Audiobooks by David Rothkopf

American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation

It could have been so much worse: a deeply reported, insider story of how a handful of Washington officials staged a daring resistance to an unprecedented presidency and prevented chaos overwhelming the government and the nation. Each federal employee takes an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic," but none had imagined that enemy might be the Commander-in-Chief. With the presidency of Donald Trump, a fault line between the president and vital forces within his government was established. Those who honored their oath of office, their obligation to the Constitution, were wary of the president and they in turn were not trusted and occasionally fired and replaced with loyalists. American Resistance is the first book to chronicle the unprecedented role so many in the government were forced to play and the consequences of their actions during the Trump administration. From Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and his brother Yevgeny, to Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, to Bill Taylor, Fiona Hill, and the official who first called himself "Anonymous"-Miles Taylor, among others, Rothkopf examines the resistance movement that slowly built in Washington. Drawing from first hand testimonies, deep background and research, American Resistance shows how when the President threatened to run amok, a few key figures rose in defiance. It reveals the conflict within the Department of Justice over actively seeking instances of election fraud and abuse to help the president illegally retain power, and multiple battles within the White House over the influence of Jared and Ivanka, and in particular the extraordinary efforts to get them security clearances even after they were denied to them. David Rothkopf chronicles how each person came to realize that they were working for an administration that threatened to wreak havoc - one Defense Secretary was told by his mother to resign before it was too late - in an intense drama in which a few good men and women stood up to the tyrant in their midst.

David Rothkopf (Author), David Rothkopf (Narrator)

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Traitor: A History of American Betrayal from Benedict Arnold to Donald Trump

Political historian and commentator David Rothkopf shows how Trump will be judged by history (Spoiler alert: not well) in Traitor. Donald Trump is unfit in almost every respect for the high office he holds. But what distinguishes him from every other bad leader the U.S. has had is that he has repeatedly, egregiously, betrayed his country. Regardless of how Senate Republicans have let him off the hook, the facts available to the public show that Trump has met every necessary standard to define his behavior as traitorous. He has clearly broken faith with the people of the country he was chosen to lead, starting long before he took office, then throughout his time in the White House. And we may not yet have seen the last of his crimes. But the story we know so far is so outrageous and disturbing that it raises a question that has never before been presented in American history: is the president of the United States the greatest threat this country faces in the world? We also need to understand how the country has historically viewed such crimes and how it has treated them in the past to place what has happened in perspective. After his examination of traitors including Benedict Arnold, Aaron Burr, and leaders of the Confederacy, David Rothkopf concludes that Donald Trump and his many abettors have committed the highest-level, greatest, most damaging betrayal in the history of the country. A Macmillan Audio production from Thomas Dunne Books

David Rothkopf (Author), David Rothkopf, Peter Ganim (Narrator)

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The Great Questions of Tomorrow: The Ideas that Will Remake the World: (Part of TED Books)

A unique tour around the world in search of the great thinkers of our time and their next big ideas. With the world at the threshold of profound changes, the question becomes: Where are the philosophers? Where are the great thinkers of today? Where is the next Jefferson, Curie, or Mandela? Which technologies and changes in the nature of life will they harness, embrace, or be inspired by? As the world's center of gravity has shifted over the centuries from Europe and then to the US, so too has the center of intellectual gravity. With that center shifting to Asia and also to the emerging world, will those places produce the transformational thinkers of the twenty-first century? Embarking on an around-the-world search, David Rothkopf strives to answer these questions, uncovering what the next big ideas are and where they're emerging. Who are the people behind the ideas, and how they will be colored by their place and culture of origins? Many of these ideas will be sought from unexpected markets-the way mobile money is being pioneered in Tanzania and Kenya, for example, or the way that access to the Internet is being explored or treated as a basic human right in Costa Rica, Estonia, and Finland. Along the way, Rothkopf highlights key areas in which transformational thinking will be needed. Core notions such as democracy and government, war and peace, money and markets, human rights and philosophy, and work and identity. Through fascinating and thought-provoking stories, Rothkopf ultimately reveals ideas that are being debated now-ones that will produce incredible breakthroughs in the years ahead.

David Rothkopf (Author), David Rothkopf (Narrator)

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Power, Inc.: The Epic Rivalry between Big Business and Government-and the Reckoning That Lies Ahead

The world's largest company, Wal-Mart Stores, has revenues higher than the gross domestic product of all but twenty-five of the world's countries. Its employees outnumber the populations of almost one hundred nations. The world's largest asset manager, a New York company called BlackRock, controls assets greater than the national reserves of any country on the planet. A private philanthropy, the Gates Foundation, spends as much worldwide on health care as the World Health Organization. The rise of private power may be the most important and least understood trend of our time. Power, Inc. provides a fresh, timely look at how we have reached a point where thousands of companies have greater power than all but a handful of states. Beginning with the story of an inquisitive Swedish goat wandering off from his master and inadvertently triggering the birth of the oldest company still in existence, Power, Inc. follows the rise and fall of kings and empires, the making of great fortunes, and the chaos of bloody revolutions. A fast-paced tale in which champions of liberty are revealed to be paid pamphleteers of moneyed interests and greedy scoundrels trigger changes that have lifted billions from deprivation, Power, Inc. traces the bruising jockeying for influence right up to today's financial crises, growing inequality, broken international system, and battles over the proper role of government and markets. Rothkopf argues that these recent developments, coupled with the rise of powers like China and India, may not lead to the triumph of American capitalism that was celebrated just a few years ago. Instead, he considers an unexpected scenario, a contest among competing capitalisms offering different visions for how the world should work, a global ideological struggle in which European and Asian models may have important advantages. An important look at the power struggle that is defining our times, Power, Inc. also offers critical insights into how to succeed in the years ahead. "Rothkopf employs a brilliant use of history to identify the channels that could, in the end, lead to a better way forward."-Carol Graham, author of The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being

David Rothkopf (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making

Each of them is one in a million. They number 6,000 on a planet of 6 billion. They run our governments, our largest corporations, the powerhouses of international finance, the media, world religions, and, from the shadows, the world's most dangerous criminal and terrorist organizations. They are the global superclass, and they are shaping the history of our time. Today's superclass has achieved unprecedented levels of wealth and power. They have globalized more rapidly than any other group. But do they have more in common with one another than with their own countrymen, as nationalist critics have argued? They control globalization more than anyone else. But has their influence fed the growing economic and social inequity that divides the world? What happens behind closed-door meetings in Davos or aboard corporate jets at 41,000 feet? Conspiracy or collaboration? Deal-making or idle self-indulgence? What does the rise of Asia and Latin America mean for the conventional wisdom that shapes our destinies? Who sets the rules for a group that operates beyond national laws? Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews and extensive original reporting, Superclass answers all of these questions and more. It draws back the curtain on a privileged society that most of us know little about, even though it profoundly affects our everyday lives. It is the first in-depth examination of the connections between the global communities of leaders who are at the helm of every major enterprise on the planet and control its greatest wealth. And it is an unprecedented examination of the trends within the superclass, which are likely to alter our politics, our institutions, and the shape of the world in which we live.

David Rothkopf (Author), Patrick Lawlor (Narrator)

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