponents. As the center decayed and dysfunction grew, arguments between politicians gave way to political violence in the streets. The stage was set for destructive civil wars — and ultimately the imperial reign of Augustus.
The death of Rome’s Republic was not inevitable. In Mortal Republic, Watts shows it died because it was allowed to, from thousands of small wounds inflicted by Romans who assumed that it would last forever.
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This Will Not Pass
- By: Jonathan Martin
- Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 17 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.02(2539 ratings)
4.02(2539 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposing the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breakingNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
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The shocking, definitive account of the 2020 election and the first year of the Biden presidency by two New York Times reporters, exposing the deep fissures within both parties as the country approaches a political breaking point–now including exclusive recordings from the January 5th and January 11th GOP Conference calls referenced in the book‘s original reporting.
This is the authoritative account of an eighteen-month crisis in American democracy that will be seared into the country’s political memory for decades to come. With stunning, in-the-room detail, New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns show how both our political parties confronted a series of national traumas, including the coronavirus pandemic, the January 6 attack on the Capitol, and the political brinksmanship of President Biden’s first year in the White House.
From Donald Trump’s assault on the 2020 election and his ongoing campaign of vengeance against his fellow Republicans, to the behind-the-scenes story of Biden’s selection of Kamala Harris as his running mate and his bitter struggles to unite the Democratic Party, this book exposes the degree to which the two-party system has been strained to the point of disintegration. More than at any time in recent history, the long-established traditions and institutions of American politics are under siege as a set of aging political leaders struggle to hold together a changing country.
Martin and Burns break news at every turn, drawing on hundreds of interviews and never-before-seen documents and recordings from the highest levels of government. The book asks the vitally important (and disturbing) question: can American democracy, as we know it, ever work again? -
Our Sacred Honor
- By: William J. Bennett
- Narrator: Philip Bosco
- Length: 4 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 1997
- Language: English
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4(160 ratings)
4(160 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0015.95 USDMillions of American families have turned to The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass by William J. Bennett for moral guidance in troubled times. Our Sacred Honor offers inspiration and instruction as well — this time of a particularlyMillions of American families have turned to The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass by William J. Bennett for moral guidance in troubled times. Our Sacred Honor offers inspiration and instruction as well — this time of a particularly American sort.
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In Our Sacred Honor, Bennett has collected the best that has been thought and said by and about the men and women who founded America. The stories, songs, letters and speeches collected in Our Sacred Honor are an inspiring celebration of American exceptionalism. -
Snow-Storm in August
- By: Jefferson Morley
- Narrator: Jefferson Morley
- Length: 9 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: July 03, 2012
- Language: English
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3.96(268 ratings)
3.96(268 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDEditor and investigative reporter Jefferson Morley has been widely published in national periodicals and is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction work Our Man in Mexico. An eye-opening look at Washington’s first race riot,Editor and investigative reporter Jefferson Morley has been widely published in national periodicals and is the author of the critically acclaimed nonfiction work Our Man in Mexico. An eye-opening look at Washington’s first race riot, Snow-Storm in August also offers revealing profiles of Arthur Bowen, the slave blamed for the riot, and ”Star Spangled Banner” lyricist Francis Scott Key, a defender of slavery who sought capital punishment for Bowen.
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Liberalism and Its Discontents
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrator: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 5 hours 13 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: May 10, 2022
- Language: English
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3.96(961 ratings)
3.96(961 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDAn audiobook about the challenges to liberalism from the right and the left by the bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order. Classical liberalism is in a state of crisis. Developed in the wake of Europe’s wars over religion andAn audiobook about the challenges to liberalism from the right and the left by the bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order.
Classical liberalism is in a state of crisis. Developed in the wake of Europe’s wars over religion and nationalism, liberalism is a system for governing diverse societies, which is grounded in fundamental principles of equality and the rule of law. It emphasizes the rights of individuals to pursue their own forms of happiness free from encroachment by government.
It’s no secret that liberalism didn’t always live up to its own ideals. In America, many people were denied equality before the law. Who counted as full human beings worthy of universal rights was contested for centuries, and only recently has this circle expanded to include women, African Americans, LGBTQ+ people, and others. Conservatives complain that liberalism empties the common life of meaning. As the renowned political philosopher Francis Fukuyama shows in Liberalism and Its Discontents, the principles of liberalism have also, in recent decades, been pushed to new extremes by both the right and the left: neoliberals made a cult of economic freedom, and progressives focused on identity over human universality as central to their political vision. The result, Fukuyama argues, has been a fracturing of our civil society and an increasing peril to our democracy.
In this clear account of our current political discontents, Fukuyama offers an essential defense of a revitalized liberalism for the twenty-first century.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
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Trumped Up
- By: Alan Dershowitz
- Narrator: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hours 36 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: October 02, 2018
- Language: English
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3.9(126 ratings)
3.9(126 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDIn our current age of hyper-partisan politics, nearly everyone takes sides. This is especially true with regard to the Trump presidency, which did not cause this profound division but has drawn it to the surface, making it the dominant paradigm ofIn our current age of hyper-partisan politics, nearly everyone takes sides. This is especially true with regard to the Trump presidency, which did not cause this profound division but has drawn it to the surface, making it the dominant paradigm of political debate. Both sides scream “lock ’em up,” criminalizing political difference instead of making substantive criticisms of opposing views. This deeply undemocratic fallacy–that political sins must be investigated and prosecuted as criminal–is an exceedingly dangerous trend. The underlying problem, Alan Dershowitz argues, is that we have weakened our national commitment to civil liberties. The vibrant center is weakening, with traditional liberalism and conservatism becoming further apart–not just in approach but also in their respect for Constitutional norms. And unless we as a nation begin to focus again on what unites us rather than on what divides us, America might not survive the next decade.
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How Bernie Won
- By: Jeff Weaver
- Narrator: Jeff Weaver
- Length: 12 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: May 15, 2018
- Language: English
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3.88(102 ratings)
3.88(102 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDThis program is read by the author. In this audiobook, the brilliant manager of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign explains how Bernie took on the entire establishment and changed modern American politics for good. When Jeff WeaverThis program is read by the author.
In this audiobook, the brilliant manager of Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign explains how Bernie took on the entire establishment and changed modern American politics for good.
When Jeff Weaver hopped in a car with Bernie Sanders in the summer of 1986, he had no idea the Vermont backroads would lead them all the way to the 2016 presidential campaign.
In How Bernie Won, Weaver tells listeners how Bernie built a movement that would sweep America and inspire millions. He vowed not to run a negative campaign. He would focus on policies, not personalities. He would not be beholden to big money. He would actually make America great.
Weaver also explains how they overcame significant challenges: A media that thrived on negative campaigns. A party that thrived on personalities. And a political system that thrived on big money. Weaver explains how Bernie beat them all and, in doing so, went from having little national name recognition when he entered the race to being one of the most respected and well-known people in the world by its end–because, Weaver argues, Bernie won the race.
He moved the discussion from the concerns of the 1% to those of the 99%. He forced the Democrats to remember their populist roots. And he showed that an outsider with real ideas and ways to get them done was more popular than someone propped up by backroom political sugar daddies.
From holding bags of “Bernie buttons” and picket-stick signs, to managing thousands of campaign workers, to looking ahead to 2020, Weaver chronicles the birth of a revolution that didn’t end in November 2016. It’s only just begun.
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Defending Identity
- By: Natan Sharansky
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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3.86(89 ratings)
3.86(89 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDNatan Sharansky believes that the challenge of the twenty-first century is to assert our cultural, ethnic, or religious identities, a struggle that has never been more important than now. Who is better prepared to defend principles in a volatileNatan Sharansky believes that the challenge of the twenty-first century is to assert our cultural, ethnic, or religious identities, a struggle that has never been more important than now.
Who is better prepared to defend principles in a volatile world? Is it those with strong national, religious, ethnic, or tribal identities who accept democracy, or democrats who view identity as a divisive prejudice? Sharansky argues that valueless cosmopolitanism is dangerous, even in democracies. Together, identity and democracy assert a powerful and benign sense of purpose, but when at odds, they beget fundamentalism and rootlessness.
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One Nation After Trump
- By: E.J. Dionne, Jr.
- Narrator: E.J. Dionne, Jr.
- Length: 10 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: September 19, 2017
- Language: English
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3.83(385 ratings)
3.83(385 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0026.99 USDAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER — read by the authors. A call to action from three of Washington’s premier political scholar-journalists, One Nation After Trump offers the definitive work on the threat posed by the Trump presidencyAN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER — read by the authors.
A call to action from three of Washington’s premier political scholar-journalists, One Nation After Trump offers the definitive work on the threat posed by the Trump presidency and how to counter it.
American democracy was never supposed to give the nation a president like Donald Trump. We have never had a president who gave rise to such widespread alarm about his lack of commitment to the institutions of self-government, to the norms democracy requires, and to the need for basic knowledge about how government works. We have never had a president who raises profound questions about his basic competence and his psychological capacity to take on the most challenging political office in the world.
Yet if Trump is both a threat to our democracy and a product of its weaknesses, the citizen activism he has inspired is the antidote. The reaction to the crisis created by Trump’s presidency can provide the foundation for an era of democratic renewal and vindicate our long experiment in self-rule.
The award-winning authors of One Nation After Trump explain Trump’s rise and the danger his administration poses to our free institutions. They also offer encouragement to the millions of Americans now experiencing a new sense of citizenship and engagement and argue that our nation needs a unifying alternative to Trump’s dark and divisive brand of politics–an alternative rooted in a New Economy, a New Patriotism, a New Civil Society, and a New Democracy.
One Nation After Trump is the essential audiobook for our era, an unsparing assessment of the perils facing the United States and an inspiring roadmap for how we can reclaim the future.
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Code Red
- By: E.J. Dionne, Jr.
- Narrator: Adam Barr
- Length: 7 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: February 04, 2020
- Language: English
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3.78(111 ratings)
3.78(111 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDThis program includes an introduction read by the author.New York Times bestselling author and Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. sounds the alarm in Code Red, calling for an alliance between progressives and moderates to seize the momentThis program includes an introduction read by the author.
New York Times bestselling author and Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne, Jr. sounds the alarm in Code Red, calling for an alliance between progressives and moderates to seize the moment and restore hope to America’s future for the 2020 presidential election.Will progressives and moderates feud while America burns? Or will these natural allies take advantage of the greatest opportunity since the New Deal Era to strengthen American democracy, foster social justice, and turn back the threats of the Trump Era?
The United States stands at a crossroads. Broad and principled opposition to Donald Trump’s presidency has drawn millions of previously disengaged citizens to the public square and to the ballot boxes. This inspired and growing activism for social and political change hasn’t been seen since the days of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal policies and the Progressive and Civil Rights movements. But if progressives and moderates are unable–and unwilling–to overcome their differences, they could not only enable Trump to prevail again but also squander an occasion for launching a new era of reform.
In Code Red, award-winning journalist E. J. Dionne, Jr., calls for a shared commitment to decency and a politics focused on freedom, fairness, and the future, encouraging progressives and moderates to explore common ground and expand the unity that brought about Democrat victories in the 2018 elections. He offers a unifying model for furthering progress with a Politics of Remedy, Dignity, and More: one that solves problems, resolve disputes, and moves forward; that sits at the heart of the demands for justice by both long-marginalized and recently-displaced groups; and that posits a positive future for Americans with more covered by health insurance, more with decent wages, more with good schools, more security from gun violence, more action to roll back climate change.
Breaking through the partisan noise and cutting against conventional wisdom to provide a realistic look at political possibilities, Dionne offers a strategy for progressives and moderates to think more clearly and accept the responsibilities that history now imposes on them. Because at this point in our national story, change can’t wait.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press
“An exquisitely timed book…’Code Red’ is a worthwhile exploration of the shared goals (and shared enemies) that unite moderates and progressives. But more than that, it is a sharp reminder that the common ground on which Dionne built his career has been badly eroded, with little prospect that it will soon be restored.” — New York Times Book Review
“Highly engaging, intellectually sound, and morally grounded” —Washington Monthly“The Washington Post columnist and NPR commentator offers a passionately reasoned argument for why both progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic Party must put aside differences to defeat Donald Trump in 2020…A well-argued and persuasive treatise by a deeply concerned journalist and citizen.” —Kirkus Reviews
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The American Future
- By: Simon Schama
- Narrator: Rupert Degas
- Length: 15 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: May 19, 2009
- Language: English
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3.69(550 ratings)
3.69(550 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USD“With eloquence, wit, passion, and irony, The American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny….A book of beautiful writing, peppered with wisecracks, slashed with rapier thrusts.” —Philadelphia“With eloquence, wit, passion, and irony, The American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny….A book of beautiful writing, peppered with wisecracks, slashed with rapier thrusts.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
A De Tocqueville for the 21st century, Simon Schama, NBCC Award winning author of Rough Crossings offers an essential, historical, long view analysis of the American character in The American Future. Shama examines four themes–war, race and faith, immigration, and custodianship of the land–through the prism of the historic 2008 presidential election in a magnificent work that the Wall Street Journal calls a “celebration of American resiliency.” Niall Ferguson says, “I hope Obama will have this book on his bedside table.”
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The Middle Road
- By: Christopher Collier
- Narrator: Jim Manchester
- Length: 2 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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3.62(8 ratings)
3.62(8 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0014.95 USDHistory is dramatic–and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in a compelling series aimed at young readers. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through presentHistory is dramatic–and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in a compelling series aimed at young readers. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through present day, these volumes explore far beyond the dates and events of a historical chronicle to present a moving illumination of the ideas, opinions, attitudes, and tribulations that led to the birth of this great nation.
In The Middle Road, the terms democrat, republican, liberal, and conservative are defined. Readers learn how these philosophies dominated and shifted during the years covered in this volume.
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A Short History of the United States
- By: Robert V. Remini
- Narrator: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 10 hours 18 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 07, 2008
- Language: English
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3.61(512 ratings)
3.61(512 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.99 USDIn A Short History of the United States, National Book Award winner Robert V. Remini offers a much-needed, concise history of our country. This accessible and lively volume contains the essential facts about the discovery, settlement, growth, andIn A Short History of the United States, National Book Award winner Robert V. Remini offers a much-needed, concise history of our country. This accessible and lively volume contains the essential facts about the discovery, settlement, growth, and development of the American nation and its institutions, including the arrival and migration of Native Americans, the founding of a republic under the Constitution, the emergence of the United States as a world power, the outbreak of terrorism here and abroad, the Obama presidency, and everything in between.
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The Rise of Andrew Jackson
- By: David S. Heidler
- Narrator: Molly Parker Myers
- Length: 13 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: October 23, 2018
- Language: English
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3.37(76 ratings)
3.37(76 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDThe story of Andrew Jackson’s improbable ascent to the White House, centered on the handlers and propagandists who made it possible Andrew Jackson was volatile and prone to violence, and well into his forties his sole claim on theThe story of Andrew Jackson’s improbable ascent to the White House, centered on the handlers and propagandists who made it possible
Andrew Jackson was volatile and prone to violence, and well into his forties his sole claim on the public’s affections derived from his victory in a thirty-minute battle at New Orleans in early 1815. Yet those in his immediate circle believed he was a great man who should be president of the United States.
Jackson’s election in 1828 is usually viewed as a result of the expansion of democracy. Historians David and Jeanne Heidler argue that he actually owed his victory to his closest supporters, who wrote hagiographies of him, founded newspapers to savage his enemies, and built a political network that was always on message. In transforming a difficult man into a paragon of republican virtue, the Jacksonites exploded the old order and created a mode of electioneering that has been mimicked ever since.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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