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How to Be a Patriot
- Why Love of Country Can End Our Very British Culture War
- Narrated by: Sunder Katwala
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
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Publisher's summary
How do we define patriotism in a diverse society?
What divides us and what brings us together?
Why do we feel uncomfortable celebrating our country’s history?
How to be a Patriot offers a new way of understanding our collective identity in a country wracked by division and brimming with markers of selfhood – faith, race, gender, age, sexuality.
Sunder Katwala himself grew up with some questions to work through. As a half-Indian, Irish Catholic child of the NHS, the chequered history of post-imperial Britain seemed very personal to him, but he realised that with that background he could hardly be anything but British, and proud of it too.
His timely and clear-eyed analysis seeks to navigate the many crises of this increasingly disunited kingdom: extremism and integration after 7/7; fear of immigration and the deep divides of Brexit; the resurgence of online racism; and the debate over our cultural heritage. Equipped with a nuanced understanding of the subject and a wealth of supporting data, he sets out to foster a more open and tolerant society: one that welcomes alternative ideas and cultures rather than shutting them out.
Ultimately, How to be a Patriot is a rousing story of lives lived together and shared values. Far from being divisive, it concludes, an inclusive and confident patriotism is a reminder that our differences need not define us.
Critic reviews
‘Ever my go-to guy when trying to make sense of this ferociously polarised issue.’ Tom Holland, historian
‘Sunder Katwala has helped to lead the public conversation on national identity and shown how we can confidently hold difficult and overdue conversations about our past and future. David Lammy MP
‘Sunder is one of the most important voices on our emerging national identity. There are few better judges of the state of the national debate. Landmark.’ Daniel Finkelstein
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 142
Americans are living through a social crisis. Our politics is polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campus, in the media, social media, and other arenas of our common life. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities and even driving an explosion of opioid abuse. Left and right alike have responded with populist anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cleaning house, draining swamps. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Incisive and Illuminating
- By Jakob on 01-26-23
By: Yuval Levin
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The People vs. Democracy
- Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 205
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 172
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."
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1 out of 5 stars
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Not worth it
- By DailyShopper on 06-07-18
By: Yascha Mounk
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We Stand Divided
- The Rift Between American Jews and Israel
- By: Daniel Gordis
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story5 out of 5 stars 75
Relations between the American Jewish community and Israel are at an all-time nadir. Since Israel’s founding 70 years ago, particularly as memory of the Holocaust and of Israel’s early vulnerability has receded, the divide has grown only wider. Most explanations pin the blame on Israel’s handling of its conflict with the Palestinians, Israel’s attitude toward non-Orthodox Judaism, and Israel’s dismissive attitude toward American Jews in general. In short, the cause for the rupture is not what Israel is; it’s what Israel does.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Jews Will Argue With Each Other
- By Benzion N. Chinn on 09-12-19
By: Daniel Gordis
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The Light That Failed
- Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy
- By: Ivan Krastev, Stephen Holmes
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only there but also back in the heartland of the West. In this brilliant work of political history, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of Communism turned out to be only the beginning of the age of the autocrat.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great text
- By Safronov on 05-03-21
By: Ivan Krastev, and others
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Identity
- The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 749
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 638
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 626
In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to “the people”, who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Robotic narrator
- By Shahin on 09-19-18
By: Francis Fukuyama
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What Were We Thinking
- A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era
- By: Carlos Lozada
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 183
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 154
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 154
It is an irony of our age that a man who rarely reads has unleashed an onslaught of books about his tenure and his time. Dissections of the white working class. Manifestos of political resistance. Works on identity, gender, and migration. Memoirs on race and protest. Revelations of White House mayhem. Warnings over the future of conservatism, progressivism, and of American democracy itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Useful book
- By Kindle Customer on 11-22-20
By: Carlos Lozada
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Democracy in Black
- How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul
- By: Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
- Narrated by: Kevin Free
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 558
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 491
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 490
America's great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans. But today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America faces an emergency - at the very moment the election of the first black president has prompted many to believe we've solved America's race problem.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Dysfunctional Mindset of American
- By Paul T. on 07-09-16
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Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,483
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,094
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,071
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
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Temptations of Power
- Islamists & Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East
- By: Shadi Hamid
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 10 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4 out of 5 stars 33
In 1989, Francis Fukuyama famously announced the "end of history." The Berlin Wall had fallen; liberal democracy had won out. But what of illiberal democracy - the idea that popular majorities, working through the democratic process, might reject gender equality, religious freedoms, and other norms that Western democracies take for granted? Nowhere have such considerations become more relevant than in the Middle East, where the uprisings of 2011 swept the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups to power.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A new perspective
- By Dave114 on 08-06-18
By: Shadi Hamid
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When the Facts Change
- Essays, 1995-2010
- By: Tony Judt
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
In When the Facts Change, Tony Judt's widow and fellow historian Jennifer Homans has assembled an essential collection of the most important and influential pieces written in the last 15 years of Judt's life, the years in which he found his voice in the public sphere. Included are seminal essays on the full range of Judt's concerns, including Europe as an idea and in reality, before 1989 and thereafter; Israel, the Holocaust and the Jews; American hyperpower and the world after 9/11.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Essential
- By Herman Utik on 09-19-16
By: Tony Judt
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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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Rise Up
- Confronting a Country at the Crossroads
- By: Al Sharpton
- Narrated by: Al Sharpton, Leon Nixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 133
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 108
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Story5 out of 5 stars 106
Beginning with a foreword by Michael Eric Dyson, Rise Up is a rousing call to action for our nation, drawing on lessons learned from Reverend Al Sharpton’s unique experience as a politician, television and radio host, and civil rights leader.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Inspired and inspiring
- By Jessica S on 10-13-20
By: Al Sharpton
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The Fire Is upon Us
- James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America
- By: Nicholas Buccola
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 151
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Story5 out of 5 stars 130
On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was "the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro", and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Us is the first book to tell the full story of the event.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sadly, the story is timeless.
- By Edward P. Cerne on 01-17-20
By: Nicholas Buccola
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The Age of Illusions
- How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory
- By: Andrew Bacevich
- Narrated by: Andrew Bacevich, Rob Shapiro
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 124
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 107
When the Cold War ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Washington establishment felt it had prevailed in a world-historical struggle. Our side had won, a verdict that was both decisive and irreversible. For the world’s “indispensable nation”, its “sole superpower”, the future looked very bright. History, having brought the United States to the very summit of power and prestige, had validated American-style liberal democratic capitalism as universally applicable.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Needs an update
- By Scott Burton on 05-24-20
By: Andrew Bacevich
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On Palestine
- By: Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 115
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 101
Operation Protective Edge, Israel's 2014 assault on Gaza, left thousands of Palestinians dead and cleared the way for another Israeli land grab. The need to stand in solidarity with Palestinians has never been greater. Ilan Pappe and Noam Chomsky, two leading voices in the struggle to liberate Palestine, discuss the road ahead for Palestinians and how the international community can pressure Israel to end its human rights abuses against the people of Palestine.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Introduction/101 Level Book
- By Anonymous User on 10-24-23
By: Noam Chomsky, and others
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The Inevitability of Tragedy
- Henry Kissinger and His World
- By: Barry Gewen
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 73
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 55
Few public officials have provoked such intense controversy as Henry Kissinger. During his time in the Nixon and Ford administrations, he came to be admired and hated in equal measure. Notoriously, he believed that foreign affairs ought to be based primarily on the power relationships of a situation, not simply on ethics. He went so far as to argue that under certain circumstances America had to protect its national interests even if that meant repressing other countries' attempts at democracy.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Interesting but rambles
- By K on 02-17-21
By: Barry Gewen
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White Christian Privilege
- The Illusion of Religious Equality in America
- By: Khyati Y. Joshi
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 26
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 24
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 25
The United States is recognized as the most religiously diverse country in the world, and yet its laws and customs, which many have come to see as normal features of American life, actually keep the constitutional ideal of “religious freedom for all” from becoming a reality. Christian beliefs, norms, and practices infuse our society; they are embedded in our institutions, creating the structures and expectations that define the idea of “Americanness.”
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4 out of 5 stars
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Audible needs to allow longer headlines
- By Adam Shields on 07-28-20
By: Khyati Y. Joshi
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How Democracy Ends
- By: David Runciman
- Narrated by: David Runciman
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
Since the end of World War II, democracy's sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get? In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated 20th-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable....
By: David Runciman