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.
Praying for America
Summary
Discover how to pray powerful prayers for God to bless and unite America in this inspiring guide from the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church. The most patriotic thing you can do for America is pray for America. In times of division and disaster, our country has a long history of turning to God. Robert Jeffress, the senior pastor of a 14,000-member church in Dallas, Texas, and a Fox News contributor, believes it should be no different today. "When we seek God's help and pray about the issues that affect our lives," writes Jeffress, "we influence the fate of our families, our churches, and our nation. It has happened before in history, and it can happen again." Each chapter of this uplifting book includes an inspiring story demonstrating the power of faith in the life of our nation, a prayer, and a relevant passage of scripture to inspire and encourage you in praying intently for our country. In these increasingly divided times, Praying for America will serve as a very necessary and timely reminder that "In God, we trust."
©2020 Dr. Robert Jeffress (P)2020 Faith Words
The Right Side of History: 100 Years of LGBTQ Activism
Summary
Before, During, and After Stonewall: 100 Years of Heroes and History The Right Side of History tells the 100-year history of queer activism in a series of revealing close-ups, first-person accounts, and intimate snapshots of LGBT pioneers and radicals. This diverse cast stretches from the Edwardian period to today, including first-person accounts of the key protest that is at the heart of the 2015 movie Stonewall. The book shows how LGBT folk have always been in the forefront of progressive social evolution in the United States. It references heroes like Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bayard Rustin, Harvey Milk, and Edie Windsor. Equally, the book honors names that aren’t in history books, from participants in the Names Project, a national phenomenon memorializing 94,000 AIDS victims, to underground artists and writers.
©2015 Adrian Brooks (P)2016 Cleis Press
We Hold These Truths
Summary
Mortimer Adler devoted a lifetime to studying the great ideas of Western culture and explaining even the most difficult concepts to the average citizen, earning Time magazine’s praise as a "philosopher for everyman". In We Hold These Truths, Dr. Adler caps his life’s work by illuminating the ideas and ideals that have made the United States of America a truly unique nation in the annals of history. The ideas Adler examines include those at the core of the Declaration of Independence: human equality, inalienable human rights, civil rights, the pursuit of happiness, and both the consent and dissent of the governed. These are the ideas that form the basis for justice, domestic tranquility, the common defense, the general welfare, and the blessings of liberty - the ideals that are found in the preamble to the Constitution and which bind us together as a nation and a people. Mortimer J. Adler (1902-2001), American philosopher, educator, and popular author, was chairman of Encyclopaedia Britannica’s board of editors, the founder and director of the Institute for Philosophical Research, and an honorary trustee and founder of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies.
©1987 Mortimer J. Alder (P)1996 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
In the Secret Service
Summary
When Jerry Parr was eight years old, he knew he wanted to be a Secret Service agent when he grew up. Little did this eight-year-old dreamer know that he would become the agent responsible for saving the life of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981. Jerry grew up surviving three fathers, and as a result he became his mother’s protector, sleeping with a knife under his pillow and vowing to give his life if necessary in order to save her.These early influences not only shaped Jerry to become the head agent in Ronald Reagan’s protective detail, but they prepared him for a life of rescuing others. Jerry describes his transition from the vigilant life of a Secret Service agent to one lived in service to others, saying, “It’s a strange twist that having spent my so-called prime years protecting political figures from death, I spend a lot of time now helping people to surrender to it. In spite of all the risks I took and all the near misses, I have lived a long life. God’s love has sustained me and sustains me still. It will carry me through my inevitable rendezvous with death.” At times heart pounding, at times heart rending, this richly textured memoir of a Secret Service agent will move you first to the edge of your seat, then to the depths of your soul.
©2013 Jerry and Carolyn Parr (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the Holy Bible, King James Version. Scripture quotations marked REB are taken from The Revised English Bible. © 1989 by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
Beautiful Country Burn Again
Summary
In a sweeping work of reportage set over the course of 2016, New York Times best-selling author Ben Fountain recounts a surreal year of politics and an exploration of the third American existential crisis. Twice before in its history, the US has been faced with a crisis so severe it was forced to reinvent itself in order to survive: first, the struggle over slavery, culminating in the Civil War, and the second, the Great Depression, which led to President Roosevelt’s New Deal and the establishment of America as a social-democratic state. In a sequence of essays that excavate the past while laying bare the political upheaval of 2016, Ben Fountain argues the US may be facing a third existential crisis, one that will require a “burning” of the old order as America attempts to remake itself. Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates a shocking year in American politics, moving from the early days of the Iowa Caucus to the crystalizing moments of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and culminating in the aftershocks of the weeks following election night. Along the way, Fountain probes deeply into history, illuminating the forces and watershed moments of the past that mirror and precipitated the present, from the hollowed-out notion of the American Dream, to Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy, to our weaponized new conception of American exceptionalism, to the cult of celebrity that gave rise to Donald Trump. In an urgent and deeply incisive voice, Ben Fountain has fused history and the present day to paint a startling portrait of the state of our nation. Beautiful Country Burn Again is a searing indictment of how we came to this point and where we may be headed.
©2018 Ben Fountain (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
The Presidents vs. the Press
Summary
An award-winning presidential historian offers an authoritative account of American presidents' attacks on our freedom of the press. "The FAKE NEWS media", Donald Trump has tweeted, "is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!" Has our free press ever faced as great a threat? Perhaps not - but the tension between presidents and journalists is as old as the republic itself. Every president has been convinced of his own honesty and transparency; every reporter who has covered the White House beat has believed with equal fervency that his or her journalistic rigor protects the country from danger. Our first president, George Washington, was also the first to grouse about his treatment in the newspapers, although he kept his complaints private. Subsequent chiefs like John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama were not so reticent, going so far as to wield executive power to overturn press freedoms, and even to prosecute journalists. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to actively manage the stable of reporters who followed him, doling out information, steering coverage, and squashing stories that interfered with his agenda. It was a strategy that galvanized TR's public support, but the lesson was lost on Woodrow Wilson, who never accepted reporters into his inner circle. Franklin Roosevelt transformed media relations forever, holding more than a thousand presidential press conferences and harnessing the new power of radio, at times bypassing the press altogether. John F. Kennedy excelled on television and charmed reporters to hide his personal life, while Richard Nixon was the first to cast the press as a public enemy. From the days of newsprint and pamphlets to the rise of Facebook and Twitter, each president has harnessed the media, whether intentional or not, to imprint his own character on the office. In this remarkable new history, acclaimed scholar Harold Holzer examines the dual rise of the American presidency and the media that shaped it. From Washington to Trump, he chronicles the disputes and distrust between these core institutions that define the United States of America, revealing that the essence of their confrontation is built into the fabric of the nation.
©2020 Harold Holzer (P)2020 Penguin Audio
Brothers at War
Summary
A major historical account of the Korean War, its origins, and its evolving impact on the world. Sixty years after North Korean troops crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea, the Korean War has not yet ended. Sheila Miyoshi Jager presents the first comprehensive history of this misunderstood war, one that risks involving the world’s superpowers - again. Her sweeping narrative ranges from the middle of the Second World War - when Korean independence was fiercely debated between Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill - to the present day, as North Korea, with China’s aid, stockpiles nuclear weapons while starving its people. At the center of this conflict is an ongoing struggle between North and South Korea for the mantle of Korean legitimacy, a “brother’s war,” which continues to fuel tensions on the Korean peninsula and the region. Drawing from newly available diplomatic archives in China, South Korea, and the former Soviet Union, Jager analyzes top-level military strategy. She brings to life the bitter struggles of the postwar period and shows how the conflict between the two Koreas has continued to evolve to the present, with important and tragic consequences for the region and the world. Her portraits of the many fascinating characters that populate this history - Truman, MacArthur, Kim Il Sung, Mao, Stalin, and Park Chung Hee - reveal the complexities of the Korean War and the repercussions this conflict has had on the lives of many individuals, statesmen, soldiers, and ordinary people, including the millions of hungry North Koreans for whom daily existence continues to be a nightmarish struggle. The most accessible, up-to date, and balanced account yet written, Brothers at War will become the definitive chronicle of the struggle’s origins and aftermath and its global impact for years to come.
©2013 Sheila Miyoshi Jager (P)2013 Audible, Inc.
Great Speeches by the Presidents of the United States, Vol. 3
Summary
A day that will live in infamy.... Nothing to fear but fear itself.... Ask not what your country can do for you.... Ich bin ein Berliner.... Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. George H. W. Bush: Inauguration Speech (1989), Panama (1989), Kuwait (1990), State of the Union (1991), End of Gulf War (1991), Gulf War (1991) William Jefferson Clinton: First Inauguration (1993), Health Care (1993), Normandy (1994), Oklahoma Bombing (1995), Bosnia (1995), State of the Union (1996), Balanced Budget (1997), Farewell to the Nation (2001) George W. Bush: Inauguration Address (2001), 9/11 (2001), Ground Zero (2001), Joint Session (2001), Iraqi Freedom Operation (2003), Second Inauguration Address (2005) Barack Obama: Inauguration (2009), Health Care (2009), Obamacare (2010), Bin Laden (2011), Reelection Victory Speech (2012), State of the Union Address (2014), Iran (2015) These are actual historic recordings. The sound quality represents the available audio technology of the era and varies by recording.
Public Domain (P)2016 SpeechWorks, a division of SoundWorks, Inc.
The Unfair Trade
Summary
A wake-up call for middle class Americans who feel trapped in a post-crisis economic slump, The Unfair Trade is a riveting exposé of the vast global financial system whose flaws are the source of our economic malaise. Our livelihoods are now, more than ever, beholden to the workings of its imbalances and inequities. The trillions of dollars that make up the flow of international finance - money that is often steered away from the people who deserve it the most - have not just undermined the lives of working and middle class Americans. It is a world-wide phenomenon that is changing the culture of Argentina; destroying the factory system in Northern Mexico, enabling drug cartels to recruit thousands of young men into their gangs; that has taken down the economies of Iceland, Ireland, Spain, Greece, and possibly Italy; and is driving American companies such as a 60-year-old family owned manufacturer of printed circuit boards to shutter all but one of its factories. Veteran journalist Michael J. Casey has traveled the world-from China to Iceland, Spain to Argentina, Indonesia to Australia, recounting extraordinary stories about ordinary people from one continent to another whose lives are inextricably linked. By tracing the flow of money and goods across the world, he illustrates how an American homeowner's life is shaped by the same economic and social policies that determine those of a low wage migrant worker on an assembly line in China. This combination of financial acumen, narrative-driven reporting, and compelling story-telling gives The Unfair Trade a unique human angle. Casey shows that our economic problems are largely caused by political agendas that prevent the free market from encouraging fair competition and impeding the allocation of resources. Until governments work together to make this global system more efficient-until China removes incentives for its citizens to save excessively, for example, or the U.S. ends the de facto subsidies enjoyed by politically powerful banks - the global playing field will remain lopsided, job creation will lag, and our economies will be vulnerable to new crises.
©2012 Michael J. Casey (P)2012 Tantor
This Sovereign Isle
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. Geography comes before history. Islands cannot have the same history as continental plains. The United Kingdom is a European country, but not the same kind of European country as Germany, Poland or Hungary. For most of the 150 centuries during which Britain has been inhabited it has been on the edge, culturally and literally, of mainland Europe. In this succinct book, Tombs shows that the decision to leave the EU is historically explicable - though not made historically inevitable - by Britain's very different historical experience, especially in the 20th century and because of our more extensive and deeper ties outside Europe. He challenges the orthodox view that Brexit was due solely to British or English exceptionalism: in choosing to leave the EU, the British, he argues, were in many ways voting as typical Europeans.
©2021 Robert Tombs (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Friedrich Engels Box Set: Revolution and Counter-Revolution; Manifesto of the Communist Party; The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State; & Engels' Speech at the Grave of Karl Marx
Summary
Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) was a German businessman, journalist philosopher, historian, political scientist, and revolutionary socialist. Engels developed Marxism together with Karl Marx. In 1848, Engels coauthored The Communist Manifesto (originally the Manifesto of the Communist Party) with Marx. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) is a historical materialist treatise partially based on notes by Karl Marx to Lewis H. Morgan's book Ancient Society (1877). Originally a series of articles in the New York Daily Tribune, Engels’ Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany was first published in book form under the editorship of Eleanor Marx Aveling in 1896. Engels supported Marx financially, enabling him to do research and write Das Kapital. After Marx's death, Engels edited the second and third volumes of the book.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
What Are We Doing Here?
Summary
Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville, inform our political consciousness or discussing how beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display. What Are We Doing Here? is a call for Americans to continue the tradition of those great thinkers and to remake American political and cultural life as "deeply impressed by obligation [and as] a great theater of heroic generosity, which, despite all, is sometimes palpable still." A BuzzFeed Books Pick of Most Exciting New Books of 2018.
©2018 Marilynne Robinson (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Future of War
Summary
In 1912, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, wrote a short story about a war fought from underwater submersibles that included the sinking of passenger ships. At the time, it was dismissed by the British generals and admirals of the day not because the idea of submarines was technically unfeasible, but because no one could imagine that any nation would be so depraved as to sink civilian merchant ships. The future of war more often than not surprises us less because of some fantastic technical or engineering dimension but because of some human, political, or moral threshold that we had never imagined wanting to cross. As Lawrence Freedman shows, the future of war has a past and a present. Ideas of war, strategies for warfare and its practice, and organizing principles of war all have rich and varied origins which have shaped the minds of those who conceive the next war. Freedman shows how war can be studied systematically and empirically to provide a firm foundation for enlightened policy. The Future of War - which covers civil wars to as yet unknown nuclear conflicts, proxy wars (real) to the Cold War (not), fashionably small wars to the War to End All Wars (it didn't) - is filled with insight and fascinating nuggets of military history and culture from one of the most brilliant military and strategic historians of his generation.
©2017 Lawrence Freedman (P)2017 HighBridge, a Division of Recorded Books
Cnut the Great
Summary
"King of all England and Denmark and the Norwegians and of some of the Swedes" (Cnut's self-proclaimed title) "Knut was exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high-set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion none-the-less, and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, both the handsomer and the keener of their sight." (Knytlinga Saga) In a sense, Cnut the Great was practically destined for greatness, if only because he came from a distinguished Danish royal family. Cnut's father was Sweyn Forkbeard, and his grandfather was Harald Bluetooth, both prominent and legendary kings of Denmark. Meanwhile, his mother was the widow of the Swedish king Erik the Victorious, the daughter of the Polish duke Mieszko, and a sister of the Polish king Boleslav Chrobry. Thanks to his background and his own abilities, Cnut became the most prominent of the Danish kings of England (from 1016), but he was also, at times, king of Denmark (from 1018-1019), Norway (from 1028), and parts of Sweden (after 1026). During his reign, he united England, protected Denmark, and had a lot of influence throughout Scandinavia, a remarkable feat that he managed to accomplish through careful alliances and diplomacy, yet most often through direct force. For that reason, Cnut has been referred to as the greatest Anglo-Saxon king of England, despite the fact he wasn't actually Anglo-Saxon. His death in 1035 came shortly before the Norman conquest of England by William the Conqueror. For centuries, the Vikings had been raiding throughout the region, including in the British Isles, and Cnut's campaigns represented the apex of that activity. Somewhat ironically, Cnut is one of the best-documented leaders of the Vikings, a civilization that fascinates people mostly because they still seem mysterious and different compared to their European counterparts.
©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors
Assassinations
Summary
A deep dive into high stakes killings, conspiracies, and crimes! Ruthless killers and murderers for hire: they are here, there, and everywhere. They lurk in the shadows, ready to pounce. They terminate on command. And, in the process, they change the course of the world. They are among the world's most cold-hearted, deadly, and emotionless figures. They are assassins, and they have a long history of grievous deeds. From the cunning, calculating, government-trained warriors to the psychopathic, homegrown freelancers, you can find them all in Assassinations: The Plots, Politics, and Powers Behind History-Changing Murders. Exposed are the hidden agendas as well as the open warfare. The cynical preparations and devastating aftermaths are laid bare. You will quickly find yourself immersed in a world that is filled with killings made to seem like suicides, murders that were designed to look like heart attacks or overdoses, and accidents that, in reality, were carefully orchestrated deaths.
©2020 Visible Ink Press (P)2020 Tantor
Winner-Take-All Politics
Summary
We all know that the very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades while most Americans haven't. In fact, the exorbitantly paid have continued to thrive during the current economic crisis, even as the rest of Americans have fallen behind. Why do the "have-it-alls" have so much more? Lots of so-called experts claim to have solved this great mystery, but no one has really gotten to the bottom of it---until now. In their lively and provocative Winner-Take-All Politics, renowned political scientists Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate that the usual suspects---foreign trade and financial globalization, technological changes in the workplace, increased education at the top---are largely innocent of the charges against them. Instead, they indict an unlikely suspect and take us on an entertaining tour of the mountain of evidence against the culprit. The guilty party is American politics. Runaway inequality and the present economic crisis reflect what government has done to aid the rich and what it has not done to safeguard the interests of the middle class. The winner-take-all economy is primarily a result of winner-take-all politics. Part revelatory history, part political analysis, part intellectual journey, Winner-Take-All Politics shows how a political system that traditionally has been responsive to the interests of the middle class has been hijacked by the super-rich. In doing so, it not only changes how we think about American politics, but also points the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the interests of the many rather than just those of the wealthy few.
©2010 Paul Pierson and Jacob Hacker (P)2011 Tantor
How Not to Be Wrong
Summary
Brought to you by Penguin. There's no point having a mind if you never change it. In his best-selling How to Be Right, James provided an invigorating guide to how to talk to people with bad opinions. And yet the question he always gets asked is: 'if you're so sure about everything, haven't you ever changed your mind?' In an age of us vs them, tribal loyalties and bitter divisions, the ability to change our minds may be the most important power we have. In this intimate, personal new book, James' focus shifts from talking to other people to how you talk to yourself about what you really think. Ranging across a dazzling array of big topics, cultural questions and political hot potatoes, James reveals where he has changed his mind, explains what convinced him and shows why all of us need to kick the tyres of our opinions, check our assumptions and make sure we really think what we think we do. Coloured with stories of changing minds from the incredible guests on his podcasts and callers to his radio show, and spanning big ideas like press regulation and Brexit through to playful subjects like football and dog-ownership, How Not to Be Wrong is packed with revelations, outrage, conversations and lots of humour. Because in a world that seems more divided than ever, if you can't change your own mind you'll never really be able to change anyone else's.
©2020 James O'Brien (P)2020 Penguin Audio
American Dialogue
Summary
The award-winning author of Founding Brothers and The Quartet now gives us a deeply insightful examination of the relevance of the views of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to some of the most divisive issues in America today. The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue, Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, and Madison and the doctrine of original intent. Through these juxtapositions - and in his hallmark dramatic and compelling narrative voice - Ellis illuminates the obstacles and pitfalls paralyzing contemporary discussions of these fundamentally important issues. Cover image: Three Flags, 1958 by Jasper Johns. Encaustic on canvas (three panels) © Jasper Johns/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY; Print: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA/Bridgeman Images
©2018 Joseph J. Ellis (P)2018 Random House Audio
unSpun
Summary
The founders of FactCheck.org teach you how to identify and debunk spin, hype, and fake news in this essential guide to informed citizenship in an age of misinformation. Americans are bombarded daily with mixed messages, half-truths, misleading statements, and out-and-out fabrications masquerading as facts. The news media is often too intimidated, too partisan, or too overworked to keep up with these deceptions. unSpun is the secret decoder ring for the 21st-century world of disinformation. Authored by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the founders of the acclaimed website FactCheck.org, unSpun reveals the secrets of separating facts from disinformation, such as: The warning signs of spin Common tricks used to deceive the public How to find trustworthy and objective sources of information Telling fact from fiction shouldn't be a difficult task. With this audiobook and a healthy dose of skepticism, anyone can cut through the haze of political deception and biased reportage to become a savvier, more responsible citizen.
©2007 Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (P)2019 Tantor
The Essential Scalia
Summary
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his own words: the definitive collection of his opinions, speeches, and articles on the most essential and vexing legal questions, with an intimate foreword by Justice Elena Kagan. “[Scalia’s writings] are as readable today as they were when they first appeared.... Especially illuminating to anyone who wants to unlock the mystery of why Ginsburg admired Scalia - or who wants to get a sense of where the Supreme Court may be headed.” (The Wall Street Journal) A justice on the United States Supreme Court for three decades, Antonin Scalia transformed the way that judges, lawyers, and citizens think about the law. The Essential Scalia presents Justice Scalia on his own terms, allowing listeners to understand the reasoning and insights that made him one of the most consequential jurists in American history. Known for his forceful intellect and remarkable wit, Scalia mastered the art of writing in a way that both educated and entertained. This comprehensive collection draws from the best of Scalia's opinions, essays, speeches, and testimony to paint a complete and nuanced portrait of his jurisprudence. This compendium addresses the hot-button issues of the times, everything from abortion and the right to bear arms to marriage, free speech, religious liberty, and so much more. It also presents the justice's wise insights on perennial debates over the structure of government created by our Constitution and the proper methods for interpreting our laws. Brilliant and passionately argued, The Essential Scalia is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to understand our Constitution, the American legal system, and one of our nation's most influential and highly regarded jurists and thinkers.
©2020 Antonin Scalia (P)2020 Random House Audio