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.
Betrayal in Berlin
Summary
The astonishing true story of the Berlin Tunnel, one of the West’s greatest espionage operations of the Cold War - and the dangerous Soviet mole who betrayed it. Its code name was “Operation Gold”, a wildly audacious CIA plan to construct a clandestine tunnel into East Berlin to tap into critical KGB and Soviet military telecommunication lines. The tunnel, crossing the border between the American and Soviet sectors, would have to be 1,500 feet (the length of the Empire State Building) with state-of-the-art equipment, built and operated literally under the feet of their Cold War adversaries. Success would provide the CIA and the British Secret Intelligence Service access to a vast treasure of intelligence. Exposure might spark a dangerous confrontation with the Soviets. Yet as the Allies were burrowing into the German soil, a traitor, code-named Agent Diamond by his Soviet handlers, was burrowing into the operation itself.... Betrayal in Berlin is Steve Vogel’s heart pounding account of the operation. He vividly recreates post-war Berlin, a scarred, shadowy snake pit with thousands of spies and innumerable cover stories. It is also the most vivid account of George Blake, perhaps the most damaging mole of the Cold War. Drawing upon years of archival research, secret documents, and rare interviews with Blake himself, Vogel has crafted a true-life spy story as thrilling as the novels of John le Carré and Len Deighton.
©2019 Steve Vogel (P)2019 HarperAudio
Congress, Presidents, and American Politics
Summary
When Lee H. Hamilton joined Congress in 1965 as a US Representative from southern Indiana, he began writing commentaries for his constituents describing his experiences, impressions, and developing views of what was right and wrong in American politics. He continued to write regularly throughout his 34 years in office and up to the present. Lively and full of his distinctive insights, Hamilton's essays provide vivid accounts of national milestones over the past 50 years: from the protests of the 60s, the Vietnam War, and the Great Society reforms, through the Watergate and Iran-Contra affairs, to the post-9/11 years as the vice chairman of the 9/11 commission. Hamilton offers frank and sometimes surprising reflections on Congress, the presidency, and presidential character from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama. He argues that there are valuable lessons to be learned from past years, when Congress worked better than it does now. Offering history, politics, and personal reflections all at once, this book will appeal to everyone interested in understanding America of the 20th and 21st centuries. The book is published by Indiana University Press.
©2016 Lee H. Hamilton (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks
Rigged
Summary
Named a New York Times Editors' Choice Book A Washington Post Notable Work of Nonfiction "The first book to put the story of Russian interference into a broader context... Extraordinary and gripping." (Tim Naftali, The New York Times Book Review) The definitive history of the covert struggle between Russia and America to influence elections, why the threat to American democracy is greater than ever in 2020, and what we can do about it. Russia's interference in 2016 marked only the latest chapter of a hidden and revelatory history. In Rigged, David Shimer tells the sweeping story of covert electoral interference past and present. He exposes decades of secret operations - by the KGB, the CIA, and Vladimir Putin's Russia - to shape electoral outcomes, melding deep historical research with groundbreaking interviews with more than 130 key players, from leading officials in both the Trump and Obama administrations, to CIA and NSA directors, to a former KGB general. What Americans should make of Russia's attack in 2016 is still hotly debated, even after the Mueller report and years of media coverage. Shimer shows that Putin's operation was, in fact, a continuation of an ongoing struggle, using familiar weapons radically enhanced by new technology. Throughout history and in 2016, both Russian and American operations achieved their greatest success by influencing the way voters think, rather than tampering with actual vote tallies. Casting aside partisanship and sensationalism, Rigged reveals new details about what Russia achieved in 2016, how the Obama administration responded, and why Putin has also been interfering covertly in elections across the globe in recent years, while American presidents have largely refrained from doing so. Shimer also makes disturbingly clear that this type of intrusion can be used to harm Democrats and Republicans alike. Russia's central aim is to undermine and disrupt our democracy, to the detriment of all Americans. Understanding 2016 as one battle in a much longer war is essential to understanding the critical threat currently posed to America's electoral sovereignty and how to defend against it. Illuminating how the lessons of the past can be used to protect our democracy in the future, Rigged is an essential book for listeners of every political persuasion.
©2020 David Shimer (P)2020 Random House Audio
A New World Begins
Summary
The principles of the French Revolution remain the only possible basis for a just society - even if, after more than 200 years, they are more contested than ever before. In A New World Begins, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the listener in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre, and Danton, in all of their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror. Based on decades of scholarship, A New World Begins will stand as the definitive treatment of the French Revolution.
©2019 Jeremy D. Popkin (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC
Smart Cities
Summary
Over the past 10 years, urban planners, technology companies, and governments have promoted smart cities with a somewhat utopian vision of urban life made knowable and manageable through data collection and analysis. Emerging smart cities have become both crucibles and showrooms for the practical application of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and the integration of big data into everyday life. Are smart cities optimized, sustainable, digitally networked solutions to urban problems? Or are they neoliberal, corporate-controlled, undemocratic non-places? This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series offers a concise introduction to smart cities, presenting key concepts, definitions, examples, and historical contexts, along with discussions of both the drawbacks and the benefits of this approach to urban life. After reviewing current terminology and justifications employed by technology designers, journalists, and researchers, the book describes three models for smart city development and offers examples of each. It covers technologies and methods, including sensors, public wi-fi, big data, and smartphone apps, and discusses how developers conceive of interactions among the built environment, technological and urban infrastructures, citizens, and citizen engagement.
©2020 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (P)2020 Gildan Media
The Spymaster of Baghdad
Summary
From the former New York Times bureau chief in Baghdad comes the gripping and heroic story of an elite, top-secret team of unlikely spies who triumphed over ISIS. The Spymaster of Baghdad tells the dramatic yet intimate account of how a covert Iraqi intelligence unit called “the Falcons” came together against all odds to defeat ISIS. The Falcons, comprised of ordinary men with little conventional espionage background, infiltrated the world’s most powerful terrorist organization, ultimately turning the tide of war against the terrorist group and bringing safety to millions of Iraqis and the broader world. Centered around the relationship between two brothers, Harith Sudani, a rudderless college dropout who was recruited to the Falcons by his all-star younger brother Munaf, and their eponymous unit commander Abu Ali, The Spymaster of Baghdad follows their emotional journey as Harith volunteers for the most dangerous mission imaginable. With piercing lyricism and thrilling prose, Coker’s deeply reported account interweaves heartfelt portraits of these and other unforgettable characters as they navigate the streets of war-torn Baghdad and perform heroic feats of cunning and courage. The Falcons’ path crosses with that of Abraar, a young, radicalized university student who, after being snubbed by the head of the Islamic State’s chemical weapons program, plots her own attack. At the near-final moment, the Falcons intercept Abraar’s deadly plan to poison Baghdad’s drinking water and arrest her in the middle of the night - just one of many covert counterterrorism operations revealed for the first time in the book. Ultimately, The Spymaster of Baghdad is a pause-resisting account of wartime espionage in which ordinary people make extraordinary sacrifices for the greater good. Challenging our perceptions of terrorism and counterterrorism, war and peace, Iraq and the wider Middle East, American occupation and foreign intervention, The Spymaster of Baghdad is a testament to the power of personal choice and individual action to change the course of history - in a time when we need such stories more than ever. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Margaret Coker (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers
El pasillo estrecho
Summary
La libertad no es el orden natural de la humanidad. En la mayoría de lugares y de épocas, los fuertes han dominado a los débiles y la libertad ha sido aplastada por la fuerza o por las costumbres y las normas. A menudo los Estados no han tenido la suficiente capacidad para proteger a los individuos o, por el contrario, han sido tan fuertes que la gente no ha podido defenderse de su despotismo. La libertad sólo surge cuando se logra un equilibrio delicado y frágil entre el Estado y la sociedad. El pasillo que lleva a la libertad es estrecho y sólo puede recorrerse si se produce una lucha constante entre el Estado y la sociedad. Pero, ¿en qué consiste esa lucha? En un recorrido fascinante que nos lleva del mundo árabe en tiempos de Mahoma a las ciudades-Estado de la Italia medieval, de la Latinoamérica de las dictaduras a la Suecia que inventó la socialdemocracia, de la caótica República de Weimar a la China imperial, El pasillo estrecho nos introduce en el que tal vez sea el proceso más fascinante de la historia: el de la obtención de la libertad. Una libertad que solo puede existir cuando la sociedad cuestiona el poder del Estado y de las élites, pero también cuando, al mismo tiempo, existe un Estado robusto capaz de defender nuestros derechos cuando estos se ven amenazados. Please note: This audiobook is in Spanish.
©2019 Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson (P)2020 Centro Libros PAPF, S. L. U., Deusto
The Martyrdom of Collins Catch the Bear
Summary
The search for justice for a Lakota Sioux man wrongfully charged with murder told here for the first time by his trial lawyer, Gerry Spence This is the untold story of Collins Catch the Bear, a Lakota Sioux, who was wrongfully charged as part of a conspiracy with the murder of a white man at Russell Means's Yellow Thunder Camp in 1982, a controversial American Indian encampment in the national forest. Though Collins was innocent, he took the fall for the actual killer, a man placed in the camp with the sole intention of destroying the reputation of AIM. This story reveals the struggle of the American Indian people in their attempt to survive in a white world, on land that was stolen from them. We live with Collins and see the beauty that was his, but that was lost to the pressures of a racist, white society. Today, justice is still struggling to be heard in this case, as well as many like it in the American Indian nations.
©2019 Gerry Spence (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
At the Dark End of the Street
Summary
Rosa Parks was often described as a sweet and reticent elderly woman whose tired feet caused her to defy segregation on Montgomery’s city buses, and whose supposedly solitary, spontaneous act sparked the 1955 bus boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. The truth of who Rosa Parks was and what really lay beneath the 1955 boycott is far different from anything previously written. In this groundbreaking and important book, Danielle McGuire writes about the rape in 1944 of a 24-year-old mother and sharecropper, Recy Taylor, who strolled toward home after an evening of singing and praying at the Rock Hill Holiness Church in Abbeville, Alabama. Seven white men, armed with knives and shotguns, ordered the young woman into their green Chevrolet, raped her, and left her for dead. The president of the local NAACP branch office sent his best investigator and organizer to Abbeville. Her name was Rosa Parks. In taking on this case, Parks launched a movement that ultimately changed the world. The author gives us the never-before-told history of how the civil rights movement began; how it was in part started in protest against the ritualistic rape of Black women by white men who used economic intimidation, sexual violence, and terror to derail the freedom movement; and how those forces persisted unpunished throughout the Jim Crow era when white men assaulted Black women to enforce rules of racial and economic hierarchy. Black women’s protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled civil rights campaigns throughout the South that began during World War II and went through to the Black Power movement. The Montgomery bus boycott was the baptism, not the birth, of that struggle. At the Dark End of the Street describes the decades of degradation Black women on the Montgomery city buses endured on their way to cook and clean for their white bosses. It reveals how Rosa Parks, by 1955 one of the most radical activists in Alabama, had had enough. “There had to be a stopping place”, she said, “and this seemed to be the place for me to stop being pushed around.” Parks refused to move from her seat on the bus, was arrested, and, with fierce activist Jo Ann Robinson, organized a one-day bus boycott. The protest, intended to last 24 hours, became a yearlong struggle for dignity and justice. It broke the back of the Montgomery city bus lines and bankrupted the company. We see how and why Rosa Parks, instead of becoming a leader of the movement she helped to start, was turned into a symbol of virtuous Black womanhood, sainted and celebrated for her quiet dignity, prim demeanor, and middle-class propriety - her radicalism all but erased. And we see as well how thousands of Black women whose courage and fortitude helped to transform America were reduced to the footnotes of history. A controversial, moving, and courageous book; narrative history at its best.
©2019 Danielle L. McGuire (P)2019 Random House Audio
A Blueprint for War: FDR and the Hundred Days That Mobilized America
Summary
In the cold winter months that followed Franklin Roosevelt's election in November 1940 to an unprecedented third term in the White House, he confronted a worldwide military and moral catastrophe. Almost all the European democracies had fallen under the ruthless onslaught of the Nazi army and air force. Great Britain stood alone, a fragile bastion between Germany and American immersion in war. In the Pacific world, Japan had extended its tentacles deeper into China. Susan Dunn dramatically brings to life the most vital and transformational period of Roosevelt's presidency: the hundred days between December 1940 and March 1941, when he mobilized American industry, mustered the American people, initiated the crucial programs and approved the strategic plans for America's leadership in World War II. As the nation began its transition into the preeminent military, industrial, and moral power on the planet, FDR laid out the stunning blueprint not only for war but for the American Century.
©2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Susan Dunn
Summary: United States of Socialism: Dinesh D'Souza
Summary
Warning!: This is a best seller summary and analysis of the United States of Socialism by New York Times best-selling author Dinesh D’Sousa. It is not the original book, nor intended to replace it. If you are a Democrat don't listen to this audiobook because you would learn many characteristics about your party that are embarrassingly despicable. If you are to survive at all as a Conservative or Independent, then this is a must-listen. Your family will always live under constant attack. Dinesh D’Sousa writes to expose the Democrat socialists, their “Socialist Dream” for what a “racket” it is and then proceeds to bury them. He shares how the socialists first arose, how their diabolical techniques are infused with a form of alienating “Identity Socialism,” and how we must rally behind Trump's lead to stop them. Use this best-selling summary and analysis audiobook to: Decide if the original book is for you. Hint: It is! Get chapter-by-chapter main points and takeaways. Gain a better understanding. Learn what you must know in 15-30 minutes. Refresh your memory of the parent book. Enjoy occasional editorial comments. Scott Campbell penned many related books on socialism, Marxism, the Deep State, the Obamas, and Trump but is not associated with D'Sousa or his publisher in any way. Scott Campbell is wholly responsible for the content of the summary audiobook. If you are the author, publisher, or representative of the original work, please contact scampbell@whitehatrevolution.com with any concerns or comments. Identity politics is a political strategy. People of a particular identity bond into alliances to exclude all others. Race, class, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and socio-cultural background are common identities. There might be an intersection of several identities. White, Christian, heterosexual male, middle-class, and Conservative is the intersectional identity who the socialists want to alienate and annihilate. It also describes many of President Trump’s supporters. For a replacement, they might want a non-White, Muslim, transgender female, lower class, and Democrat - someone who, solely because of their perceived identity, will blindly follow Democrats. Identity politics' goal is to force group agendas upon others to bring about socialist “change” towards establishing total control of a society and its wealth. Identity intersectional politics is a strategy adopted by socialists to intentionally create divides and conflicts. The Obama administration in its second term became experts at it. Democrat identity socialists are trying to magnify and harness this natural array of divisions to create a majority coalition to implement their desired changes. Dinesh D'Sousa is blessed with one of the most brilliant and analytical minds of our time. As a devoted supporter of our Founding Fathers, the Bill of Rights, and our Constitution, he champions Conservative causes. He defines Conservatism as holding sacred the principles of the American Revolution and promoting the "self-made man". Embedded in free markets, the self-made man brims with ideas that lead to invention and advancement. D'Sousa likes to recognize Ben Franklin and Frederick Douglas as prime examples of self-made men. He likes Abraham Lincoln for representing the virtues of the American Revolution and the concept and importance of equal rights for all. D’Sousa migrated to America as an exchange student. He wanted to see our middle-class abundance and experience our relative freedom from corruption. He was in for a big surprise.
©2020 Scott Campbell (P)2020 Scott Campbell
Don't Be Afraid of the Bullets
Summary
Laura Kasinof studied Arabic in college and moved to Yemen a few years later - after a friend at a late-night party in Washington, DC, recommended the country as a good place to work as a freelance journalist. When she first moved to Sanaa in 2009, she was the only American reporter based in the country. She quickly fell in love with Yemen’s people and culture, in addition to finding herself the star of a local TV soap opera. When antigovernment protests broke out in Yemen, part of the revolts sweeping the Arab world at the time, she contacted the New York Times to see if she could cover the rapidly unfolding events for the newspaper. Laura never planned to be a war correspondent, but found herself in the middle of brutal government attacks on peaceful protesters. As foreign reporters were rounded up and shipped out of the country, Laura managed to elude the authorities but found herself increasingly isolated - and even more determined to report on what she saw. Don’t Be Afraid of the Bullets is a fascinating and important debut by a talented young journalist.
©2014 Laura Kasinof (P)2014 Audible Inc.
White Identity Politics
Summary
Amidst discontent over America's growing diversity, many white Americans now view the political world through the lens of a racial identity. Whiteness was once thought to be invisible because of whites' dominant position and ability to claim the mainstream, but today a large portion of whites actively identify with their racial group and support policies and candidates that they view as protecting whites' power and status. In White Identity Politics, Ashley Jardina offers a landmark analysis of emerging patterns of white identity and collective political behavior, drawing on sweeping data. Where past research on whites' racial attitudes emphasized out-group hostility, Jardina brings into focus the significance of in-group identity and favoritism. White Identity Politics shows that disaffected whites are not just found among the working class; they make up a broad proportion of the American public - with profound implications for political behavior and the future of racial conflict in America.
©2019 Ashley Jardina (P)2019 Tantor
Taking America Back for God
Summary
Taking America Back for God points to the phenomenon of "Christian nationalism," the belief that the United States is - and should be - a Christian nation. At its heart, Christian nationalism demands that we must preserve a particular kind of social order, an order in which everyone - Christians and non-Christians, native-born and immigrants, whites and minorities, men and women - recognizes their "proper" place in society. The first comprehensive empirical analysis of Christian nationalism in the United States, Taking America Back for God illustrates the influence of Christian nationalism on today's most contentious social and political issues. Drawing on multiple sources of national survey data as well as in-depth interviews, Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry document how Christian nationalism shapes what Americans think about who they are as a people, what their future should look like, and how they should get there. Americans' stance toward Christian nationalism provides powerful insight into what they think about immigration, Islam, gun control, police shootings, atheists, gender roles, and many other political issues-very much including who they want in the White House. Taking America Back for God is a guide to one of the most important - and least understood - forces shaping American politics.
©2020 Oxford University Press (P)2020 Tantor
Lincoln's Boys
Summary
A timely and intimate look into Abraham Lincoln's White House through the lives of his two closest aides and confidants. Lincoln's official secretaries, John Hay and John Nicolay, enjoyed more access, witnessed more history, and knew Lincoln better than anyone outside of the president's immediate family. Hay and Nicolay were the gatekeepers of the Lincoln legacy. They read poetry and attendeded the theater with the president, commiserated with him over Union army setbacks, and plotted electoral strategy. They were present at every seminal event, from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to Lincoln's delivery of the Gettysburg Address - and they wrote about it after his death. In their biography of Lincoln, Hay and Nicolay fought to establish Lincoln's heroic legacy and to preserve a narrative that saw slavery - not states' rights - as the sole cause of the Civil War. As Joshua Zeitz shows, the image of a humble man with uncommon intellect who rose from obscurity to become a storied wartime leader and emancipator is very much their creation. Drawing on letters, diaries, and memoirs, Lincoln's Boys is part political drama and part coming-of-age tale - a fascinating story of friendship, politics, war, and the contest over history and remembrance.
©2014 Joshua Zeitz (P)2014 Penguin Audiobook
NATO: Bolinda Beginner Guides
Summary
A thorough overview of the full spectrum of NATO's military and non-military activities. This is a comprehensive yet concise and accessible introduction to the history, role, activities, and future challenges facing NATO. Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, author Jennifer Medcalf guides the reader through the complex structure of this organization, providing ample support with a glossary, guide to further reading, and chronology. Despite predictions of its imminent demise, NATO is in fact more prominent than ever in international affairs, and this readable introduction will prove essential not only for the general listener, but also for the growing numbers of students on International Relations courses, and for service personnel in NATO and elsewhere.
©2005 Jennifer Medcalf (P)2012 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
The London Cage
Summary
Behind the locked doors of three mansions in London's exclusive Kensington Palace Gardens neighborhood, the British Secret Service established a highly secret prison in 1940: the London Cage. Here recalcitrant German prisoners of war were subjected to "special intelligence treatment." The stakes were high: the war's outcome could hinge on obtaining information German prisoners were determined to withhold. After the war, high-ranking Nazi war criminals were housed in the Cage, revamped as an important center for investigating German war crimes. This riveting book reveals the full details of operations at the London Cage and subsequent efforts to hide them. Helen Fry's extraordinary original research uncovers the grim picture of prisoners' daily lives and of systemic Soviet-style mistreatment. The author also provides sensational evidence to counter official denials concerning the use of "truth drugs" and "enhanced interrogation" techniques. Bringing dark secrets to light, this groundbreaking book at last provides an objective and complete history of the London Cage.
©2017 Helen Fry (P)2017 Tantor
Donald Trump on Joe Biden During the Obama Administration
Summary
This pamphlet explains how Donald Trump’s criticisms of Vice President Joe Biden during the Obama administration relate to the 2020 presidential election. Through casual comments, Trump revealed the differences between his own views and those of Biden. He also revealed why he considers Biden to be a formidable opponent.
©2020 Jens A. Finn (P)2020 Jens A. Finn
Lighting the Fires of Freedom
Summary
A “New & Noteworthy” selection of The New York Times One of Book Riot's “29 Amazing New Books Coming in 2018” A groundbreaking collection based on oral histories that brilliantly plumb the leadership of African American women in the 20th-century fight for civil rights - many nearly lost to history - from the latest winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize. During the Civil Rights Movement, African American women were generally not in the headlines; they simply did the work that needed to be done. Yet despite their significant contributions at all levels of the movement, they remain mostly invisible to the larger public. Beyond Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King, and Dorothy Height, most Americans, black and white alike, would be hard-pressed to name other leaders at the community, local, and national levels. In Lighting the Fires of Freedom Janet Dewart Bell shines a light on women’s all-too-often overlooked achievements in the Movement. Through wide-ranging conversations with nine women, several now in their nineties with decades of untold stories, we hear what ignited and fueled their activism, as Bell vividly captures their inspiring voices. Lighting the Fires of Freedom offers these deeply personal and intimate accounts of extraordinary struggles for justice that resulted in profound social change, stories that remain important and relevant today. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, Lighting the Fires of Freedom is a vital document for understanding the Civil Rights Movement and an enduring testament to the vitality of women’s leadership during one of the most dramatic periods of American history.
©2018 Janet Dewart Bell (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
Fix It
Summary
Despite a long-standing commitment to diversity and inclusion, creating a more diverse bar has been challenging for the legal profession. And this begs the question "why"? Does the profession find itself in the precarious position of having self-imposed barriers in place that work against its best efforts? Are outside factors beyond the profession's control inhibiting progress? Or is it a combination of the two? Fix It: How History, Sports, and Education Can Inform Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Today cites historical and current references and the latest research to address these questions and much more.
©2018 American Bar Association (P)2020 American Bar Association