29 Best History & Theory, Political Science Books
History & Theory, Political Science is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top History & Theory, Political Science audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 History & Theory, Political Science audiobooks below.
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Chaotic Neutral
- By: Ed Burmila
- Narrator: Mikael Naramore
- Length: 13 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 20, 2022
- Language: English
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4.56(72 ratings)
4.56(72 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDA recent history of the Democratic Party that identifies its chronic errors–the “pathologies” of the New Democratic mindset–and argues urgently against a return to the status quo Why did the Democrats initially abandon theirA recent history of the Democratic Party that identifies its chronic errors–the “pathologies” of the New Democratic mindset–and argues urgently against a return to the status quo
Why did the Democrats initially abandon their principles, and why haven’t they been able to grasp that they need a new strategy in the face of decades of diminishing returns? In Chaotic Neutral, political scientist Ed Burmila breaks it to us, tracing the party’s metamorphosis from bold defender of labor rights, civil rights, and a robust social safety net to a timorous, ideology-free, regulation-averse lifestyle brand.
Chaotic Neutral tracks the evolution (or devolution) of the Democratic Party from the New Deal era to Biden’s status-quo candidacy and the pandemic, when, even in the midst of a national crisis, the Democrats could not manage to pass sweeping progressive legislation. It is a timely analysis and, simultaneously, a timeless one that pinpoints why Dem politicians act like also-rans even when they’re in power.
Burmila doesn’t pull any punches as he describes the Democrats’ brand of futility politics, but he also doesn’t claim that all is futile, instead laying out a potent strategy for how the party might abandon its lesser-of-two-evils strategy and shift back into drive. -
Consequences of Capitalism
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrator: Donald Corren
- Length: 14 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.4(606 ratings)
4.4(606 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDIs there an alternative to capitalism? In this landmark text Chomsky and Waterstone chart a critical map for a more just and sustainable society. “Covid-19 has revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities in the current capitalistIs there an alternative to capitalism?
In this landmark text Chomsky and Waterstone chart a critical map for a more just and sustainable society.
“Covid-19 has revealed glaring failures and monstrous brutalities in the current capitalist system. It represents both a crisis and an opportunity…Everything depends on the actions that people take into their own hands.” –From the afterword
How do politics shape our world, our lives, and our perceptions? How much of “common sense” is actually driven by the ruling class’ needs and interests? And how are we to challenge the capitalist structures that now threaten all life on the planet?
Consequences of Capitalism exposes the deep, often unseen connections between neoliberal “common sense” and structural power. In making these linkages, we see how the current hegemony keeps social justice movements divided and marginalized. And, most importantly, we see how we can fight to overcome these divisions.
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Intellectuals and Race
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrator: Robertson Dean
- Length: 5 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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4.36(1486 ratings)
4.36(1486 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDIntellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense–one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly newIntellectuals and Race is a radical book in the original sense–one that goes to the root of the problem. The role of intellectuals in racial strife is explored in an international context that puts the American experience in a wholly new light.
Intellectuals have played a major role in racial issues throughout the centuries. Though their individual views may differ, as a whole their views tend to group, and just over the course of the twentieth century, they have shifted from one end of the spectrum to the other. Surprisingly, these radically different views of race were held by intellectuals whose views on other issues were often very similar.
Intellectuals and Race is not, however, a book about history, even though it has much historical evidence, as well as demographic, geographic, and economic evidence–all of it directed toward testing the underlying assumptions about race that have prevailed at times among intellectuals in general, and especially at their highest levels. Nor is this simply a theoretical exercise. Sowell’s ultimate concern is the impact of intellectual movements on the larger society, both past and present. These ideas and crusades have ranged widely from racial theories of intelligence to eugenics to “social justice” and multiculturalism.
In addition to in-depth examinations of these and other issues, Intellectuals and Race explores the incentives, the visions, and the rationales that drive intellectuals at the highest levels to conclusions that have often turned out to be counterproductive and even disastrous, not only for particular racial or ethnic groups but for societies as a whole.
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How the Force Can Fix the World
- By: Stephen Kent
- Narrator: Stephen Kent
- Length: 6 hours 29 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: November 09, 2021
- Language: English
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4.34(38 ratings)
4.34(38 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDFrom widespread unemployment and mounting international hostilities, every day we are swept into more political chaos–so one brave man looks to the Star Wars universe for answers to our most urgent problems.“You can’t stop theFrom widespread unemployment and mounting international hostilities, every day we are swept into more political chaos–so one brave man looks to the Star Wars universe for answers to our most urgent problems.
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“You can’t stop the change — anymore than you can stop the sun from setting.” Anakin Skywalker was never able to live with this wisdom shared by his mother on the day he left home to train as a Jedi Knight. That failure led him to becoming the fearsome villain we all know as Darth Vader.
We’re living in a time of unprecedented and rapid change. An age of chaos. Democracies are in decline worldwide. Dictators are ascendant. Civic organizations are crumbling. People feel lonelier and more rudderless than in any other time in recent history. We’ve tried to slow down, and in some cases we, like Anakin, have tried stop the change, but failed at every turn. The fears that come with living in an age of disruption have produced public anger, and that anger has swelled movements of hate.
Author Stephen Kent believes part of the solution is hiding in plain sight. A story that binds together multiple generations with a common language, a moral framework, and a sense of wonder. It’s Star Wars.
What if we looked to Star Wars for more than just entertainment? How the Force Can Fix the World takes this challenge on by analyzing the core principles of the Star Wars franchise: HOPE, CHOICE, HUMILITY, EMPATHY, REDEMPTION, BALANCE and rejecting FEAR. Together, these are the Star Wars roadmap for living better lives, and maybe even fostering a better politics.
The path that we’re on — where fear leads to anger, and anger to hatred — will only end in suffering. But Star Wars shows us the way back from the brink. Shared stories of virtue that are beloved across cultures and political divides are hard to come by, but Star Wars is one such story. Turn on the news; things are pretty broken right now — but the Force can fix the world. -
A Conflict of Visions
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrator: Michael Edwards
- Length: 7 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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4.32(2882 ratings)
4.32(2882 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDControversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conlficts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern. In this book, which the author calls a “culmination of thirty years of work in the history ofControversies in politics arise from many sources, but the conlficts that endure for generations or centuries show a remarkably consistent pattern.
In this book, which the author calls a “culmination of thirty years of work in the history of ideas,” Sowell attempts to explain the ideological difference between liberals and conservatives as a disagreement over the moral potential inherent in nature. Those who see that potential as limited prefer to constrain governmental authority, he argues. They feel that reform is difficult and often dangerous, and they put their faith in family, custom, law, and traditional institutions. Conversely, those who have faith in human nature prefer to remove institutional and traditional constraints. Controversies over such diverse issues as criminal justice, income distribution, or war and peace repeatedly show an ideological divide along the lines of these two conflicting visions.
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Common Sense and The Declaration of Independence
- By: Thomas Paine
- Narrator: Craig Deitschmann
- Length: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.26(15 ratings)
4.26(15 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.95 USDCommon Sense examines how Americans defended the right to resist unjust laws and how this right of resistance was transformed into a right of revolution. It examines Thomas Paine’s views on the difference between society and government, hisCommon Sense examines how Americans defended the right to resist unjust laws and how this right of resistance was transformed into a right of revolution. It examines Thomas Paine’s views on the difference between society and government, his defense of republican government, his total rejection of hereditary monarchy, and his belief that Americans should take up arms against the English government.
The Declaration of Independence articulates the principles of the American Revolution. This program discusses natural rights, government by consent, the social contract, the difference between alienable and inalienable rights, and the right of revolution against oppressive governments.
The Giants of Political Thought Series offers an easy and entertaining way to broaden your mind and your awareness of great ideas.
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To Govern the Globe
- By: Alfred W. McCoy
- Narrator: Dan Woren
- Length: 15 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.23(57 ratings)
4.23(57 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDIn a tempestuous narrative that sweeps across five continents and seven centuries, this book explains how a succession of catastrophes–from the devastating Black Death of 1350 through the coming climate crisis of 2050–has produced aIn a tempestuous narrative that sweeps across five continents and seven centuries, this book explains how a succession of catastrophes–from the devastating Black Death of 1350 through the coming climate crisis of 2050–has produced a relentless succession of rising empires and fading world orders.
During the long centuries of Iberian and British imperial rule, the quest for new forms of energy led to the development of the colonial sugar plantation as a uniquely profitable kind of commerce. In a time when issues of race and social justice have arisen with pressing urgency, the book explains how the plantation’s extraordinary profitability relied on a production system that literally worked the slaves to death, creating an insatiable appetite for new captives that made the African slave trade a central feature of modern capitalism for over four centuries.
After surveying past centuries roiled by imperial wars, national revolutions, and the struggle for human rights, the closing chapters use those hard-won insights to peer through the present and into the future.
By rendering often-opaque environmental science in lucid prose, the book explains how climate change and changing world orders will shape the life opportunities for younger generations, born at the start of this century, during the coming decades that will serve as the signposts of their lives–2030, 2050, 2070, and beyond.
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Guests of the Ayatollah
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrator: Mark Bowden
- Length: 9 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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4.15(3715 ratings)
4.15(3715 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.95 USDOn November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage and kept nearly all of them captive 444 days. TheOn November 4, 1979, a group of radical Islamist students, inspired by revolutionary Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They took fifty-two Americans hostage and kept nearly all of them captive 444 days.
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The Iran hostage crisis was a watershed moment in American history. It was America’s first showdown with Islamic fundamentalism, a confrontation at the forefront of American policy to this day. It was also a powerful dramatic story that captivated the American people, launched yellow-ribbon campaigns, made celebrities of the hostage’s families, and crippled the reelection campaign of President Jimmy Carter.
Mark Bowden tells this sweeping story through the eyes of the hostages, their radical, na√Øve captors, the soldiers sent on the impossible mission to free them, and the diplomats working to end the crisis. Taking listeners from the Oval Office to the hostages’ cells, Guests of the Ayatollah is a remarkably detailed, brilliantly re-created, and suspenseful account of a crisis that gripped and ultimately changed the world. -
American Awakening
- By: Joshua Mitchell
- Narrator: Chris Abell
- Length: 7 hours 25 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.15(111 ratings)
4.15(111 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDIn American Awakening, Joshua Mitchell compares today’s secular politics of identity–skin tone, gender, and sexuality–to the religious awakenings of America’s past. The book asks where the clerisy of identity politics cameIn American Awakening, Joshua Mitchell compares today’s secular politics of identity–skin tone, gender, and sexuality–to the religious awakenings of America’s past. The book asks where the clerisy of identity politics came from, how identity politics claimed a death grip on liberalism, and how can it be defeated.
We are living in the midst of an American Awakening, without God and without forgiveness. The first two Awakenings brought religious renewal; the third–the social gospel movement and its aftermath (1880-1910)–invoked the authority of religion to bring about political and social transformation, but lost sight of Christianity along the way.The Awakening through which we are now living comprehends politics through the categories of religion without recognizing it, has no place for the God who judges or the God who forgives, and has brought America to a dead end, beyond which no one can see. Identity politics renders judgment not based on sins of omission and commission, but on the publicly visible, unalterable attributes that precede whatever citizens might do or leave undone. Identity politics offers no forgiveness for transgressions, because they are irredeemable. Liberal politics was once concerned with working together to build a common world. Identity politics has transformed politics. It has turned politics into a religious venue of sacrificial offering.For the moment, the irredeemable scapegoat is the white, heterosexual, man. After he is humiliated and purged, on whom will innocent victims turn their cathartic rage? White women? Black men?Identity politics is the antiegalitarian spiritual eugenics of our age. It demands that pure and innocent groups ascend, and the stained transgressor groups be purged. If religious revivals are understood as collective efforts to redeem a stained world, then identity politics is an American religious revival–this time around, without God.
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The Conservative Mind
- By: Russell Kirk
- Narrator: Phillip Davidson
- Length: 19 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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4.14(1357 ratings)
4.14(1357 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.95 USDFirst published in 1953, this magnificent work will be remembered in ages to come as one of our century’s most important legacies. The then-young Kirk wrote this during a time when liberalism was heralded as the only political and intellectualFirst published in 1953, this magnificent work will be remembered in ages to come as one of our century’s most important legacies. The then-young Kirk wrote this during a time when liberalism was heralded as the only political and intellectual tradition in America. There is no doubt that this book is responsible to a large degree for the rise of conservatism as a viable and credible creed.
Kirk defines “the conservative mind” by examining such brilliant men as Edmund Burke, James Fenimore Cooper, Alexis de Tocqueville, John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Benjamin Disraeli, Cardinal Newman, George Santayana, and finally, T. S. Eliot. Vigorously written, the book represents conservatism as an ideology born of sound intellectual traditions.
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The Sorrows of Empire
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrator: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
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4.13(1408 ratings)
4.13(1408 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDIn the years after the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe’s “lone superpower,” then as a “reluctant sheriff,” next as the “indispensable nation,” and, in the wake ofIn the years after the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe’s “lone superpower,” then as a “reluctant sheriff,” next as the “indispensable nation,” and, in the wake of 9/11, as a “New Rome.” In this important national bestseller, Chalmers Johnson thoroughly explores the new militarism that is transforming America and compelling us to pick up the burden of empire. Recalling the classic warnings against militarism–from George Washington’s farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower’s denunciation of the military-industrial complex–Johnson uncovers its roots deep in our past. Turning to the present, he maps America’s expanding empire of military bases and the vast web of services that support them. He offers a vivid look at the new caste of professional militarists who have infiltrated multiple branches of government, who classify everything they do as “secret,” and for whom the manipulation of the military budget is of vital interest. Among Johnson’s provocative conclusions is that American militarism is already putting an end to the age of globalization and bankrupting the United States, even as it creates the conditions for a new century of virulent blowback. The Sorrows of Empire suggests that the former American republic has already crossed its Rubicon–with the Pentagon in the lead.
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Every Man a King
- By: Chris Stirewalt
- Narrator: Chris Stirewalt
- Length: 4 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: September 11, 2018
- Language: English
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4.11(140 ratings)
4.11(140 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.98 USDFrom Fox News‘ politics editor Chris Stirewalt — a fun and lively account of America’s populist tradition, from Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt, to Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and Donald Trump. Whatever the ideological fad of theFrom Fox News‘ politics editor Chris Stirewalt — a fun and lively account of America’s populist tradition, from Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt, to Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and Donald Trump.... Read moreWhatever the ideological fad of the moment, American populism has always been home to a fascinating assortment of charismatic leaders, characters, kooks, cranks, and sometimes charlatans who have – with widely varying degrees of success – led the charge of ordinary folks who have gotten wise to the ways of the swamp. This attitude of skeptical resentment also makes populism a fertile field for the work of conspiracy theorists and other enthusiastic apostates from civic convention. After all, if the people in power are found to be rigging one part of the system, why not the rest? Every Man a King tells the stories of America’s populist leaders, from an elderly Andrew Jackson brutally caning his would-be-assassin, to William Jennings Bryan’s pre-speech routine that combined equally prodigious quantities of prayer and food, to Ross Perot’s military-style campaign that made even volunteers wear badges with stars to show rank. It is a rollicking history of an American attitude that has shaped not only our current moment, but also the long struggle over who gets to define the truths we hold to be self evident.
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The Federalist Papers
- By: Alexander Hamilton
- Narrator: Michael Edwards
- Length: 18 hours 11 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.09(3724 ratings)
4.09(3724 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.95 USDApproved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, the US Constitution was to become law only if ratified by nine of the thirteen states then comprising the United States. The eighty-five letters in support of the ConstitutionApproved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, the US Constitution was to become law only if ratified by nine of the thirteen states then comprising the United States. The eighty-five letters in support of the Constitution collected here have become recognized as the most important political science work ever written in the United States. Written primarily by Hamilton, assisted by Madison and Jay, these essays are considered to be the foremost commentary on the US Constitution. Today lawyers, historians, and Supreme Court Judges, along with countless others, carefully comb these letters looking for key insights ranging from their analysis of the power of congress to their arguments on behalf of judicial review. From what we can determine, ours is the only unabridged recording to date.
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The Original Argument
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrator: Pat Gray
- Length: 10 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.07(882 ratings)
4.07(882 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.95 USDGlenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset, returns with his contemporary adaptation of The Federalist Papers with the inclusion of his own commentary and annotations to help readers interpret and understand theGlenn Beck, the New York Times bestselling author of The Great Reset, returns with his contemporary adaptation of The Federalist Papers with the inclusion of his own commentary and annotations to help readers interpret and understand the Constitution.
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Glenn Beck revisited Thomas Paine’s famous pre-Revolutionary War call to action in his #1 New York Times bestseller Glenn Beck’s Common Sense. Now he brings his historical acumen and political savvy to this fresh, new interpretation of The Federalist Papers, the 18th-century collection of political essays that defined and shaped our Constitution and laid bare the “original argument” between states’ rights and big federal government–a debate as relevant and urgent today as it was at the birth of our nation.
Adapting a selection of these essential essays–pseudonymously authored by the now well-documented triumvirate of Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay–for a contemporary audience, Glenn Beck has had them reworked into “modern” English so as to be thoroughly accessible to anyone seeking a better understanding of the Founding Fathers’ intent and meaning when laying the groundwork of our government. Beck provides his own illuminating commentary and annotations and, for a number of the essays, has brought together the viewpoints of both liberal and conservative historians and scholars, making this a fair and insightful perspective on the historical works that remain the primary source for interpreting Constitutional law and the rights of American citizens. -
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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Blowback
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrator: Tom Weiner
- Length: 9 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2007
- Language: English
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4.06(2147 ratings)
4.06(2147 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe term “blowback,” invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended consequences of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire,The term “blowback,” invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended consequences of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms.
From a case of rape by US servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia’s financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster.
In a new edition that addresses recent international events from 9/11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.
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Great Society
- By: Amity Shlaes
- Narrator: Terence Aselford
- Length: 17 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: November 19, 2019
- Language: English
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4.05(334 ratings)
4.05(334 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.004.99 USDThe New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Man and Coolidge offers a stunning revision of our last great period of idealism, the 1960s, with burning relevance for our contemporary challenges. “Great Society is accurate history thatThe New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Man and Coolidge offers a stunning revision of our last great period of idealism, the 1960s, with burning relevance for our contemporary challenges.
“Great Society is accurate history that reads like a novel, covering the high hopes and catastrophic missteps of our well-meaning leaders.” –Alan Greenspan
Today, a battle rages in our country. Many Americans are attracted to socialism and economic redistribution while opponents of those ideas argue for purer capitalism. In the 1960s, Americans sought the same goals many seek now: an end to poverty, higher standards of living for the middle class, a better environment and more access to health care and education. Then, too, we debated socialism and capitalism, public sector reform versus private sector advancement. Time and again, whether under John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, or Richard Nixon, the country chose the public sector. Yet the targets of our idealism proved elusive. What’s more, Johnson’s and Nixon’s programs shackled millions of families in permanent government dependence. Ironically, Shlaes argues, the costs of entitlement commitments made a half century ago preclude the very reforms that Americans will need in coming decades.
In Great Society, Shlaes offers a powerful companion to her legendary history of the 1930s, The Forgotten Man, and shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents we consider opposites: Johnson and Nixon. Just as technocratic military planning by “the Best and the Brightest” made failure in Vietnam inevitable, so planning by a team of the domestic best and brightest guaranteed fiasco at home. At once history and biography, Great Society sketches moving portraits of the characters in this transformative period, from U.S. Presidents to the visionary UAW leader Walter Reuther, the founders of Intel, and Federal Reserve chairmen William McChesney Martin and Arthur Burns. Great Society casts new light on other figures too, from Ronald Reagan, then governor of California, to the socialist Michael Harrington and the protest movement leader Tom Hayden. Drawing on her classic economic expertise and deep historical knowledge, Shlaes upends the traditional narrative of the era, providing a damning indictment of the consequences of thoughtless idealism with striking relevance for today. Great Society captures a dramatic contest with lessons both dark and bright for our own time.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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A Brief History of Equality
- By: Thomas Piketty
- Narrator: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.02(793 ratings)
4.02(793 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe world’s leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding, a perfect introduction to the ideas developed in hisThe world’s leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding, a perfect introduction to the ideas developed in his monumental earlier books.
It is easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one has done more to reveal the problem than Thomas Piketty. Now, in this surprising and powerful new work, Piketty reminds us that the grand sweep of history gives us reasons to be optimistic. Over the centuries, he shows, we have been moving toward greater equality.
Piketty guides us with elegance and concision through the great movements that have made the modern world for better and worse: the growth of capitalism, revolutions, imperialism, slavery, wars, and the building of the welfare state. It’s a history of violence and social struggle, punctuated by regression and disaster. But through it all, Piketty shows, human societies have moved fitfully toward a more just distribution of income and assets, a reduction of racial and gender inequalities, and greater access to health care, education, and the rights of citizenship.
Our rough march forward is political and ideological, an endless fight against injustice. To keep moving, Piketty argues, we need to learn and commit to what works, to institutional, legal, social, fiscal, and educational systems that can make equality a lasting reality. At the same time, we need to resist historical amnesia and the temptations of cultural separatism and intellectual compartmentalization. At stake is the quality of life for billions of people.
We know we can do better, Piketty concludes. The past shows us how. The future is up to us.
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The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution
- By: Brion McClanahan
- Narrator: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 6 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2012
- Language: English
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4.01(230 ratings)
4.01(230 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDWhat does the Constitution really mean? How did the founding generation intend for us to interpret and apply the Constitution? Are liberals right when they cite its “elastic” clauses to justify big government, or are conservatives rightWhat does the Constitution really mean? How did the founding generation intend for us to interpret and apply the Constitution? Are liberals right when they cite its “elastic” clauses to justify big government, or are conservatives right when they cite its explicit limits on federal power? Professor Brion McClanahan, popular author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers, finds the answers by going directly to the source–the Founders themselves, who debated all the relevant issues in their state constitutional conventions.
In The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution, you’ll discover
-How the Constitution was designed to protect rather than undermine the rights of states;
-Why Congress, not the executive branch, was meant to be dominant–and why the Founders would have argued for impeaching many modern presidents for violating the Constitution;
-Why an expansive central government was the Founders’ biggest fear, and how the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were designed to guard against it;
-Why the founding generation would regard most of the current federal budget, including “stimulus packages,” unconstitutional;
-Why the Founding Fathers would oppose attempts to “reform” the Electoral College; and
-Why the Founding Fathers would be horrified at the enormous authority of the Supreme Court and why they intended Congress, not the Court, to interpret federal law.
Authoritative, fascinating, and timely, The Founding Fathers’ Guide to the Constitution is the definitive layman’s guide to America’s most important–and often most willfully misunderstood–historical document.
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Supreme Command
- By: Eliot A. Cohen
- Narrator: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hours 46 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2003
- Language: English
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4.01(745 ratings)
4.01(745 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been a complicated one, especially in times of war. When the chips are down, who should run the show, the politicians or the generals? In Supreme Command, Eliot CohenThe relationship between military leaders and political leaders has always been a complicated one, especially in times of war. When the chips are down, who should run the show, the politicians or the generals?
In Supreme Command, Eliot Cohen examines four great democratic war statesmen, Abraham Lincoln, Georges Clemenceau, Winston Churchill, and David Ben-Gurion, to reveal the surprising answer—the politicians. The generals may think they know how to win, but the statesmen are the ones who see the big picture.
The lessons of the book apply not just to President Bush and other world leaders but to anyone who faces extreme adversity at the head of a free organization, including leaders and managers throughout the corporate world.
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Blind Ambition
- By: John W. Dean
- Narrator: George Newbern
- Length: 14 hours 52 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: December 27, 2016
- Language: English
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4.01(1189 ratings)
4.01(1189 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis New York Times bestseller is an insider’s account of the fall of Richard Nixon and has remained an indispensable source into Nixon’s presidency. Blind Ambition is an autobiographical account of a young lawyer who accelerated to theThis New York Times bestseller is an insider’s account of the fall of Richard Nixon and has remained an indispensable source into Nixon’s presidency. Blind Ambition is an autobiographical account of a young lawyer who accelerated to the top of the Federal power structure to become Counsel to the President at thirty years of age, only to discover that when reaching the top he had touched the bottom. Most striking in this chronicle is its honesty. Dean spares no one, including himself. But, as TIME magazine noted, Dean survived, despite the opposition of powerful foes…because he had no false story to protect and he had an amazing ability to recall the truth.
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The Liberal Invasion of Red State America
- By: Kristin B. Tate
- Narrator: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hours 4 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: January 14, 2020
- Language: English
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4(23 ratings)
4(23 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDProgressive upper-middle-class urbanites are deserting expensive liberal meccas like New York and San Francisco and flocking to traditionally red states like Colorado, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Texas. The result is a sudden, confusing purpling ofProgressive upper-middle-class urbanites are deserting expensive liberal meccas like New York and San Francisco and flocking to traditionally red states like Colorado, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Texas. The result is a sudden, confusing purpling of small-town America. School boards and local governments are being reorganized around the progressive agendas of pushy transplants. Neighborhoods are becoming unrecognizable. And the implications for future Congressional and presidential elections are staggering. Libertarian journalist and rising media-star Kristin Tate traces the great progressive flight from blue cities to red towns, using demographic statistics and alarming on-the-ground anecdotes to present a stunning picture of a nation undergoing a significant transition.
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Progressive Conservatism
- By: F. H. Buckley
- Narrator: Chris Abell
- Length: 6 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4(8 ratings)
4(8 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDThe Republican Party must return to its roots as a progressive conservative party that defends the American Dream, the idea that whoever you are you can get ahead and know that your children will have it better than you did. It must show how theThe Republican Party must return to its roots as a progressive conservative party that defends the American Dream, the idea that whoever you are you can get ahead and know that your children will have it better than you did. It must show how the Democrats have become the party of inequality and immobility and that they created what structural racism exists through their unjust education, immigration, and job-killing policies.
Republicans must seek to drain the swamp by limiting the clout of lobbyists and interest groups. They must also be nationalists, and as American nationalism is defined by the liberal nationalism of our founders, the party must reject the illiberalism of extremists on the Left and Right. As progressives, Republicans must also recognize nationalism’s leftward gravitational force and the way in which it demands that the party serve the common good through policies that protect the less fortunate among our countrymen. Republicans must also be the conservative party that defends our families, the nobility of American ideals, and the founders’ republican virtues.
By championing these policies, the Republicans will retain the new voters Trump brought to the GOP as well as those who left the party because of him. And as progressive conservatives, the GOP will become America’s natural governing party.
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Hubris
- By: Michael Isikoff
- Narrator: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 18 hours 54 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.96(1319 ratings)
3.96(1319 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.95 USDFilled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, this fast-paced, behind-the-scenes narrative tells the inside story of how the Bush administration used bad intelligence to sell–and then justify–the IraqFilled with news-making revelations that made it a New York Times bestseller, this fast-paced, behind-the-scenes narrative tells the inside story of how the Bush administration used bad intelligence to sell–and then justify–the Iraq war.
Veteran reporters Michael Isikoff and David Corn take the listener behind the scenes at the White House, the CIA, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Congress, where controversial decisions and turf battles were fought in the highest circles of the Bush administration.
Hubris connects the dots between George W. Bush’s determination to get rid of Saddam Hussein, the role of the neoconservatives in pushing the case for war, and the outing of a CIA officer, which led to the indictment of a top White House official. It’s a dramatic page-turner and an intriguing account of conspiracy, backstabbing, ineptitude, and, perhaps most especially, arrogance.
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The Case for Democracy
- By: Natan Sharansky
- Narrator: Simon Vance
- Length: 8 hours 15 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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3.95(468 ratings)
3.95(468 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDNatan Sharansky has lived an unusual life, spending nine years as a Soviet political prisoner and nine years as an Israeli politician. In this brilliantly analytical yet personal book, Sharansky and his longtime friend and advisor Ron Dermer makeNatan Sharansky has lived an unusual life, spending nine years as a Soviet political prisoner and nine years as an Israeli politician. In this brilliantly analytical yet personal book, Sharansky and his longtime friend and advisor Ron Dermer make the case for democracy. The authors put nondemocratic societies under the microscope to reveal the mechanics of tyranny that sustain them, and explain why democracy is essential for our security.
Freedom, Sharansky claims, is rooted in the right to dissent, and societies that do not protect that right can never be reliable partners for peace. But lasting tyranny can be consigned to history’s dustbin if the free world stays true to its ideals. The question is not whether we have the power to change the world, but whether we have the will to move beyond Right and Left and start thinking about right and wrong.
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The Bill of Rights and Additional Amendments
- By: Jeffrey Rogers Hummel
- Narrator: Walter Cronkite
- Length: 2 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.94(30 ratings)
3.94(30 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.009.95 USDThe Constitution of the United States created a nation with a strong centralized government. In 1791, the Constitution was amended to include ten amendments, commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. These were guarantees of individual libertyThe Constitution of the United States created a nation with a strong centralized government. In 1791, the Constitution was amended to include ten amendments, commonly referred to as the Bill of Rights. These were guarantees of individual liberty upon which critics of the Constitution had insisted.
Changing times raise changing questions. What of black rights—the right of former slaves to vote? And do women not share in that privilege? How many terms should a president serve? These and other issues were resolved through additional amendments to the Constitution. Throughout America’s history, the Constitution has remained a living document. Here, each of the twenty-six amendments is presented in the unique historical context that gave it birth.
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The Carnival Campaign
- By: Ronald G. Shafer
- Narrator: William Hughes
- Length: 7 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2016
- Language: English
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3.9(96 ratings)
3.9(96 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAmericans have come to expect that the nation’s presidential campaigns will be characterized by a carnival atmosphere emphasizing style over substance. But this fascinating account of the pivotal 1840 election reveals how the now-unavoidableAmericans have come to expect that the nation’s presidential campaigns will be characterized by a carnival atmosphere emphasizing style over substance. But this fascinating account of the pivotal 1840 election reveals how the now-unavoidable traditions of big money, big rallies, shameless self-promotion, and carefully manufactured candidate images first took root in presidential politics.
Pulitzer Prize-nominated former Wall Street Journal reporter Ronald G. Shafer tells the colorful story of the election battle between sitting president Martin Van Buren, a professional Democratic politician from New York, and Whig Party upstart William Henry Harrison, a military hero who was nicknamed “Old Tippecanoe” after a battlefield where he fought and won in 1811. Shafer shows how the pivotal campaign of “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” marked a series of firsts that changed presidential politicking forever: the first presidential campaign as mass entertainment, directed at middle-income and lower-income voters; the first “image campaign,” in which strategists painted Harrison as an everyman living in a log cabin sipping hard cider (in fact, he was born into wealth, lived in a twenty-two-room mansion, and drank only sweet cider); the first campaign in which a candidate, Harrison, traveled and delivered speeches directly to voters; the first one influenced by major campaign donations; the first in which women openly participated; and the first involving massive grassroots rallies, attended by tens of thousands and marked by elaborate fanfare, including bands, floats, a log cabin on wheels, and the world’s tallest man.
Some of history’s most fascinating figures–including Susan B. Anthony, Charles Dickens, Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, Thaddeus Stevens, and Walt Whitman–pass through this colorful story, which is essential reading for anyone interested in learning when image first came to trump ideas in presidential politics.
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What Kind of Nation
- By: James F. Simon
- Narrator: John Lescault
- Length: 12 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2003
- Language: English
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3.85(372 ratings)
3.85(372 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe bitter and protracted struggle between President Thomas Jefferson and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall defined the basic constitutional relationship between the executive and judicial branches of government. More than 150 years later,The bitter and protracted struggle between President Thomas Jefferson and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall defined the basic constitutional relationship between the executive and judicial branches of government. More than 150 years later, their clashes still reverberate in constitutional debates and political battles.
In this dramatic and fully accessible account of these titans of the early republic and their fiercely held ideas, James F. Simon brings to life the early history of the nation and sheds new light on the highly charged battle to balance the powers of the federal government and the rights of the states. A fascinating look at two of the nation’s greatest statesmen and shrewdest politicians, What Kind of Nation presents a cogent, unbiased assessment of their lasting impact on American government.
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The Prince
- By: Niccolo Machiavelli
- Narrator: John Lescault
- Length: 4 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.83(244991 ratings)
3.83(244991 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0011.95 USDHere is the world’s most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor, The Prince is a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, a president. When, in 1512, MachiavelliHere is the world’s most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor, The Prince is a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince, a king, a president.
When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. The prince he envisioned would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values. Through the years, The Prince has been misunderstood to the extent that Machiavelli’s name has become synonymous with unscrupulous political behavior. However, it remains essential reading as the ultimate book on power politics. In it Machiavelli analyzes the usually violent means by which men seize, retain, and lose political power. The Prince provides a remarkably uncompromising picture of the true nature of power, no matter who controls it or in what era.Included are selections from Machiavelli’s Discourses upon the First Ten Books of Titus Livy.
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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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