Kevin Moriarty has narrated 11 audiobooks on Listento.it by 15 authors, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Turbulent Empires.
Turbulent Empires
Summary
As Europe rebuilt after the devastation of the Second World War, the former colonies of the major imperial powers sought their independence at the same time the US extended its economic and political power globally. In Turbulent Empires, Mike Mason analyzes the struggles for postcolonial sovereignty and economic domination and how these competing forces led to conflicts and shifting alliances around the postwar world. Turbulent Empires surveys the major polities and economies of Africa, Asia, Latin America, Russia, and the West and traces the trajectory of nationalist ruling classes bent on exercising sovereign control over economic resources. It emphasizes the convulsions that brought about unanticipated realignments and shocking reversals, such as the rise and fall of regimes, continuous interventions in the Muslim world, the sudden collapse of the commodities supercycle, and the continuing challenge of inequality. By the second decade of the 21st century, the global economic crisis of 2008 raised the question of a new global order while the question of American decline, captured in the slogan "Make America Great Again”, became commonplace. Both erudite and accessibly written, Turbulent Empires provides an insightful and sweeping analysis of world political and economic history that is an ideal introduction to postwar political science, history, and development studies. "A gem of a book - accomplished with impressive erudition, written with panache, brimming with insight. A book like this is the result a lifetime of learning." (Jonathan Levy, University of Chicago)
©2018 McGill-Queen's University Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
The Vanishing Tradition
Summary
This anthology provides a timely critical overview of the American conservative movement. The contributors take on subjects that other commentators have either not noticed or have been fearful to discuss. In particular, this collection of searing essays hits hard at blatant cult of celebrity and intolerance of dissent that has come to characterize the conservative movement in this country. As The Vanishing Tradition shows, the conservative movement has not often retrieved its wounded, instead dispatching them in order to please its friendly opposition and to prove its "moderateness". The movement has also been open to the influence of demanding sponsors who have pushed it in sometimes bizarre directions. Finally, the essayists here highlight the movement's appeal to "permanent values" as a truly risible gesture, given how arduously its celebrities have worked to catch up with the Left on social issues. This no-holds-barred critical examination of American conservatism opens debates and seeks controversy. The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "A magnificent anthology that tells us how the statist and warmongering neocons supplanted the Old Right. If you are 'against the left', you must read this book." (Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., founder and chairman, Mises Institute)
©2020 Cornell University (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
Fascism: The Career of a Concept
Summary
What does it mean to label someone a fascist? Today, it is equated with denouncing him or her as a Nazi. But as intellectual historian Paul E. Gottfried writes in this provocative yet even-handed study, the term's meaning has evolved over the years. Gottfried examines the semantic twists and turns the term has endured since the 1930s and traces the word's polemical function within the context of present ideological struggles. Certain factors have contributed to the term's imprecise usage, Gottfried writes, including the equation of all fascisms with Nazism and Hitler, as well as the rise of a post-Marxist left that expresses predominantly cultural opposition to bourgeois society and its Christian and/or national components. Those who stand in the way of social change are dismissed as "fascist", he contends, an epithet that is no longer associated with state corporatism and other features of fascism that were once essential but are now widely ignored. Gottfried outlines the specific historical meaning of the term and argues that it should not be used indiscriminately to describe those who hold unpopular opinions. His important study will appeal to political scientists, intellectual historians, and general listeners interested in politics and history. The book is published by Northern Illinois University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "Paul Gottfried's is far and away the best book on fascism I've read in many years." (Claremont Review of Books) “Gottfried’s study is particular, nuanced, and multifaceted...a model for the type of work that can earn the right a hearing from more attentive audiences.” (The American Conservative) "Offers clear and provocative insights and arguments.... Recommended." (CHOICE)
©2017 Northern Illinois University Press (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
The Panic of 1819
Summary
The Panic of 1819 tells the story of the first nationwide economic collapse to strike the United States. Much more than a banking crisis or real estate bubble, the Panic was the culmination of an economic wave that rolled through the United States, forming before the War of 1812, cresting with the land and cotton boom of 1818, and crashing just as the nation confronted the crisis over slavery in Missouri. The Panic introduced Americans to the new phenomenon of boom and bust, changed the country's attitudes towards wealth and poverty, spurred the political movement that became Jacksonian Democracy, and helped create the sectional divide that would lead to the Civil War. Although it stands as one of the turning points of American history, few Americans today have heard of the Panic of 1819, with the result that we continue to ignore its lessons - and repeat its mistakes. The book is published by University of Missouri Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "Andrew H. Browning masterfully recreates the events and chronology of the new nation's first great depression, the Panic of 1819." (The Journal of Economic History) "The Panic of 1819 is a book that no historian of the early republic can afford to miss." (Missouri Historical Review) "This book is sure to elicit lively discussions of the political and economic history of the early republic." (The Economic Historian)
©2019 The Curators of the University of Missouri (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
Turning to Political Violence
Summary
What motivates those who commit violence in the name of political beliefs? Terrorism today is not solely the preserve of Islam, nor is it a new phenomenon. It emerges from social processes and conditions common to societies throughout modern history, and the story of its origins spans centuries, encompassing numerous radical and revolutionary movements.
Marc Sageman is a forensic psychiatrist and government counter-terrorism consultant whose bestselling books provide a detailed, damning corrective to commonplace yet simplistic notions of Islamist terrorism. In a comprehensive new book, Turning to Political Violence, Sageman examines the history and theory of political violence in the West. He excavates primary sources surrounding key instances of modern political violence, looking for patterns across a range of case studies spanning the French Revolution, through late 19th - and early 20th-century revolutionaries and anarchists in Russia and the United States, to the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the start of World War I. These accounts offer complex and intricate portraits of individuals engaged in struggles with identity, injustice, and revenge who may be empowered by a sense of love and self-sacrifice.
Arguing against easy assumptions that attribute terrorism to extremist ideology, and counter to mainstream academic explanations such as rational choice theory, Sageman develops a theoretical model based on the concept of social identity. His analysis focuses on the complex dynamic between the state and disaffected citizens that leads some to disillusionment and moral outrage - and a few to mass murder. Sageman's account offers a paradigm-shifting perspective on terrorism that yields counter-intuitive implications for the ways liberal democracies can and should confront political violence.
©2017 Marc Sageman (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
Hold On with a Bulldog Grip: A Short Study of Ulysses S. Grant
Summary
In this new short biography of Ulysses S. Grant, leading scholars provide an accessible introduction to Grant and his legacy. Grant led Federal forces to victory in the Civil War, was the first modern American president, and authored his memoirs, which would eventually become one of the greatest books of nonfiction by an American author. The authors present a thematic exploration of Grant, providing the necessary insight to appreciate Grant and correct the myths that for too long clouded his true importance. They highlight specific moments or relationships in Grant’s life - including his connection to such key figures as Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain - and elaborate on the more controversial elements of Grant’s legacy, such as accusations about his drinking and corruption during the Grant presidency. Not to overlook his military accomplishments, they devote time to the study of Grant’s war strategy and military career, beginning as early as his reluctant enrollment into West Point. From humble birth to tragic death, this new take on Ulysses S. Grant instills readers with a deeper understanding of the military legend’s nuanced personal history and an appreciation for the late president’s tragic and triumphant story. The book is published by University Press of Mississippi. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
©2019 Mississippi State University (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks
The National Security Enterprise
Summary
This second edition of The National Security Enterprise provides practitioners' insights into the operation, missions, and organizational cultures of the principal national security agencies and other institutions that shape the US national security decision-making process. Unlike some textbooks on American foreign policy, it offers analysis from insiders who have worked at the National Security Council, the State and Defense Departments, the intelligence community, and the other critical government entities. The book explains how organizational missions and cultures create the labyrinth in which a coherent national security policy must be fashioned.
Taking into account the changes introduced by the Obama administration, the second edition includes four new or entirely revised chapters (Congress, Department of Homeland Security, Treasury, and USAID) and updates to the text throughout. It covers changes instituted since the first edition was published in 2011, implications of the government campaign to prosecute leaks, and lessons learned from more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. This up-to-date book will appeal to students of US national security and foreign policy as well as career policymakers.
The book is published by Georgetown University Press.
"Provides the best one-volume compilation I've seen for understanding intelligence, its internal processes, and the environment in which it operates." (International Journal of Intelligence & Counter Intelligence)
©2017 Georgetown University Press (P)2018 Redwood Audiobooks
America and the Just War Tradition
Summary
America and the Just War Tradition examines and evaluates each of America’s major wars from a just war perspective. Using moral analysis that is anchored in the just war tradition, the contributors provide careful historical analysis evaluating individual conflicts. Each chapter explores the causes of a particular war, the degree to which the justice of the conflict was a subject of debate at the time, and the extent to which the war measured up to traditional ad bellum and in bello criteria. Where appropriate, contributors offer post bellum considerations, insofar as justice is concerned with helping to offer a better peace and end result than what had existed prior to the conflict. This fascinating exploration offers policy guidance for the use of force in the world today, and will be of keen interest to historians, political scientists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as policy makers and the general reading public. The book is published by University of Notre Dame Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "This book is an important contribution to the applied ethics of just war reasoning." (Mark R. Amstutz, emeritus, Wheaton College) "The book is very readable for anyone in academic humanities and even for non-academics." (James L. Cook, United States Air Force Academy) “This collection has the capacity to be the reference point for just war theory in relation to American wars from colonial origins to today. It deserves a wide readership.” (Harry Stout, Yale University)
©2019 University of Notre Dame (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
The Political Theory of Neoliberalism
Summary
Neoliberalism has become a dirty word. In political discourse, it stigmatizes a political opponent as a market fundamentalist; in academia, the concept is also mainly wielded by its critics, while those who might be seen as actual neoliberals deny its very existence. Yet, the term remains necessary for understanding the varieties of capitalism across space and time. Arguing that neoliberalism is widely misunderstood when reduced to a doctrine of markets and economics alone, this book shows that it has a political dimension that we can reconstruct and critique. By examining the views of state, democracy, science, and politics in the work of six major figures - Eucken, Röpke, Rüstow, Hayek, Friedman, and Buchanan - it offers the first comprehensive account of the varieties of neoliberal political thought. Ordoliberal perspectives, in particular, emerge in a new light. Turning from abstract to concrete, the book also interprets recent neoliberal reforms of the European Union to offer a diagnosis of contemporary capitalism more generally. The latest economic crises hardly brought the neoliberal era to an end. Instead, as Thomas Biebricher shows, we are witnessing an authoritarian liberalism, whose reign has only just begun. The book is published by Stanford University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. Praise for the book: "This is a brilliant book - one of the most illuminating I have read in a long time...at once deeply scholarly and profoundly relevant, it is a model of what political theory should be." (Margaret Kohn, professor at University of Toronto) "A timely and formidable intervention in current political theory..." (Yves Winter, associate professor at McGill University) "A powerful corrective to the existing scholarship." (Andrew Dilts, professor at Loyola Marymount University)
©2018 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks
The One Percent Solution
Summary
In the aftermath of the 2010 Citizens United decision, it's become commonplace to note the growing political dominance of a small segment of the economic elite. But what exactly are those members of the elite doing with their newfound influence? The One Percent Solution provides an answer to this question for the first time. Gordon Lafer's book is a comprehensive account of legislation promoted by the nation's biggest corporate lobbies across all 50 state legislatures and encompassing a wide range of labor and economic policies. One of the main reasons life is becoming harder for American workers is a relentless - and concerted - offensive by the country’s best-funded and most powerful political forces: corporate lobbies empowered by the Supreme Court to influence legislative outcomes with an endless supply of cash. These actors have successfully championed hundreds of new laws that lower wages, eliminate paid sick leave, undo the right to sue over job discrimination, and cut essential public services. For anyone who wants to know what to expect from corporate-backed Republican leadership in Washington, DC, there is no better guide than this record of what the same set of actors has been doing in the state legislatures under its control. The book is published by Cornell University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "Meticulously demonstrates how the Koch brothers and the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision of 2010 have influenced elections and public policy in the states." (The New York Review of Books) "A wake-up call to anyone concerned about the economic well-being of working Americans." (Dissent) "Reveals the outlines of a coordinated lobbying campaign that could have the effect of increasing economic and political inequality in America." (Isaac William Martin, UC San Diego)
©2017 Cornell University (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks
The Rising Clamor
Summary
In The Rising Clamor: The American Press, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Cold War, David P. Hadley explores the relationships that developed between the CIA and the press, its evolution over time, and its practical impact from the creation of the CIA to the first major congressional investigations of its activities in 1975-1976 by the Church and Pike Committees. Drawing on a combination of archival research, declassified documents, and more than 2,000 news articles, Hadley provides a balanced and considered account of the different actors in the press and CIA relationships, how their collaboration helped define public expectations of what role intelligence should play in the US government, and what an intelligence agency should be able to do. The book is published by The University Press of Kentucky. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks. "The best exploration to date of the relationship between the CIA…and the press." (Richard H. Immerman, Temple University Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy) "This important book will always be timely." (Kenneth Osgood, author of Total Cold War) "Will be of interest to scholars and graduate students who study intelligence agencies, the Cold War, and national security journalism." (Journalism History)
©2019 The University Press of Kentucky (P)2021 Redwood Audiobooks