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The Story of Work
- A New History of Humankind
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
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In 1945, the Soviet Union controlled half of Europe and was a founding member of the United Nations. By 1991, it had an army four million strong, 5,000 nuclear-tipped missiles, and was the second biggest producer of oil in the world. But soon afterward, the union sank into an economic crisis and was torn apart by nationalist separatism. Its collapse was one of the seismic shifts of the 20th century.
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Big landscape in time and subjects; Austrian view
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Publisher's summary
The first truly global history of work, an upbeat assessment from the age of the hunter-gatherer to the present day
We work because we have to, but also because we like it: from hunting-gathering over 700,000 years ago to the present era of zoom meetings, humans have always worked to make the world around them serve their needs.
Jan Lucassen provides an inclusive history of humanity's busy labor throughout the ages. Spanning China, India, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, Lucassen looks at the ways in which humanity organizes work: in the household, the tribe, the city, and the state. He examines how labor is split between men, women, and children; the watershed moment of the invention of money; the collective action of workers; and at the impact of migration, slavery, and the idea of leisure.
From peasant farmers in the first agrarian societies to the precarious existence of today's gig workers, this surprising account of both cooperation and subordination at work throws essential light on the opportunities we face today.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A remarkable exposé & synthesis of the Ponzi scheme that capitalism is and always has been.
- By Scott on 02-10-18
By: Raj Patel, and others
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The Technology Trap
- Capital, Labor, and Power in the Age of Automation
- By: Carl Benedikt Frey
- Narrated by: Richard Lyddon
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 122
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 95
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 97
From the Industrial Revolution to the age of artificial intelligence, The Technology Trap takes a sweeping look at the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the distribution of economic and political power among society’s members.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very good
- By Brad on 07-04-19
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Empire of Cotton
- A Global History
- By: Sven Beckert
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 554
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 488
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Story4 out of 5 stars 483
Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780s, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into an empire, and how this empire transformed the world.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A New History of Global Capitalism
- By Lucian of Samosata on 03-17-15
By: Sven Beckert
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The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,370
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,103
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,098
Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
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The Transatlantic Slave Trade
- A Captivating Guide to the Atlantic Slave Trade and Stories of the Slaves That Were Brought to the Americas
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
This guide will take you on a journey across time, from the late 1400s to the very end of the 19th century, as well as across the globe, from Europe, across Africa, to the American continents. It will tell you the story of human greed and heartlessness toward fellow human beings, and it will lead you through the painful and often macabre voyage of the transatlantic slave trade. You’ll learn why and how the slave trade began, where most of the enslaved people came from and where most of them were shipped to, the European nations that participated in the slave trade, and more.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Eye-Opening
- By D. Hutchins on 05-27-21
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The Journey of Humanity
- The Origins of Wealth and Inequality
- By: Oded Galor
- Narrated by: Kobna Holdbrook-Smith
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 44
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 43
Why are humans the only species to have escaped—only very recently—the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that vastly exceeds all others? And why have we progressed so unequally around the world, resulting in the great disparities between nations that exist today? Galor’s gripping narrative explains how technology, population size, and adaptation led to a stunning “phase change” in the human story a mere two hundred years ago.
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4 out of 5 stars
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promoting innovation and industrial disease
- By Anonymous User on 01-18-24
By: Oded Galor
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The Conquest of Bread
- By: Pyotr Kropotkin
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 397
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 327
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 321
In The Conquest of Bread, first published in 1892, Kropotkin set out his ideas on how his heightened idealism could work. It was all the more extraordinary because he was born into an aristocratic land-owning family - with some 1,200 male serfs - though from his student years his liberal views and his fixation on the need for social change saw him take a revolutionary path. This led rapidly to decades of exile. It is a passionate, even a fierce polemic for dramatic social change.
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5 out of 5 stars
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“All is for All”
- By Gabriel on 01-02-19
By: Pyotr Kropotkin
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The Conquest of Bread
- By: Peter Kropotkin
- Narrated by: Jim D Johnston
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story5 out of 5 stars 28
Originally written in French, The Conquest of Bread first appeared as a series of articles in the anarchist journal Le Révolté. It was first published in Paris with a preface by Élisée Reclus, who also suggested the title. Between 1892 and 1894, it was serialized in part in the London journal Freedom, of which Kropotkin was a co-founder. In the work, Kropotkin points out what he considers to be the defects of the economic systems of feudalism and capitalism and why he believes they thrive on and maintain poverty and scarcity.
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3 out of 5 stars
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If we were all perfect. That's a big if.
- By DesmoProfundis on 06-07-21
By: Peter Kropotkin
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The Ages of Globalization
- Geography, Technology, and Institutions
- By: Jeffrey D. Sachs
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 38
Today's most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity's story has always been on a global scale. Sachs takes listeners through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today's globalization.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Narrator.
- By ROGER QUESADA on 08-03-20
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs
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The Great Leveler
- Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 292
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 245
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Story4 out of 5 stars 243
Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Content is not suitable for an Audiobook
- By Varun on 02-10-18
By: Walter Scheidel
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Owning the Earth
- The Transforming History of Land Ownership
- By: Andro Linklater
- Narrated by: J. Paul Guimont
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
The history and evolution of land ownership is a fascinating chronicle in the history of civilization, offering unexpected insights about how various forms of democracy and capitalism developed, as well as a revealing analysis of a future where the Earth must sustain nine billion lives. Seen through the eyes of remarkable individuals - Chinese emperors; German peasants; the 17th century English surveyor William Petty, who first saw the connection between private property and free-market capitalism.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
- By S. Olsen on 06-30-15
By: Andro Linklater
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Work
- A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots
- By: James Suzman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 319
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 268
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 267
Work defines who we are. It determines our status and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hardwired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like? To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are.
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2 out of 5 stars
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if you like Jared Diamond's work, you'll like this
- By Mark on 04-09-22
By: James Suzman
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The Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution
- A Captivating Guide to the Age of Reason and a Period of Major Industrialization
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 7 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 13
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 7
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Story5 out of 5 stars 7
If you want to discover the captivating history of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution, then this two-in-one books bundle is for you. Includes: Age of Enlightenment and The Industrial Revolution.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great overview of the subject
- By Vanimal on 09-20-23
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Ethnic America
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: James Bundy
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 497
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 396
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Story5 out of 5 stars 394
Thomas Sowell provides us with a useful and concise record tracing the history of nine ethnic groups: Irish, Germans, Jews, Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Understanding the ethnic tapestry of America
- By Amazon Customer on 12-23-19
By: Thomas Sowell
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The Mystery of Capital
- Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
- By: Hernando de Soto
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 139
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 120
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Story5 out of 5 stars 118
"The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail?
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5 out of 5 stars
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Good global perspective on Capitalism
- By Nellie boi on 05-29-21
By: Hernando de Soto
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The Decline and Rise of Democracy
- A Global History from Antiquity to Today
- By: David Stastavage
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 49
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer - democratic practices were present in many places at many other times. David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished - and when and why they declined - can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Informative
- By Frank on 12-22-20
By: David Stastavage
What listeners say about The Story of Work
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 04-12-23
great history, horrible analysis
The history is very interesting and fairly detailed. The analysis at the end of the book is a bit wild and can be skipped. Throughout the book he notes multiple times how the more control a government or similar authority had in planning the worse the workers did in the long term - while not stated explicitly it is very obvious. When workers weren't getting paid enough or receiving great enough benefits, they rebelled. Fascinatingly, entrepreneurship really started from the second food production was great enough to support non worker individuals (not always for beneficial purposes).
The end of the book devolves into the author just regurgitating and citing Piquity (spelling?) who is very at odds with the detail of the book. If the end were supported by his own work rather than standard academia talking points, it would have been much more interesting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Jaime
- 10-17-21
enlightening
must read in our times. a masterful and comprehensive review of work arrangements and how our current conflicts are just the latest installment
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A. Reader
- 11-30-21
Pronunciation
The reader's pronunciation of most non-English words and some English ones (e.g. pastoral/pastoralists) is grating.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Owen Davis
- 03-03-23
Amazing historical scope and detail, occasionally aimless
The book is an impressive achievement. It certainly fulfills its promise of providing a full historical overview of human work. The author is adept at finding evocative stories that highlight the themes and historical moments under examination. This comes at the cost of occasionally losing bigger-picture narrative momentum. Perhaps this is a result of audio rather than paper consumption. I think I’ll buy the real thing now that I’ve listened so I can return to some areas where I lost focus.
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