The Social Sciences category has 3,302 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 32,502 ratings. The most-rated is Homo Deus.
2016 Serial Killers True Crime Anthology
Summary
The best of this year's true crime writing from master true crime authors RJ Parker, Peter Vronsky, JJ Slate, Sylvia Perrini, and Michael Newton, who give us nine new shocking case accounts of serial killers. Cesar Francesco Barone: Convicted in four rape/murders but suspected in many more, Barone briefly shared a cell with Ted Bundy and claimed to have been "tutored" in murder by the notorious serial killer. William Mentzer: an enigmatic serial killer and a drug syndicate hitman, at one time an associate of Charlie Manson, identified by David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) as a satanic cult figure and recently named as a suspect in the notorious, still unsolved Zodiac Murders in San Francisco. Myra Hindley: the most reviled woman in the UK, the female partner of serial killer Ian Brady. Known as the Moors Murderers, the couple raped and murdered at least five children from 1963 to 1965. Arthur Shawcross: a necrophile cannibal serial killer who, after raping and murdering two children in his hometown, served 14 years before being paroled into the community of Rochester, where he proceeded to murder 12 women. Allan Legere: the Monster of the Miramichi, one of Canada's most brutal serial killers who, while serving a prison term for murder, escaped to terrorize the province of New Brunswick, murdering another four people in a seven-month rampage. Charles Sobhraj: nicknamed "The Serpent" and "The Bikini Killer", targeted naïve, young tourists on the Hippie Trail through Turkey, Greece, Thailand, India, Pakistan, and Nepal. Robert Ben Rhoades: the Truck Stop Killer, convicted in the torture, rape, and murder of three women but suspected in 50 murders along the US interstate system. Dana Sue Gray: a female serial killer who atypically targeted strangers, elderly females whom she strangled rather than using poison, the female serial killer's choice weapon. Robert Hansen: Alaska's notorious "Butcher Baker" who lured as many as 30 women to his remote hunting cabin, where he released and then hunted them like wild game before raping and killing them.
©2015 RJ Parker Publishing (P)2015 RJ Parker Publishing
The Negro in Sacred History, or, Ham and His Immediate Descendants
Summary
Dr. Joseph Elias Hayne (1848-1911) was a physician and minister of the American Methodist Episcopal Church. He was one of a number of early black writers who challenged white racist theories that demeaned people of African origin. In his book The Negro in Sacred History (1887), he sought to refute all prejudices against black people by tracing the descendants of the biblical Ham with reference to archaeological and historical scholarship. Hayne argued that Ham was Noah’s favorite son and identified the Mediterranean deity Jupiter Ammon as a representative figure of Ham.
Public Domain (P)2018 Museum Audiobooks
Raven and the First People
Summary
Below the mist-shrouded mountains of the West Coast lie the stories of how we came to be. It is through the myths of the people who have lived with this spirit of place for thousands of years that we uncover the mystery of our homeland. The mythical creatures Raven, Thunderbird, Bear, and the Great Spirit become a path to rediscovering the spiritual landscape of culture. These are the stories of the Pacific Coast that tell of gods and demons, good and evil; things unimaginable brought to life. More than just tales of magic and the supernatural, the legends follow the traditions of the peoples of the Pacific Northwest and illustrate their profound relationship to the natural environment. The legacy of a vibrant and prosperous culture, these stories reveal the essence of their collective wisdom. The legends of the creation of The People emerging from the ocean depths, the formation of the landscape and the origins of fire, thunderstorms, and the wind affirm the harmony with which our ancestors lived with nature.
©2009 Thomas George (P)2021 Eschia Books
Loaded
Summary
With President Trump suggesting that teachers arm themselves, with the NRA portrayed as a group of "patriots" helping to Make America Great Again, with high school students across the country demanding a solution to the crisis, everyone in America needs to engage in the discussion about our future with an informed, historical perspective on the role of guns in our society. America is at a critical turning point. What is the future for our children? Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment is a deeply researched - and deeply disturbing - history of guns and gun laws in the United States, from the original colonization of the country to the present. As historian and educator Dunbar-Ortiz explains, in order to understand the current obstacles to gun control, we must understand the history of US guns, from their role in the "settling of America" and the early formation of the new nation, and continuing up to the present.
©2018 Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (P)2018 Tantor
Virtual Terror: 21st Century Cyber Warfare
Summary
Anyone who logs on to the internet can become a victim of virtual terrorism, whether via email, social media, a Google search, or simply by logging on to a computer. Anyone seeking to do harm to others online can be a virtual terrorist, and it is incredibly easy to become one. That is the era we live in now - someone sitting behind a laptop half a world away can interfere with, invade, or take over your life, business, or government. You may not even realize it, but you may already have become a victim; if you have not, you will become one eventually. In this extremely timely, important, and compelling audiobook, Daniel Wagner redefines what terrorism has become in the 21st century. Unlike more conventional types of terrorism, in which the perpetrator seeks recognition and reveals his or her identity, with virtual terrorism, the identity of the person, group, or government responsible for acts of terror is deliberately hidden in an anonymous, borderless, and lawless world. Their motives and objectives may be unclear, and the length of an attack, or whether it will be repeated, are generally unknown. What virtual terrorists have in common with more traditional terrorists is the use of coercion or intimidation to achieve their objectives - if they choose to reveal what those objectives are - but that is where the commonality ends. They can strike at any time, invisibly and silently. You may never know they are even there, and they may plant malware on your computer that steals your information for years without being discovered. Wagner takes us on a comprehensive tour of the Virtual Terrorism landscape - from cybercrime and bioterrorism to drones and artificial intelligence - to reveal the chilling reality that confronts us all. After listening to this audiobook, you may not ever want to log on to your smartphone or the internet again. The audiobook is a clarion call for individuals, businesses, and governments to rise up against virtual terrorists, for if we fail to do so now, the battle may soon be lost.
©2017 Daniel Wagner (P)2017 Daniel Wagner
Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend
Summary
This is a selection of the myths and legends of Scotland, filled with local color, from Scottish journalist, folklorist, and writer Donald Alexander Mackenzie. These stories offer not only glimpses of ancient times and of old habits of thought and life but also of the country itself at different times of the year.
Public Domain (P)2016 Jack Chekijian
High Conflict
Summary
When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side” - in our politics, at work, or at home - it’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over. That’s what “high conflict” does. It’s the invisible hand of our time. And it’s different from the useful friction of healthy conflict. That’s good conflict, and it’s a necessary force that pushes us to be better people. High conflict, by contrast, is what happens when discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, the kind with an us and a them. In this state, the normal rules of engagement no longer apply. The brain behaves differently. We feel increasingly certain of our own superiority and, at the same time, more and more mystified by the other side. In a lively audio production with sound clips from individuals and situations she discusses in the book, New York Times best-selling author and award-winning journalist Amanda Ripley investigates how good people get captured by high conflict - and how they break free. Our journey begins in California, where a world-renowned conflict expert struggles to extract himself from a political feud. Then we meet a Chicago gang leader who dedicates his life to a vendetta - only to find himself working beside the man who killed his childhood idol. Next, we travel to Colombia, to find out whether thousands of people can be nudged out of high conflict at scale. Finally, we return to America to see what happens when a group of liberal Manhattan Jews and conservative Michigan corrections officers choose to stay in each other’s homes in order to understand one another better. All these people, in dramatically different situations, were drawn into high conflict by similar forces, including conflict entrepreneurs, humiliation, and false binaries. But ultimately, all of them found ways to transform high conflict into something good, something that made them better people. They rehumanized and recategorized their opponents, and they revived curiosity and wonder, even as they continued to fight for what they knew was right. People do escape high conflict. Individuals - even entire communities - can short-circuit the feedback loops of outrage and blame, if they want to. This is a mind-opening new way to think about conflict that will transform how we move through the world. Featuring audio highlights from actual interviews, town hall meetings, and podcasts. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2021 Amanda Ripley. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Egyptian Mythology
Summary
From stories of resurrected mummies and thousand-year-old curses to powerful pharaohs and the coveted treasures of the Great Pyramids, ancient Egypt has had an unfaltering grip on the modern imagination. Now, in Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch offers a comprehensive introduction that untangles the mystery of Egyptian myth. Spanning Ancient Egyptian culture - from 3200 BC to AD 400 - Pinch opens a door to this hidden world and casts light on its often misunderstood belief system. She discusses the nature of myths and the history of Egypt, from the predynastic to the postpharaonic period. She explains how Egyptian culture developed around the flooding of the Nile, or the "inundation", a phenomenon on which the whole welfare of the country depended, and how aspects of the inundation were personified as deities. She explains that the usually cloudless skies made for a preoccupation with the stars and planets. Indeed, much early Egyptian mythology may have developed to explain the movement of these celestial bodies. She provides a timeline covering the seven stages in the mythical history of Egypt and outlining the major events of each stage, such as the reign of the sun God. A substantial A to Z section covers the principal themes and concepts of Egyptian mythology as well as the most important deities, demons, and other characters. For anyone who wants to know about Anubis, the terrifying canine god who presided over the mummification of bodies and guarded burials, or Hathor, the golden goddess who helped women to give birth and the dead to be reborn, or an explanation of the nun, the primeval ocean from which all life came, Egyptian Mythology is the place to look.
©2002 Geraldine Pinch (P)2020 Upfront Books
The Little Book of Race and Restorative Justice
Summary
In our era of mass incarceration, gun violence, and Black Lives Matters, a handbook showing how racial justice and restorative justice can transform the African American experience in America. This timely work will inform scholars and practitioners on the subjects of pervasive racial inequity and the healing offered by restorative justice practices. Addressing the intersectionality of race and the US criminal justice system, social activist Fania E. Davis explores how restorative justice has the capacity to disrupt patterns of mass incarceration through effective, equitable, and transformative approaches. Davis highlights real restorative justice initiatives that function from a racial justice perspective; these programs are utilized in schools, justice systems, and communities, intentionally seeking to ameliorate racial disparities and systemic inequities. She looks at initiatives that strive to address the historical harms against African Americans throughout the nation. This newest addition to the Justice and Peacebuilding series is a much needed and long overdue examination of the issue of race in America as well as a beacon of hope as we learn to work together to repair damage, change perspectives, and strive to do better.
©2019 Fania E. Davis (P)2020 Tantor
The Straight-A Conspiracy
Summary
What if the only reason you aren't doing well in school is that you've been lied to about your own brain? For centuries, students worldwide have been tricked into making school less successful and more stressful than it needs to be. In reality, you already have the ability to make anything that you do in school easy. From writing essays to mastering any math concept to acing even your most difficult final exam, The Straight-A Conspiracy takes you through the simple, stress-free ways to conquer any class in school. The truth about straight-A's has been kept from you. It's time you knew about the straight-A conspiracy.
©2013 368 Press, LLC (P)2016 368 Press, LLC
Press Reset
Summary
From the best-selling author of Blood, Sweat, and Pixels comes the next definitive, behind-the-scenes account of the video game industry: how some of the past decade's most renowned studios fell apart - and the stories, both triumphant and tragic, of what happened next. Jason Schreier's groundbreaking reporting has earned him a place among the preeminent investigative journalists covering the world of video games. In his eagerly anticipated, deeply researched new book, Schreier trains his investigative eye on the volatility of the video game industry and the resilience of the people who work in it. The business of videogames is both a prestige industry and an opaque one. Based on dozens of first-hand interviews that cover the development of landmark games - Bioshock Infinite, Epic Mickey, Dead Space, and more - on to the shocking closures of the studios that made them, Press Reset tells the stories of how real people are affected by game studio shutdowns, and how they recover, move on, or escape the industry entirely. Schreier's insider interviews cover hostile takeovers, abusive bosses, corporate drama, bounced checks, and that one time the Boston Red Sox's Curt Schilling decided he was going to lead a game studio that would take out World of Warcraft. Along the way, he asks pressing questions about why, when the video game industry is more successful than ever, it's become so hard to make a stable living making video games - and whether the business of making games can change before it's too late.
©2021 Jason Schreier (P)2021 Grand Central Publishing
Old Indian Legends
Summary
Fourteen Native-American legends reflecting their nomadic non-property-owning culture, with a reverence for all things natural. The equal of Aesop’s Fables: insightful, telling, ironic, and moving. A must-listen for all students and people interested in American culture.
Public Domain (P)2021 Deaver Brown
Who Gets in and Why
Summary
A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 From award-winning higher education journalist and New York Times best-selling author Jeffrey Selingo comes a revealing look from inside the admissions office - one that identifies surprising strategies that will aid in the college search. Getting into a top-ranked college has never seemed more impossible, with acceptance rates at some elite universities dipping into the single digits. In Who Gets in and Why, journalist and higher education expert Jeffrey Selingo dispels entrenched notions of how to compete and win at the admissions game and reveals that teenagers and parents have much to gain by broadening their notion of what qualifies as a "good college". Hint: It's not all about the sticker on the car window. Selingo, who was embedded in three different admissions offices - a selective private university, a leading liberal arts college, and a flagship public campus - closely observed gatekeepers as they made their often agonizing and sometimes life-changing decisions. He also followed select students and their parents, and he traveled around the country meeting with high school counselors, marketers, behind-the-scenes consultants, and college rankers. While many have long believed that admissions is merit-based, rewarding the best students, Who Gets in and Why presents a more complicated truth, showing that "who gets in" is frequently more about the college's agenda than the applicant. In a world where thousands of equally qualified students vie for a fixed number of spots at elite institutions, admissions officers often make split-second decisions based on a variety of factors - like diversity, money, and, ultimately, whether a student will enroll if accepted. One of the most insightful books ever about "getting in" and what higher education has become, Who Gets in and Why not only provides an usually intimate look at how admissions decisions get made, but guides prospective students on how to honestly assess their strengths and match with the schools that will best serve their interests.
©2020 Jeff Selingo. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.
Revolutionary Mothering
Summary
An anthology that gives access to the voices of mothers of color and marginalized mothers. Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines is an anthology that centers mothers of color and marginalized mothers' voices - women who are in a world of necessary transformation. The challenges faced by movements working for antiviolence, anti-imperialist, and queer liberation, as well as racial, economic, reproductive, gender, and food justice are the same challenges that marginalized mothers face every day. Motivated to create spaces for this discourse because of the authors' passionate belief in the power of a radical conversation about mothering, they have become the go-to people for cutting-edge inspired work on this topic for an overlapping committed audience of activists, scholars, and writers. Revolutionary Mothering is a movement-shifting anthology committed to birthing new worlds, full of faith and hope for what we can raise up together.
©2016 PM Press (P)2021 Tantor
World of Our Fathers
Summary
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, two million Jewish immigrants poured into America, leaving places like Warsaw or the Russian shtetls to pass through Ellis Island and start over in the New World. This is a "brilliant" account of their stories (The New York Times). Though some moved on to Philadelphia, Chicago, and other points west, many of these new citizens settled in New York City, especially in Manhattan's teeming tenements. Like others before and after, they struggled to hold on to the culture and community they brought from their homelands, all the while striving to escape oppression and find opportunity. They faced poverty and crime, but also experienced the excitement of freedom and previously unimaginable possibilities. Over the course of decades, from the 1880s to the 1920s, they were assimilated into the great melting pot as the Yiddish language slowly gave way to English; work was found in sweatshops; children were sent to both religious and secular schools; and, for the lucky ones, the American dream was attained - if not in the first generation, then by the second or third. Nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award, World of Our Fathers explores the many aspects of this time and place in history, from the political to the cultural.
©1976 Irving Howe (P)2020 Tantor
Three Ordinary Girls
Summary
May 10, 1940. The Netherlands was swarming with Third Reich troops. In seven days it's entirely occupied by Nazi Germany. Joining a small resistance cell in the Dutch city of Haarlem were three teenage girls: Hannie Schaft, and sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, who would soon band together to form a singular female underground squad. Smart, fiercely political, devoted solely to the cause, and "with nothing to lose but their own lives", Hannie, Truus, and Freddie took terrifying direct action against Nazi targets. That included sheltering fleeing Jews, political dissidents, and Dutch resisters. They sabotaged bridges and railways, and donned disguises to lead children from probable internment in concentration camps to safehouses. They covertly transported weapons and set military facilities ablaze. And they carried out the assassinations of German soldiers and traitors - on public streets and in private traps - with the courage of veteran guerilla fighters and the cunning of seasoned spies. Tim Brady offers a never-before-seen perspective of the Dutch resistance during the war. Of lives under threat; of how these courageous young women became involved in the underground; and of how their dedication evolved into dangerous, life-threatening missions on behalf of Dutch patriots - regardless of the consequences.
©2021 Tim Brady (P)2021 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
Vikings: Myths, Legends & History
Summary
Wildly swinging axes and swords upon majestic boats, Vikings have been a long-appreciated symbol of rage and power. They have been romanticized as overbearingly-manly warriors that plunder, loot and pillage villages all for the sake of dominance. They've always been in modern media, but where did they come from? How did they start? What brought them to the apex of influence that still makes them relevant up to this day?Their colorful history starts in the form of a migration. These warriors started out as nomads looking for new places to inhabit to prolong their lineage. Mainly travelling by sea, they've been defined as pirates that went from shore to shore, trading and occupying the villages that lived on the patches of land they would visit. Said to have hailed from the countries of Sweden, Norway and Denmark, these seafaring people made their mark in the world from 700AD to 1100AD. That’s more than 300 years of colorful and bloody history. The earliest accounts of known Viking activity date all the way back to the 11th century in Lindisfarne, an island lying along the northern edges of England. From there, the northern origins of these warriors were sculpted. This account wasn't a friendly one, though. The warriors were said to have looted and burned the church and other structures to the ground. Monks at that time were either killed or brought along as slaves when the Vikings were done with the area. That point marked the beginning of years and years of attacks and loots under the Viking flags. Even the origin of their name comes from a derivation of the Scandinavian term for "pirate" which is "vikingr". From that point, their influence spread all throughout Europe, cementing their names in the annals of scholars and monks during those times. While a large number of them pillaged and looted, other Vikings ended up as farmers and traders that settled in some of the lands they visited. Their influence spread over the European lands like an epidemic, reaching all over the region, even reaching as far as Russia. They discovered the Americas long before the famed Columbus went on his expedition.
©2017 KIV Books (P)2017 KIV Books
Mules and Men
Summary
In Mules and Men, some of the rich cultural heritage of black America is revealed and preserved. In the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her home town of Eatonville, Florida, to collect and record the oral histories, songs, and sermons, many dating back to slavery times, that she remembered hearing as a child. These highly metaphorical folktales, "big old lies", and powerful songs helped her to recover her history, and preserve an important part of American culture. The unique heritage of African-Americans, presented here with imagination, humor, and wisdom, has tremendous value for students of cultural history, as well as to anyone who loves a good story well told. This recording features Ruby Dee, a member of the Theatre Hall of Fame and actress in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
(P) and ©1992 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., All Rights Reserved, Caedmon, An Imprint of Harper Audio, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers
Conspiracies Uncovered
Summary
DK's true-crime series voyages into the murky world of conspiracies and conspiracy theories. Enter a hidden world of mysteries, scandals, secrets, and lies. Perhaps it is human nature to believe there is more to the world than meets the eye - that the greatest secrets and truths are hidden from us. Whatever the reason, conspiracy theories are a global phenomenon. Conspiracies Uncovered delves into some of the most pervasive theories, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the moon landings, showcasing the evidence for and against each one, revealing the surprising truths behind some and the bizarre inspirations for others. © 2021 Lee Mellor © 2021 DK Audio
©2021 Lee Mellor (P)2021 DK Audio
Remote
Summary
In this truly one-of-a-kind book, the author/narrator - a representative, in extremis, of contemporary American obsession with beauty, celebrity, transmitted image - finds himself suspended, fascinated, in the remoteness of our wall-to-wall mediascape. It is a remoteness that both perplexes and enthralls him. Through dazzling sleight of hand in which the public becomes private and the private becomes public, the entire book - clicking from confession to family-album photograph to family chronicle, to sexual fantasy to pseudo-scholarly footnote, to reportage to personal essay, to stand-up comedy to cultural criticism, to literary criticism to film criticism, to prose-poem to litany, to outtake - becomes both an anatomy of American culture and a searing self-portrait. David Shields reads his own life - reads our life - as if it were an allegory about remoteness and finds persuasive, hilarious, and heartbreaking evidence wherever he goes.
©2003 David Shields (P)2021 David Shields