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Inventing America
- Jefferson's Declaration of Independence
- Narrated by: Tom Weitzel
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
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Inventing America
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Publisher's summary
From acclaimed historian Garry Wills, author of Lincoln at Gettysburg, a celebrated re-appraisal of the meaning and the source of inspiration of The Declaration of Independence, based on a reading of Jefferson's original draft document.
Inventing America upended decades of thinking about The Declaration of Independence when it was first published in 1978 and remains one of the most influential and important works of scholarship about this founding document. Wills challenged the idea that Jefferson took all his ideas from John Locke. Instead, by focussing on Jefferson's original drafts, he showed Jefferson's debt to Scottish Enlightenment philosophers such as Lord Kames and Francis Hutcheson, and even the metaphysics of Aristotle. Wills's close reading of the previously overlooked drafts of the Declaration have altered and deepened the meaning and consequences of the single most important document that contintues to define America.
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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
- Larry and Cindi
- 07-17-23
Very interesting treatise
A lot of the book is very convincing but there is so much material that it was hard to follow.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Behind the mask of American power-stars
- By Philo on 11-19-19
By: Garry Wills
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Reagan's America
- Innocents at Home
- By: Garry Wills
- Narrated by: James Edward Thomas
- Length: 22 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 6
Updated with a new preface by the author, this captivating biography of America’s 40th president recounts Ronald Reagan’s life - from his poverty-stricken Illinois childhood to his acting career to his California governorship to his role as commander in chief - and examines the powerful myths surrounding him, many of which he created himself. Praised by some for his sunny optimism and old-fashioned rugged individualism, derided by others for being a politician out of touch with reality, Reagan was both a popular and polarizing figure in the 1980s United States.
By: Garry Wills
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Lincoln at Gettysburg
- The Words that Remade America
- By: Garry Wills
- Narrated by: Garry Wills
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 172
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 103
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
There is perhaps no more compelling example of the power of words than Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. In merely 272 words, Lincoln gave the nation "a new birth of freedom" by tracing its history to the Declaration of Independence, as well as incorporating elements of the Greek revival and Transcendentalism. Garry Wills breathes news life into words we thought we knew and reveals much about a President so easily mythologized but often misunderstood.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A Review in 292
- By Darwin8u on 03-26-15
By: Garry Wills
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The Invisible Emperor
- Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape
- By: Mark Braude
- Narrated by: Mark Braude
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 20
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
In the spring of 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated. Having overseen an empire spanning half the European continent and governed the lives of some eighty million people, he suddenly found himself exiled to Elba, less than 100 square miles of territory. This would have been the end of him, if Europe's rulers had had their way. But soon enough Napoleon imposed his preternatural charisma and historic ambition on both his captors and the very island itself, plotting his return to France and to power.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Napoleon on Elba
- By Jean on 10-27-18
By: Mark Braude
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Know Thyself
- Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance
- By: Ingrid Rossellini
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 21
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 19
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
"Know thyself" - this fundamental imperative appeared for the first time in ancient Greece. For the Greeks, self-knowledge and identity were the basics of their civilization and their sources were to be found in where one was born and into which social group. These determined who you were and what your duties were. In this book the independent scholar Ingrid Rossellini surveys the major ideas that, from Greek and Roman antiquity through the Christian medieval era up to the dawn of modernity in the Renaissance, have guided the Western project of self-knowledge.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Ideas +major proponents, filtered through the arts
- By Philo on 06-20-18
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The Anglo-Saxons
- A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 - 1066
- By: Marc Morris
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 745
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 662
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 658
Sixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Grand cities and luxurious villas were deserted and left to crumble, and civil society collapsed into chaos. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters. The Anglo-Saxons traces the turbulent history of these people across the next six centuries. It explains how their earliest rulers fought relentlessly against each other for glory and supremacy, and then were almost destroyed by the onslaught of the vikings.
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3 out of 5 stars
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"Pretty Good"
- By Stephen on 05-30-21
By: Marc Morris
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American Radicals
- How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation
- By: Holly Jackson
- Narrated by: January LaVoy
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 11
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 9
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Story5 out of 5 stars 9
On July 4, 1826, as Americans lit firecrackers to celebrate the country’s 50th birthday, both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were on their deathbeds. The young nation had outlived the men who made it, but could it survive intensifying divisions over the very meaning of the land of the free? American Radicals is a dynamic, timely history of 19th-century activists - free-lovers and socialists, abolitionists and vigilantes - and the social revolution they sparked in the turbulent Civil War era.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightening overview
- By R.S. on 07-17-23
By: Holly Jackson
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The Origins of Totalitarianism
- By: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 23 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 890
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 726
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 714
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
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The Grid
- The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future
- By: Gretchen Bakke
- Narrated by: Emily Caudwell
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,281
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,102
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,099
The grid is an accident of history and of culture, in no way intrinsic to how we produce, deliver and consume electrical power. Yet this is the system the United States ended up with, a jerry-built structure now so rickety and near collapse that a strong wind or a hot day can bring it to a grinding halt. The grid is now under threat from a new source: renewable and variable energy, which puts stress on its logics as much as its components.
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2 out of 5 stars
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A disappointment
- By Ronald on 09-24-16
By: Gretchen Bakke
Related to this topic
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The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
- By: Bernard Bailyn
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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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5 out of 5 stars
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Bernard Bailyn is a genius!
- By John M. Crean on 04-21-19
By: Bernard Bailyn
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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 54
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 47
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Story5 out of 5 stars 47
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 Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 24 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story5 out of 5 stars 57
This classic work explains the evolution of American political thought from the Declaration of Independence to the ratification of the Constitution. In so doing, it greatly illuminates the origins of the present American political system.
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1 out of 5 stars
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This Audible book is NOT for a popular audience!
- By BigWally on 11-22-18
By: Gordon S. Wood
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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
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 20
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 18
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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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Our Declaration
- A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
- By: Danielle Allen
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
In just 1,337 words, the Declaration of Independence changed the world, but curiously it is now rarely read from start to finish, much less understood. Unsettled by this, Danielle Allen read the text quietly with students and discovered its animating power. "Bringing the analytical skills of a philosopher, the voice of a gifted memoirist, and the spirit of a soulful humanist to the task, Allen manages to find new meaning in Thomas Jefferson' s understanding of equality," says Joseph J. Ellis about Our Declaration.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Second Most Interesting Book I've Ever Read
- By Christopher on 01-27-15
By: Danielle Allen
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Nature's God
- The Heretical Origins of the American Republic
- By: Matthew Stewart
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 108
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 100
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 98
Where did the ideas come from that became the cornerstone of American democracy? Not only the erudite Thomas Jefferson, the wily and elusive Ben Franklin, and the underappreciated Thomas Paine, but also Ethan Allen, the hero of the Green Mountain Boys, and Thomas Young, the forgotten Founder who kicked off the Boston Tea Party. These radicals who founded America set their sights on a revolution of the mind. Derided as "infidels" and "atheists" in their own time, they wanted to liberate us not just from one king but from the tyranny of supernatural religion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent exploration of this subject
- By Caroline on 01-13-15
By: Matthew Stewart