Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • American Demagogue

  • The Great Awakening and the Rise and Fall of Populism
  • By: J. D. Dickey
  • Narrated by: Traber Burns
  • Length: 12 hrs and 13 mins
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
American Demagogue cover art

American Demagogue

By: J. D. Dickey
Narrated by: Traber Burns
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £20.99

Buy Now for £20.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

A New York Times best-selling historian examines how demagoguery and the populism it inspires - for good and ill - is embedded in the very soul of our nation.

In September 1740, New England experienced a social earthquake. It arrived not in the form of a great natural disaster or an act of violence, but with the figure of a 21-year-old preacher. People were abuzz with his stunning oratory, his colorful theatrics, and his almost ungodly sense of power and presence. 

When George Whitefield (also spelled Whitfield) arrived in the small towns and hamlets that made up the American colonies, he proved to be much more than anything the residents could have expected. His reputation and growing legend had been built on his brilliant speeches and frightening tirades, and his fame now engulfed what would become America. He demanded his listeners repent their sins and follow the true word of God - his. He had knowledge that only he could unlock for the American people. 

Whitefield’s message shook the country to its core. Overwhelmed with passion, his listeners cried, screamed, sang, and danced. Despite their ecstasy, though, the converted also felt a great deal of fear growing. For Whitefield’s message also carried a threat, and he brooked no dissent. Whitefield’s power over his listeners grew, and New England was in the uproar of a social revolution never seen before in America. 

Years later, they would call it a Great Awakening, and it would reorder the colonies and wend its way into the very fabric of what America would eventually become. Soon after Whitefield and his followers reached their zenith, things began to fall apart. And what once seemed so certain - a puritanical utopia - vanished like a dream, leaving the Awakeners stripped of their earthly power. 

American Demagogue is the story of this rapid rise and equally steep fall, which would be echoed by authoritarian populists in later centuries and American demagogues yet to come. As we enter a new era of populism and demagoguery on both sides of the spectrum, we need to understand America’s paradoxical passion and disdain for demagogues throughout our history. Though centuries have passed, the themes remain the same - anger, grievance, dissension, self-promotion, and even brute force - as this cycle of rise and fall continues.

©2019 J. D. Dickey (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about American Demagogue

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.