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.
The Little Book of Restorative Justice: Revised and Updated
Summary
Howard Zehr is the father of restorative justice and is known worldwide for his pioneering work in transforming understandings of justice. Here he proposes workable principles and practices for making restorative justice possible in this revised and updated edition of his best-selling, seminal book on the movement. (The original edition has sold more than 110,000 copies.) Restorative justice, with its emphasis on identifying the justice needs of everyone involved in a crime, is a worldwide movement of growing influence that is helping victims and communities heal, while holding criminals accountable for their actions. This is not soft-on-crime, feel-good philosophy, but rather a concrete effort to bring justice and healing to everyone involved in a crime. In The Little Book of Restorative Justice, Zehr first explores how restorative justice is different from criminal justice. Then, before letting those appealing observations drift out of reach into theoretical space, Zehr presents restorative justice practices. Zehr undertakes a massive and complex subject and puts it in graspable form, without reducing or trivializing it. The Little Book of Restorative Justice is wonderfully read by Karen Chilton, the acclaimed narrator of The New Jim Crow. This resource is suitable for academic classes and workshops, for conferences and trainings, as well as for the layperson interested in understanding this innovative and influential movement. This audiobook includes a bonus lecture on Restorative Justice by author and series editor Howard Zehr.
©2002, 2015 Good Books (P)2019 Echo Point Books & Media, LLC
The Affluent Society
Summary
Galbraith's classic on the "economics of abundance" is, in the words of the New York Times, "a compelling challenge to conventional thought". With customary clarity, eloquence, and humor, Galbraith cuts to the heart of what economic security means (and doesn't mean) in today's world and lays bare the hazards of individual and societal complacence about economic inequity.While "affluent society" and "conventional wisdom" (terms first used in this book) have entered the vernacular, the message of the book has not been so widely embraced - reason enough to rediscover The Affluent Society.
©1998 John Kenneth Galbraith (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
My Two Moms
Summary
On January 31, 2011, Zach Wahls addressed the Iowa House Judiciary Committee in a public forum regarding civil unions. The 19-year-old son of a same-sex couple, Wahls proudly proclaimed, "The sexual orientation of my parents has had zero effect on the content of my character." Hours later, his speech was posted on YouTube, where it went viral, quickly receiving more than two million views. By the end of the week, everyone knew his name and wanted to hear more from the boy with two moms. Same-sex marriage will be a major - possibly the defining - issue in next year's election cycle, and Wahls speaks to that, but also to a broader issue. Sure, he's handsome and athletic, an environmental engineering student, and an Eagle Scout. Yet, growing up with two moms, he knows what it's like to feel different and to fear being made fun of or worse. In the inspirational spirit of It Gets Better, edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller, My Two Moms also delivers a reassuring message to same-sex couples, their kids, and anyone who's ever felt like an outsider: "You are not alone."
©2012 Zach Wahls (P)2012 Tantor
George Washington
Summary
A fascinating and illuminating account of how George Washington became the single most dominant force in the creation of the United States of America, from award-winning author David O. Stewart. “An outstanding biography... [George Washington] has a narrative drive such a life deserves.” (The Wall Street Journal) Washington's rise constitutes one of the greatest self-reinventions in history. In his mid-twenties, this third son of a modest Virginia planter had ruined his own military career, thanks to an outrageous ego. But by his mid-forties, that headstrong, unwise young man had evolved into an unassailable leader, chosen as the commander in chief of the fledgling Continental Army. By his mid-fifties, he was unanimously elected the nation's first president. How did Washington emerge from the wilderness to become the central founder of the United States of America? In this remarkable new portrait, award-winning historian David O. Stewart unveils the political education that made Washington a master politician - and America's most essential leader. From Virginia's House of Burgesses, where Washington learned the craft and timing of a practicing politician, to his management of local government as a justice of the Fairfax County Court, to his eventual role in the Second Continental Congress and his grueling generalship in the American Revolution, Washington perfected the art of governing and service, earned trust, and built bridges. The lessons in leadership he absorbed along the way would be invaluable during the early years of the republic as he fought to unify the new nation.
©2021 David O. Stewart (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Politics
Summary
The title Politics literally means ‘the things concerning the city’. Here, Aristotle considers the important role that politics plays in the life of the community and its contribution to harmonious and virtuous existence. It is divided into eight books and was a cornerstone in political philosophy for centuries despite certain features - including attitudes towards slaves and women - clearly placing its conclusions and advice within the confines of Athenian society of the fourth century BCE. Aristotle’s fundamental view is that the individual needs the city more than the city needs the individual, not least because a well-ordered city-state offers obvious benefits beyond simply self-protection and commerce. It makes possible a broader life, allowing in addition education and leisure, leading its citizens towards a life of virtue. In book two, Aristotle considers the best regime for the city, looking at the three main forms of his time - democracy, oligarchy/aristocracy and monarchy. He considers the qualification to be a citizen and participate in the political process - offering a wider view than Plato, for example. Revolution, change, constitutional developments, insurrections - these issues of instability are discussed with references to specific examples. And in later books he proposes the conditions for the best state, the ideal state, ‘for a state is not a community of living beings only, but a community of equals, aiming at the best life possible’. Aristotle’s Politics is a seminal text and is read here by Andrew Cullum with clarity and purpose. Translation: Benjamin Jowett.
Public Domain (P)2019 Ukemi Productions Ltd
Life Inside the Bubble
Summary
He swore to take a bullet for the President and left it all behind to take a bullet for the American people. Why would a successful, twelve-year Secret Service agent resign his position in the prime of his career to run for political office against all the odds? New York Times bestseller, Life Inside the Bubble is an intimate look at life inside the presidential "bubble," a haze of staffers, consultants, cronies, acolytes, bureaucrats and lobbyists that creates the "alternate reality" in which monumental policy decisions are made. And it is the story of a dedicated Secret Service professional who, after years inside the "bubble," walked away in favor of sounding a clarion call to the American people in defense of sane government and the U.S. Constitution. Finally, why the Fast & Furious scandal, the bombings in Boston and the terrorist attacks in Benghazi are harbingers of what's to come without a bold change in direction. Take the journey with Dan Bongino from the tough streets of New York City where he was raised, and later patrolled as a member of the NYPD, to the White House as a member of the elite Presidential Protective Division, through his ultimate decision to resign from the Secret Service - during the Obama Administration - in the prime of his career to run for the United States Senate against the feared Maryland Democratic machine. Follow his experiences inside the Washington, D.C., matrix and discover why a government filled with some incredibly dedicated people nevertheless continues to make such frequent and tragic mistakes.
©2013 Dan Bongino (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Reconsidering the American Way of War
Summary
This audiobook challenges several longstanding notions about the American way of war. It examines US military practice (strategic and operational) from the War of Independence to the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan to determine what patterns, if any, existed in the way Americans have used military force. Echevarria surveys all major US wars and most every small conflict in the country's military history. He argues that the popular notion that the American way of war is astrategic, apolitical, and obsessed with using overwhelming force is wrong. Rather, America's decisions to go to war and strategies in war have throughout history been shaped by political considerations, with both negative and positive results, and the amount of force employed was rarely overwhelming or decisive. Echevarria closes the gap between histories of strategic theory and the popular battle and campaign narratives that comprise the bulk of US military history. This book hopes to force a reexmination of the true characteristics of the American way of war with an eye toward implications for the future.
©2014 Georgetown University Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks
Colombia
Summary
Colombia's recent past has been characterized by what its Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez once called "a biblical holocaust" of human savagery. Along with the scourge of drug-related massacres facing the country, politically-motivated assassinations (averaging 30 per day in the 1990s), widespread disappearances, rapes, and kidnappings have run rampant through the country for decades. For many Colombians, the violence oft-invoked in today's immigration debate is a bleak and inescapable reality. And yet, with only 11 years of military rule during its 200 some years of independence, Colombia's democratic tradition is among the richest and longest-standing in the hemisphere. The country's economic growth rate over the last 75 years is among the highest in South America, the overall living satisfaction of its citizens is on par with citizens of France, and it is home to some of the continent's best universities and most dazzling fine and industrial arts. With such contradictions, even to experts, Colombia is one of the most confusing countries in the Americas. In this new addition to the popular What Everyone Needs to Know® series, Richard D. Mahoney links historical legacies, cultural features, and the relentless dynamics of the illegal drug industry to unravel the enigma.
©2020 Richard D. Mahoney (P)2020 Tantor
African Dominion
Summary
A groundbreaking book that puts early and medieval West Africa on the map of global history. Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history. Focusing on the Savannah and Sahel region, Gomez traces how Islam's growth in West Africa, along with intensifying commerce that included slaves, resulted in a series of political experiments unique to the region, culminating in the rise of empire. A radically new account of the importance of early Africa in global history, African Dominion will be the standard work on the subject for years to come.
©2018 Princeton University Press (P)2020 Tantor
The Arctic
Summary
Conversations defining the Arctic region often provoke debate and controversy - for scientists, this lies in the imprecise and imaginary line known as the Arctic Circle; for countries like Canada, Russia, the United States, and Denmark, such discussions are based in competition for land and resources; for indigenous communities, those discussions are also rooted in issues of rights. These shifting lines are only made murkier by the threat of global climate change. In the Arctic Ocean, the consequences of Earth's warming trend are most immediately observable in the multi-year and perennial ice that has begun to melt, which threatens ice-dependent microorganisms and, eventually, will disrupt all of Arctic life and raise sea levels globally. In The Arctic, Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall offer concise answers to the myriad questions that arise when looking at the circumpolar North. They focus on its peoples, politics, environment, resource development, and conservation to provide critical information about how changes there can, and will, affect our entire globe and all of its inhabitants. Dodds and Nuttall explore how the Arctic's importance has grown over time, the region's role during the Cold War, indigenous communities and their history, and the past and future of the Arctic's governance, among other crucial topics.
©2019 Klaus Dodds and Mark Nuttall (P)2019 Tantor
The Golden Thread
Summary
Investigative reporter Ravi Somaiya uncovers the mystery behind the death of renowned diplomat and UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld in this true story of spies, intrigue, and unsolved crimes. On Sept. 17, 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld boarded a Douglas DC6 propeller plane on the sweltering tarmac of the airport in Leopoldville, the capital of the Congo. Hours later, he would be found dead in an African jungle with an ace of spades playing card placed on his body. Hammarskjöld had been head of the United Nations for nine years. He was legendary for his dedication to peace on earth. But dark forces circled him: A powerful and connected group of people from an array of nations and organizations - including the CIA, the KGB, underground militant groups, business tycoons, and others - were determined to see Hammarskjöld fail. A riveting work of investigative journalism based on never-before-seen evidence, recently revealed firsthand accounts, and groundbreaking new interviews, The Golden Thread reveals the truth behind one of the great murder mysteries of the Cold War. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Ravi Somaiya (P)2020 Hachette Audio
Billionaire Democracy
Summary
This isn't your America. No matter who the president is. We are told that, when we vote and elect representatives, we gain a voice in government and its policies. Yet, it hasn't translated our preferences into higher living standards for the majority of us. In America, the wealthy few have built a system that works in their favor, while maintaining the illusion of democracy. American voters have little influence on policies engineered by lawmakers. Political scientists call it the "income bias", causing lawmakers to compete to satisfy preferences of donors from the top one percent instead of the middle class. It is why our economy has been misfiring for most Americans for a generation, wages stagnating and opportunity dwindling. Economist George R. Tyler lays out the fundamental problems plaguing our democracy. He explains how our democratic system has eroded the middle class and provides a comparison to peer democracies abroad. He shows where we fall short and how other rich democracies avoid the income bias pitfall. He also outlines reforms to improve our government's responsiveness. It's time for the people of this nation to demand a government that properly serves us, the American people. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2018 George R. Tyler (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Fractured Republic
Summary
Americans today are frustrated and anxious. Our economy is sluggish and leaves workers insecure. Income inequality, cultural divisions, and political polarization increasingly pull us apart. Our governing institutions often seem paralyzed. And our politics has failed to rise to these challenges. No wonder, then, that Americans - and the politicians who represent them - are overwhelmingly nostalgic for a better time. The left looks back to the middle of the 20th century, when unions were strong, large public programs promised to solve pressing social problems, and the movements for racial integration and sexual equality were advancing. The right looks back to the Reagan era, when deregulation and lower taxes spurred the economy, cultural traditionalism seemed resurgent, and America was confident and optimistic. Each side thinks returning to its golden age could solve America's problems. In The Fractured Republic, Yuval Levin argues that this politics of nostalgia is failing 21st-century Americans. Both parties are blind to how America has changed over the past half century - as the large, consolidated institutions that once dominated our economy, politics, and culture have fragmented and become smaller, more diverse, and personalized. Individualism, dynamism, and liberalization have come at the cost of dwindling solidarity, cohesion, and social order. This has left us with more choices in every realm of life but less security, stability, and national unity. Both our strengths and our weaknesses are therefore consequences of these changes. And the dysfunctions of our fragmented national life will need to be answered by the strengths of our decentralized, divers, dynamic nation. Levin argues that this calls for a modernizing politics that avoids both radical individualism and a centralizing statism and instead revives the middle layers of society - families and communities, schools and churches, charities and associations, local governments and markets. Through them, we can achieve not a single solution to the problems of our age, but multiple and tailored answers fitted to the daunting range of challenges we face and suited to enable an American revival. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2016 Yuval Levin (P)2016 Hachette Audio
Killer High
Summary
In his path-breaking Killer High, Peter Andreas shows how six psychoactive drugs - ranging from old to relatively new, mild to potent, licit to illicit, natural to synthetic - have proven to be particularly important war ingredients. This sweeping history tells the story of war from antiquity to the modern age through the lens of alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, opium, amphetamines, and cocaine. Beer and wine drenched ancient and medieval battlefields, and the distilling revolution lubricated the conquest and ethnic cleansing of the New World. Tobacco became globalized through soldiering, with soldiers hooked on smoking and governments hooked on taxing it. Caffeine and opium fueled imperial expansion and warfare. The commercialization of amphetamines in the 20th century energized soldiers to fight harder, longer, and faster, while cocaine stimulated an increasingly militarized drug war that produced casualty numbers surpassing most civil wars. As Andreas demonstrates, armed conflict has become progressively more drugged with the introduction, mass production, and global spread of mind-altering substances. As a result, we cannot understand the history of war without including drugs, and we similarly cannot understand the history of drugs without including war.
©2020 Peter Andreas (P)2020 Tantor
History of the Deep State
Summary
Mainstream media has led us to believe that the deep state is only as old as the Obama administration. However, it has presented itself in many forms throughout our nation’s history. Both Democrat and Republican presidents alike have been involved in this 240-plus-year-old conspiracy against America. Jeremy Stone has elucidated a clear definition of the origin, evolution, objectives, and the hostile foreign intentions of the deep state. Its agenda is an anti-American one, with socialist/Enlightenment thinkers at Its core. Nefarious foreign interference of our "nation-state" has not come out of the Trump administration, as the left has fostered in its "collusion" narrative. Instead, it has been mounting for centuries as a far-leftist agenda, with the ultimate goal of toppling our country from within. Without a complete understanding of the deep state and its history, we are doomed to fail in attempting to eliminate it. While it is possible to stifle the deep state and its foreign conspiracy against "The State", we must understand what it is, a global-socialist-matrix/new world order, designed to topple governments from within.
©2018 Jeremy Stone (P)2018 Jeremy Stone
Great Second Acts
Summary
Empowering biographies of older women in history Antony said of Cleopatra, "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety." Shakespeare's sentiment can be applied to the women profiled in Great Second Acts who refused to be defined by the dates on their birth certificates. Their lives are testimony that one can be feisty after 50. And to those who think otherwise, in the words of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, "I dissent." Marlene Wagman-Geller, author of Once Again to Zelda and Behind Every Great Man, presents a fascinating collection of biographical vignettes of dozens of women of a certain age who have excelled, inspired, and achieved. Learn how these women changed their respective fields of art, politics, science, mathematics, media, literature, activism, education, and more. From actresses, yoga teachers, folk artists to business women, prime ministers, monarchs, and authors, this group of exceptional women will illustrate that women can achieve anything, no matter their age. Listeners will find biographies of influential women such as Prime Minister Margert Thatcher, chef Julia Child, Mother Teresa, feminist Gloria Steinem, actress Rita Moreno, Judge Judy Sheindlin, and many more; empowering quotes from strong women who refused to be kept down; and motivational, inspirational, and educational stories of older women. Written in an accessible narrative style, listeners of all ages will enjoy Wagman-Geller's entertaining storytelling prose of these remarkable women. An excellent gift for students, mothers, sisters, or friends, Great Second Acts will endure and delight.
©2018 Marlene Wagman-Geller (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
The Dictatorship of Woke Capital
Summary
For the better part of a century, the left has been waging a slow, methodical battle for control of the institutions of Western civilization. During most of that time, “business” - and American Big Business, in particular - remained the last redoubt for those who believed in free people, free markets, and the criticality of private property. Over the past two decades, however, that has changed, and the left has taken its long march to the last remaining non-leftist institution. Over the course of the last two years or so, a small handful of politicians on the right - Senators Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Josh Hawley, to name three - have begun to sense that something is wrong with American business and have sought to identify the problem and offer solutions to rectify it. While the attention of high-profile politicians to the issue is welcome, to date the solutions they have proposed are inadequate, for a variety of reasons, including a failure to grasp the scope of the problem, failure to understand the mechanisms of corporate governance, and an overreliance on state-imposed, top-down solutions. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and the players involved, both on the aggressive, hard-charging left and in the nascent conservative resistance. Soukup explains what the left is doing and how and why the right must be prepared and willing to fight back to save this critical aspect of American culture from becoming another, more economically powerful version of the “woke” college campus.
©2021 Stephen R. Soukup (P)2021 Black Hills Audiobooks LLC
Democrat to Deplorable
Summary
Democrat to Deplorable takes a deep look at the nine million Democrats who proudly switched parties to vote for President Donald Trump. These voters feel the cold edge of the culture war more than any other group, and this book captures their experiences and the current zeitgeist. Based on a national survey, in-depth interviews, and a personal narrative, Democrat to Deplorable is the definitive book which explores and explains the current cultural climate leading to President Donald Trump, Trumpism, and the New Right.
©2018 Jack Murphy (P)2020 Jack Murphy
Mayhem
Summary
Mayhem goes a long way toward answering questions that still linger about the notorious Boston Marathon bombing, such as: Where were the bombs made? And what had been Tamerlan Tsarnaev's relationship to the FBI? This engaging narrative casts a spotlight on the US government's relationship with the older Tsarnaev brother as his younger brother, Dzhokhar, continues his efforts to have his death sentence commuted. The federal government may be forced to confirm a longstanding relationship with Tamerlan and its decision to shield him from investigation for the Sept. 11, 2011, ISIS-style triple murder of three friends. As they infamously did with Whitey Bulger, federal agents appear to have protected Tamerlan because of his value as a paid informant. Mayhem is a substantially revised and updated edition of Michele R. McPhee's earlier book about the bombing, Maximum Harm. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2020 Michele R. McPhee (P)2020 Steerforth
The He Lost, He Lost! Song Book
Summary
The He Lost, He Lost! Song Book features five songs about why Trump lost, though they don’t mention Trump by name, the political games politicians play, and the major divisions in the country that increased during Trump’s presidency and could have led to civil war. The songs were originally included in the book He Lost, He Lost!, which features satiric cartoons and commentary illustrating the four main reasons Trump lost. The book includes the lyrics so that the listener can hear the songs and even sing along with the lyrics. The songs are recorded in a mix of country and pop styles. All of the recordings are distributed through SongTradr to major music retail outlets, including iTunes, Spotify, TikTok, Twitch, Network TV, and others. The songs featured are the following: "What If a Loser Refuses to Lose?" "He Lost, He Lost!" "When a King Goes Mad" "They’re Playing Political Games" "Are We Gonna Have a Civil War?" The songs have been published by Changemakers Publishing and the Crystal Image Band. The author of He Lost, He Lost! is Sandi Derring, who has long been following the ups and downs of Trump’s 2016 campaign, White House years, 2020 election, and final defeat. She also supports science, preserving the environment, recognizing climate control, and eradicating the coronavirus - all things Trump is against or has chosen to ignore.
©2021 Sandi Derring (P)2021 Sandi Derring