-
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
- Britain and the American Dream
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Buy for $25.79
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Princes in the Tower
- Solving History's Greatest Cold Case
- By: Philippa Langley
- Narrated by: Philippa Langley
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
Philippa Langley reveals the findings of a remarkable new research initiative: ‘The Missing Princes Project'. In the summer of 1483, Edward V (aged 12) and his brother Richard Duke of York (aged 9), disappeared from the Tower of London. For over 500 years, history has judged that they were murdered on the orders of their uncle Richard III. Following years of intensive research in UK, American and European archives, astonishing new archival discoveries have been uncovered that change what we know about the fate of the Princes in the Tower.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
My Musings
- By Reader Lady on 12-19-23
By: Philippa Langley
-
The Blazing World
- A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
- By: Jonathan Healey
- Narrated by: Oliver Hembrough
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Been looking for this book for a long time
- By cmurrell on 07-30-23
By: Jonathan Healey
-
Endeavour
- The Ship That Changed the World
- By: Peter Moore
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Endeavour is the story of a ship, an idea, and a way of looking at the world. It is grounded in the Enlightenment, an age of endeavors, with Britain consumed by the impulse for grand projects undertaken at speed. Endeavour was also the name given to a collier - a commonplace coal-carrying vessel - made of oak, bought by the Royal Navy in 1768. No one could have guessed it would go on to become the most significant ship in the chronicle of British exploration. Endeavour also had a role in American history, witnessing the bloody birth of the republic.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
You must endeavor to stick with Endeavour
- By vance van petten on 08-03-19
By: Peter Moore
-
Revolutionary Spring
- Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
- By: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Christopher Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
As history, the uprisings of 1848 have long been overshadowed by the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian revolutions of the early twentieth century. And yet in 1848 nearly all of Europe was aflame with conflict. Parallel political tumults spread like brush fire across the entire continent, leading to significant changes that continue to shape our world today. These battles for the future were fought with one eye kept squarely on the past. Revolutionary Spring is a new understanding of 1848 that offers chilling parallels to our present moment.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Like the revolutions, it got off to a good start
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-23
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,951
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,668
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,661
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
Judgment at Tokyo
- World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
- By: Gary J. Bass
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek, and their fellow victors, the question of justice seemed clear: Japan’s militaristic leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against civilians in China, the Philippines, and elsewhere; and rampant abuses of prisoners of war in notorious incidents such as the Bataan death march.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Biased revisionist history
- By Amazon Customer on 12-31-23
By: Gary J. Bass
-
The Princes in the Tower
- Solving History's Greatest Cold Case
- By: Philippa Langley
- Narrated by: Philippa Langley
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
Philippa Langley reveals the findings of a remarkable new research initiative: ‘The Missing Princes Project'. In the summer of 1483, Edward V (aged 12) and his brother Richard Duke of York (aged 9), disappeared from the Tower of London. For over 500 years, history has judged that they were murdered on the orders of their uncle Richard III. Following years of intensive research in UK, American and European archives, astonishing new archival discoveries have been uncovered that change what we know about the fate of the Princes in the Tower.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
My Musings
- By Reader Lady on 12-19-23
By: Philippa Langley
-
The Blazing World
- A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
- By: Jonathan Healey
- Narrated by: Oliver Hembrough
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 54
The seventeenth century was a revolutionary age for the English. It started as they suddenly found themselves ruled by a Scotsman, and it ended in the shadow of an invasion by the Dutch. Under James I, England suffered terrorism and witch panics. Under his son Charles, state and society collapsed into civil war, to be followed by an army coup and regicide. For a short time—for the only time in history—England was a republic. There were bitter struggles over faith and Parliament asserted itself like never before. There were no boundaries to politics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Been looking for this book for a long time
- By cmurrell on 07-30-23
By: Jonathan Healey
-
Endeavour
- The Ship That Changed the World
- By: Peter Moore
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 19 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
Endeavour is the story of a ship, an idea, and a way of looking at the world. It is grounded in the Enlightenment, an age of endeavors, with Britain consumed by the impulse for grand projects undertaken at speed. Endeavour was also the name given to a collier - a commonplace coal-carrying vessel - made of oak, bought by the Royal Navy in 1768. No one could have guessed it would go on to become the most significant ship in the chronicle of British exploration. Endeavour also had a role in American history, witnessing the bloody birth of the republic.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
You must endeavor to stick with Endeavour
- By vance van petten on 08-03-19
By: Peter Moore
-
Revolutionary Spring
- Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
- By: Christopher Clark
- Narrated by: Christopher Clark
- Length: 33 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
As history, the uprisings of 1848 have long been overshadowed by the French Revolution of 1789 and the Russian revolutions of the early twentieth century. And yet in 1848 nearly all of Europe was aflame with conflict. Parallel political tumults spread like brush fire across the entire continent, leading to significant changes that continue to shape our world today. These battles for the future were fought with one eye kept squarely on the past. Revolutionary Spring is a new understanding of 1848 that offers chilling parallels to our present moment.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Like the revolutions, it got off to a good start
- By Anonymous User on 06-23-23
-
Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,951
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,668
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,661
Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
-
Judgment at Tokyo
- World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
- By: Gary J. Bass
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
In the weeks after Japan finally surrendered to the Allies to end World War II, the world turned to the question of how to move on from years of carnage and destruction. For Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek, and their fellow victors, the question of justice seemed clear: Japan’s militaristic leaders needed to be tried and punished for the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor; shocking atrocities against civilians in China, the Philippines, and elsewhere; and rampant abuses of prisoners of war in notorious incidents such as the Bataan death march.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Biased revisionist history
- By Amazon Customer on 12-31-23
By: Gary J. Bass
-
Differ We Must
- How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America
- By: Steve Inskeep
- Narrated by: Steve Inskeep
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 100
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 94
In 1855, with the United States at odds over slavery, the lawyer Abraham Lincoln wrote a note to his best friend, the son of a Kentucky slaveowner. Lincoln rebuked his friend for failing to oppose slavery. But he added: “If for this you and I must differ, differ we must,” and said they would be friends forever. Throughout his life and political career, Lincoln often agreed to disagree. Democracy demanded it, since even an adversary had a vote.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The excellent level of detail, both in the written and spoken language of Lincoln and his associates.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-23-24
By: Steve Inskeep
-
President Garfield
- From Radical to Unifier
- By: CW Goodyear
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 60
In “the most comprehensive Garfield biography in almost fifty years” (The Wall Street Journal), C.W. Goodyear charts the life and times of one of the most remarkable Americans ever to win the Presidency. Progressive firebrand and conservative compromiser; Union war hero and founder of the first Department of Education; Supreme Court attorney and abolitionist preacher; mathematician and canalman; crooked election-fixed and clean-government champion; Congressional chieftain and gentleman-farmer; the last president to be born in a log cabin; the second to be assassinated.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A wonderful servant to the world
- By James T. Hackett on 08-15-23
By: CW Goodyear
-
Pax
- War and Peace in Rome's Golden Age
- By: Tom Holland
- Narrated by: Tom Holland
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 137
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 134
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 134
The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. It was the wealthiest and most formidable state in the history of humankind. Pax is a captivating narrative history of Rome at the height of its power. From the gilded capital to realms beyond the frontier, historian Tom Holland shows ancient Rome in all its glory
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book!
- By Mic on 09-27-23
By: Tom Holland
-
Conquer We Must
- A Military History of Britain, 1914-1945
- By: Robin Prior
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 27 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1
The First and Second World Wars were separated by a mere two decades, making the period 1914-1945 an unprecedentedly intense and violent era of history. But how did Britain develop its complex military strategy during these wars, and how were decisions made by those at the top? Robin Prior examines the influence politicians had on military operations, in the first history to assess both world wars together. Drawing uniquely on both military and political archives and previously unexamined sources Prior explores the fraught relationships between civilian and military leaders.
By: Robin Prior
-
Washington’s Marines
- The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777
- By: Major Genera Jason Q. Bohm USMC
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
The fighting prowess of United States Marines is second to none, but few know of the Corps' humble beginnings and what it achieved during the early years of the American Revolution. That oversight is fully rectified by Jason Bohm's eye-opening Washington's Marines: The Origins of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great injection of motivation
- By Scott Taylor on 04-01-24
-
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.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Very educational
- By Mark Mears on 02-21-24
By: H. W. Brands
-
The Year That Broke Politics
- Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968
- By: Luke A. Nichter
- Narrated by: Kent Klineman
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 9
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 9
The 1968 presidential race was a contentious battle between Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, and former Alabama governor George Wallace. The United States was reeling from the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy and was bitterly divided on the Vietnam War and domestic issues, including civil rights and rising crime. Drawing on previously unexamined archives and numerous interviews, Luke A. Nichter upends the conventional understanding of the campaign.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Is he reading this for the first time?
- By anonymously on 02-24-24
By: Luke A. Nichter
-
Taming the Street
- The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism
- By: Diana B. Henriques
- Narrated by: Karen Murray
- Length: 16 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 2
Taming the Street describes how President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled to regulate Wall Street in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression. With deep reporting and vivid storytelling, Diana B. Henriques takes listeners back to a time when America’s financial landscape was a jungle ruled by the titans of vast wealth, largely unrestrained by government. Roosevelt ran for office in 1932 vowing to curb that ruthless capitalism and make the world of finance safer for ordinary savers and investors.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Regulation Nation
- By Smalls on 02-10-24
-
The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
- By: Stacy Schiff
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 454
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 397
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 396
Thomas Jefferson once asserted that "for depth of purpose, zeal, and sagacity, no man in Congress exceeded, if any equaled, Sam Adams." John Adams called him "the most elegant writer, the most sagacious politician, and celebrated patriot perhaps of all." But in spite of his celebrated status among America's founding fathers as a revolutionary leader, Samuel Adams' life and achievements have been largely overshadowed in the history books. Now, in The Revolutionary Samuel Adams, Stacy Schiff brings her masterful skill as historian and storyteller to the life of Samuel Adams.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The revolutionary
- By Charles on 11-02-22
By: Stacy Schiff
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,650
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,583
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,549
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Eighteen Days in October
- The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East
- By: Uri Kaufman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 61
October 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dangerous superpower showdown, and, following the oil embargo, a pivotal reordering of the global economic order. The Jewish State came shockingly close to defeat. After the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in disgrace, and a 9/11-style commission investigated the "debacle." But, argues Uri Kaufman, from the perspective of a half century, the War can be seen as a pivotal victory for Israel.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent History
- By PH on 10-31-23
By: Uri Kaufman
-
The Broken Constitution
- Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America
- By: Noah Feldman
- Narrated by: Noah Feldman
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 73
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 71
Abraham Lincoln is justly revered for his brilliance, compassion, humor, and rededication of the United States to achieving liberty and justice for all. He led the nation into a bloody civil war to uphold the system of government established by the US Constitution - a system he regarded as the “last best hope of mankind”. But how did Lincoln understand the Constitution?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Takes you to Lincoln’s time for a new understanding
- By Jason Cecil on 12-22-21
By: Noah Feldman
Publisher's summary
The most famous phrase in American history once looked quite different. "The preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness" was how Thomas Jefferson put it in the first draft of the Declaration, before the first ampersand was scratched out, along with "the preservation of." The precise contours of these three rights have never been pinned down—and yet in making these words into rights, Jefferson reified the hopes (and debates) not only of a group of rebel-statesmen but also of an earlier generation of British thinkers who could barely imagine a country like the United States of America.
Peter Moore's Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness tells the true story of what may be the most successful import in US history: the "American dream." Centered on the friendship between Benjamin Franklin and the British publisher William Strahan, and featuring figures including the cultural giant Samuel Johnson, the ground-breaking historian Catharine Macaulay, the firebrand politician John Wilkes, and revolutionary activist Thomas Paine, this book looks at the generation that preceded the Declaration in 1776. Everyone, it seemed, had "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" on their minds; Moore shows why, and reveals how these still-nascent ideals made their way across an ocean and started a revolution.
More from the same
Related to this topic
-
John Adams
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 29 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,992
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,181
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 7,163
McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale, an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An outstanding biography
- By Davis on 07-10-06
By: David McCullough
-
Washington's End
- The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle
- By: Jonathan Horn
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 393
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 390
Washington’s End begins where most biographies of George Washington leave off, with the first president exiting office after eight years and entering what would become the most bewildering stage of his life. Embittered by partisan criticism and eager to return to his farm, Washington assumed a role for which there was no precedent at a time when the kings across the ocean yielded their crowns only upon losing their heads. In a different sense, Washington would lose his head, too.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
INTRIGUING SNAPSHOT
- By JPALJ on 02-23-20
By: Jonathan Horn
-
Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
From New York Times best-selling author and Founding Fathers' biographer Harlow Giles Unger comes the astonishing biography of the man whose pen set America ablaze, inspiring its revolution, and whose ideas about reason and religion continue to try men's souls.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
well written and researched
- By K D on 09-29-19
-
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,594
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,799
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,757
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
-
Foundation
- The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors: The History of England, Book 1
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 827
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 753
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 748
In Foundation the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1509. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past - a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Most Annoying Narrator EVER
- By JudieBee on 12-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,650
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,583
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,549
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
John Adams
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 29 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,992
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,181
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 7,163
McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale, an audiobook about politics, war, and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
An outstanding biography
- By Davis on 07-10-06
By: David McCullough
-
Washington's End
- The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle
- By: Jonathan Horn
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 468
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 393
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 390
Washington’s End begins where most biographies of George Washington leave off, with the first president exiting office after eight years and entering what would become the most bewildering stage of his life. Embittered by partisan criticism and eager to return to his farm, Washington assumed a role for which there was no precedent at a time when the kings across the ocean yielded their crowns only upon losing their heads. In a different sense, Washington would lose his head, too.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
INTRIGUING SNAPSHOT
- By JPALJ on 02-23-20
By: Jonathan Horn
-
Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence
- By: Harlow Giles Unger
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 54
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 43
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
From New York Times best-selling author and Founding Fathers' biographer Harlow Giles Unger comes the astonishing biography of the man whose pen set America ablaze, inspiring its revolution, and whose ideas about reason and religion continue to try men's souls.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
well written and researched
- By K D on 09-29-19
-
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
- By: Jon Meacham
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann, Jon Meacham
- Length: 18 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 6,594
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,799
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,757
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Man and Biography Relevant to Our Day
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-12
By: Jon Meacham
-
Foundation
- The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors: The History of England, Book 1
- By: Peter Ackroyd
- Narrated by: Clive Chafer
- Length: 18 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 827
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 753
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 748
In Foundation the chronicler of London and of its river, the Thames, takes us from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, in 1509. He guides us from the building of Stonehenge to the founding of the two great glories of medieval England: common law and the cathedrals. He shows us glimpses of the country's most distant past - a Neolithic stirrup found in a grave, a Roman fort, a Saxon tomb, a medieval manor house.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
The Most Annoying Narrator EVER
- By JudieBee on 12-25-15
By: Peter Ackroyd
-
Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 24 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8,650
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7,583
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,549
Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us - an ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings. In best-selling author Walter Isaacson's vivid and witty full-scale biography, we discover why Franklin turns to us from history's stage with eyes that twinkle from behind his new-fangled spectacles. In Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson shows how Franklin defines both his own time and ours. The most interesting thing that Franklin invented, and continually reinvented, was himself.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Good book, not crazy about the narrator
- By Cathi on 07-20-13
By: Walter Isaacson
-
Notes from the Underground (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Constance Garnett - translator
- Narrated by: Pete Simonelli
- Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 292
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 245
Isolated from society in a tenement basement in St. Petersburg, a malicious former civil servant vents his resentments. In the rambling notes that follow, we are exposed to the inner turmoil of the Underground Man, who represents the voice of his generation. An emotional, paranoid knot of contradictions, the spiteful narrator is also desperate to join a society he loathes, if only to prove his superiority to it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing
- By Bryan on 02-19-19
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others
-
Young Benjamin Franklin
- The Birth of Ingenuity
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 26
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 26
From his early career as a printer and journalist to his scientific work and his role as a founder of a new republic, Benjamin Franklin has always seemed the inevitable embodiment of American ingenuity. But in his youth, he had to make his way through a harsh colonial world, where he fought many battles with his rivals, but also with his wayward emotions. Taking Franklin to the age of 41, when he made his first electrical discoveries, Bunker goes behind the legend to reveal the sources of his passion for knowledge.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Good Book but LOTS of Names
- By Tim on 10-31-19
By: Nick Bunker
-
Thomas Paine
- Enlightenment, Revolution, and the Birth of Modern Nations
- By: Craig Nelson
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 15 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
John Adams told Thomas Jefferson that “history is to ascribe the American Revolution to Thomas Paine.” Thomas Edison called him “the equal of Washington in making American liberty possible.” He was a founder of both the United States and the French Revolution. He invented the phrase, “The United States of America.” He rose from abject poverty in working-class England to the highest levels of the era’s intellectual elite. And yet, by the end of his life, Thomas Paine was almost universally reviled.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
This man should be a household name!
- By Darlene Davis on 11-21-11
By: Craig Nelson
-
The Regency Years
- During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern
- By: Robert Morrison
- Narrated by: Chris MacDonnell
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 106
The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811-1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales - the future King George IV - replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain's ruler. Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
What a time!
- By BK on 06-18-19
By: Robert Morrison
-
The Modern Scholar
- The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Professor H.W. Brands
- Narrated by: H.W. Brands
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 136
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 102
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 104
This course examines the life of Benjamin Franklin and his influence on both American and world history. He remains the model of the American thinker - a man who was interested in nearly everything, and who pursued those interests with an admirable and contagious passion. To study Franklin's life is to learn not only the history of a single man, but to understand some of the most monumental changes in all of human history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Love it
- By Holly on 02-20-16
-
Oliver Wendell Holmes
- A Life in War, Law, and Ideas
- By: Stephen Budiansky
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 413
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 347
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 344
Holmes twice escaped death as a young Union officer in the Civil War when musket balls barely missed his heart and spinal cord. He lived ever after with unwavering moral courage, scorn for dogma, and an insatiable intellectual curiosity. Named to the Supreme Court by Theodore Roosevelt at age 61, he served for nearly three decades, writing a series of famous, eloquent, and often dissenting opinions that would prove prophetic in securing freedom of speech, protecting the rights of criminal defendants, and ending the Court's reactionary resistance to social and economic reforms.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Top-Notch Biography
- By Jean on 08-01-19
-
Ben Franklin: Inventing America
- Sterling Point Books
- By: Thomas Fleming
- Narrated by: A. C. Fellner
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 47
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Perhaps more than even Washington, Jefferson, or Adams, Ben Franklin is the Founding Father who best exemplifies the authentic American spirit and values. Eminent historian Thomas Fleming paints a lively portrait of this self-made man blessed with a wealth of talents: a best-selling author, the most important newspaper publisher in America, and a world-renowned scientist and inventor before he took on the task of becoming the true "Father" of American independence.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Amazing and Inspiring
- By Kindle Customer on 11-26-11
By: Thomas Fleming
-
American Rebels
- How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution
- By: Nina Sankovitch
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Nina Sankovitch’s American Rebels explores, for the first time, the intertwined lives of the Hancock, Quincy, and Adams families, and the role each person played in sparking the American Revolution. American Rebels explores how the desire for independence cut across class lines, binding people together as well as dividing them -rebels versus loyalists - as they pursued commonly held goals of opportunity, liberty, and stability. Nina Sankovitch's new audiobook is a fresh history of our revolution that makes listeners look more closely at Massachusetts.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I loved this book!
- By John H on 06-22-20
By: Nina Sankovitch
-
Amazing Grace
- William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
- By: Eric Metaxas
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,591
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,323
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,323
Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Marvelous Story Gloriously Told
- By Douglas on 02-24-13
By: Eric Metaxas
-
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 97
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
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.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I have good news and bad news
- By Ernie on 07-22-04
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
Covered with Night
- A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America
- By: Nicole Eustace
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
On the eve of a major treaty conference between Iroquois leaders and European colonists in the distant summer of 1722, two White fur traders attacked an Indigenous hunter and left him for dead near Conestoga, Pennsylvania. This act of brutality set into motion a remarkable series of criminal investigations and cross-cultural negotiations that challenged the definition of justice in early America. Leading historian Nicole Eustace reconstructs the crime and its aftermath, bringing us into the overlapping worlds of white colonists and Indigenous peoples in this formative period.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
YES! I GET IT! I've read history before - JUST STOP!!!!! British settlers were arrogant jerks!! Aaaaaaaargh
- By Anonymous From MA on 06-02-22
By: Nicole Eustace
-
First Principles
- What America's Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country
- By: Thomas E. Ricks
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 669
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 564
-
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.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent book, opinionated epilogue.
- By Noetic Seeker on 01-23-21
By: Thomas E. Ricks
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Founding Martyr
- The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
- By: Christian Di Spigna
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 92
A rich and illuminating biography of America’s forgotten Founding Father, the patriot physician and major general who fomented rebellion and died heroically at the battle of Bunker Hill on the brink of revolution. Little has been known of one of the most important figures in early American history, Dr. Joseph Warren, an architect of the colonial rebellion, and a man who might have led the country as Washington or Jefferson did had he not been martyred at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major insurrectionary act in the Boston area for a decade.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
really mixed
- By Amazon Customer on 07-16-22
-
Indivisible
- Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism
- By: Joel Richard Paul
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 18
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 17
When the United States was founded in 1776, its citizens didn’t think of themselves as “Americans.” They were New Yorkers or Virginians or Pennsylvanians. It was decades later that the seeds of American nationalism—identifying with one’s own nation and supporting its broader interests—began to take root. But what kind of nationalism should Americans embrace? The state-focused and racist nationalism of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson? Or the belief that the US Constitution made all Americans one nation, indivisible, which Daniel Webster and others espoused?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Author very biased
- By Richard Wayne Feller on 02-05-23
-
Without Precedent
- Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times
- By: Joel Richard Paul
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 459
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 413
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 408
No member of America's founding generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next 40 years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States - the longest-serving in history—he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Scholarly and Accessible
- By Diana Black Kennedy on 03-01-18
-
American Rule
- How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People
- By: Jared Yates Sexton
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 214
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Truth
- By Laurie on 09-28-20
-
Ways and Means
- Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 173
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 172
Upon his election to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln inherited a country in crisis. Even before the Confederacy’s secession, the United States Treasury had run out of money. The government had no authority to raise taxes, no federal bank, no currency. But amid unprecedented troubles Lincoln saw opportunity—the chance to legislate in the centralizing spirit of the “more perfect union” that had first drawn him to politics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perspective that matters - financing the Civil War
- By Edgewater on 07-04-22
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
The War Before the War
- Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
- By: Andrew Delbanco
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 191
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 170
For decades after its founding, America was really two nations—one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great promise greater disappointment
- By Amazon Customer on 12-09-18
By: Andrew Delbanco
-
Founding Martyr
- The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
- By: Christian Di Spigna
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 108
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 93
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 92
A rich and illuminating biography of America’s forgotten Founding Father, the patriot physician and major general who fomented rebellion and died heroically at the battle of Bunker Hill on the brink of revolution. Little has been known of one of the most important figures in early American history, Dr. Joseph Warren, an architect of the colonial rebellion, and a man who might have led the country as Washington or Jefferson did had he not been martyred at Bunker Hill in 1775. Warren was involved in almost every major insurrectionary act in the Boston area for a decade.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
really mixed
- By Amazon Customer on 07-16-22
-
Indivisible
- Daniel Webster and the Birth of American Nationalism
- By: Joel Richard Paul
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 21 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 18
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 17
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 17
When the United States was founded in 1776, its citizens didn’t think of themselves as “Americans.” They were New Yorkers or Virginians or Pennsylvanians. It was decades later that the seeds of American nationalism—identifying with one’s own nation and supporting its broader interests—began to take root. But what kind of nationalism should Americans embrace? The state-focused and racist nationalism of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson? Or the belief that the US Constitution made all Americans one nation, indivisible, which Daniel Webster and others espoused?
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Author very biased
- By Richard Wayne Feller on 02-05-23
-
Without Precedent
- Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times
- By: Joel Richard Paul
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 459
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 413
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 408
No member of America's founding generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next 40 years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States - the longest-serving in history—he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Scholarly and Accessible
- By Diana Black Kennedy on 03-01-18
-
American Rule
- How a Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People
- By: Jared Yates Sexton
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 254
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 214
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 213
In American Rule, Jared Yates Sexton upends those convenient fictions by laying bare the foundational myths at the heart of our collective American imagination. From the very origins of this nation, Americans in power have abused and subjugated others; enabling that corruption are the many myths of American exceptionalism and steadfast values, which are fed to the public and repeated across generations.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Truth
- By Laurie on 09-28-20
-
Ways and Means
- Lincoln and His Cabinet and the Financing of the Civil War
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 199
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 173
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 172
Upon his election to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln inherited a country in crisis. Even before the Confederacy’s secession, the United States Treasury had run out of money. The government had no authority to raise taxes, no federal bank, no currency. But amid unprecedented troubles Lincoln saw opportunity—the chance to legislate in the centralizing spirit of the “more perfect union” that had first drawn him to politics.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Perspective that matters - financing the Civil War
- By Edgewater on 07-04-22
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
The War Before the War
- Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War
- By: Andrew Delbanco
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 191
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 170
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 170
For decades after its founding, America was really two nations—one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this composite nation ultimately broke apart, but the fact that enslaved black people repeatedly risked their lives to flee their masters in the South in search of freedom in the North proved that the "united" states was actually a lie. Fugitive slaves exposed the contradiction between the myth that slavery was a benign institution and the reality that a nation based on the principle of human equality was in fact a prison-house in which millions of Americans had no rights.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great promise greater disappointment
- By Amazon Customer on 12-09-18
By: Andrew Delbanco
-
Tecumseh and the Prophet
- The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation
- By: Peter Cozzens
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 119
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 103
The first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than 20 years, and the first to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States. Tecumseh and the Prophet presents the untold story of the Shawnee brothers - the two most significant siblings in Native American history, who, Cozzens helps us understand, should be writ large in the annals of America.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Excellent. Good companion to other Tecumseh bios
- By Chris on 11-05-20
By: Peter Cozzens
-
The World Remade
- America in World War I
- By: G. J. Meyer
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 24 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 363
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 325
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 324
After years of bitter debate, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany on April 6, 1917, plunging the country into the savage European conflict that would redraw the map of the continent - and the globe. The World Remade is an engrossing chronicle of America's pivotal, still controversial intervention into World War I, encompassing the tumultuous politics and towering historical figures that defined the era and forged the future.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
"100% America" - a disturbing place to be
- By DPM on 04-01-17
By: G. J. Meyer
-
Master of the Game
- Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy
- By: Martin Indyk
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 25 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 52
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 44
More than 20 years have elapsed since the United States last brokered a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians. In that time, three presidents have tried and failed. Martin Indyk - a former United States ambassador to Israel and special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in 2013 - has experienced these political frustrations and disappointments firsthand.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Sad in its lack of creativity
- By Uri Pilichowski on 11-16-21
By: Martin Indyk
-
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
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 213
-
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.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A fine work, even with the editorializing
- By Casey Kerrick on 11-24-18
By: Joseph J. Ellis
-
Union
- The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
Union tells the story of the struggle to create a national myth for the United States, one that could hold its rival regional cultures together and forge an American nationhood.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Required Reading
- By Ben Brafford on 08-30-20
By: Colin Woodard
-
The Indispensable Composers
- A Personal Guide
- By: Anthony Tommasini
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 25
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 20
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 20
In The Indispensable Composers, Tommasini offers his own personal guide to the canon - and what greatness really means in classical music. What does it mean to be canonical now? Who gets to say? And do we have enough perspective on the 20th century to even begin assessing it? To make his case, Tommasini draws on elements of biography, the anxiety of influence, the composer's relationships with colleagues, and shifting attitudes toward a composer's work over time.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
A little disappointed.
- By Sher from Provo on 10-19-19
-
The Sinner and the Saint
- Dostoevsky and the Gentleman Murderer Who Inspired a Masterpiece
- By: Kevin Birmingham
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 15 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 83
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 70
The Sinner and the Saint is the deeply researched and immersive tale of how Dostoevsky came to write this great murder story - and why it changed the world. As a young man, Dostoevsky was a celebrated writer, but his involvement with the radical politics of his day condemned him to a long Siberian exile. There, he spent years studying the criminals that were his companions. Upon his return to St. Petersburg in the 1860s, he fought his way through gambling addiction, debilitating debt, epilepsy, the deaths of those closest to him, and literary banishment.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting topic (Dostoevsky, that is)
- By Jeffrey D on 06-24-22
By: Kevin Birmingham
-
Last Men Out
- The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam
- By: Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 25
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 18
In a gripping, moment-by-moment narrative based on a wealth of recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin tell the remarkable drama that unfolded over the final, heroic hours of the Vietnam War. This closing chapter of the war would become the largest-scale evacuation ever carried out, as improvised by a small unit of Marines, a vast fleet of helicopter pilots flying nonstop missions beyond regulation, and a Marine general who vowed to arrest any officer who ordered his choppers grounded while his men were still on the ground.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great read!
- By Anonymous User on 01-24-23
By: Bob Drury, and others
-
The Washington War
- FDR's Inner Circle and the Politics of Power That Won World War II
- By: James Lacey
- Narrated by: Ray Porter, James Lacey
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 146
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 122
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 122
The Washington War is the story of how the Second World War was fought and won in the capital’s halls of power - and how the United States, which in December 1941 had a nominal army and a decimated naval fleet, was able in only 30 months to fling huge forces onto the European continent and shortly thereafter shatter Imperial Japan’s Pacific strongholds. Three quarters of a century after the overwhelming defeat of the totalitarian Axis forces, the terrifying, razor-thin calculus on which so many critical decisions turned has been forgotten....
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
interesting but tedious
- By Joey on 06-07-20
By: James Lacey
-
Race to the Bottom
- Uncovering the Secret Forces Destroying American Public Education
- By: Luke Rosiak
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 230
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 209
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 207
In Race to the Bottom, Luke Rosiak uncovers the shocking reason why American education is failing: Powerful special interest groups are using our kids as guinea pigs in vast ideological experiments. These groups’ initiatives aren’t focused on making children smarter—but on implementing a radical agenda, no matter the effect on academic standards.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thank you for writing this book!
- By J&Y on 07-21-22
By: Luke Rosiak
-
Cult of Glory
- The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers
- By: Doug J. Swanson
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 17 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 285
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 237
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 236
The Texas Rangers came to life in 1823, when Texas was still part of Mexico. Nearly 200 years later, the Rangers are still going - one of the most famous of all law enforcement agencies. In Cult of Glory, Doug J. Swanson has written a sweeping account of the Rangers that chronicles their epic, daring escapades while showing how the white and propertied power structures of Texas used them as enforcers, protectors, and officially sanctioned killers.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Not a book about men who tamed the west
- By W. Larson on 12-30-20
By: Doug J. Swanson
-
The Impeachers
- The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation
- By: Brenda Wineapple
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 329
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 302
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 303
When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became "the Accidental President", it was a dangerous time in America. Devastated by war and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to restore a pre-Civil War society, if without slavery, and the pugnacious Andrew Johnson seemed to share their goals. With profound insights and making use of extensive research, Brenda Wineapple dramatically evokes this pivotal period in American history, when the country was rocked by the first-ever impeachment of a sitting American president.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Forgotten American History Revitalized
- By Leslie Dillingham Freyberg on 06-19-19
By: Brenda Wineapple
What listeners say about Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- CarlH
- 03-21-24
Engaging story-telling
Unlike what the rather tendentious title of this might suggest, this is very accessible overview of the philosophical themes behind “The American Dream.” Moores book reads like a very good group biography of a selected thinkers, writers, and activists, all with roots in and ties to Britain, and particularly Benjamin Franklin. The narration was exceptionally good at making conversations come alive and the capturing the tone of written materials. So glad I picked this up and I highly recommend it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- Trebla
- 07-17-23
Fascinating story gets lost a bit in the details
Moore takes on a wonderful & difficult task of describing the environment and personalities encircling Ben Franklin as a way to describe the evolution of the man and the Revolution. This is an important piece of any history, the environment, which is too often lost in tales of The Man. My quibble would be the time spent on minutia (a 6 or 8 paces duel?) which diluted the the picture he painted. Near excellent.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- W Zuelzer
- 07-22-23
Review
Well done Worth listening Enjoyed nuance of speech from speaker
Story enlarged understanding of events of that time
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Credible1
- 07-18-23
The untold story. Of the american revolution
A magnificent behind the scenes look. At the Genesis of the American revolotion and of the role played by the inimitable Founding father Ben Franklin.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful