24 Best Social Activists , Biography & Autobiography Books
Social Activists , Biography & Autobiography is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Social Activists , Biography & Autobiography audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 24 Social Activists , Biography & Autobiography audiobooks below.
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Fortune Favors the Brave
- By: Kiri Westby
- Narrator: Kiri Westby
- Length: 9 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.73(13 ratings)
4.73(13 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDFrom inside an interrogation session with the Chinese Secret Police, a young American activist recounts her path into global human rights work–exploring critical lessons on privilege and compassion in the context of war and extremeFrom inside an interrogation session with the Chinese Secret Police, a young American activist recounts her path into global human rights work–exploring critical lessons on privilege and compassion in the context of war and extreme suffering.
When I was arrested by the Chinese military for launching a historic Tibetan Freedom protest, I knew every trial and lesson had been worth it–even if it meant facing a life in prison.
After a childhood infused with esoteric Buddhist teachings, I was forged into a global activist through years of witnessing and collaborating in the dissent of women on the front lines of war. From villages in Nepal, to refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to the streets of Bogota, Colombia, my initiation into human rights activism was raw and transformative. The bravery of those women bolstered me in my darkest hours of interrogation and torture by the Chinese Police, and it guides me now to share my true story–no matter the repercussions. This is not a tale the Chinese government wants told.
During my years working in war zones, I often wondered if I’d have the courage to stand up to tyranny, to lay my life on the line to confront undeniable persecution.
In 2007–on the slopes of Mt. Everest–I found out.
Take a literary journey with me as I reveal the bumpy road I took to becoming my bravest self–learning to leverage a life of advantage, find a place for my own joy, and cultivate the courage needed to play a distinct role in history.
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Angela Davis
- By: Angela Davis
- Narrator: Angela Davis
- Length: 19 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.57(19742 ratings)
4.57(19742 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThis new edition of Angela Davis’s classic Autobiography features an expansive new introduction by the author. Angela Davis has been a political activist at the cutting edge of the Black Liberation, feminist, queer, and prison-abolitionistThis new edition of Angela Davis’s classic Autobiography features an expansive new introduction by the author.
Angela Davis has been a political activist at the cutting edge of the Black Liberation, feminist, queer, and prison-abolitionist movements for more than fifty years.
Angela Davis: An Autobiography, first published and edited by Toni Morrison in 1974, is a powerful and commanding account of her early years in these struggles.
Davis describes her journey from a childhood on Dynamite Hill in Birmingham, Alabama, to one of the most significant political trials of the century: from her political activity in a New York high school to her work with the US Communist Party, the Black Panther Party, and the Soledad Brothers; and from the faculty of the philosophy department at the University of California at Los Angeles to the FBI’s list of the “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives.”
Read by Angela Davis herself, this autobiography, told with warmth, brilliance, humor, and conviction, is a classic account of a life in struggle, with echoes in our own time.
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Witness
- By: Ariel Burger
- Narrator: Jason Culp
- Length: 8 hours 1 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.5(708 ratings)
4.5(708 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIn the vein of Tuesdays with Morrie, a devoted protege and friend of one of the world’s great thinkers takes us into the sacred space of the classroom, showing Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel not only as anIn the vein of Tuesdays with Morrie, a devoted protege and friend of one of the world’s great thinkers takes us into the sacred space of the classroom, showing Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel not only as an extraordinary human being, but as a master teacher.
The world remembers Elie Wiesel–Nobel laureate, activist, and author of more than forty books, including Oprah’s Book Club selection Night–as a great humanist. He passed away in July 2016.
Ariel Burger first met Elie Wiesel at age fifteen. They studied together and taught together. Witness chronicles the intimate conversations between these two men over decades, as Burger sought counsel on matters of intellect, spirituality, and faith, while navigating his own personal journey from boyhood to manhood, from student and assistant to rabbi and, in time, teacher.
In this profoundly hopeful, thought-provoking, and inspiring book, Burger takes us into Elie Wiesel’s classroom, where the art of listening and storytelling conspire to keep memory alive. As Wiesel’s teaching assistant, Burger gives us a front-row seat witnessing these remarkable exchanges in and out of the classroom. The act of listening, of sharing these stories, makes of us, the listeners, witnesses.
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The Girls in the Wild Fig Tree
- By: Nice Leng’ete
- Narrator: Nneka Okoye
- Length: 6 hours 37 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 14, 2021
- Language: English
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4.49(333 ratings)
4.49(333 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDAn “elegant and inspiring memoir” by the human rights activist who changed the minds of her elders, reformed traditions from the inside, and is creating a better future for girls and women throughout Africa (Sonia Faleiro, New YorkAn “elegant and inspiring memoir” by the human rights activist who changed the minds of her elders, reformed traditions from the inside, and is creating a better future for girls and women throughout Africa (Sonia Faleiro, New York Times).
Nice Leng`ete was raised in a Maasai village in Kenya. In 1998, when Nice was six, her parents fell sick and died, and Nice and her sister Soila were taken in by their father’s brother, who had little interest in the girls beyond what their dowries might fetch. Fearing “the cut” (female genital mutilation, a painful and sometimes deadly ritualistic surgery), which was the fate of all Maasai women, Nice and Soila climbed a tree to hide.
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Nice hoped to find a way to avoid the cut forever, but Soila understood it would be impossible. But maybe if one of the sisters submitted, the other would be spared. After Soila chose to undergo the surgery, sacrificing herself to save Nice, their lives diverged. Soila married, dropped out of school, and had children-all in her teenage years-while Nice postponed receiving the cut, continued her education, and became the first in her family to attend college.
Supported by Amref, Nice used visits home to set an example for what an uncut Maasai woman can achieve. Other women listened, and the elders finally saw the value of intact, educated girls as the way of the future. The village has since ended FGM entirely, and Nice continues the fight to end FGM throughout Africa, and the world.
Nice’s journey from “heartbroken child and community outcast, to leader of the Maasai” is an inspiration and a reminder that one person can change the world-and every girl is worth saving. -
Signs of Hope
- By: Amy Wolff
- Length: 7 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Publish date: April 06, 2021
- Language: English
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4.41(34 ratings)
4.41(34 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDChanging the world–or at least your corner of it–is easier than you think. Includes audiobook-exclusive bonus commentary from the author! With so much suffering in our communities and in the world, it can feel impossible to make anChanging the world–or at least your corner of it–is easier than you think.
Includes audiobook-exclusive bonus commentary from the author!
With so much suffering in our communities and in the world, it can feel impossible to make an impact. “What good can I possibly do?” we ask.¬†
Amy Wolff, a busy mom and small business owner, often felt this way–and didn’t feel qualified to connect and uplift others. But one day, after hearing about several suicides and suicide attempts in her community, she printed 20 yard signs with hopeful messages and anonymously placed them throughout her city. This small action sparked a global movement of encouragement, hope, and love, which spread to 50 states and 27 countries in just 18 months.¬†
Signs of Hope is an intimate collection of stories from Amy’s personal¬†life, as well as people impacted by the¬†movement, about the power of hope and love in the midst of suffering.¬†This book discusses:
- The drain of compassion fatigue
- Why we should show up imperfectly to help others
- How to claim hope for ourselves
- Practical ideas of how to respond to suffering
- Strategies of how to love people who are “different”
- Resilience when love-spreading efforts backfire
- How to raise a compassionate generation
- The science of hope
Signs of Hope is your catalyst for doing something today . . . because there’s no perfect time to help others. The time is now.
Reflection questions are available in the audiobook companion PDF download.
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Dear World
- By: Bana Alabed
- Narrator: Lameece Issaq
- Length: 3 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.39(734 ratings)
4.39(734 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USD“A story of love and courage amid brutality and terror, this is the testimony of a child who has endured the unthinkable.” –J.K. Rowling “I’m very afraid I will die tonight.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October“A story of love and courage amid brutality and terror, this is the testimony of a child who has endured the unthinkable.” –J.K. Rowling
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“I’m very afraid I will die tonight.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 2, 2016
“Stop killing us.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 6, 2016
“I just want to live without fear.” —Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 12, 2016
When seven-year-old Bana Alabed took to Twitter to describe the horrors she and her family were experiencing in war-torn Syria, her heartrending messages touched the world and gave a voice to millions of innocent children.
Bana’s happy childhood was abruptly upended by civil war when she was only three years old. Over the next four years, she knew nothing but bombing, destruction, and fear. Her harrowing ordeal culminated in a brutal siege where she, her parents, and two younger brothers were trapped in Aleppo, with little access to food, water, medicine, or other necessities.
Facing death as bombs relentlessly fell around them–one of which completely destroyed their home–Bana and her family embarked on a perilous escape to Turkey.
In Bana’s own words, and featuring short, affecting chapters by her mother, Fatemah, Dear World is not just a gripping account of a family endangered by war; it offers a uniquely intimate, child’s perspective on one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history. Bana has lost her best friend, her school, her home, and her homeland. But she has not lost her hope–for herself and for other children around the world who are victims and refugees of war and deserve better lives.
Dear World is a powerful reminder of the resilience of the human spirit, the unconquerable courage of a child, and the abiding power of hope. It is a story that will leave you changed. -
Long Walk to Freedom
- By: Nelson Mandela
- Narrator: Michael Boatman
- Length: 27 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 28, 2018
- Language: English
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4.34(71534 ratings)
4.34(71534 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.98 USDThe autobiography of global human rights icon Nelson Mandela is “riveting . . . both a brilliant description of a diabolical system and a testament to the power of the spirit to transcend it” (Washington Post).Long Walk to Freedom: TheThe autobiography of global human rights icon Nelson Mandela is “riveting . . . both a brilliant description of a diabolical system and a testament to the power of the spirit to transcend it” (Washington Post).Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! *Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa’s antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history’s greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life — an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph.
The book that inspired the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.... Read more*Booktrack is an immersive format that pairs traditional audiobook narration to complementary music. The tempo and rhythm of the score are in perfect harmony with the action and characters throughout the audiobook. Gently playing in the background, the music never overpowers or distracts from the narration, so listeners can enjoy every minute. When you purchase this Booktrack edition, you receive the exact narration as the traditional audiobook available, with the addition of music throughout. -
I Am a Girl from Africa
- By: Elizabeth Nyamayaro
- Narrator: Elizabeth Nyamayaro
- Length: 9 hours 50 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.33(1198 ratings)
4.33(1198 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDA “profound and soul-nourishing memoir” (Oprah Daily) from an African girl whose near-death experience sparked a lifelong dedication to humanitarian work that helps bring change across the world.When severe drought hit her village inA “profound and soul-nourishing memoir” (Oprah Daily) from an African girl whose near-death experience sparked a lifelong dedication to humanitarian work that helps bring change across the world.
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When severe drought hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth Nyamayaro, then only eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life’s purpose. Unable to move from hunger and malnourishment, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life–a transformative moment that inspired Elizabeth to dedicate herself to giving back to her community, her continent, and the world.
In the decades that have followed, Elizabeth has been instrumental in creating change and uplifting the lives of others: by fighting global inequalities, advancing social justice for vulnerable communities, and challenging the status quo to accelerate women’s rights around the world. She has served as a senior advisor at the United Nations, where she launched HeForShe, one of the world’s largest global solidarity movements for gender equality. In I Am a Girl from Africa, she charts this “journey of perseverance” (Entertainment Weekly) from her small village of Goromonzi to Harare, Zimbabwe; London; New York; and beyond, always grounded by the African concept of ubuntu–“I am because we are”–taught to her by her beloved grandmother.
This “victorious” (The New York Times Book Review) memoir brings to vivid life one extraordinary woman’s story of persevering through incredible odds and finding her true calling–while delivering an important message of hope, empowerment, community support, and interdependence. -
Daring to Drive
- By: Manal al-Sharif
- Narrator: Lameece Issaq
- Length: 10 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.32(6748 ratings)
4.32(6748 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USD“A vital, inspiring book” (O, The Oprah Magazine)–a ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of the courageous movement that won Saudi women the right to“A vital, inspiring book” (O, The Oprah Magazine)–a ferociously intimate memoir by a devout woman from a modest family in Saudi Arabia who became the unexpected leader of the courageous movement that won Saudi women the right to drive.
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Manal al-Sharif grew up in Mecca the second daughter of a taxi driver, born the year strict fundamentalism took hold. In her adolescence, she was a religious radical, melting her brother’s boy band cassettes in the oven because music was haram: forbidden by Islamic law. But what a difference an education can make. By her twenties Manal was a computer security engineer, one of few women working in a desert compound built to resemble suburban America. That’s when the Saudi kingdom’s contradictions became too much to bear: she was labeled a slut for chatting with male colleagues, her school-age brother chaperoned her on a business trip, and while she kept a car in the garage, she was forbidden from driving on Saudi streets.
Manal al-Sharif’s memoir is an “eye-opening” (The Christian Science Monitor) account of the making of an accidental activist, a vivid story of a young Muslim woman who stood up to a kingdom of men–and won. Daring to Drive is “a brave, extraordinary, heartbreakingly personal” (Associated Press) celebration of resilience in the face of tyranny and “a testament to how women in Muslim countries are helping change their culture, one step at a time” (New York Journal of Books). -
Corrections in Ink
- By: Keri Blakinger
- Narrator: Keri Blakinger
- Length: 8 hours 22 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: June 07, 2022
- Language: English
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4.3(2084 ratings)
4.3(2084 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDAn electric and unforgettable memoir about a young woman’s journey–from the ice rink, to addiction and a prison sentence, to the newsroom–and how she emerged with a fierce determination to expose the broken system sheAn electric and unforgettable memoir about a young woman’s journey–from the ice rink, to addiction and a prison sentence, to the newsroom–and how she emerged with a fierce determination to expose the broken system she experienced.
Keri Blakinger always lived life at full throttle. Growing up, that meant throwing herself into competitive figure skating with an all-consuming passion that led her to nationals. But when her skating career suddenly fell apart, that meant diving into self-destruction with the intensity she once saved for the ice.For the next nine years, Keri ricocheted from one dark place to the next: living on the streets, selling drugs and sex, and shooting up between classes all while trying to hold herself together enough to finish her degree at Cornell. Then, on a cold day during her senior year, the police caught her walking down the street with a Tupperware full of heroin.
Her arrest made the front page of the local news and landed her behind bars for nearly two years. There, in the Twilight Zone of New York’s jails and prisons, Keri grappled with the wreckage of her missteps and mistakes as she sobered up and searched for a better path. Along the way, she met women from all walks of life–who were all struggling through the same upside-down world of corrections. As the days ticked by, Keri came to understand how broken the justice system is and who that brokenness hurts the most.
After she walked out of her cell for the last time, Keri became a reporter dedicated to exposing our flawed prisons as only an insider could. Written with searing intensity, unflinching honesty, and shocks of humor, Corrections in Ink uncovers that dark, brutal system that affects us all. Not just a story about getting out and getting off drugs, this galvanizing memoir is about the power of second chances; about who our society throws away and who we allow to reach for redemption–and how they reach for it.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
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Make Trouble
- By: Cecile Richards
- Narrator: Cecile Richards
- Length: 9 hours 59 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.29(3013 ratings)
4.29(3013 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDFrom Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood for more than a decade, daughter of the late Ann Richards, featured speaker at the Women’s March on Washington, and “the heroine of the resistance” (Vogue), comesFrom Cecile Richards, the former president of Planned Parenthood for more than a decade, daughter of the late Ann Richards, featured speaker at the Women’s March on Washington, and “the heroine of the resistance” (Vogue), comes “an enthralling memoir” (Booklist, starred review) filled with “practical advice and inspiration for aspiring leaders everywhere” (Hillary Rodham Clinton).
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Cecile Richards has been an activist since she was taken to the principal’s office in seventh grade for wearing an armband in protest of the Vietnam War. Richards had an extraordinary childhood in ultra-conservative Texas, where her civil rights attorney father and activist mother taught their kids to be troublemakers. She had a front-row seat to observe the rise of women in American politics and watched her mother, Ann, transform from a housewife to an electrifying force in the Democratic party.
As a young woman, Richards worked as a labor organizer alongside women earning minimum wage, and learned that those in power don’t give it up without a fight. She experienced first-hand the misogyny, sexism, fake news, and the ever-looming threat of violence that constantly confront women who challenge authority.
Now, after years of advocacy, resistance, and progressive leadership, she shares her “truly inspiring” (Redbook) story for the first time–from the joy and heartbreak of activism to the challenges of raising kids, having a life, and making change, all the while garnering a reputation as “the most badass feminist EVER” (Teen Vogue).
In the “powerful and infinitely readable” (Gloria Steinem) Make Trouble, Richards reflects on the people and lessons that have gotten her through good times and bad, and encourages the rest of us to take risks, make mistakes, and make trouble along the way. -
Prayers for Bobby
- By: Leroy Aarons
- Narrator: Wentworth Miller
- Length: 9 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.28(1283 ratings)
4.28(1283 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDBobby Griffith was an all-American boy … and he was gay. Faced with an irresolvable conflict–for both his family and his religion taught him that being gay was “wrong”–Bobby chose to take his own life. Prayers forBobby Griffith was an all-American boy … and he was gay. Faced with an irresolvable conflict–for both his family and his religion taught him that being gay was “wrong”–Bobby chose to take his own life.
Prayers for Bobby, nominated for a 1996 Lambda Literary Award, is the story of the emotional journey that led Bobby to this tragic conclusion. But it is also the story of Bobby’s mother, a fearful churchgoer who first prayed that her son would be “healed,” then anguished over his suicide, and ultimately transformed herself into a national crusader for gay and lesbian youth.
As told through Bobby’s poignant journal entries and his mother’s reminiscences, Prayers for Bobby is at once a moving personal story, a true profile in courage, and a call to arms to parents everywhere.
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The Pianist from Syria
- By: Aeham Ahmad
- Narrator: Nezar Alderazi
- Length: 10 hours 24 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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4.27(317 ratings)
4.27(317 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDThis astonishing true story presents an “affecting viewpoint on life in Syria before and in the midst of extreme violence” (Booklist), offering a deeply personal and unique perspective on one of the most devastating refugee crises ofThis astonishing true story presents an “affecting viewpoint on life in Syria before and in the midst of extreme violence” (Booklist), offering a deeply personal and unique perspective on one of the most devastating refugee crises of this century.
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Aeham Ahmad was born a second-generation refugee–the son of a blind violinist and carpenter who recognized Aeham’s talent and taught him how to play piano and love music from an early age. When his grandparents and father were forced to flee Israel and seek refuge from the conflict ravaging their home, Aeham’s family built a life in Yarmouk, an unofficial camp to more than 160,000 Palestinian refugees in Damascus.
As a devoted family, they waited for the conflict to be resolved so they could return to their homeland. Their only haven was in music and in each other, especially when another deadly fight overtook their asylum. Forced to leave his family behind, Aeham sought out a safe place for them to call home and build a better life, taking solace in his indestructible familial bond to keep moving forward.
Heart-wrenching yet ultimately optimistic and told in a raw and poignant voice, The Pianist from Syria is a “deeply moving account of one man’s struggle to survive while bringing hope to thousands through his music” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). -
Dorothy Day
- By: John Loughery
- Narrator: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 17 hours 5 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.14(209 ratings)
4.14(209 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USD“Magisterial and glorious” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), the first full authoritative biography of Dorothy Day–American icon, radical pacifist, Catholic convert, and advocate for the homeless–is “a vivid account of her“Magisterial and glorious” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), the first full authoritative biography of Dorothy Day–American icon, radical pacifist, Catholic convert, and advocate for the homeless–is “a vivid account of her political and religious development” (Karen Armstrong, The New York Times).
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After growing up in a conservative middle-class Republican household and working several years as a left-wing journalist, Dorothy Day converted to Catholicism and became an anomaly in American life for the next fifty years. As an orthodox Catholic, political radical, and a rebel who courted controversy, she attracted three generations of admirers. A believer in civil disobedience, Day went to jail several times protesting the nuclear arms race. She was critical of capitalism and US foreign policy, and as skeptical of modern liberalism as political conservatism.
Her protests began in 1917, leading to her arrest during the suffrage demonstration outside President Wilson’s White House. In 1940 she spoke in Congress against the draft and urged young men not to register. She told audiences in 1962 that the US was as much to blame for the Cuban missile crisis as Cuba and the USSR. She refused to hear any criticism of the pope, though she sparred with American bishops and priests who lived in well-appointed rectories while tolerating racial segregation in their parishes.
Dorothy Day is the exceptional biography of a dedicated modern-day pacifist, an outspoken advocate for the poor, and a lifelong anarchist. This definitive and insightful account is “a monumental exploration of the life, legacy, and spirituality of the Catholic activist” (Spirituality & Practice). -
Eunice
- By: Eileen McNamara
- Narrator: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 15 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.05(744 ratings)
4.05(744 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDIn this “revelation” of a biography (USA TODAY), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family’s most profound political legacy.While JoeIn this “revelation” of a biography (USA TODAY), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist examines the life and times of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, arguing she left behind the Kennedy family’s most profound political legacy.
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While Joe Kennedy was grooming his sons for the White House and the Senate, his Stanford-educated daughter, Eunice, was hijacking her father’s fortune and her brothers’ political power to engineer one of the great civil rights movements of our time on behalf of millions of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Her compassion was born of rage: at the medical establishment that had no answers for her sister Rosemary, at her revered but dismissive father, whose vision for his family did not extend beyond his sons, and at a government that failed to deliver on America’s promise of equality.
Now, in this “fascinating” (the Today show), “nuanced” (The Boston Globe) biography, “ace reporter and artful storyteller” (Pulitzer Prize-winning author Megan Marshall) Eileen McNamara finally brings Eunice Kennedy Shriver out from her brothers’ shadow. Granted access to never-before-seen private papers, including the scrapbooks Eunice kept as a schoolgirl in prewar London, McNamara paints an extraordinary portrait of a woman both ahead of her time and out of step with it: the visionary founder of Special Olympics, a devout Catholic in a secular age, and an officious, cigar-smoking, indefatigable woman whose impact on American society was longer lasting than that of any of the Kennedy men. -
Why They Marched
- By: Susan Ware
- Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.83(488 ratings)
3.83(488 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDLooking beyond the national leadership of the suffrage movement, an acclaimed historian gives voice to the thousands of women from different backgrounds, races, and religions whose local passion and protest resounded throughout the land. For far tooLooking beyond the national leadership of the suffrage movement, an acclaimed historian gives voice to the thousands of women from different backgrounds, races, and religions whose local passion and protest resounded throughout the land.
For far too long, the history of how American women won the right to vote has been told as the tale of a few iconic leaders, all white and native-born. But Susan Ware uncovered a much broader and more diverse story waiting to be told. Why They Marched is a tribute to the many women who worked tirelessly in communities across the nation, out of the spotlight, protesting, petitioning, and insisting on their right to full citizenship.
Ware tells her story through the lives of nineteen activists, most of whom have long been overlooked. We meet Mary Church Terrell, a multilingual African American woman; Rose Schneiderman, a labor activist building coalitions on New York’s Lower East Side; Claiborne Catlin, who toured the Massachusetts countryside on horseback to drum up support for the cause; Mary Johnston, an aristocratic novelist bucking the Southern ruling elite; Emmeline B. Wells, a Mormon woman in a polygamous marriage determined to make her voice heard; and others who helped harness a groundswell of popular support. We also see the many places where the suffrage movement unfolded–in church parlors, meeting rooms, and the halls of Congress, but also on college campuses and even at the top of Mount Rainier. Few corners of the United States were untouched by suffrage activism.
Ware’s deeply moving stories provide a fresh account of one of the most significant moments of political mobilization in American history. The dramatic, often joyous experiences of these women resonate powerfully today, as a new generation of young women demands to be heard.
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A Selfish Plan to Change the World
- By: Justin Dillon
- Length: 8 hours 28 minutes
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson
- Publish date: May 23, 2017
- Language: English
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3.83(102 ratings)
3.83(102 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDYou are exactly what the world needs What if your search for meaning could solve the world’s problems? What if everything you are passionate about could save a life or change history? Justin Dillon argues it can, and A Selfish Plan toYou are exactly what the world needs
What if your search for meaning could solve the world’s problems? What if everything you are passionate about could save a life or change history? Justin Dillon argues it can, and A Selfish Plan to Change the World shows how. 
In this paradigm-shifting new book, Dillon–the founder of Slavery Footprint and Made in a Free World–reveals the secret to a life of deep and lasting significance: the discovery that our need for meaning is inextricably linked to the needs of the world.¬†A Selfish Plan to Change the World¬†delivers a revolutionary method for meeting both needs.
Drawing upon his own unlikely transformation from touring musician to founder of a global movement and telling the stories of other surprising world-changers, Dillon shows how to create a life of deep purpose by stepping into the problems of the world. Taking readers on a journey from sweatshops in India to punk rock concerts in Ireland, Dillon exposes the limitations of the “giving back” approach involving donations and volunteerism to reveal the unexpected power of “giving in” to pursue self-interest in a way that alters the very dynamics of the world‚Äôs most challenging problems.
A Selfish Plan to Change the World¬†is your “self-help-others” guide to a life that matters, demonstrating how you can repurpose your existing talents, backstory, and networks to improve the lives of others. Changing the world no longer belongs only to martyrs and professional do-gooders. You can live an extraordinary life. You can change the world. All you ever needed was a plan.
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The Color of Abolition
- By: Linda Hirshman
- Narrator: Je Nie Fleming
- Length: 11 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: February 08, 2022
- Language: English
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3.82(61 ratings)
3.82(61 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0011.99 USDThe story of the fascinating, fraught alliance among Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Maria Weston Chapman—and how its breakup led to the success of America’s most important social movement. “Fresh, provocativeThe story of the fascinating, fraught alliance among Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, and Maria Weston Chapman—and how its breakup led to the success of America’s most important social movement.
“Fresh, provocative and engrossing.” —New York Times
In the crucial early years of the Abolition movement, the Boston branch of the cause seized upon the star power of the eloquent ex-slave Frederick Douglass to make its case for slaves’ freedom. Journalist William Lloyd Garrison promoted emancipation while Garrison loyalist Maria Weston Chapman, known as “the Contessa,” raised money and managed Douglass’s speaking tour from her Boston townhouse.
Conventional histories have seen Douglass’s departure for the New York wing of the Abolition party as a result of a rift between Douglass and Garrison. But, as acclaimed historian Linda Hirshman reveals, this completely misses the woman in power. Weston Chapman wrote cutting letters to Douglass, doubting his loyalty; the Bostonian abolitionists were shot through with racist prejudice, even aiming the N-word at Douglass among themselves. Through incisive, original analysis, Hirshman convinces that the inevitable breakup was in fact a successful failure. Eventually, as the most sought-after Black activist in America, Douglass was able to dangle the prize of his endorsement over the Republican Party’s candidate for president, Abraham Lincoln. Two years later the abolition of slavery—if not the abolition of racism—became immutable law.
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Well, That Escalated Quickly
- By: Franchesca Ramsey
- Narrator: Franchesca Ramsey
- Length: 7 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 22, 2018
- Language: English
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3.8(1661 ratings)
3.8(1661 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDA sharp and timely exploration of race, online activism, and real communication in the age of social media rants, trolls, and call-out wars, from veteran video blogger and star of MTV’s Decoded Franchesca Ramsey. Franchesca RamseyA sharp and timely exploration of race, online activism, and real communication in the age of social media rants, trolls, and call-out wars, from veteran video blogger and star of MTV’s Decoded Franchesca Ramsey.
Franchesca Ramsey didn’t set out to be an activist. Or a comedian. Or a commentator on identity, race, and culture, really. But then her YouTube video “What White Girls Say . . . to Black Girls” went viral. Twelve million views viral. Faced with an avalanche of media requests, fan letters, and hate mail, she had two choices: Jump in and make her voice heard or step back and let others frame the conversation. After a crash course in social justice and more than a few foot-in-mouth moments, she realized she had a unique talent and passion for breaking down injustice in America in ways that could make people listen and engage.
In her first book, Ramsey uses her own experiences as an accidental activist to explore the many ways we communicate with each other–from the highs of bridging gaps and making connections to the many pitfalls that accompany talking about race, power, sexuality, and gender in an unpredictable public space…the internet.
Well, that Escalated Quickly includes Ramsey’s advice on dealing with internet trolls and low-key racists, confessions about being a former online hater herself, and her personal hits and misses in activist debates with everyone from bigoted Facebook friends and misguided relatives to mainstream celebrities and YouTube influencers. With sharp humor and her trademark candor, Ramsey shows readers we can have tough conversations that move the dialogue forward, rather than backward, if we just approach them in the right way.
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Unbecoming
- By: Anuradha Bhagwati
- Narrator: Anuradha Bhagwati
- Length: 10 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.79(447 ratings)
3.79(447 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDBrimming “with the ebullient Bhagwati’s fierce humanism, seething humor, and change-maker righteousness,” (Shelf Awareness) a raw, unflinching memoir by a former US Marine Captain chronicling her journey from dutiful daughter ofBrimming “with the ebullient Bhagwati’s fierce humanism, seething humor, and change-maker righteousness,” (Shelf Awareness) a raw, unflinching memoir by a former US Marine Captain chronicling her journey from dutiful daughter of immigrants to radical activist fighting for historic policy reform.
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After a lifetime of buckling to the demands of her strict Indian parents, Anuradha Bhagwati abandons grad school in the Ivy League to join the Marines–the fiercest, most violent, most masculine branch of the military–determined to prove herself there in ways she couldn’t before.
Yet once training begins, Anuradha’s GI Jane fantasy is punctured. As a bisexual woman of color in the military, she faces underestimation at every stage, confronting misogyny, racism, sexual violence, and astonishing injustice perpetrated by those in power. Pushing herself beyond her limits, she also wrestles with what drove her to pursue such punishment in the first place.
Once her service concludes in 2004, Anuradha courageously vows to take to task the very leaders and traditions that cast such a dark cloud over her time in the Marines. Her efforts result in historic change, including the lifting of the ban on women from pursuing combat roles in the military.
“Bhagwati’s fight is both incensing and inspiring” (Booklist) in this tale of heroic resilience and grapples with the timely question of what, exactly, America stands for, showing how one woman learned to believe in herself in spite of everything. -
Goddess of Anarchy
- By: Jacqueline Jones
- Narrator: Nylsa Smallwood
- Length: 14 hours 7 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: December 05, 2017
- Language: English
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3.77(171 ratings)
3.77(171 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDFrom a prize-winning historian, a new portrait of an extraordinary activist and the turbulent age in which she lived Goddess of Anarchy recounts the formidable life of the militant writer, orator, and agitator Lucy Parsons. Born to an enslaved womanFrom a prize-winning historian, a new portrait of an extraordinary activist and the turbulent age in which she lived
Goddess of Anarchy recounts the formidable life of the militant writer, orator, and agitator Lucy Parsons. Born to an enslaved woman in Virginia in 1851 and raised in Texas-where she met her husband, the Haymarket “martyr” Albert Parsons-Lucy was a fearless advocate of First Amendment rights, a champion of the working classes, and one of the most prominent figures of African descent of her era. And yet, her life was riddled with contradictions-she advocated violence without apology, concocted a Hispanic-Indian identity for herself, and ignored the plight of African Americans.
Drawing on a wealth of new sources, Jacqueline Jones presents not only the exceptional life of the famous American-born anarchist but also an authoritative account of her times-from slavery through the Great Depression.
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The Fifties
- By: James R. Gaines
- Narrator: James Fouhey
- Length: 8 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.74(154 ratings)
3.74(154 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDAn “exciting and enlightening revisionist history” (Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author) that upends the myth of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and celebrates a few solitary, brave, and stubborn individuals whoAn “exciting and enlightening revisionist history” (Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times bestselling author) that upends the myth of the 1950s as a decade of conformity and celebrates a few solitary, brave, and stubborn individuals who pioneered the radical gay rights, feminist, civil rights, and environmental movements, from historian James R. Gaines.
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An “enchanting, beautifully written book about heroes and the dark times to which they refused to surrender” (Todd Gitlin, bestselling author of The Sixties). In a series of character portraits, The Fifties invokes the accidental radicals–people motivated not by politics but by their own most intimate conflicts–who sparked movements for change in their time and our own. Among many others, we meet legal pathfinder Pauli Murray, who was tortured by both her mixed-race heritage and her “in between” sexuality. Through years of hard work and self-examination, she turned her demons into historic victories. Ruth Bader Ginsburg credited her for the argument that made sex discrimination unconstitutional, but that was only one of her gifts to the 21st-century feminism. We meet Harry Hay, who dreamed of a national gay rights movement as early as the mid-1940s, a time when the US, Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany viewed gay people as subversives and mentally ill. And in perhaps the book’s unlikeliest pairing, we hear the prophetic voices of Silent Spring‘s Rachel Carson and MIT’s preeminent mathematician, Norbert Wiener, who from their very different perspectives–she is in the living world, he in the theoretical one–converged on the then-heretical idea that our mastery over the natural world carried the potential for disaster. Their legacy is the environmental movement.
The Fifties is an “inspiration…[and] a reminder of the hard work and personal sacrifice that went into fighting for the constitutional rights of gay people, Blacks, and women, as well as for environmental protection” (The Washington Post). The book carries the powerful message that change begins not in mass movements and new legislation but in the lives of the decentered, often lonely individuals, who learn to fight for change in a daily struggle with themselves. -
Voice of Rebellion
- By: Roberta Staley
- Narrator: Julia Farhat
- Length: 8 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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3.53(32 ratings)
3.53(32 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe first-ever biography of Mozhdah Jamalzadah: refugee, pop singer, and champion of women’s rights Many have tried to silence her, but Mozhdah Jamalzadah remains the most powerful female voice of her generation in Afghanistan, boldly speakingThe first-ever biography of Mozhdah Jamalzadah: refugee, pop singer, and champion of women’s rights
Many have tried to silence her, but Mozhdah Jamalzadah remains the most powerful female voice of her generation in Afghanistan, boldly speaking out about women’s rights. Voice of Rebellion charts her incredible journey, including arriving in Canada as a child refugee, setting her father’s protest poem to music (and making it a #1 hit), performing that song for Michelle and Barack Obama, and, finally, being invited to host her own show in Afghanistan. The Mozhdah Show earned her the nickname “The Oprah of Afghanistan” and tackled taboo subjects like divorce and domestic violence for the first time in the country’s history. But even as her words resonated with women and families, Mozhdah received angry death threats–some of them serious–and was eventually advised to return to Canada.
Traversing Central Asia and North America, Voice of Rebellion profiles a devoted singer and activist who continues to fight for change, even from afar.
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Finding My Voice
- By: Emerald Garner
- Narrator: Monet Dunham
- Length: 5 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.46(10 ratings)
3.46(10 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn this unforgettable memoir, Emerald Garner recounts her father’s cruel and unjust murder, the immense pain that followed, the pressures of an exploitative media, and her difficult yet determined journey as an activist against policeIn this unforgettable memoir, Emerald Garner recounts her father’s cruel and unjust murder, the immense pain that followed, the pressures of an exploitative media, and her difficult yet determined journey as an activist against police violence.
She begins with the morning of July 17, 2014–a rare day off from work, one she had hoped to enjoy with rest and family, that quickly turned her world inside out. What follows is a personal account of the suffering Emerald and her family endured: unsympathetic camera lenses, the stares and whispers of strangers, and the inability to mourn in private.
In addition to these vulnerable, personal essays, Finding My Voice includes conversations in which Emerald found inspiration, empathy, and community: politicians, athletes, and activists like Brian Benjamin and Etan Thomas; others who had survived similarly unfathomable grief like Lora Dene King, Angelique Kearse, and Pamela Brooks; and Emerald’s own family, Mrs. Esaw Garner and Eric Garner Jr. The audiobook ends with a powerful call-to-action by author and daughter of Malcolm X, Ilyasah Shabazz. With growing calls for radical transformation and accountability, Emerald Garner’s memoir is a story of family and community, and the strength it takes to survive, to stand, to speak.”
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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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