The Politics & Government category has 4,793 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 40,708 ratings. The most-rated is A Promised Land.
Expert Political Judgment
Summary
The intelligence failures surrounding the invasion of Iraq dramatically illustrate the necessity of developing standards for evaluating expert opinion. This audiobook fills that need. Here, Philip E. Tetlock explores what constitutes good judgment in predicting future events, and looks at why experts are often wrong in their forecasts. Tetlock first discusses arguments about whether the world is too complex for people to find the tools to understand political phenomena, let alone predict the future. He evaluates predictions from experts in different fields, comparing them to predictions by well-informed laity or those based on simple extrapolation from current trends. He goes on to analyze which styles of thinking are more successful in forecasting. Classifying thinking styles using Isaiah Berlin's prototypes of the fox and the hedgehog, Tetlock contends that the fox - the thinker who knows many little things, draws from an eclectic array of traditions, and is better able to improvise in response to changing events - is more successful in predicting the future than the hedgehog, who knows one big thing, toils devotedly within one tradition, and imposes formulaic solutions on ill-defined problems. He notes a perversely inverse relationship between the best scientific indicators of good judgment and the qualities that the media most prizes in pundits - the single-minded determination required to prevail in ideological combat. Clearly written and impeccably researched, the audiobook fills a huge void in the literature on evaluating expert opinion. It will appeal across many academic disciplines as well as to corporations seeking to develop standards for judging expert decision-making.
©2005 Princeton University Press (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Congress at War
Summary
The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War - a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict. This brilliantly argued new perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly led the Union to victory and gives us a vivid account of the essential role Congress played in winning the war Building a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress - Thaddeus Stevens, Pitt Fessenden, Ben Wade, and the pro-slavery Clement Vallandigham - Fergus Bordewich shows us how a newly empowered Republican party shaped one of the most dynamic and consequential periods in American history. From reinventing the nation's financial system to pushing President Lincoln to emancipate the slaves to the planning for Reconstruction, Congress undertook drastic measures to defeat the Confederacy, in the process laying the foundation for a strong central government that came fully into being in the 20th century. Brimming with drama and outsized characters, Congress at War is also one of the most original books about the Civil War to appear in years and will change the way we understand the conflict.
©2020 Fergus M. Bordewich (P)2020 Random House Audio
The Presidents
Summary
The complete rankings of our best - and worst - presidents, based on C-SPAN's much-cited Historians Surveys of Presidential Leadership. Over a period of decades, C-SPAN has surveyed leading historians on the best and worst of America's presidents across a variety of categories - their ability to persuade the public, their leadership skills, their moral authority, and more. The crucible of the presidency has forged some of the very best and very worst leaders in our national history, along with everyone in between. Based on interviews conducted over the years with a variety of presidential biographers, this book provides not just a complete ranking of our presidents, but stories and analyses that capture the character of the men who held the office. From Abraham Lincoln's political savvy and rhetorical gifts to James Buchanan's indecisiveness, this book teaches much about what makes a great leader - and what does not. As America looks ahead to our next election, this book offers perspective and criteria to help us choose our next leader wisely. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Brian Lamb, Susan Swain (P)2019 Hachette Audio
Waiting 'Til the Midnight Hour
Summary
An acclaimed chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement, Peniel Joseph presents this sweeping overview of a key component of the struggle for racial equality: the Black Power movement. This is the story of the men and women who sacrificed so much to begin a more vocal and radical push for social change in the 1960s and 1970s.
©2006 Peniel E. Joseph (P)2007 Recorded Books
The Promise and the Dream
Summary
No two public figures were more crucial in the drama of race relations in this era than Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. Fifty years after they were both murdered, noted journalist David Margolick explores the untold story of the complex and ever-evolving relationship between these two American icons. Assassinated only 62 days apart in 1968, King and Kennedy changed the United States forever, and their deaths profoundly altered the country’s trajectory. In The Promise and the Dream, Margolick examines their unique bond and the complicated mix of mutual assistance, impatience, wariness, awkwardness, antagonism, and admiration that existed between the two, documented with original interviews, oral histories, FBI files, and previously untapped contemporaneous accounts. At a turning point in social history, MLK and RFK embarked on distinct but converging paths toward lasting change. Even when they weren’t interacting directly, they monitored and learned from one another. Their joint story, a story each man took some pains to hide and which began to come into focus only with their murders, is not just gripping history but a window into contemporary America and the challenges we continue to face.
©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Flourishing
Summary
More than almost anything else, globalization and the great world religions are shaping our lives, affecting everything from the public policies of political leaders and the economic decisions of industry bosses and employees to university curricula, all the way to the inner longings of our hearts. Integral to both globalization and religions are compelling, overlapping, and sometimes competing visions of what it means to live well. In this perceptive, deeply personal, and beautifully written book, a leading theologian sheds light on how religions and globalization have historically interacted and argues for what their relationship ought to be. Recounting how these twinned forces have intersected in his own life, he shows how world religions, despite their malfunctions, remain one of our most potent sources of moral motivation and contain within them profoundly evocative accounts of human flourishing. Globalization should be judged by how well it serves us for living out our authentic humanity as envisioned within these traditions. Through renewal and reform, religions might, in turn, shape globalization so that it can be about more than bread alone.
©2015 Miroslav Volf (P)2016 Tantor
U.S. Constitution for Dummies
Summary
Your complete guide to understanding the US Constitution. Want to make sense of the US Constitution? This new edition walks you through this revered document, explaining how the articles and amendments came to be and how they have guided legislators, judges, and presidents - and sparked ongoing debates along the way. You'll get the lowdown on all the big issues - from separation of church and state to impeachment to civil rights - that continue to affect Americans' daily lives. Plus, you'll find out about US Constitution concepts and their origins, the different approaches to interpretation, and how the document has changed over the past 200+ years. In this book, you'll find fresh examples of Supreme Court rulings such as same-sex marriage and healthcare acts such as Obamacare. Explore hot topics like what it takes to be elected Commander in Chief, the functions of the House and Senate, how Supreme Court justices are appointed, and so much more. Constitutional issues are dominating the news - and now you can join the discussion with the help of U.S. Constitution for Dummies.
©2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (P)2019 Gildan Media
Rules for Patriots
Summary
Time is running out on American exceptionalism. The light of liberty is flickering. At no point since we still had the Redcoats on our shores has freedom been more imperiled. This time it's not an invading foreign power that threatens us, but our own government gone wild - unhinged from its Constitutional limits. Many great books have been written about what we should believe and why, or why the Left's beliefs are flawed, but never before has a book that shows how to do what we believe. Until now. The Left has its playbook, Saul Alinsky's infamous Rules for Radicals. Now the good guys have theirs. Endorsed by a who's who of the conservative movement, we present Rules for Patriots.
©2014 Steve Deace (P)2014 Steve Deace
'Mr. President'
Summary
Although 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 assumedmore power with each crisis. Often only a breath away from reestablishing the tyranny he pledged to destroy in the Revolutionary War, he imposed law andorder across the land while ensuring individual freedom and self-government.
©2013 Harlow Giles Unger (P)2013 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Antifa (Spanish Edition)
Summary
En una investigación inteligente y apasionante, el historiador y ex organizador de Occupy Wall Street, Mark Bray, proporciona un estudio detallado de la historia completa del antifascismo desde sus orígenes hasta nuestros días: la primera historia transnacional del antifascismo de posguerra. Basado en entrevistas con antifascistas de todo el mundo, Antifa detalla las tácticas del movimiento y la filosofía detrás de él, ofreciendo una idea de la creciente pero poco comprendida resistencia que lucha contra el fascismo en todas sus formas. Simplemente, Antifa tiene como objetivo negar a los fascistas la oportunidad de promover su política opresiva y proteger a las comunidades tolerantes de los actos de violencia promulgados por los fascistas. Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.
©2017 Mark Bray; 2018 Miguel A. Pérez; 2018 Capitán Swing Libros, S. L. c/ Rafael Finat (P)2019 Audible, Inc.
Far and Away
Summary
From the winner of the National Book Award and the National Books Critics' Circle Award - and one of the most original thinkers of our time - a riveting collection of essays about places in dramatic transition. Far and Away collects Andrew Solomon's writings about places undergoing seismic shifts - political, cultural, and spiritual. Chronicling his stint on the barricades in Moscow in 1991, when he joined artists in resisting the coup whose failure ended the Soviet Union; his 2002 account of the rebirth of culture in Afghanistan following the fall of the Taliban; his insightful appraisal of a Myanmar steeped in contradictions as it slowly, fitfully pushes toward freedom; and many other stories of profound upheaval, this book provides a unique window onto the very idea of social change. With his signature brilliance and compassion, Solomon demonstrates both how history is altered by individuals and how personal identities are altered when governments alter. A journalist and essayist of remarkable perception and prescience, Solomon captures the essence of these cultures. Ranging across seven continents and 25 years, Far and Away takes a magnificent journey into the heart of extraordinarily diverse experiences, yet Solomon finds a common humanity wherever he travels. Illuminating the development of his own genius, his stories are always intimate and often both funny and deeply moving.
©2016 Andrew Solomon (P)2016 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Our Man in Charleston
Summary
The unlikely man at the roiling center of this intrigue was Robert Bunch, an American-born Englishman who had maneuvered his way to the position of British consul in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew to loathe slavery and the righteousness of its practitioners. Bunch used his unique perch and boundless ambition to become a key player, sending reams of dispatches to the home government and eventually becoming the Crown's best secret source on the Confederacy. But doing so required living a double life. To his Charleston neighbors, Bunch was increasingly a pillar of Southern society. But to the British government, he was a strident abolitionist, eviscerating Southern dissembling on plans regarding the slave trade. Our Man in Charleston is a masterfully told story of an unknown crusader. Award-winning author Christopher Dickey locates Consul Bunch as the key figure among Englishmen in America. Determined to ensure the triumph of morality in the inevitable march to civil war, he helped determine the fate of a nation. Featuring a cast of remarkable characters, Our Man in Charleston also captures a decisive moment in Anglo-American history: the pitched battle between those who wished to reopen the floodgates of bondage and misery and those who wished to dam the tide forever.
©2015 Original Material © 2015 by Christopher Dickey. By Arrangement with Crown, an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Return to Dallas
Summary
Return to Dallas is an encyclopedic sourced novel surveilling Lee Oswald in the summer and fall of 1963 as well as highlighting the surrounding plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. Return to Dallas utilizes the evolving information while discarding debunked JFK Assassination theories. Photographs paint the era in vivid color rather than aging vintage black and white stills. Those associated with the plot to kill Jack Kennedy as well as peripheral characters are woven into a pertinent historical context. The listener will soon understand the whirlwind around Lee Harvey Oswald and why President Kennedy was removed from office. Why are Oswald’s movements around the southern United States in the summer and fall of 1963 relevant? The Kennedy Assassination is now part of history and the narrative of Lee Oswald shooting the president from a sixth-floor window is mired in the public consciousness. Oswald was more aware of the plot than one would believe. Return to Dallas informs the listener of abnormalities in Oswald’s activities not only in 1963 but in his previous years and explains the legend built by the intelligence agencies. The surrounding cast of military, intelligence and government characters should alert even the most adamant lone gunman advocates to the truth. Better to investigate the truth and not believe fairy tales. Robert P. Fitton March 27, 2020
©2020 Robert Fitton (P)2020 Robert Fitton
Our Changing Menu
Summary
Our Changing Menu unpacks the increasingly complex relationships between food and climate change. Whether you're a chef, baker, distiller, restaurateur, or someone who simply enjoys a good pizza or drink, it's time to come to terms with how climate change is affecting our diverse and interwoven food system. Michael P. Hoffmann, Carrie Koplinka-Loehr, and Danielle L. Eiseman offer an eye-opening journey through a complete menu of before-dinner drinks and salads; main courses and sides; and coffee and dessert. Along the way they examine the escalating changes occurring to the flavors of spices and teas, the yields of wheat, the vitamins in rice, and the price of vanilla. Their story is rounded out with a primer on the global food system, the causes and impacts of climate change, and what we can all do. Our Changing Menu is a celebration of food and a call to action - encouraging listeners to join with others from the common ground of food to help tackle the greatest challenge of our time. The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "Anyone interested in detailed analysis about how climate change is already affecting our food system must read Our Changing Menu!" (Fredrick Kirschenmann, Iowa State University) "Our food choices have to change...Our Changing Menu tells you why, how, and even what that change might taste like."(Mark Hertsgaard, Covering Climate Now) "Helps us understand how to think about food." (World Wildlife Fund Review)
©2021 Cornell University (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks
The America-China Divide
Summary
China and the US are in a pitched battle to control the way the world functions - from the global trade and investment regime and choice of reserve currency to its top products and which country is the most influential. Governments, businesses, and individuals are being forced to make a choice: lean in the direction of the eagle and pursue a free, democratic, and market-oriented economic and political system, or lean in the direction of the panda, toward that of an authoritarian form of government and state-dominated economic system. It is, ultimately, a confrontation that will determine our collective future, and the stakes are extremely high. For some nations, businesses, and consumers, the choice is easy and obvious; for others, it is a real dilemma. This book explores many of the dynamics at play in arriving at that decision, including the impact China and the US have on global politics, economics, technology, military power, geostrategic influence, and the environment. Wagner has written an important and fascinating exploration of the divisive landscape that is already in the process of defining the 21st century. The rules governing geopolitics, supply chains, military strategy and capabilities, and a host of other variables that define how the world functions are in the process of being rewritten by these two great powers. The America-China Divide is an insightful and sobering analysis. As Washington seeks to preserve the postwar world order it was instrumental in creating, Beijing is attempting to seize what it views as China's rightful place as the world's leading nation, based on its own set of rules. The ability to control the global corridors of power, the health of national economies, AI and military supremacy, and the fate of the world's environment all ride in the balance. In this race, there will be no single winner or loser, but rather, an ongoing skirmish that will last well into the future for the hearts, souls, minds, and dollars of everyone on the planet.
©2020 Daniel Wagner (P)2020 Daniel Wagner
Get What's Yours - Revised & Updated
Summary
Social Security law has changed! Get What's Yours has been revised and updated to reflect new regulations that take effect on April 29, 2016. Get What's Yours has proven itself to be the definitive book about how to navigate the forbidding maze of Social Security and emerge with the highest possible benefits. It is an engaging manual of tactics and strategies written by well-known financial commentators that is unobtainable elsewhere. You could try reading all 2,728 rules of the Social Security system (and the thousands of explanations of these rules), but academia's Kotlikoff, the popular press's Moeller, and public television's Solman explain the Social Security system just as comprehensively, and a lot more comprehensibly. Moreover, they demonstrate that what you don't know can seriously hurt you: wrong decisions about which Social Security benefits to apply for cost individual retirees tens of thousands of dollars in lost income every year. (Some of those people are even in the book.) Changes to Social Security that take effect in 2016 make it more important than ever to wait as long as possible (until age 70, if possible) to claim Social Security benefits. The new law also has significant implications for those who wish to claim divorced spousal benefits (and how many Social Security recipients even know about divorced spousal benefits?). Besides addressing these and other issues, this revised edition contains a chapter explaining how Medicare rules can shape Social Security decisions. Many other personal-finance books briefly address Social Security, but none offers the full, authoritative, yet conversational analysis of Get What's Yours. Get What's Yours explains Social Security benefits through basic strategies and stirring stories. It covers the most frequent benefit scenarios faced by married retired couples; by divorced retirees; by widows and widowers. It explains what to do if you're a retired parent of dependent children; disabled; an eligible beneficiary who continues to work. It addresses the tax consequences of your choices, as well as the financial implications for other investments. It does all this and more. There are more than 52 million Americans aged 54 to 69. Ten thousand of them reach Social Security's full retirement age of 66 every day. For all these people - and for their families and friends - Get What's Yours has proven to be an invaluable, and therefore indispensable, tool. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2015, 2016 Laurence Kotlikoff, Philip Moeller, and Paul Solman. (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Our Sister Republics
Summary
In the early 19th century, the United States turned its idealistic gaze southward, imagining a legacy of revolution and republicanism it hoped would dominate the American hemisphere. From pulsing port cities to Midwestern farms and Southern plantations, an adolescent nation hailed Latin America's independence movements as glorious tropical reprises of 1776. Even as Latin Americans were gradually ending slavery, US observers remained energized by the belief that their founding ideals were triumphing over European tyranny among their "sister republics". But as slavery became a violently divisive issue at home, goodwill toward antislavery revolutionaries waned. By the nation's 50th anniversary, republican efforts abroad had become a scaffold upon which many in the United States erected an ideology of white US exceptionalism that would haunt the geopolitical landscape for generations. Marshaling groundbreaking research in four languages, Caitlin Fitz defines this hugely significant, previously unacknowledged turning point in US history.
©2016 Caitlin Fitz (P)2016 Tantor
The Rehnquist Choice
Summary
In the fall of 1971, when William Rehnquist was nominated to fill an Associate Justice seat on the Supreme Court, the Senate raised no major objections, and a little-known Assistant Attorney General found himself at the pinnacle of the judiciary. It seemed a straightforward choice of a relatively young, academically outstanding and politically seasoned lawyer who shared Richard Nixon's philosophy of "strict constructionism." As Nixon's White House Counsel, John Dean reveals for the first time that the choice was anything but straightforward. The truth is that Rehnquist's nomination was the result of a dramatic, Nixonian roller coaster. Rehnquist was a last-minute longshot who had once been dismissed by Nixon as a "clown." Only John Dean - Rehnquist's champion at the time - knows the full, improbable story. Dean's gripping tale is loaded with revelations, such as Nixon's plan to pack the court by forcing resignations - before his inauguration. Using newly released White House tapes, and thousands of previously unseen documents, Dean puts listeners directly in the Oval Office with Nixon, Haldeman, Ehrlichmann, Mitchell, Rehnquist, and the candidates they considered. The Rehnquist Choice fills in a long-missing explanation of the making of the man who wrote the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore and presided over the impeachment trial of William Jefferson Clinton.
©2001 John W. Dean, All Rights Reserved (P)2001 Simon & Schuster Inc., AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster Inc.
The American Terrorist
Summary
Listeners of The American Terrorist will be able to discuss terrorism like an expert. The book explains why some criminals are labeled as terrorists, but others are not, and compiles the attributes of over 500 American citizens charged with acts related to terrorism into an eight-marker profile of an American terrorist. Acts of terrorism may only impact a few, but the fear they invoke permeates the entire country and divides us. This book gives power back to the community to identify a developing terrorist and offers tools to re-engage them back into society and steer them down a better path. The listener will also find a complete list and summaries of domestic and international terrorist organizations with which American terrorists align. Features: The mind-set of an American terrorist is thoroughly examined, including social, marital, and economic class, education, profession, race, gender, sexuality, religion, and the desire for political freedom. Is your neighbor a terrorist? Determine your state of security based on the citizenship, homeland, and local residence of American terrorists. The American female terrorist is relatively unknown to many citizens. This book answers the primary question many are asking: why would a woman join an organization that renounces many of the rights they enjoy as US citizens? The American male terrorist is well known, or is he? Find out if your assumptions about the age, education, allegiance, marital status, and mental health are correct. Recognizing a developing terrorist: The book reviews historical terrorist profiling and then devises a new, eight-marker profile of a developing terrorist supported by statistics and case studies. The American military terrorist is a terrorist with experience in the US armed forces. One chapter of the book explores the controversial profiles of these terrorists. Behind bars is a chapter that document the official charges (very few terrorists are charged with terrorism), sentences, and prison locations of American terrorists. Terrorism camps, where are they and who attends The top targets and weapons used by American terrorists FBI involvement Prevention strategies and federal policies The terrorist profile as a preventative tool De-radicalization and disengagement Federal policies related to terrorism
©2019 Terry Oroszi, David Ellis (P)2019 Terry Oroszi, David Ellis
The Republic of Nature: An Environmental History of the United States
Summary
In the dramatic narratives that comprise The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege reframes the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation's past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. Revisiting historical icons so familiar that schoolchildren learn to take them for granted, he makes surprising connections that enable readers to see old stories in a new light.
Among the historical moments revisited here, a revolutionary nation arises from its environment and struggles to reconcile the diversity of its people with the claim that nature is the source of liberty. Abraham Lincoln, an unlettered citizen from the countryside, steers the Union through a moment of extreme peril, guided by his clear-eyed vision of nature's capacity for improvement. In Topeka, Kansas, transformations of land and life prompt a lawsuit that culminates in the momentous civil rights case of Brown v. Board of Education.
By focusing on materials and processes intrinsic to all things and by highlighting the nature of the United States, Fiege recovers the forgotten and overlooked ground on which so much history has unfolded.
The book is published by University of Washington Press.
©2012 University of Washington Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks