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Strongmen
- How They Rise, Why They Succeed, How They Fall
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Categories: History, World
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Evil Geniuses
- The Unmaking of America - A Recent History
- By: Kurt Andersen
- Narrated by: Kurt Andersen
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Evil Geniuses is the secret history of how, over the last half century, from even before Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump, America has sharply swerved away from its dream of progress for the many to a system of unfettered profit and self-interest for the few. As the social liberation of the 1960s finally ended in the chaos of Vietnam and Watergate, a cabal of rich industrialists, business chiefs, wide-eyed libertarians and right-wing economic radicals were waiting, determined to claw back everything they saw as rightfully theirs.
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On Tyranny
- Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In the 20th century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth. European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances. History can familiarise, and it can warn.
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Concise, illuminating and epic.
- By John Pope on 29-07-20
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It Was All a Lie
- How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new audiobook, he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not an audiobook about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s.
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An honest self-appraisal that needs listening to
- By Mr A Bowater on 24-11-20
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Authoritarian Nightmare
- Trump and His Followers
- By: John W. Dean, Bob Altemeyer
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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How did America end up with a leader who acts so crudely and despotically, and counter to our democratic principles? Why do his followers stick with him, even when he acts against their interests? John Dean, a man with a history of standing up to autocratic presidents, joins with Bob Altemeyer, a psychology professor with a unique area of expertise: authoritarianism. Together, using psychological diagnostic tools, as well as exclusive research and analysis from the Monmouth University Polling Institute, the authors provide us with an eye-opening understanding of the Trump phenomenon.
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An illuminating read.
- By Pauline on 10-12-20
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Joe Biden
- American Dreamer
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, David Remnick
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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A concise, brilliant and trenchant examination of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his lifelong quest for the presidency. Former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest - fortunate to have sustained a 50-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses that he has suffered.
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Distills the personality of Biden
- By M. N. Claushoej on 15-11-20
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How Fascism Works
- The Politics of Us and Them
- By: Jason Stanley
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics.
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Thought provoking and frightening
- By Muzak on 15-11-20
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Evil Geniuses
- The Unmaking of America - A Recent History
- By: Kurt Andersen
- Narrated by: Kurt Andersen
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Evil Geniuses is the secret history of how, over the last half century, from even before Ronald Reagan through Donald Trump, America has sharply swerved away from its dream of progress for the many to a system of unfettered profit and self-interest for the few. As the social liberation of the 1960s finally ended in the chaos of Vietnam and Watergate, a cabal of rich industrialists, business chiefs, wide-eyed libertarians and right-wing economic radicals were waiting, determined to claw back everything they saw as rightfully theirs.
-
On Tyranny
- Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 20th century, European democracies collapsed into fascism, Nazism and communism. These were movements in which a leader or a party claimed to give voice to the people, promised to protect them from global existential threats, and rejected reason in favour of myth. European history shows us that societies can break, democracies can fall, ethics can collapse, and ordinary people can find themselves in unimaginable circumstances. History can familiarise, and it can warn.
-
-
Concise, illuminating and epic.
- By John Pope on 29-07-20
-
It Was All a Lie
- How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new audiobook, he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not an audiobook about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else. Stevens shows how Trump is in fact the natural outcome of five decades of hypocrisy and self-delusion, dating all the way back to the civil rights legislation of the early 1960s.
-
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An honest self-appraisal that needs listening to
- By Mr A Bowater on 24-11-20
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Authoritarian Nightmare
- Trump and His Followers
- By: John W. Dean, Bob Altemeyer
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
How did America end up with a leader who acts so crudely and despotically, and counter to our democratic principles? Why do his followers stick with him, even when he acts against their interests? John Dean, a man with a history of standing up to autocratic presidents, joins with Bob Altemeyer, a psychology professor with a unique area of expertise: authoritarianism. Together, using psychological diagnostic tools, as well as exclusive research and analysis from the Monmouth University Polling Institute, the authors provide us with an eye-opening understanding of the Trump phenomenon.
-
-
An illuminating read.
- By Pauline on 10-12-20
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Joe Biden
- American Dreamer
- By: Evan Osnos
- Narrated by: Evan Osnos, David Remnick
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A concise, brilliant and trenchant examination of Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his lifelong quest for the presidency. Former vice president Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been called both the luckiest man and the unluckiest - fortunate to have sustained a 50-year political career that reached the White House, but also marked by deep personal losses that he has suffered.
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Distills the personality of Biden
- By M. N. Claushoej on 15-11-20
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How Fascism Works
- The Politics of Us and Them
- By: Jason Stanley
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics.
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Thought provoking and frightening
- By Muzak on 15-11-20
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UnPresidented
- Politics, Pandemics and the Race That Trumped All Others
- By: Jon Sopel
- Narrated by: Jon Sopel
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Our man in America, BBC North America Editor Jon Sopel, presents a diary of an election like we've never quite seen before. Experience life as a White House reporter on the campaign trail, as the election heats up and a global pandemic slowly sweeps in, challenging the very institutions of American politics and the Trump presidency. As American lives are lost at a devastating rate, the election becomes a battle for the very soul of the nation.
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9 hour demonstration of Trump Derangement Syndrome
- By phil on 21-01-21
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The Cult of Trump
- A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control
- By: Steven Hassan
- Narrated by: Steven Hassan
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Cult of Trump is an accessible and in-depth analysis of the president, showing that under the right circumstances, even sane, rational, well-adjusted people can be persuaded to believe the most outrageous ideas. Hassan’s audiobook is essential listening for anyone wanting to understand the Trump phenomenon and looking for a way forward.
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Must read
- By m on 19-11-20
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Everything Trump Touches Dies
- By: Rick Wilson
- Narrated by: Rick Wilson
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Everything Trump Touches Dies, political campaign strategist and commentator Rick Wilson brings his darkly funny humor and biting analysis to the absurdity of American politics in the age of Trump. Wilson mercilessly exposes the damage Trump has done to the country, to the Republican Party he served for decades, and to the conservative movement that has abandoned its principles for the worst president in American history. No left-winger, Wilson is a lifelong conservative who delivers his withering critique of Trump from the right.
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Excellent 👌
- By Mr A Bowater on 25-12-20
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Twilight of Democracy
- The Failure of Politics and the Parting of Friends
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the years just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, conservative politicians and intellectuals across Europe and America celebrated a great achievement, felt a common purpose and, very often, forged personal friendships. The euphoria quickly evaporated, the common purpose and centre ground gradually disappeared and eventually - as this book compellingly relates - the relationships soured too. Anne Applebaum traces a familiar history in an unfamiliar way, looking at the trajectories of individuals caught up in the public events of the last three decades.
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Brief but poignant warning about the forces of illiberalism.
- By John Pope on 29-08-20
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Our Malady
- Lessons in Liberty and Solidarity
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 3 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
America has not measured up well. Tens of thousands are dead for no reason. America is supposed to be about freedom, yet illness and fear make its citizens less free. After all, freedom is meaningless if we are too ill to think about our right to happiness or too weak to pursue it. So, if a government is making its people unhealthy, it is also making them unfree. On 29th December 2019, Timothy Snyder fell gravely ill.
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Thanks Tim.
- By Victor Gil López on 30-10-20
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Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World
- By: Tom Burgis
- Narrated by: Tom Burgis
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
They are everywhere, the thieves and their people. Masters of secrecy. Until now we have detected their presence only by what they leave behind. A body in a burned-out Audi. Workers riddled with bullets in the Kazakh desert. A rigged election in Zimbabwe. A British banker silenced and humiliated for trying to expose the truth about the City of London. They have amassed more money than most countries. But what they are really stealing is power.
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The globalization of Kleptocracy
- By ian on 23-01-21
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Disloyal: A Memoir
- The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump
- By: Michael Cohen
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 11 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Once Donald Trump’s fiercest surrogate, closest confidant, and staunchest defender, Michael Cohen knows where the skeletons are buried. This is the most devastating business and political horror story of the century. As Trump’s lawyer and “fixer”, Cohen not only witnessed firsthand but was also an active participant in the inner workings of Trump’s business empire, political campaign, and presidential administration.
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Confirms what we’ve previously heard/read
- By FKblue on 12-09-20
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Hiding in Plain Sight
- The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America
- By: Sarah Kendzior
- Narrated by: Sarah Kendzior
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The story of Donald Trump’s rise to power is the story of a buried American history - buried because people in power liked it that way. It was visible without being seen, influential without being named, ubiquitous without being overt. Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight pulls back the veil on a history spanning decades, a history of an American autocrat in the making. In doing so, she reveals how our continual loss of freedom, the rise of consolidated corruption, and the secrets behind a burgeoning autocratic United States have been hiding in plain sight for decades.
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Riveting and horrific in equal measure
- By Susan on 07-05-20
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Proof of Corruption
- Bribery, Impeachment, and Pandemic in the Age of Trump
- By: Seth Abramson
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In the third volume of his Proof series, New York Times best-selling author Seth Abramson takes listeners on a deep dive into the Ukraine scandal, revealing it to be more sinister, complex, and transnational than previously thought. Abramson’s research on Trump administration corruption positions the Ukraine scandal as the foreseeable culmination of years of clandestine machinations involving scores of players, from Beijing to Budapest, Ankara to Caracas, Warsaw to Jerusalem, Kyiv to Riyadh, and Moscow to DC.
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The Road to Unfreedom
- By: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Road to Unfreedom, written and read by Timothy Snyder. The past is another country, the old saying goes. The same might be said of the future. But which country? For Europeans and Americans today, the answer is Russia.Today's Russia is an oligarchy propped up by illusions and repression. But it also represents the fulfilment of tendencies already present in the West. And if Moscow's drive to dissolve Western states and values succeeds, this could become our reality, too. In this visionary work of contemporary history, Timothy Snyder shows how Russia works within the West to destroy the West.
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Great thesis
- By Keith on 09-05-18
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Undaunted
- My Fight Against America’s Enemies, at Home and Abroad
- By: John O. Brennan
- Narrated by: John O. Brennan
- Length: 14 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful and revelatory memoir from former CIA director John Brennan, spanning his more than 30 years in government.
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Required listening
- By Helen de Winter on 02-01-21
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Collateral Damage
- Britain, America and Europe in the Age of Trump
- By: Kim Darroch
- Narrated by: Kim Darroch
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Kim Darroch was British ambassador to the US as the age of Trump dawned and Brexit unfolded. One of the UK’s most experienced and respected diplomats, Darroch was given the task of explaining Trump to the British and Brexit to the Americans. Choosing to resign after his confidential cables criticising the Trump administration were leaked to the press, Darroch’s unvarnished, behind-the-scenes account reveals for the first time the inside story of this tumultuous time and reflects more broadly on Britain’s relationship with the United States.
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Dispatches from our man in Washington
- By papapownall on 07-10-20
Summary
Ours is the age of the strongman. Russia, India, Turkey and America are ruled by men who, as they have risen to the top, have reshaped their countries around them, creating cults of personality which earn the loyalty of millions. And as they do so, they draw on a playbook of behaviour established by figures such as Benito Mussolini, Muammar Gaddafi and Adolf Hitler.
Here, political historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat draws on analysis of everything from everything from gender to corruption and propaganda to explain who these political figures are - and how they manipulate our own history, fears and desires in search of power at any cost.