29 Best Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) Books
Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 29 Revolutionary Period (1775-1800) audiobooks below.
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Revolution Song
- By: Russell Shorto
- Narrator: Russell Shorto
- Length: 18 hours 43 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: November 07, 2017
- Language: English
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4.36(267 ratings)
4.36(267 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDFrom the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America’s founding principles being debated today as never before,From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America’s founding principles being debated today as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. Drawing on new sources, he weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution. While some of the protagonists-a Native American warrior, a British aristocrat, George Washington-play major roles on the field of battle, others-a woman, a slave, and a laborer-struggle no less valiantly to realize freedom for themselves. Through these lives we understand that the Revolution was, indeed, fought over the meaning of individual freedom, a philosophical idea that became a force for violent change. A powerful narrative and a brilliant defense of American values, Revolution Song makes the compelling case that the American Revolution is still being fought today and that its ideals are worth defending.
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The Road to Guilford Courthouse
- By: John Buchanan
- Narrator: Pete Cross
- Length: 22 hours 6 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: July 28, 2020
- Language: English
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4.32(290 ratings)
4.32(290 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDThis brilliant account of the proud and ferocious American fighters who stood up to the British forces in savage battles highlights just how crucial these individuals were in deciding both the fate of the Carolina colonies and the outcome of theThis brilliant account of the proud and ferocious American fighters who stood up to the British forces in savage battles highlights just how crucial these individuals were in deciding both the fate of the Carolina colonies and the outcome of the American Civil War.
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Thomas Jefferson
- By: Thomas S. Kidd
- Narrator: Grover Gardner
- Length: 11 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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4.24(54 ratings)
4.24(54 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDA revelatory new biography of Thomas Jefferson, focusing on his ethical and spiritual life Thomas Jefferson was arguably the most brilliant and inspiring political writer in American history. But the ethical realities of his personal life andA revelatory new biography of Thomas Jefferson, focusing on his ethical and spiritual life
Thomas Jefferson was arguably the most brilliant and inspiring political writer in American history. But the ethical realities of his personal life and political career did not live up to his soaring rhetoric. Indeed, three tensions defined Jefferson’s moral life: democracy versus slavery, republican virtue versus dissolute consumption, and veneration for Jesus versus skepticism about Christianity.
In this book Thomas S. Kidd tells the story of Jefferson’s ethical life through the lens of these tensions, including an unapologetic focus on the issue where Jefferson’s idealistic philosophy and lived reality clashed most obviously: his sexual relationship with his enslaved woman Sally Hemings. In doing so, he offers a unique perspective on one of American history’s most studied figures.
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To End a Presidency
- By: Laurence Tribe
- Narrator: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 10 hours 15 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: May 15, 2018
- Language: English
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4.17(299 ratings)
4.17(299 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDAs Congress prepares articles of impeachment of President Trump, read the definitive book on presidential impeachment and how it should be used today. Impeachment is our ultimate constitutional check against an out-of-control executive. But it isAs Congress prepares articles of impeachment of President Trump, read the definitive book on presidential impeachment and how it should be used today.
Impeachment is our ultimate constitutional check against an out-of-control executive. But it is also a perilous and traumatic undertaking for the nation. In this authoritative examination, Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz rise above the daily clamor to illuminate impeachment’s proper role in our age of broken politics.
To End a Presidency is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand how this fearsome power should be deployed.
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An Empire on the Edge
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrator: Nick Bunker
- Length: 17 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: September 16, 2014
- Language: English
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4.16(441 ratings)
4.16(441 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDThe story of the American Revolution told from the unique perspective of British Parliament and the streets of London, rather than that of the Colonies. Here, Nick Bunker explores and illuminates the dramatic chain of events that led to the outbreakThe story of the American Revolution told from the unique perspective of British Parliament and the streets of London, rather than that of the Colonies. Here, Nick Bunker explores and illuminates the dramatic chain of events that led to the outbreak of the war-revealing a tale of muddle, mistakes, and misunderstandings by men in London that led to the Boston tea party and then to the decision to send redcoats into action against the minutemen. Charting the three years prior to the war during which the British regime in America was already collapsing, Bunker shows how a lethal combination of politics and personalities led to a war that should never have been fought. Revisiting the tea party from the point of view of British economics and drawing upon new and unpublished sources from Britain and the U.S., he argues that thanks to the colonialists’ misunderstandings about the strength of British power, and London’s inability to take American cries for freedom seriously, both were pushed beyond the point of compromise. The outcome? A war that few welcomed but all were powerless to stop.
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Igniting the American Revolution
- By: Derek W. Beck
- Narrator: Derek W. Beck
- Length: 11 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: October 06, 2015
- Language: English
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4.13(216 ratings)
4.13(216 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.99 USDFew Americans know that the Revolutionary War did not begin with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 but over a year earlier in April 1775. Now historian Derek Beck draws on previously unpublished documents to tell the full story of theFew Americans know that the Revolutionary War did not begin with the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 but over a year earlier in April 1775. Now historian Derek Beck draws on previously unpublished documents to tell the full story of the war before American independence-from both sides. Spanning the years 1773-1776, this sweeps readers from the Boston Tea Party to the halls of Parliament-where Ben Franklin was almost run out of England for pleading on behalf of the colonies-to the fateful Expedition to Concord that resulted in the shot heard round the world. Vividly detailed and meticulously researched, this captivating historyreveals in a new light the perspectives and events that altered the futures of not only England and America, but the whole world. Derek W. Beck is an historian whose history writing has appeared in multiple history journals, scholarly works, and reviews and has been cited by The Boston Globeamong other publications. He is a Major in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, and is the recipient of numerous medals and awards for his achievements. Beck’s education includes a Master of Science degree in Engineering & Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his wife, Vicky. AMERICA 1775 is his first book. Key Selling Points: – Includes groundbreaking research from never-before-seen documents, letters, diaries and other primary sources, including British perspectives – Strong comps, such as Revolutionary Summer and 1775: A Good Year for Revolution, show American Revolutionary history is as popular as ever – Offers a unique, unexplored angle by showcasing the year leading up to the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence
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Jefferson and the Rights of Man
- By: Dumas Malone
- Narrator: Anna Fields
- Length: 18 hours 56 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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4.12(593 ratings)
4.12(593 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDThe second volume in this Pulitzer Prize–winning six-volume biography tells the story of the eventful middle years in the life of Thomas Jefferson: his ministry to France in the years just before the French Revolution and during the earlyThe second volume in this Pulitzer Prize–winning six-volume biography tells the story of the eventful middle years in the life of Thomas Jefferson: his ministry to France in the years just before the French Revolution and during the early stages of that conflict; his service as secretary of state in President George Washington’s first cabinet; the crucial period of his first differences with Alexander Hamilton and the beginnings of his long struggle with the Federalists.
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The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- By: H.W. Brands
- Narrator: H.W. Brands
- Length: 8 hours 0 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: September 12, 2008
- Language: English
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4.09(21217 ratings)
4.09(21217 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.99 USDA study of the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. From his early days as a printer’s apprentice to very nearly his last days, Benjamin Franklin‘s thirst for knowledge and his desire to shareA study of the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. From his early days as a printer’s apprentice to very nearly his last days, Benjamin Franklin‘s thirst for knowledge and his desire to share what he knew brought him into the forefront of a changing world.
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Rivals Unto Death
- By: Rick Beyer
- Narrator: Rick Beyer
- Length: 6 hours 20 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: February 21, 2017
- Language: English
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4.07(207 ratings)
4.07(207 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.98 USDFrom the bestselling author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series, the epic history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s illustrious and eccentric political careers and their fateful rivalry. The famous duel between Alexander HamiltonFrom the bestselling author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series, the epic history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr’s illustrious and eccentric political careers and their fateful rivalry.
The famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was the culmination of a story three decades in the making. Rivals unto Death vividly traces their rivalry back to the earliest days of the American Revolution, when Hamilton and Burr — both brilliant, restless, and barely twenty years old — elbowed their way onto the staff of General George Washington. The fast-moving account traces their intricate tug-of war, uncovering surprising details that led to their deadly encounter through battlefields, courtrooms, bedrooms, and the wildest presidential election in history, counting down the years to their fateful rendezvous on the dueling ground.
This is politics made personal: shrill accusations, bruising collisions, and a parade of flesh and blood founders struggling–and often failing–to keep their tempers and jealousies in check. Smoldering in the background was a fundamental political divide that threatened to tear the new nation in two, and still persists to this day.
The Burr and Hamilton that leap out of these pages are passionate, engaging, and utterly human characters inextricably linked together as Rivals unto Death.
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Myth America
- By: Kevin M. Kruse
- Narrator: Allan Aquino
- Length: 12 hours 55 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: January 03, 2023
- Language: English
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4.07(102 ratings)
4.07(102 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USDAmerica’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led largeAmerica’s top historians set the record straight on the most pernicious myths about our nation’s past
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The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy.
In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors–among numerous other partisan lies. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history.
Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today’s heated debates about our nation’s past. -
Benjamin Franklin
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrator: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hours 40 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2011
- Language: English
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4.03(129484 ratings)
4.03(129484 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0049.95 USDIn this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character.Benjamin Franklin is theIn this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character.
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Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.
In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century. -
Benjamin Franklin
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrator: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 7 hours 15 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2003
- Language: English
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4.03(129484 ratings)
4.03(129484 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.95 USDIn this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character.Benjamin Franklin is theIn this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character.
... Read more
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richard’s Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nation’s alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.
In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century. -
A Crisis of Peace
- By: David Head
- Narrator: Alex Boyles
- Length: 9 hours 21 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2020
- Language: English
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4.02(43 ratings)
4.02(43 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe story of George Washington’s first crisis of the fledgling republic: In the war’s waning days, the American Revolution neared collapse when Washington’s senior officers were rumored to be on the edge of mutiny. On March 15,The story of George Washington’s first crisis of the fledgling republic: In the war’s waning days, the American Revolution neared collapse when Washington’s senior officers were rumored to be on the edge of mutiny.
On March 15, 1783, General George Washington addressed a group of angry officers in an effort to rescue the American Revolution from mutiny at the highest level.
After the British surrender at Yorktown, the American Revolution still blazed on, and as peace was negotiated in Europe, grave problems surfaced at home. The government was broke, paying its debts with loans from France. Political rivalry among the states paralyzed Congress. The army’s officers, encamped near Newburgh, New York, and restless without an enemy to fight, brooded over a civilian population seemingly indifferent to their sacrifices.
The result was the Newburgh Affair, a mysterious event in which Continental Army officers, disgruntled by a lack of pay and pensions, may have collaborated with nationalist-minded politicians such as Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Robert Morris to pressure Congress and the states to approve new taxes and strengthen the central government.
Fearing what his men might do with their passions inflamed, Washington averted the crisis, but with the nation’s problems persisting, the officers ultimately left the army disappointed, their low opinion of their civilian countrymen confirmed.
A Crisis of Peace provides a fresh look at the end of the American Revolution while speaking to issues that concern us still: the fragility of civil-military relations, how even victorious wars end ambiguously, and what veterans and civilians owe each other.
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Turncoat
- By: Stephen Brumwell
- Narrator: Stephen Brumwell
- Length: 17 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: May 29, 2018
- Language: English
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3.99(70 ratings)
3.99(70 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.99 USDGeneral Benedict Arnold’s failed attempt to betray the fortress of West Point to the British in 1780 stands as one of the most infamous episodes in American history. In the light of a shining record of bravery and unquestioned commitment toGeneral Benedict Arnold’s failed attempt to betray the fortress of West Point to the British in 1780 stands as one of the most infamous episodes in American history. In the light of a shining record of bravery and unquestioned commitment to the Revolution, Arnold’s defection came as an appalling shock. Contemporaries believed he had been corrupted by greed; historians have theorized that he had come to resent the lack of recognition for his merits and sacrifices. In this provocative book Stephen Brumwell challenges such interpretations and draws on unexplored archives to reveal other crucial factors that illuminate Arnold’s abandonment of the revolutionary cause he once championed. This work traces Arnold’s journey from enthusiastic support of American independence to his spectacularly traitorous acts and narrow escape. Brumwell’s research leads to an unexpected conclusion: Arnold’s mystifying betrayal was driven by a staunch conviction that America’s best interests would be served by halting the bloodshed and reuniting the fractured British Empire.
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Jefferson the Virginian
- By: Dumas Malone
- Narrator: Anna Fields
- Length: 16 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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3.97(1115 ratings)
3.97(1115 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0027.95 USDThis is the first volume of distinguished historian Dumas Malone+E’s Pulitzer Prize–winning six-volume work on the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. Based on vast resources, it covers Jefferson’s ancestry, youth, education, andThis is the first volume of distinguished historian Dumas Malone+E’s Pulitzer Prize–winning six-volume work on the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. Based on vast resources, it covers Jefferson’s ancestry, youth, education, and legal career; his marriage and the building of Monticello; the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Notes on Virginia; his highly controversial governorship; and his early services to the development of the West.
This is no mere introduction to the third president of the United States. This is a detailed, elegantly written account of a brilliant political mind and his life in Virginia.
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers
- By: Brion McClanahan
- Narrator: Tom Weiner
- Length: 9 hours 26 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2009
- Language: English
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3.96(273 ratings)
3.96(273 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThey were the greatest generation in American history. Yet how much do you really know about the Founding Fathers? And how much of what you “know” is actually myth perpetuated by leftist history professors who dismiss the Founders asThey were the greatest generation in American history. Yet how much do you really know about the Founding Fathers? And how much of what you “know” is actually myth perpetuated by leftist history professors who dismiss the Founders as wealthy, racist, sexist, dead-white-males whose principles deserve to be as dead as they are? Here to rescue the reputations of our Founding Fathers from the plague of modern political correctness isThe Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers. Author and professor Brion McClanahan profiles Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, and other important Founders; traces the key issues of the day and shows how they dealt with them; and in the process details the Founders’ deep faith, commitment to the cause of independence, impeccable character, and visionary political ideals.
Even better, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers proves that the Founders had a better understanding of the problems we face today than do our own hopelessly liberal and painfully self-serving members of Congress. McClanahan shows that if you want real and relevant insights into the issues of banking, war powers, executive authority, freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, states’ rights, gun control, judicial activism, trade, and taxes, you’d be better served reading the Founders than you would be watching congressional debates on C-SPAN or reading the New York Times.
That makes The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers much more than simply a restoration of a bit of our patrimony, reconnecting us with the greatest political thinkers in our history–as urgently needed as that is. McClanahan shows that it was from their debates–and their bedrock conservative principles–that we secured our liberty. He argues that only by understanding their principles will we be able to keep the freedom that Americans have cherished for generations. That makes this a vital guide to restoring a sane, sober, Constitutional sense of responsibility to today’s public debates.
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George Washington
- By: James Macgregor Burns
- Narrator: Richard Rohan
- Length: 5 hours 10 minutes
- Publisher: Macmillan Audio
- Publish date: January 07, 2004
- Language: English
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3.96(957 ratings)
3.96(957 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0010.99 USDLeading scholars define the special contributions and qualifications of our first presidentWashington’s legacy is a successful experiment in collective leadership, great initiatives in establishing a strong executive branch and the formulationLeading scholars define the special contributions and qualifications of our first president
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Washington’s legacy is a successful experiment in collective leadership, great initiatives in establishing a strong executive branch and the formulation of innovative and lasting economic and foreign policies. Along with highlighting these accomplishments, the authors also trace Washington’s later dissatisfaction with public life and the seeds of dissent and political parties that grew from his insistence on consensus. In this compelling and balanced biography, James McGregor Burns and Susan Dunn give us a rich and surprising portrait of the man behind the carefully crafted mythology. -
“Mr. President”
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrator: Robertson Dean
- Length: 6 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2013
- Language: English
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3.94(365 ratings)
3.94(365 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDAlthough the framers gave the president little authority, Washington knew whatever he did would set precedents for generations of his successors. To ensure their ability to defend the nation, he simply ignored the Constitution when he thought itAlthough the framers gave the president little authority, Washington knew whatever he did would set precedents for generations of his successors. To ensure their ability to defend the nation, he simply ignored the Constitution when he thought it necessary and reshaped the presidency into what James Madison called a “monarchical presidency.” Modern scholars call it the “imperial presidency.”
A revealing new look at the birth of American government, “Mr. President” describes George Washington’s assumption of office in a time of continual crisis, as riots, rebellion, internecine warfare, and attacks by foreign enemies threatened to destroy the new nation. Drawing on rare documents and letters, Unger shows how Washington combined political cunning, daring, and sheer genius to seize ever-widening powers to solve each crisis.
In a series of brilliant but unconstitutional maneuvers, Washington forced Congress to cede control of the four pillars of executive power: war, finance, foreign affairs, and law enforcement. Then, in the absence of Congress, he sent troops to fight Indian wars, crush tax revolts, and put down threats of secession by three states.
Constantly weighing preservation of the Union against preservation of individual liberties and states’ rights, Washington assumed more power with each crisis. Often only a breath away from reestablishing the tyranny he pledged to destroy in the Revolutionary War, he imposed law and order across the land while ensuring individual freedom and self-government.
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Break It Up
- By: Richard Kreitner
- Narrator: Adam Verner
- Length: 15 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Hachette Audio
- Publish date: August 18, 2020
- Language: English
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3.92(219 ratings)
3.92(219 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0025.98 USDFrom journalist and historian Richard Kreitner, a “powerful revisionist account”of the most persistent idea in American history: these supposedly United States should be broken up (Eric Foner). The novel and fiery thesis of Break It UpFrom journalist and historian Richard Kreitner, a “powerful revisionist account”of the most persistent idea in American history: these supposedly United States should be broken up (Eric Foner).
The novel and fiery thesis of Break It Up is simple: the United States has never lived up to its name — and never will. The disunionist impulse may have found its greatest expression in the Civil War, but as Break It Up shows, the seduction of secession wasn’t limited to the South or the nineteenth century.
With a scholar’s command and a journalist’s curiosity, Kreitner takes readers on a revolutionary journey through American history, revealing the power and persistence of disunion movements in every era and region. Each New England town after Plymouth was a secession from another; the thirteen colonies viewed their Union as a means to the end of securing independence, not an end in itself; George Washington feared separatism west of the Alleghenies; Aaron Burr schemed to set up a new empire; John Quincy Adams brought a Massachusetts town’s petition for dissolving the United States to the floor of Congress; and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison denounced the Constitution as a pro-slavery pact with the devil.
From the “cold civil war” that pits partisans against one another to the modern secession movements in California and Texas, the divisions that threaten to tear America apart today have centuries-old roots in the earliest days of our Republic. Richly researched and persuasively argued, Break It Up will help readers make fresh sense of our fractured age.
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Founding Feuds
- By: Paul Aron
- Narrator: Paul Aron
- Length: 4 hours 17 minutes
- Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
- Publish date: June 07, 2016
- Language: English
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3.9(131 ratings)
3.9(131 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0012.99 USDThe Founding Fathers have been hailed for centuries as shining examples of men who put aside their own agendas to found a nation. But behind the scenes, there were more petty fights and fraught relationships than signatures on the Declaration ofThe Founding Fathers have been hailed for centuries as shining examples of men who put aside their own agendas to found a nation. But behind the scenes, there were more petty fights and fraught relationships than signatures on the Declaration of Independence. From the violent brawl between Roger Griswold and Matthew Lyon in the halls of Congress, to George Washington’s battle against his slave Harry Washington, these less-discussed clashes bring to light the unpredictable and volatile nature of a constantly changing nation. Additionally, this gripping narrative delves deeper into the famous feuds, such as the fatal duel of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and the many rivalries of Thomas Jefferson (which were as often personal as political.) America’s great forbearers fought with each other as bitterly as our politicians do today. Founding Feuds reveals the true natures of the Founding Fathers and how their infighting shaped our nation as much as their cooperation, in fact sometimes even for the better.
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to the American Revolution
- By: Larry Schweikart
- Narrator: John McLain
- Length: 10 hours 27 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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3.84(39 ratings)
3.84(39 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe bestselling Politically Incorrect Guide series provides an unvarnished, unapologetic overview of controversial topics every American should understand. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the American Revolution is a myth-busting review of theThe bestselling Politically Incorrect Guide series provides an unvarnished, unapologetic overview of controversial topics every American should understand.
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the American Revolution is a myth-busting review of the America’s violent struggle for independence.
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Never Caught
- By: Erica Armstrong Dunbar
- Narrator: Robin Miles
- Length: 6 hours 45 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2017
- Language: English
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3.82(6600 ratings)
3.82(6600 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDA startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of “extraordinary grit” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantlyA startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of “extraordinary grit” (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
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When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation’s capital. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn’t abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire.
Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property.
“A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling” (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father and most powerful man in the United States at the time. -
The Pioneers
- By: David McCullough
- Narrator: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 10 hours 23 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2019
- Language: English
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3.8(16043 ratings)
3.8(16043 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDThe #1 New York Times bestseller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that’s “as resonant today as ever” (The Wall Street Journal)–the settling of theThe #1 New York Times bestseller by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough rediscovers an important chapter in the American story that’s “as resonant today as ever” (The Wall Street Journal)–the settling of the Northwest Territory by courageous pioneers who overcame incredible hardships to build a community based on ideals that would define our country.
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As part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River.
McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, one a carpenter turned architect, and the other a physician who became a prominent pioneer in American science. “With clarity and incisiveness, [McCullough] details the experience of a brave and broad-minded band of people who crossed raging rivers, chopped down forests, plowed miles of land, suffered incalculable hardships, and braved a lonely frontier to forge a new American ideal” (The Providence Journal).
Drawn in great part from a rare and all-but-unknown collection of diaries and letters by the key figures, The Pioneers is a uniquely American story of people whose ambition and courage led them to remarkable accomplishments. “A tale of uplift” (The New York Times Book Review), this is a quintessentially American story, written with David McCullough’s signature narrative energy. -
The Trouble with Tom
- By: Paul Collins
- Narrator: Tim Getman
- Length: 9 hours 8 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.79(225 ratings)
3.79(225 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDPaul Collins travels the globe piecing together the missing body and soul of one of our most enigmatic founding fathers: Thomas Paine. A typical book about an American founding father doesn’t start at a gay piano bar and end in a sewage ditch.Paul Collins travels the globe piecing together the missing body and soul of one of our most enigmatic founding fathers: Thomas Paine.
A typical book about an American founding father doesn’t start at a gay piano bar and end in a sewage ditch. But then, Tom Paine isn’t your typical founding father. A firebrand rebel and a radical on the run, Paine alone claims a key role in the development of three modern democracies. In death, his story turns truly bizarre. Shunned as an infidel by every church, he had to be interred in an open field on a New York farm. Ten years later, a former enemy converting to Paine’s cause dug up the bones and carried them back to Britain, where he planned to build a mausoleum in Paine’s honor. But he never got around to it. So what happened to the body of this founding father?
Well, it got lost. Paine’s missing bones, like saint’s relics, have been scattered for two centuries, and their travels are the trail of radical democracy itself. Paul Collins combines wry, present-day travelogue with an odyssey down the forgotten paths of history as he searches for the remains of Tom Paine and finds them hidden in, among other places, a Paris hotel, underneath a London tailor’s stool, and inside a roadside statue in New York. Along the way he crosses paths with everyone from Walt Whitman and Charles Darwin to sex reformers and hellfire ministers–not to mention a suicidal gunman, a Ferrari dealer, and berserk feral monkeys.
In the end, Collins’s search for Paine’s body instead finds the soul of democracy–for it is the story of how Paine’s struggles have lived on through his eccentric and idealistic followers.
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A Basic History of the United States, Vol. 2
- By: Clarence B. Carson
- Narrator: Mary Woods
- Length: 11 hours 32 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2005
- Language: English
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3.56(53 ratings)
3.56(53 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0020.95 USDCarson’s full-scale treatment of American history combines scholarly exactness with evocative passages that lead the listener to a clearer understanding of the people and events, the triumphs and the shortcomings, which have shaped thisCarson’s full-scale treatment of American history combines scholarly exactness with evocative passages that lead the listener to a clearer understanding of the people and events, the triumphs and the shortcomings, which have shaped this nation. “For Carson, history is the product of the actions of countless individuals, each under the influence of certain ideas. And Carson explores those ideas, ideologies, and ‘isms.’”—The Freeman
This second volume of discusses the move toward independence, the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, the battle for Canada, the struggle for the middle states, the battle for the South, the Constitutional Convention, the making of the Constitution, and the fruits of independence.
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Dinner at Mr. Jefferson’s
- By: Charles A. Cerami
- Narrator: William Dufris
- Length: 7 hours 53 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2008
- Language: English
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3.51(282 ratings)
3.51(282 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0016.95 USDSoon after the new Constitution took effect and George Washington became president, the United States was in serious danger of disaster. A bitter political rivalry between two men who had once been allies and two surging issues that inflamed theSoon after the new Constitution took effect and George Washington became president, the United States was in serious danger of disaster. A bitter political rivalry between two men who had once been allies and two surging issues that inflamed the nation led to grim talk of breaking up the fledgling republic. Then, a single great evening–arguably the most important dinner party in American history–achieved the compromises that led to America’s mighty expansion. Though often mentioned, that dinner has not been recognized as a milestone in the nation’s history, setting the stage for the next few years in American history. This book will give life to host Thomas Jefferson and his two guests, Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, as well as the dinner itself–the courses, the wines, the nature of the conversation–and the rapid results that followed.
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Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin
- By: Rae Katherine Eighmey
- Narrator: Pam Ward
- Length: 10 hours 19 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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3.27(50 ratings)
3.27(50 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDIn this remarkable culinary biography, Rae Katherine Eighmey presents Benjamin Franklin’s experimentation with food throughout his life. At age sixteen, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early twenties, citing the health benefits ofIn this remarkable culinary biography, Rae Katherine Eighmey presents Benjamin Franklin’s experimentation with food throughout his life. At age sixteen, he began dabbling in vegetarianism. In his early twenties, citing the health benefits of water over alcohol, he convinced his printing press colleagues to abandon their traditional breakfast of beer and bread for “water gruel,” a kind of porridge he enjoyed. Franklin is known for his scientific discoveries, including electricity and the lightning rod, and his curiosity and logical mind extended to the kitchen: he even conducted an electrical experiment to try to cook a turkey.
Later in life, on his diplomatic missions–he lived fifteen years in England and nine in France–Franklin ate like a local. Eighmey discovers the meals served at his London home-away-from-home and analyzes his account books from Passy, France, for tips to his diet there. Yet he also longed for American foods; his wife Deborah sent over some favorites including cranberries, which amazed the London kitchen staff. He saw food as key to the developing culture of the United States, penning two essays presenting maize as the defining grain of America. Eighmey revives and re-creates recipes from each chapter in his life. Stirring the Pot with Benjamin Franklin conveys all of Franklin’s culinary adventures, demonstrating how Franklin’s love of food shaped not only his life, but also the character of the young nation he helped build.
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What the Founding Fathers were Really Like (and What We can Learn from Them Today)
- By: Carol Berkin
- Narrator: Carol Berkin
- Length: 39 minutes
- Publisher: Dreamscape Media
- Publish date: April 13, 2021
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0017.99 USDOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds ofOne Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice. Most of us know that America’s Founding Fathers attended the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia and drafted the Constitution of the United States. The delegates decided to replace the Articles of Confederation with a document that strengthened the federal government, with the most contentious issue being legislative representation. Eventually, a compromise established the bicameral Congress to ensure both equal and proportional representation. But a lot more happened as well–much of it underreported or misunderstood. That’s the focus of this insider’s look at the birth of American government as we know it today. The fact is, the Founding Fathers were ambitious. Also grouchy, scared, and hopeful. They told jokes. They fought. They schemed. They gossiped. They improvised. Occasionally, they killed each other (sorry, Alexander Hamilton). Only by seeing the Founders as real people–not icons–can we appreciate the full story of the nation’s founding with all of its drama, humor, and significance intact. This audio lecture includes a supplemental PDF.
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Thomas Jefferson
- By: William G. Hyland
- Narrator: Kate Mulligan
- Length: 16 hours 48 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDMuch has been written about Thomas Jefferson, the public man, and with good reason: he was the architect of our democracy and a visionary who expanded the nation’s physical boundaries to unimagined lengths. But the intensely private JeffersonMuch has been written about Thomas Jefferson, the public man, and with good reason: he was the architect of our democracy and a visionary who expanded the nation’s physical boundaries to unimagined lengths. But the intensely private Jefferson joined in a conspiracy to make himself unknowable to the public.
Thomas Jefferson: Family Secrets is a new and unprecedented examination of the “intimate” Thomas Jefferson–from his return to Monticello after two terms as president until his death. Author William G. Hyland Jr. pierces Jefferson’s private family veil and reveals little-known, poignant scenes of the relatives closest to Jefferson in his last years. Thomas Jefferson: Family Secrets is the first biography to uncover the dynamic relationship Jefferson had with his adult grandchildren.
With a novelist’s skill and a scholar’s meticulous detail,Hyland explores new ground in Jefferson’s autumn years as a waning patriarch, enduring physical illness and family strife. These glimpses of Jefferson’s inner character will change the way readers think about this American icon: as a flawed–but benevolent–man.
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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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