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The Idea of America
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
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The Idea of America
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The preeminent historian of the American Revolution explains why it remains the most significant event in our history.
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The Lost History of Liberalism challenges our most basic assumptions about a political creed that has become a rallying cry - and a term of derision - in today's increasingly divided public square. Taking listeners from ancient Rome to today, Helena Rosenblatt traces the evolution of the words "liberal" and "liberalism", revealing the heated debates that have taken place over their meaning. In this timely and provocative book, Rosenblatt debunks the popular myth of liberalism as a uniquely Anglo-American tradition centered on individual rights.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narrator made the history of liberalism sexy
- By E. C. Guzzo on 10-31-19
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America's Revolutionary Mind
- A Moral History of the American Revolution and the Declaration That Defined It
- By: C. Bradley Thompson
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
The purpose of this book is twofold: first, to elucidate the logic, principles, and significance of the Declaration of Independence as the embodiment of the American mind; and, second, to shed light on what John Adams once called the "real American Revolution"; that is, the moral revolution that occurred in the minds of the people in the 15 years before 1776.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent study of Revolutionary Thinking
- By Amazon Customer on 03-24-21
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The Paranoid Style in American Politics
- By: Richard Hofstadter, Sean Wilentz - foreward
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 61
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 53
This timely reissue of Richard Hofstadter's classic work on the fringe groups that influence American electoral politics offers an invaluable perspective on contemporary domestic affairs. In The Paranoid Style in American Politics, acclaimed historian Richard Hofstadter examines the competing forces in American political discourse and how fringe groups can influence - and derail - the larger agendas of a political party.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Written in the 50s and 60s...
- By Kindle Customer on 11-06-19
By: Richard Hofstadter, and others
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Our Divided Political Heart
- The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent
- By: E. J. Dionne
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
Our Divided Political Heart will be the must-listen book of the 2012 election campaign. Offering an incisive analysis of how hyper-individualism is poisoning the nation's political atmosphere, E. J. Dionne Jr., argues that Americans can't agree on who we are because we can't agree on who we've been, or what it is, philosophically and spiritually, that makes us Americans.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Good points and lots of good information
- By Jamie B on 08-15-12
By: E. J. Dionne
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American Dialogue
- The Founders and Us
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 246
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 213
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 211
The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue, Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A fine work, even with the editorializing
- By Casey Kerrick on 11-24-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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On Anarchism
- By: Noam Chomsky, Nathan Schneider - introduction
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 4 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 697
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 594
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 584
On Anarchism provides the reasoning behind Noam Chomsky's fearless lifelong questioning of the legitimacy of entrenched power. In these essays, Chomsky redeems one of the most maligned ideologies, anarchism, and places it at the foundation of his political thinking. Chomsky's anarchism is distinctly optimistic and egalitarian. Moreover, it is a living, evolving tradition that is situated in a historical lineage; Chomsky's anarchism emphasizes the power of collective, rather than individualist, action.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Hit and Miss
- By Jacob King on 06-18-14
By: Noam Chomsky, and others
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The Demon in Democracy
- Totalitarian Temptations in Free Societies
- By: Ryszard Legutko, John O'Sullivan, Teresa Adelson
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 90
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 78
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Ryszard Legutko lived and suffered under communism for decades - and he fought with the Polish anti-communist movement to abolish it. Having lived for two decades under a liberal democracy, however, he has discovered that these two political systems have a lot more in common than one might think. They both stem from the same historical roots in early modernity, and accept similar presuppositions about history, society, religion, politics, culture, and human nature.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Important book on political philosophy
- By Wayne on 08-02-19
By: Ryszard Legutko, and others
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Suicide of the West
- How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy
- By: Jonah Goldberg
- Narrated by: Jonah Goldberg
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,391
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,255
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,233
Only once in the last 250,000 years have humans stumbled upon a way to lift ourselves out of the endless cycle of poverty, hunger, and war that defines most of history. If democracy, individualism, and the free market were humankind’s destiny, they should have appeared and taken hold a bit earlier in the evolutionary record. The emergence of freedom and prosperity was nothing short of a miracle.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Put some gratitude in your attitude
- By Amazon Customer on 04-25-18
By: Jonah Goldberg
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The End of History and the Last Man
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 322
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 263
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 257
Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.
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5 out of 5 stars
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An important discussion expertly narrated
- By Kevin Teeple on 06-27-19
By: Francis Fukuyama
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The Founders' Key
- The Divine and Natural Connection Between the Declaration and the Constitution and What We Risk by Losing It
- By: Dr. Larry Arnn
- Narrated by: Van Tracy
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
Dr. Arnn, president of Hillsdale College, reveals this integral unity of the Declaration and the Constitution. Together, they form the pillars upon which the liberties and rights of the American people stand. United, they have guided history's first self-governing nation, forming our government under certain universal and eternal principles. Unfortunately, the effort to redefine government to reflect "the changing and growing social order" has gone very far toward success.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Beautiful Reaffirmation of the Forgotten Principles of the American Founders
- By Jonathan on 03-14-23
By: Dr. Larry Arnn
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The Origins of Totalitarianism
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 907
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 738
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 726
This classic, definitive account of totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism", beginning with the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in the 19th century and continuing through the New Imperialism period from 1884 to World War I.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Vast and intricate analysis of horror
- By Roger on 08-04-08
By: Hannah Arendt
-
Churchill's Trial
- Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government
- By: Dr. Larry Arnn
- Narrated by: Wayne Campbell
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 147
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 130
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 130
A penetrating look at the necessity of constitutional limits upon government and exceptional men to lead those governments, uniquely taken by overlaying the life and writings of Winston Churchill with the American experiment.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Masterpiece of Political Philosophy
- By Jean on 01-25-16
By: Dr. Larry Arnn
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We the Fallen People
- The Founders and the Future of American Democracy
- By: Robert Tracy McKenzie
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 26
We the Fallen People presents a close look at the ideas of human nature to be found in the history of American democratic thought. McKenzie, following C. S. Lewis, claims there are only two reasons to believe in majority rule: because we have confidence in human nature - or because we don't. The Founders subscribed to the biblical principle that humans are fallen and their virtue is always doubtful, and they wrote the US Constitution to frame a republic intended to handle our weaknesses.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Thoughtful reflection and historical perspective, but ultimately no easy answer
- By Brandon on 03-28-23
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The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world. During these decades, Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism - the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions.
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Grand in scope, rigorous in its arguments, and elegantly synthesizing 30 years of scholarship, Gordon S. Wood's Pulitzer Prize–winning book analyzes the social, political, and economic consequences of 1776. In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life: of a society with feudal dependencies, a politics of patronage, and a world view in which people were divided between the nobility and "the Herd."
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4 out of 5 stars
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Gordon Wood's wondrous accomplishment here is to bring these men and their times down to earth and within our reach, showing us just who they were and what drove them. In so doing, he shows us that although a lot has changed in two hundred years, to an amazing degree the virtues these founders defined for themselves are the virtues we aspire to still.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Wood clearly dislikes Adams
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
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To the original text of what has become a classic of American historical literature, Bernard Bailyn adds a substantial essay, "Fulfillment", as a postscript. Here he discusses the intense nationwide debate on the ratification of the Constitution, stressing the continuities between that struggle over the foundations of the national government and the original principles of the Revolution.
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Bernard Bailyn is a genius!
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By: Bernard Bailyn
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1 out of 5 stars
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4 out of 5 stars
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1 out of 5 stars
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Wood clearly dislikes Adams
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Bernard Bailyn is a genius!
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The American Revolution
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The American Revolution signalled a great change in the course of world history and progress. From this colonial revolt sprouted ideals of liberty and democracy, and all the aspirations and ambitions of a new people. In this work, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood discusses the character and consequences of the revolution, grounding the events and ideas that shaped the American consciousness.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The foremost scholar on the subject
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The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
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Central to America's idea of itself is the character of Benjamin Franklin. We all know him, or think we do: In recent works and in our inherited conventional wisdom, he remains fixed in place as a genial polymath and self-improver who was so very American that he is known by us all as the first American.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I have good news and bad news
- By Ernie on 07-22-04
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Ratification
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-
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When the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia adjourned late in the summer of 1787, the delegates returned to their states to report on the new Constitution, which had to be ratified by specially elected conventions in at least nine states. Pauline Maier recounts the dramatic events of the ensuing debate in homes, taverns, and convention halls, drawing generously on the speeches and letters of founding fathers, both familiar and forgotten, on all sides.
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4 out of 5 stars
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History Always Repeats
- By Howard on 08-27-11
By: Pauline Maier
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Friends Divided
- John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: James Lurie
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 443
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 394
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 392
Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Great Read
- By Jean on 12-22-17
By: Gordon S. Wood
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The Purpose of the Past
- Reflections on the Uses of History
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4 out of 5 stars 18
History is to society what memory is to the individual. Without it, we don't know who we are and we can't make wise decisions about our future. But while the nature of memory is constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past 40 years. Historian Gordon Wood examines the sea change in his field through consideration of some of its most important historians and their works.
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1 out of 5 stars
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What is his point?
- By Tammy on 03-21-08
By: Gordon S. Wood
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American Scripture
- Making the Declaration of Independence
- By: Pauline Maier
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 19
In Maier's hands, the Declaration of Independence is brought close to us. She lets us hear the voice of the people as revealed in the other "declarations" of 1776: the local resolutions - most of which have gone unnoticed over the past two centuries - that explained, advocated, and justified Independence and undergirded Congress' work. Detective-like, she discloses the origins of key ideas and phrases in the Declaration and unravels the complex story of its drafting and of the group-editing job which angered Thomas Jefferson.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding Book. Horrible Narration.
- By Brad Weisberger on 05-24-21
By: Pauline Maier
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The Quartet
- Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 742
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 677
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From Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian Joseph J. Ellis, the unexpected story of why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew.
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2 out of 5 stars
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bias is not good history
- By Craig on 01-24-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
-
The Words That Made Us
- America's Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840
- By: Akhil Reed Amar
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 27 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 70
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
In The Words That Made Us, Akhil Reed Amar unites history and law in a vivid narrative of the biggest constitutional questions early Americans confronted, and he expertly assesses the answers they offered. His account of the document's origins and consolidation is a guide for anyone seeking to properly understand America's Constitution today.
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5 out of 5 stars
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And the words that made Us
- By Anonymous User on 10-17-22
By: Akhil Reed Amar
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Original Meanings
- Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
- By: Jack N. Rakove
- Narrated by: Steven Weber
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 72
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 57
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
What did the US Constitution originally mean, and how can we recover the intentions of its framers? These questions, which resound throughout today’s most heated legal and political controversies, lie at the heart of Jack N. Rakove’s splendidly readable work of historical analysis. In Original Meanings, he traces the complex weave of ideology and interests from which the Constitution emerged and shows how Americans have attached different meanings to their founding document from the moment it was published.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Epistemological in its approach ...
- By History on 10-24-11
By: Jack N. Rakove
-
The Cause
- The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 367
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 316
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 316
George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: Former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without their colonists’ consent. With The Cause, Ellis takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Modest history primer, wished for more substance
- By Buretto on 10-21-21
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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Founding Partisans
- Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and the Brawling Birth of American Politics
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
To the framers of the Constitution, political parties were a fatal threat to republican virtues. They had suffered the consequences of partisan politics in Britain before the American Revolution, and they wanted nothing similar for America. Yet parties emerged even before the Constitution was ratified, and they took firmer root in the following decade. In Founding Partisans, master historian H. W. Brands has crafted a fresh and lively narrative of the early years of the republic as the Founding Fathers fought one another with competing visions of what our nation would be.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very educational
- By Mark Mears on 02-21-24
By: H. W. Brands
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First Principles
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 560
On the morning after the 2016 presidential election, Thomas Ricks awoke with a few questions on his mind: What kind of nation did we now have? Is it what was designed or intended by the nation's founders? Trying to get as close to the source as he could, Ricks decided to go back and read the philosophy and literature that shaped the founders' thinking, and the letters they wrote to each other debating these crucial works—among them the Iliad, Plutarch's Lives, and the works of Xenophon, Epicurus, Aristotle, Cato, and Cicero.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Excellent book, opinionated epilogue.
- By Noetic Seeker on 01-23-21
By: Thomas E. Ricks
What listeners say about The Idea of America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- beckie geren
- 01-06-23
Excellent primer for putting today in context and in perspective
Wood helps makes the mania of today understandable, but no less intolerable. Should be required reading for members of Congress.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Roger
- 01-25-12
Sophisticated analyses
These essays are sophisticated historical analyses. A listener needs to be familiar with the major developments of the Revolutionary and early Republican periods as well as with the major historical interpretations of such periods. This is therefore not an introductory work.
It is instead an advanced scholarly work. The essays challenge some of the commonly accepted interpretations of our early history in some intriguing and well argued ways. I found them both convincing and enjoyable.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- John
- 08-04-11
MetaHistory
This is a history of historian's views of the American Revolution and following years, not a history of those years per se. Very, very abstract and vague. Almost no names of individuals (except to say they weren't exactly mad)... A lot more mention of historians from the 1940s to 1970s than of the founding fathers or anyone else from circa 1800 AD.
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5 people found this helpful