Garry Wills has narrated 5 audiobooks on Listento.it by 1 author, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is What Jesus Meant.
What Jesus Meant
Summary
In what are billed "culture wars", people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the "reign of heaven" that Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity. An illuminating analysis for believers and nonbelievers alike, What Jesus Meant is a brilliant addition to our national conversation on religion.
©2006 Garry Wills. Recorded by arrangement with Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. (P)2006 HighBridge Company
What Paul Meant
Summary
Throughout history, Christians have debated Paul's influence in the church. Though revered, Paul has also been controversial. Apocryphal writings by Peter and James charge Paul with being a tool of Satan. In later centuries, Paul was scorned by such writers as Thomas Jefferson, George Bernard Shaw, and Nietzsche. In this masterly analysis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills chronicles Paul's tremendous influence on the first explosion of Christian belief, the controversy surrounding Paul through the centuries, and the meaning of his words. He argues eloquently that what Paul meant was not contrary to what Jesus meant. Rather, the best way to know Jesus is to discover Paul. Unlike the Gospel writers, who carefully shaped their narratives many decades after Jesus' life, Paul wrote in the heat of the moment, offering the best reflection of those early times.
©2006 Garry Wills (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.
"Negro President"
Summary
New York Times best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills, a two-time National Book Critics Circle Award winner, takes a bold and fresh look at Thomas Jefferson. Negro President reveals just how strong slave influence was on determining Jefferson’s policies. Through thorough research Wills shows precisely how this “slave power” helped shape the course of a fledgling nation.
©2003 Garry Wills (P)2003 Recorded Books
Lincoln at Gettysburg
Summary
Pulitzer Prize, General Nonfiction, 1993There is perhaps no more compelling example of the power of words than Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. In merely 272 words, Lincoln gave the nation "a new birth of freedom" by tracing its history to the Declaration of Independence, as well as incorporating elements of the Greek revival and Transcendentalism. Lincoln's entire life and deep political experience went into the creation of his revolutionary masterpiece. By examining both the Address and Lincoln in their historical and cultural context, noted historian Garry Wills breathes news life into words we thought we knew and reveals much about a President so easily mythologized but often misunderstood.
©1992 by Literary Research Incorporated (P)1992 Dove Audio, Inc.
Outside Looking In
Summary
Bookish and retiring, Garry Wills has been an outsider in the academy, in journalism, even in his church. Yet these qualities have, paradoxically, prompted people to share intimate insights with him - perhaps because he is not a rival, a competitor, or a threat. Sometimes this made him the prey of con men, like conspiratorialist Mark Lane or civil rights leader James Bevel. At other times it led to close friendship with such people as William F. Buckley, Jr., or singer Beverly Sills. The result is the most personal book Wills has ever written. With his dazzling style and journalist's eye for detail, Wills brings history to life, whether it's the civil rights movement; the protests against the Vietnam War; the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton; or the set of Oliver Stone's Nixon. Illuminating and provocative, Outside Looking In is a compelling chronicle of an original thinker at work in remarkable times.
©2010 Garry Wills (P)2010 Penguin Audio