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Battlefield America  By  cover art

Battlefield America

By: John W. Whitehead,Ron Paul - foreword
Narrated by: Eric G. Dove
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Publisher's summary

In Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the follow-up to his award-winning book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead paints a terrifying portrait of a nation at war with itself and which is on the verge of undermining the basic freedoms guaranteed to the citizenry in the Constitution. Indeed, police have been transformed into extensions of the military, towns and cities have become battlefields, and the American people have been turned into enemy combatants, to be spied on, tracked, scanned, frisked, searched, subjected to all manner of intrusions, intimidated, invaded, raided, manhandled, censored, silenced, shot at, locked up, and denied due process.

Yet this police state did not come about overnight. As Whitehead notes, this shift into totalitarianism cannot be traced back to a single individual or event. Rather, the evolution has been so subtle that most American citizens were hardly even aware of it taking place. Yet little by little, police authority expanded, one weapon after another was added to the police arsenal, and one exception after another was made to the standards that have historically restrained police authority. Add to this mix the merger of Internet megacorporations with government intelligence agencies, and you have the making of an electronic concentration camp that not only sees the citizenry as databits but will attempt to control every aspect of their lives. And if someone dares to step out of line, they will most likely find an armed SWAT team at their door.

©2015 John W. Whitehead (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

What listeners say about Battlefield America

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Fantastic.

Best audio book have listened to to date..and very clearly laid out if you have an concern and I mean any concern as to where we've been and where we are going. this is a MUST read.will definitely be checking out again

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8 people found this helpful

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The battle against our freedoms

This book contains things that most of us 'amused to death' Americans need to be made aware of.

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5 people found this helpful

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Wake up America

Listen and learn.
Free your mind.
This is a well organized overview of the expanding American police state.

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4 people found this helpful

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Pandemic 2020 Illustrated

America you were warned. And if you still care and do not give up hope, it is not too late to do something meaningful.

After listening to this book, I discovered that my own presuppositions about the hallmarks of constitutional liberty, for example, the right to vote, have served as a warm blanket.

My discovery opened my mind to the reality that my “frienemies” on both the left and right, whom I regularly agitate with social media posts about the philosophical base of our liberty, are the latent army of allies if we will only link arms in love.

This documentary of systematic oppression in the name of safety reminds every reader of every political persuasion to regard each other as human beings, created with unique worth and sharing the same internal, personal hopes and aspirations.

The enemy of our well-being is the vicious guard-dog we acquired to keep the nuisances away from our lawn.

As for a practical review, the writing is crisp, positively repetitive as in the chorus that accompanies each stanza. Yet it is not merely jargon or propaganda, it musically builds upon facts, followed by contextual explanation, followed by aspirational understanding. In a word, convincing.

To an extent, a part of the Forward by Ron Paul may be somewhat critically demotivating by its cautionary language about absorbing and confronting directly the excesses of a police state. Almost like warning, “don’t view these graphic videos of paramedics treating victims of drunk driving...just avoid driving drunk.” If you have the courage to care passionately about the truth when you hear it, you should not drink a shot of whisky before listening. My advice, take it all in soberly.

Final word. If you are currently experiencing the 2020 pandemic quarantine, immediately bump this book to the top of your reading list!

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Battlefield America

This "story" is exactly what is happening unless large numbers of people stop it.

I will listen again & again. The narrator was great!

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Wake Up Americans, we are not in control !

I was completely taken aback by some of the facts in this story.

It seems that we are completely controlled by the political elite!

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You'll want to pay attention to Mr Whitehead.

Hard to imagine the sort of person who would dismiss this compelling case about severe problems in our democracy. You've all likely seen pieces of this story in the news. But nowhere else will you find the full breadth and depth of arguments against the authoritarian state were evolving into. (And Ive read a dozen related books before - none near as complete, gripping and convincing).

In contrast to another reviewer's complaint, I found the author does a very credible and clear job of recommending how we take action.

America needs more people like author John Whitehead. A lot more. I hope some day you will join us.

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Tempus fugit

Stop looking. Buy it and listen, and insist that everyone you know does the same. Tempus fugit.

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Nothing new here

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The author repeats many government abuses publicized in the media/ alt media over the past several years and relates them to parallels in historical societies falling into fascism, socialism and communism. He accurately points out the problems, but gives little in the way of actionable ways to reverse the current process.

Would you be willing to try another book from John W. Whitehead? Why or why not?

I don't think so. The book was longer then needed and repetitive.

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They are coming. They have a name. We know who they are.

Lysander Spooner (1870)

"So these villains, who call themselves governments, well understand that their power rests primarily upon stolen money. With money they can hire soldiers, and with soldiers extort money. And, when their authority is denied, the first use they always make of money, is to hire soldiers to kill or subdue all who refuse them more money."

-Lysander Spooner.

The payment of taxes, being compulsory, of course furnishes no evidence that any one voluntarily supports the Constitution.

It is true that the theory of our Constitution is, that all taxes are paid voluntarily; that our government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily entered into by the people with each other; that each man makes a free and purely voluntary contract with all others who are parties to the Constitution, to pay so much money for so much protection, the same as he does with any other insurance company; and that he is just as free not to be protected, and not to pay any tax, as he is to pay a tax, and be protected.

But this theory of our government is wholly different from the practical fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.

The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.




The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a “protector,” and that he takes men’s money against their will, merely to enable him to “protect” those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful “sovereign,” on account of the “protection” he affords you. He does not keep “protecting” you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave.

The proceedings of those robbers and murderers, who call themselves “the government,” are directly the opposite of these of the single highwayman.




In the first place, they do not, like him, make themselves individually known; or, consequently, take upon themselves personally the responsibility of their acts. On the contrary, they secretly (by secret ballot) designate some one of their number to commit the robbery in their behalf, while they keep themselves practically concealed. They say to the person thus designated:

Go to A— B—, and say to him that “the government” has need of money to meet the expenses of protecting him and his property. If he presumes to say that he has never contracted with us to protect him, and that he wants none of our protection, say to him that that is our business, and not his; that we choose to protect him, whether he desires us to do so or not; and that we demand pay, too, for protecting him. If he dares to inquire who the individuals are, who have thus taken upon themselves the title of “the government,” and who assume to protect him, and demand payment of him, without his having ever made any contract with them, say to him that that, too, is our business, and not his; that we do not choose to make ourselves individually known to him; that we have secretly (by secret ballot) appointed you our agent to give him notice of our demands, and, if he complies with them, to give him, in our name, a receipt that will protect him against any similar demand for the present year. If he refuses to comply, seize and sell enough of his property to pay not only our demands, but all your own expenses and trouble beside.




If he resists the seizure of his property, call upon the bystanders to help you (doubtless some of them will prove to be members of our band). If, in defending his property, he should kill any of our band who are assisting you, capture him at all hazards; charge him (in one of our courts) with murder, convict him, and hang him. If he should call upon his neighbors, or any others who, like him, may be disposed to resist our demands, and they should come in large numbers to his assistance, cry out that they are all rebels and traitors; that “our country” is in danger; call upon the commander of our hired murderers; tell him to quell the rebellion and “save the country,” cost what it may. Tell him to kill all who resist, though they should be hundreds of thousands; and thus strike terror into all others similarly disposed. See that the work of murder is thoroughly done, that we may have no further trouble of this kind hereafter. When these traitors shall have thus been taught our strength and our determination, they will be good loyal citizens for many years, and pay their taxes without a why or a wherefore.

It is under such compulsion as this that taxes, so called, are paid. And how much proof the payment of taxes affords, that the people consent to support “the government,” it needs no further argument to show. 

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