Audiobooks by Noah Feldman

Takeover: How a Conservative Student Club Captured the Supreme Court

Six of the nine sitting justices of the Supreme Court are current or former members of The Federalist Society-a private, conservative legal organization which has grown to dominate modern American jurisprudence. Takeover tells the story of how The Federalist Society started as a student club and grew to become the most influential legal organization in US history. Over the last three decades, they managed to shape judicial policy and secure numerous seats for its members on courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. Now at the height of its prominence, the organization faces new challenges and internal divisions threaten to splinter the group as its members debate the core founding principles of the Federalist Society. Author and narrator Noah Feldman, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, host of the Deep Background podcast, and author of several books including The Arab Winter and The Three Lives of James Madison, provides special insight and access into this organization. He takes listeners into the offices and chambers of the people who know the Federalist Society best and illuminates how the group came to power, the challenges it faces, and its future which should matter to everyone.

Lidia Jean Kott, Noah Feldman (Author), Noah Feldman (Narrator)

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The Arab Winter: A Tragedy

This audiobook narrated by Noah Feldman reveals why the conventional wisdom about the Arab Spring is wrong The Arab Spring promised to end dictatorship and bring self-government to people across the Middle East. Yet everywhere except Tunisia it led to either renewed dictatorship, civil war, extremist terror, or all three. In The Arab Winter, Noah Feldman argues that the Arab Spring was nevertheless not an unmitigated failure, much less an inevitable one. Rather, it was a noble, tragic series of events in which, for the first time in recent Middle Eastern history, Arabic-speaking peoples took free, collective political action as they sought to achieve self-determination. Focusing on the Egyptian revolution and counterrevolution, the Syrian civil war, the rise and fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and the Tunisian struggle toward Islamic constitutionalism, Feldman provides an original account of the political consequences of the Arab Spring, including the reaffirmation of pan-Arab identity, the devastation of Arab nationalisms, and the death of political Islam with the collapse of ISIS. He also challenges commentators who say that the Arab Spring was never truly transformative, that Arab popular self-determination was a mirage, and even that Arabs or Muslims are less capable of democracy than other peoples. Above all, The Arab Winter shows that we must not let the tragic outcome of the Arab Spring disguise its inherent human worth. People whose political lives had been determined from the outside tried, and for a time succeeded, in making politics for themselves. That this did not result in constitutional democracy or a better life for most of those affected doesn't mean the effort didn't matter. To the contrary, it matters for history—and it matters for the future.

Noah Feldman (Author), Noah Feldman (Narrator)

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The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President

A sweeping reexamination of the Founding Father who transformed the United States in each of his political "lives"-as a revolutionary thinker, as a partisan political strategist, and as a president Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician he co-founded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president and, despite the odds, winning. In The Three Lives of James Madison, Noah Feldman offers an intriguing portrait of this elusive genius and the constitutional republic he created-and how both evolved to meet unforeseen challenges. Madison hoped to eradicate partisanship yet found himself giving voice to, and institutionalizing, the political divide. Madison's lifelong loyalty to Thomas Jefferson led to an irrevocable break with George Washington, hero of the American Revolution. Madison closely collaborated with Alexander Hamilton on the Federalist papers-yet their different visions for the United States left them enemies. Alliances defined Madison, too. The vivacious Dolley Madison used her social and political talents to win her husband new supporters in Washington-and define the diplomatic customs of the capital's society. Madison's relationship with James Monroe, a mixture of friendship and rivalry, shaped his presidency and the outcome of the War of 1812. We may be more familiar with other Founding Fathers, but the United States today is in many ways Madisonian in nature. Madison predicted that foreign threats would justify the curtailment of civil liberties. He feared economic inequality and the power of financial markets over politics, believing that government by the people demanded resistance to wealth. Madison was the first Founding Father to recognize the importance of public opinion, and the first to understand that the media could function as a safeguard to liberty. The Three Lives of James Madison is an illuminating biography of the man whose creativity and tenacity gave us America's distinctive form of government. His collaborations, struggles, and contradictions define the United States to this day. Jacket illustration adapted from a 1792 portrait of James Madison by Charles Willson Peale (Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Okla.) Advance praise for The Three Lives of James Madison "Noah Feldman brings a scholarly rigor and a gift for narrative to this impressive account of the sprawling-and often perplexing-life of James Madison. Understanding America requires understanding this often-overlooked Founder and his long, eventful life in the arena. We are fortunate indeed that Feldman has given us such a thoughtful examination of Madison's mind and its still-unfolding role in the story of the nation."-Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "James Madison is famously known as the 'Father' of the American Constitution. With great insight, conveyed in elegant and commanding prose, Noah Feldman gives us a rich portrait of our fourth president in all his many aspects: constitution maker, politician, partisan, friend, slaveholder, husband, president, and elder statesmen. The result is a fresh, bold, and much-needed look at a pivotal figure in American and, therefore, world history."-Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

Noah Feldman (Author), John H. Mayer (Narrator)

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Cool War

A bold and thought-provoking look at the future of U.S.-China relations, and how their coming power struggle will reshape the competitive playing field for nations around the world The Cold War seemingly ended in a decisive victory for the West. But now, Noah Feldman argues, we are entering an era of renewed global struggle: the era of Cool War. Just as the Cold War matched the planet's reigning superpowers in a contest for geopolitical supremacy, so this new age will pit the United States against a rising China in a contest for dominance, alliances, and resources. Already visible in Asia, the conflict will extend to the Middle East (U.S.-backed Israel versus Chinese-backed Iran), Africa, and beyond. Yet this Cool War differs fundamentally from the zero-sum showdowns of the past: The world's major power and its leading challenger are economically interdependent to an unprecedented degree. Exports to the U.S. account for nearly a quarter of Chinese trade, while the Chinese government holds 8 percent of America's outstanding debt. This positive-sum interdependence has profound implications for nations, corporations, and international institutions. It makes what looked to be a classic contest between two great powers into something much more complex, contradictory, and badly in need of the shrewd and carefully reasoned analysis that Feldman provides. To understand the looming competition with China, we must understand the incentives that drive Chinese policy. Feldman offers an arresting take on that country's secretive hierarchy, proposing that the hereditary "princelings" who reap the benefits of the complicated Chinese political system are actually in partnership with the meritocrats who keep the system full of fresh talent and the reformers who are trying to root out corruption and foster government accountability. He provides a clear-eyed analysis of the years ahead, showing how China's rise presents opportunities as well as risks. Robust competition could make the U.S. leaner, smarter, and more pragmatic, and could drive China to greater respect for human rights. Alternatively, disputes over trade, territory, or human rights could jeopardize the global economic equilibrium-or provoke a catastrophic "hot war" that neither country wants. The U.S. and China may be divided by political culture and belief, but they are also bound together by mutual self-interest. Cool War makes the case for competitive cooperation as the only way forward that can preserve the peace and make winners out of both sides.

Noah Feldman (Author), Noah Feldman (Narrator)

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Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices

Unprecedented in its global impact, the Great Depression sounded the death knell of unfettered capitalism. Four men-- all from wildly different backgrounds, all with decidedly disparate temperments, and all equally devoted to FDR-- were the primary authors of what would essentially be America's new Constitution. FDR's Scorpions is the story of their personalities, their relationships, and above all their ideas in the crucial years of depression and war -- years in which these men created the national game plan that would save the country by rebuilding the economy and defeating the Nazis and the Soviets in turn. It is also the story of how these men--Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Robert Jackson , and William O. Douglas (a Jew, a Klansman, aYankee, and aWesterner)-- advised, cajoled, used, and were used by the man who brought them together and whom they all revered: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Noah Feldman (Author), Cotter Smith (Narrator)

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