Audiobooks narrated by William Hughes

A Better Planet: Forty Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future

A practical, bipartisan call to action from the world's leading thinkers on the environment and sustainability Sustainability has emerged as a global priority over the past several years. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the adoption of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals through the United Nations have highlighted the need to address critical challenges, like the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, water shortages, and air pollution. But in the United States, partisan divides, regional disputes, and deep disagreements over core principles have made it nearly impossible to chart a course toward a sustainable future. This timely new book, edited by celebrated scholar Daniel C. Esty, offers fresh thinking and forward-looking solutions from environmental thought leaders across the political spectrum. The book's forty essays cover such subjects as ecology, environmental justice, Big Data, public health, and climate change, all with an emphasis on sustainability. This book focuses on moving toward sustainability through actionable, bipartisan approaches based on rigorous analytical research.

Daniel C. Esty (Author), Alex Boyles, Caroline Shaffer, Erica Sullivan, Kate Mulligan, Kevin Kenerly, Traber Burns, William Hughes (Narrator)

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A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War

By the time his body hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper's Ferry, abolitionists had made John Brown a "holy martyr" in the fight against Southern slave owners. But Northern hatred for Southerners had been long in the making. Northern rage was born of the conviction that New England, whose spokesmen and militia had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern "slavocrats" like Thomas Jefferson. And Northern envy only exacerbated the South's greatest fear: race war. In the sixty years preceding the outbreak of civil war, Northern and Southern fanatics ramped up the struggle over slavery. By the time they had become intractable enemies, only the tragedy of a bloody civil war could save the Union. In this riveting and character-driven history, one of America's most respected historians traces the "disease in the public mind"-distortions of reality that seized large numbers of Americans-in the decades-long run-up to the Civil War. "The prolific Fleming, for decades a fixture among American historians, pinpoints public opinion as the proximate origin of the war...Making a plausible presentation of antebellum attitudes and illusions, Fleming is sure to spark lively discussion about the Civil War."-Booklist

Thomas Fleming (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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A Disease in the Public Mind: A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War

By the time his body hung from the gallows for his crimes at Harper's Ferry, abolitionists had made John Brown a 'holy martyr' in the fight against Southern slave owners. But Northern hatred for Southerners had been long in the making. Northern rage was born of the conviction that New England, whose spokesmen and militia had begun the American Revolution, should have been the leader of the new nation. Instead, they had been displaced by Southern 'slavocrats' like Thomas Jefferson. And Northern envy only exacerbated the South's greatest fear: race war. In the sixty years preceding the outbreak of civil war, Northern and Southern fanatics ramped up the struggle over slavery. By the time they had become intractable enemies, only the tragedy of a bloody civil war could save the Union. In this riveting and character-driven history, one of America's most respected historians traces the 'disease in the public mind'—distortions of reality that seized large numbers of Americans—in the decades-long run-up to the Civil War.

Thomas Fleming (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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A Prescription for Change: The Looming Crisis in Drug Development

The introduction of new medicines has dramatically improved the quantity and quality of individual and public health while contributing trillions of dollars to the global economy. In spite of these past successes-and indeed because of them-our ability to deliver new medicines may be quickly coming to an end. Moving from the twentieth century to the present, A Prescription for Change reveals how changing business strategies combined with scientific hubris have altered the way new medicines are discovered, with dire implications for both health and the economy. To explain how we have arrived at this pivotal moment, Michael S. Kinch recounts the history of pharmaceutical and biotechnological advances in the twentieth century, relating stories of the individuals and organizations that ushered in the modern era of translational medicine. He shows that an accelerating cycle of acquisition and downsizing is cannibalizing the very infrastructure that had fostered the introduction of innovative new medicines. As Kinch demonstrates, the dismantling of the pharmaceutical and biotechnological research and development enterprises could also provide opportunities to innovate new models that sustain and expand the introduction of newer and better breakthrough medicines in the years to come. "This compelling and thoughtful book provides a unique perspective and critical analysis of the pharmaceutical industry and its mode of expansion."-Ronald Goldfarb, Sopherion Therapeutics

Michael Kinch (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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A Safeway in Arizona

A riveting account of the state of Arizona, seen through the lens of the Tucson shootings. On January 8, 2011, twenty-two-year-old Jared Lee Loughner opened fire at a Tucson meet and greet held by US representative Gabrielle Giffords. The incident left six people dead and thirteen injured, including Giffords, whom he shot in the head. Award-winning author and fifth-generation Arizonan Tom Zoellner, a longtime friend of Giffords' and a field organizer on her congressional campaign, uses the tragedy as a jumping-off point to expose the fault lines in Arizona's political and socioeconomic landscape that allowed this to happen: the harmful political rhetoric, the inept state government, the lingering effects of the housing market's boom and bust, the proliferation and accessibility of guns, the lack of established communities, and the hysteria surrounding issues of race and immigration. Zoellner offers a revealing portrait of the southwestern state at a critical moment in history-and as a symbol of the nation's discontents and uncertainties. Ultimately, it is his rallying cry for a saner, more civil way of life. "This is a remarkable book. It was deeply reported before Tom Zoellner could have known he would write it. It was deeply reported after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords made it absolutely necessary for him to write. Zoellner's long, intense relationships with his two main subjects-Giffords and the state of Arizona-give enormous authority to his storytelling. Unsentimental but driven by powerful emotion, the book makes crisp, riveting, expansive sense of a tragedy that was far more than a random massacre by a madman."-William Finnegan, author of Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country

Tom Zoellner (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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American Tempest: How the Boston Tea Party Sparked a Revolution

On Thursday, December 16, 1773, an estimated seven dozen men, many amateurishly disguised as Indians'then a symbol of freedom'dumped about '10,000 worth of tea in the harbor. Whatever their motives at the time, they unleashed a social, political, and economic firestorm that would culminate in the Declaration of Independence two and a half years later. The Boston Tea Party provoked a reign of terror in Boston and other American cities, with Americans inflicting unimaginable barbarities on each other. Tea parties erupted in American cities up and down the colonies. The turmoil stripped tens of thousands of Americans of their dignity, their homes, their properties, and their birthrights'in the name of liberty and independence. Nearly 100,000 Americans left the land of their forefathers forever in what was history's largest exodus of Americans from America. Nonetheless, John Adams called the Boston Tea Party nothing short of 'magnificent.' And he went on to say that the 'destruction of tea is so bold, so daring, so firm'it must have important consequences.' Ironically, few if any Americans today'even those who call themselves Tea Party Patriots'would be able to name even one of the estimated eighty participants in the original Boston Tea Party. Nor are many Americans aware of the 'important consequences' of the Tea Party. The acute shortage of tea that followed the Tea Party, of course, helped transform Americans into coffee drinkers, but its effects went far beyond culinary tastes. The Tea Party would affect so many American minds, hearts, and souls that it helped spawn a new, independent nation whose citizens would govern themselves. 'Harlow Giles Unger has taken a much-written-about subject from America's past and looked at it with fresh eyes, finding insights and drawing conclusions that will startle not a few people.''Thomas Fleming, New York Times bestselling author

Harlow Giles Unger (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Env

Swine flu. Bird flu. Unusual concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Massive fish kills from flesh-eating parasites. Recalls of meats, vegetables, and fruits because of deadly E. coli bacterial contamination.Recent public-health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market. In Animal Factory, best-selling author and investigative journalist David Kirby exposes the powerful business and political interests behind large-scale factory farms and tracks the far-reaching fallout that contaminates our air, land, water, and food.In this thoroughly researched book, Kirby follows three families and communities whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms. These farms (known as "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations," or CAFOs), confine thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under horrifying conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins. Weaving together science, politics, law, big business, and everyday life, Kirby accompanies these families in their struggles against animal factories. A North Carolina fisherman takes on pig farms upstream to preserve his river, his family's life, and his home. A mother in a small Illinois town pushes back against an outsized dairy farm and its devastating impact. And, a Washington state grandmother becomes an unlikely activist when her home is covered with soot and her water supply is compromised by runoff from leaking lagoons of cattle waste.Animal Factory is an important book about our American food system gone terribly wrong-and the people who are fighting to restore sustainable farming practices and save our limited natural resources. "As the readers of Kirby's book will learn, nature's clock is ticking and much is at stake for the planet and all of its inhabitants. Each page of this book is filled with powerful information. It has all the makings of a number one best-seller."-Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

David Kirby (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Ark of the Liberties: America and the World

"Long before there was an America, the dream of a land of freedom existed. A fantasy grew into a society, then a nation, and finally a superpower; yet the belief always lingered that liberty and America were one and the same. Often they were. But unattainable aspirations can be damaging. From the Puritans to Thomas Paine, from Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush, Americans have believed that we have a mission to redeem the world. Pursuing that belief has led to forced efforts that are inconsistent with a true definition of liberty. With wit, brilliance, and deep affection, Ted Widmer traces America's incomparable history, from its soaring moments to its less glorious ones, in a celebratory critique that aims to help us know ourselves a little better." "In this exploration of the United States' promotion of liberty across the globe, Ted Widmer offers an examination of our history that should influence the way we think about our place in the 21st-century world. At a time when we need to restore America's standing in so many places, Ark of the Liberties shows us how we can do it if we remain true to our historic ideals."-Bill Clinton

Ted Widmer (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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At the Edge of the Precipice: Henry Clay and the Compromise That Saved the Union

A National Book Award-winning historian brilliantly portrays Henry Clay's heroic brokering of the Compromise of 1850 with its timely message about bipartisanship in times of crisis. It has been said that if Henry Clay had been alive in 1860, there would have been no Civil War. Based on his performance in 1850, it may well be true. In that year, the United States faced one of the most dangerous crises in its history, having just acquired a huge parcel of land from the war with Mexico. Northern and Southern politicians fought over whether slavery should be legal on the new American soil. After a Northern congressman introduced a proviso to forbid slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico, Southerners threatened to secede from the Union. Only Henry Clay, America's great compromiser, could keep the Union together, saving it from dissolution for ten crucial years. In this masterful contribution to American history, Remini explores Henry Clay's final and most important act of bipartisanship. "Remini breaks down the debate into palatable pieces for the lay reader….A fresh look at the value of compromise in advancing the general interest."—Kirkus Reviews

Robert V. Remini, Robert Vincent Remini (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Billionaire Democracy: The Hijacking of the American Political System

This isn't your America. No matter who the president is.We are told that, when we vote and elect representatives, we gain a voice in government and its policies. Yet, it hasn't translated our preferences into higher living standards for the majority of us.In America, the wealthy few have built a system that works in their favor, while maintaining the illusion of democracy. American voters have little influence on policies engineered by lawmakers. Political scientists call it the "income bias," causing lawmakers to compete to satisfy preferences of donors from the top 1 percent instead of the middle class. It is why our economy has been misfiring for most Americans for a generation, wages stagnating and opportunity dwindling.Economist George R. Tyler lays out the fundamental problems plaguing our democracy. He explains how our democratic system has eroded the middle class and provides a comparison to peer democracies abroad. He shows where we fall short and how other rich democracies avoid the income bias pitfall. He also outlines reforms to improve our government's responsiveness.It's time for the people of this nation to demand a government that properly serves us, the American people. **Contact Customer Service for Additional Material**

George R. Tyler (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Bradley: Great Generals Series

Known by his troops in World War II as "The Soldier's General" because of his care of and compassion for the soldiers under his command, Omar Bradley commanded the U. S. 12th Army Group in Europe. By the spring of 1945, this group contained 4 field armies, 12 corps, 48 divisions, and more than 1,300,000 men—the largest exclusively American field command in U.S. history. “He was America’s General, embodying…core values of integrity and respect that reflected the democracy he served…The leadership lessons are universal, and they are timeless.”—Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Daniel Christman, former superintendent, US Military Academy, West Point

Alan Axelrod (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives

A lively, surprising tour of our mental glitches and how they arise. With its trillions of connections, the human brain is more beautiful and complex than anything we could ever build, but it's far from perfect: our memory is unreliable; we can't multiply large sums in our heads; advertising manipulates our judgment; we tend to distrust people who are different from us; supernatural beliefs and superstitions are hard to shake; we prefer instant gratification to long-term gain; and what we presume to be rational decisions are often anything but. Drawing on striking examples and fascinating studies, neuroscientist Dean Buonomano illuminates the causes and consequences of these "bugs" in terms of the brain's innermost workings and their evolutionary purposes. He then goes one step further, examining how our brains function-and malfunction-in the digital, predator-free, information-saturated, special-effects-addled world that we have built for ourselves. Along the way, Brain Bugs gives us the tools to hone our cognitive strengths while recognizing our inherent weaknesses. "Intriguing take on behavioral economics, marketing, and human foibles."-Kirkus Reviews

Dean Buonomano (Author), William Hughes (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by William Hughes