John Micklethwait has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is The Wake-Up Call.
The Wake-Up Call
Summary
"[An] executive summary of modern political history studded with sweeping assertions and telling anecdotes." (The New York Times Book Review) "Thought-provoking." (Kirkus Reviews) “A shot in the arm...powerful.” (The Financial Times) "The Wake-Up Call, refreshingly concise and eminently readable, highlights how the modern crisis of governance compounded the challenges of the pandemic." (Bloomberg) "The Wake-Up Call argues that Covid-19 has exposed not just one president's shortcomings but a much more profound degeneration of governance dating back long before 2016.... You will read no more interesting book on the political consequences of the pandemic than this." (Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization: The West and the Rest) Named One of the Best Books of 2020 (Bloomberg) An urgent and informed look at the challenges America and world governments will face in a post-COVID-19 world. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that governments matter again, that competent leadership is the difference between living and dying. A few governments proved adept at handling the crisis while many others failed. Are Western governments healthy and strong enough to keep their citizens safe from another virulent virus - and protect their economies from collapse? Is global leadership passing from the United States to Asia - and particularly China? The Wake-Up Call addresses these urgent questions. Journalists and longtime collaborators John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge identify the problems Western leaders face, and outline a detailed plan to help them become more vigilant, better prepared, and responsive to disruptive future events. The problems that face us are enormous; as The Wake-Up Call makes clear, governments around the world must re-engineer the way they operate to successfully meet the challenges ahead.
©2020 John Micklethwait (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers
The Company
Summary
In The Company, the largely unknown history of the joint-stock company is presented by the editors of Economist. One of history's greatest catalysts, the joint-stock company has dramatically changed the way human beings live, work, and conduct business. With companies now affecting the world on a global scale, it is more pressing than ever before to understand this driving force. A concise and entertaining Modern Library Classic, The Company is a fascinating listen with a reading from narrator Jonathan Davis.
©2003 John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (P)2003 Recorded Books, LLC
The Fourth Revolution
Summary
From the best-selling authors of The Right Nation, a visionary argument that our current crisis in government is nothing less than the fourth radical transition in the history of the nation-state. Dysfunctional government: It' s become a cliché, and most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing is ever going to change. As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show us, that is a seriously limited view of things. In fact, there have been three great revolutions in government in the history of the modern world. The West has led these revolutions, but now we are in the midst of a fourth revolution, and it is Western government that is in danger of being left behind. Now, things really are different. The West's debt load is unsustainable. The developing world has harvested the low-hanging fruits. Industrialization has transformed all the peasant economies it had left to transform, and the toxic side effects of rapid developing world growth are adding to the bill. From Washington to Detroit, from Brasilia to New Delhi, there is a dual crisis of political legitimacy and political effectiveness. The Fourth Revolution crystallizes the scope of the crisis and points forward to our future. The authors enjoy extraordinary access to influential figures and forces the world over, and the book is a global tour of the innovators in how power is to be wielded. The age of big government is over; the age of smart government has begun. Many of the ideas the authors discuss seem outlandish now, but the center of gravity is moving quickly. This tour drives home a powerful argument: that countries' success depends overwhelmingly on their ability to reinvent the state. And that much of the West - and particularly the United States - is failing badly in its task. China is making rapid progress with government reform at the same time as America is falling badly behind. Washington is gridlocked, and America is in danger of squandering its huge advantages from its powerful economy because of failing government. And flailing democracies like India look enviously at China's state-of-the-art airports and expanding universities. The race to get government right is not just a race of efficiency. It is a race to see which political values will triumph in the 21st century - the liberal values of democracy and liberty or the authoritarian values of command and control. The stakes could not be higher.
©2014 John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge (P)2014 Recorded Books