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Empire of Things
- How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First
- Narrated by: Mark Meadows
- Length: 33 hrs and 6 mins
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Publisher's summary
What we consume has become the defining feature of our lives: our economies live or die by spending, we are treated more as consumers than workers and even public services are presented to us as products in a supermarket.
In this monumental study, acclaimed historian Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary history that has shaped our material world, from late Ming China, Renaissance Italy and the British Empire to the present. Astonishingly wide ranging and richly detailed, Empire of Things explores how we have come to live with so much more, how this changed the course of history and the global challenges we face as a result.
Frank Trentmann is a professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, and directed the £5 million Cultures of Consumption research programme. His last book, Free Trade Nation, won the Whitfield Prize for outstanding historical scholarship and achievement from the Royal Historical Society. He was educated at Hamburg University, the LSE and Harvard, where he received his PhD. In 2014 he was Moore Distinguished Fellow at Caltech.
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 133
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 112
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 111
Long overshadowed by Japan and China, South Korea is a small country that happens to be one of the great national success stories of the postwar period. From a failed state with no democratic tradition, ruined and partitioned by war, and sapped by a half-century of colonial rule, South Korea transformed itself in just 50 years into an economic powerhouse and a democracy that serves as a model for other countries. With no natural resources and a tradition of authoritarian rule, Korea managed to accomplish a second Asian miracle.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book
- By Antoine on 12-14-18
By: Daniel Tudor
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The Age of Acquiescence
- The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power
- By: Steve Fraser
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
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Story4 out of 5 stars 80
From the American Revolution through the Civil Rights movement, Americans have long mobilized against political, social, and economic privilege. Hierarchies based on inheritance, wealth, and political preferment were treated as obnoxious and a threat to democracy. Mass movements envisioned a new world supplanting dog-eat-dog capitalism. But over the last half-century that political will and cultural imagination have vanished. Why? The Age of Acquiescence seeks to solve that mystery.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
- By Brad on 05-03-15
By: Steve Fraser
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Coffeeland
- One Man's Dark Empire and the Making of Our Favorite Drug
- By: Augustine Sedgewick
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 126
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Story4 out of 5 stars 104
Coffee is an indispensable part of daily life for billions of people around the world - one of the most valuable commodities in the history of global capitalism, the leading source of the world's most popular drug, and perhaps the most widespread word on the planet. Augustine Sedgewick's Coffeeland tells the hidden and surprising story of how this came to be, tracing coffee's 500-year transformation from a mysterious Muslim ritual into an everyday necessity.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Unfortunately
- By Brian on 06-06-20
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Bending Adversity
- Japan and the Art of Survival
- By: David Pilling
- Narrated by: Tim Andes Pabon
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 67
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
In Bending Adversity, Financial Times Asia editor David Pilling presents a fresh vision of Japan, drawing on his own deep experience, as well as observations from a cross section of Japanese citizenry, including novelist Haruki Murakami, former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, industrialists and bankers, activists and artists, teenagers and octogenarians. Through their voices, Pilling captures the dynamism and diversity of contemporary Japan.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good book, but terribly read
- By Kallan Resnick on 10-24-14
By: David Pilling
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North Korea Confidential
- Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors
- By: Daniel Tudor, James Pearson
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 87
North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger, richer, liberal South, and which forces each and every person to play a role in the "theater state" even as it pays little more than lip service to the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting portrait of North Korea marred by awful pronunciation
- By Amazon Customer on 08-03-21
By: Daniel Tudor, and others
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The Almost Nearly Perfect People
- Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia
- By: Michael Booth
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 663
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 586
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 576
Journalist Michael Booth has lived among the Scandinavians for more than 10 years, and he has grown increasingly frustrated with the rose-tinted view of this part of the world offered up by the Western media. In this timely audiobook, he leaves his adopted home of Denmark and embarks on a journey through all five of the Nordic countries to discover who these curious tribes are, the secrets of their success, and, most intriguing of all, what they think of one another.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Obsessed with bad politics
- By Erik on 09-07-20
By: Michael Booth
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Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy
- By: Tim Harford
- Narrated by: Roger Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 366
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 313
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 311
Fifty Inventions That Shaped the Modern Economy paints an epic picture of change in an intimate way by telling the stories of the tools, people, and ideas that had far-reaching consequences for all of us. From the plough to artificial intelligence, from Gillette's disposable razor to IKEA's Billy bookcase, best-selling author and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford recounts each invention's own curious, surprising, and memorable story.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thought provoking
- By Paul Norris on 09-10-17
By: Tim Harford
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What's Mine Is Yours
- The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
- By: Roo Rogers, Rachel Botsman
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 69
The recent changes in our economic landscape have only exposed and intensified a phenomenon: an explosion in sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping. From enormous marketplaces such as eBay and Craigslist to emerging sectors such as peer-to-peer lending (Zopa), "swap trading" (Swaptree), and car sharing (Zipcar), Collaborative Consumption is disrupting outdated modes of business and reinventing not only what we consume but how we consume.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An Important Topic
- By Roy on 11-06-10
By: Roo Rogers, and others
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A Fierce Discontent
- The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920
- By: Michael McGerr
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 71
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
The Progressive Era witnessed the nation's most convulsive upheaval, a time of radicalism far beyond the Revolution or anything since. In response to the birth of modern America, one small group of middle-class Americans seized control of the nation and attempted to remake society from bottom to top. They accomplished an astonishing range of triumphs, yet the progressive movement collapsed as the war came to an end amid race riots, strikes, high inflation, and a frenzied Red scare.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A well balanced take
- By Ryan Mooney on 04-17-21
By: Michael McGerr
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Behemoth
- A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Joshua B. Freeman
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 210
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 208
We live in a factory-made world: modern life is built on three centuries of advances in factory production, efficiency, and technology. But giant factories have also fueled our fears about the future since their beginnings, when William Blake called them "dark Satanic mills". Many factories that operated over the last two centuries - such as Homestead, River Rouge, and Foxconn - were known for the labor exploitation and class warfare they engendered, not to mention the environmental devastation caused by factory production.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Get rid of the fake accents
- By J. R. Valery on 03-13-18
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Chocolate Wars
- The 150-Year Rivalry Between the World's Greatest Chocolate Makers
- By: Deborah Cadbury
- Narrated by: Deborah Cadbury
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 148
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4 out of 5 stars 104
With a cast of characters that wouldnt be out of place in a Victorian novel, Chocolate Wars tells the story of the great chocolatier dynasties, through the prism of the Cadburys. Chocolate was consumed unrefined and unprocessed as a rather bitter, fatty drink for the wealthy elite until the late 19th century, when the Swiss discovered a way to blend it with milk and unleashed a product that would conquer every market in the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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The World of Chocolate
- By Jean on 11-05-14
By: Deborah Cadbury
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A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things
- A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
- By: Raj Patel, Jason W. Moore
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate that throughout history, crises have always prompted fresh strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A remarkable exposé & synthesis of the Ponzi scheme that capitalism is and always has been.
- By Scott on 02-10-18
By: Raj Patel, and others
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The History of Money
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 549
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 396
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Story4 out of 5 stars 397
From primitive man's cowrie shells to the electronic cash card, from the markets of Timbuktu to the New York Stock Exchange, The History of Money explores how money and the myriad forms of exchange have affected humanity, and how they will continue to shape all aspects of our lives--economic, political, and personal.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Interesting annecdotes, but very biased reporting
- By Dean on 10-13-11
By: Jack Weatherford
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Grand Pursuit
- The Story of Economic Genius
- By: Sylvia Nasar
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd, Anne Twomey
- Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 147
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 105
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Story4 out of 5 stars 104
In a sweeping narrative, the author of the mega-bestseller A Beautiful Mind takes us on a journey through modern history with the men and women who changed the lives of every single person on the planet. It’s the epic story of the making of modern economics, and of how it rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate. Nasar’s account begins with Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew observing and publishing the condition of the poor majority in mid nineteenth-century London, the richest and most glittering place in the world.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Beautiful Grand Pursuit
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Sylvia Nasar