Social Science Audiobooks | Non-Fiction

In his million-copy bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond examined how and why Western civilizations developed the technologies and immunities that allowed them to dominate much of the world. Now in this brilliant companion volume, Diamond probes the other side of the equation: What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin, and what can we learn from their fates? As in Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond weaves an all-encompassing global thesis through a series of fascinating historical-cultural narratives. Moving from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe. Environmental damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices were all factors in the demise of these societies, but other societies found solutions and persisted. Similar problems face us today and have already brought disaster to Rwanda and Haiti, even as China and Australia are trying to cope in innovative ways. Despite our own society's apparently inexhaustible wealth and unrivaled political power, ominous warning signs have begun to emerge even in ecologically robust areas like Montana. Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing, Collapse is destined to take its place as one of the essential books of our time, raising the urgent question: How can our world best avoid committing ecological suicide?

Jared Diamond (Author), Christopher Murney (Narrator)

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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

This engrossing piece of undercover reportage is a New York Times best-seller. With nearly a million copies in print, Nickel and Dimed is a modern classic that deftly portrays the plight of America's working-class poor. Author Barbara Ehrenreich decides to see if she can scratch out a comfortable living in blue-collar America. What she discovers is a culture of desperation, where workers often take multiple low-paying jobs just to keep a roof overhead.

Barbara Ehrenreich (Author), Cristine McMurdo-Wallis (Narrator)

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Learning to Sing: Hearing the Music in Your Life

"My mother prophesied years ago that my voice would take me places. She was certain that there was a reason I was able to sing. I am still discovering what that reason is, what it is that God wants to happen." -CLAY AIKEN, from Learning to Sing When he was a kid singing in his church choir, Clay Aiken never dreamed of becoming a pop music star. His ambition was to be a teacher, maybe even a high school principal. But Clay's mother was right, and the music that was Clay's joy in life was destined to lead him to unexpected triumphs. In Learning to Sing, Clay details what his astonishing success has meant to him. He writes from the heart about his life before and since his instant stardom on American Idol, how he has changed, and how he struggles to adapt to life in the public eye. He speaks candidly about his lonely childhood: the father who abandoned him, the school bullies who tormented him, the mother who taught him to be strong, and the friends and teachers who-more than they ever knew-kept him going. He describes his new high-profile life in Los Angeles- the awards shows, the free clothes, the unfortunate presence of avocado on all the food. More significant, he reveals what he has discovered from diving into the white-hot center of pop culture: what it takes for him to stay true to himself and remember the lessons he learned growing up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Clay shares his struggle to remain a man his mother can be proud of, and writes about the faith that sustains him today just as it did when he was an awkward, unpopular outsider. "I believe God has a direction for me. He did not give me this life just so I could buy a big house and an SUV. My job is to give back and to be a decent human being no matter how many people cheer my name." Clay's friends-the old ones from North Carolina and the millions of new ones who love his voice-will hold this inspiring memoir as close to their hearts as they do his music. Learning to Sing reminds you that anything is possible. Like a perfect song, it will send your spirit soaring. From the Hardcover edition.

Allison Glock, Clay Aiken (Author), Kirby Heyborne (Narrator)

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The Good Body

Botox, bulimia, breast implants: Eve Ensler, author of the international sensation The Vagina Monologues, is back, this time to rock our view of what it means to have a “good body.” “In the 1950s,” Eve writes, girls were “pretty, perky. They had a blond Clairol wave in their hair. They wore girdles and waist-pinchers. . . . In recent years good girls join the army. They climb the corporate ladder. They go to the gym. . . . They wear painful pointy shoes. They don’t eat too much. They . . . don’t eat at all. They stay perfect. They stay thin. I could never be good.” The Good Body starts with Eve’s tortured relationship with her own “post-forties” stomach and her skirmishes with everything from Ab Rollers to fad diets and fascistic trainers in an attempt get the “flabby badness” out. As Eve hungrily seeks self-acceptance, she is joined by the voices of women from L.A. to Kabul, whose obsessions are also laid bare: A young Latina candidly critiques her humiliating “spread,” a stubborn layer of fat that she calls “a second pair of thighs.” The wife of a plastic surgeon recounts being systematically reconstructed–inch by inch–by her “perfectionist” husband. An aging magazine executive, still haunted by her mother’s long-ago criticism, describes her desperate pursuit of youth as she relentlessly does sit-ups. Along the way, Eve also introduces us to women who have found a hard-won peace with their bodies: an African mother who celebrates each individual body as signs of nature’s diversity; an Indian woman who transcends “treadmill mania” and delights in her plump cheeks and curves; and a veiled Afghani woman who is willing to risk imprisonment for a taste of ice cream. These are just a few of the inspiring stories woven through Eve’s global journey from obsession to enlightenment. Ultimately, these monologues become a personal wake-up call from Eve to love the “good bodies” we inhabit. From the Hardcover edition.

Eve Ensler (Author), Eve Ensler (Narrator)

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La Ola Latina: Como los Hispanos Estan Transformando la Politica en los Estados Unidos

Jorge Ramos (Author), Jorge Ramos (Narrator)

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A Year In Provence

More than 40,000 listeners have enjoyed this story on cassette. Now anyone who's ever dreamed of getting away from it all can enjoy the charms and challenges of A Year in Provence on CD Peter Mayle and his wife had been to Provence as tourists. They had dreamed of one day trading the long, gray winters and damp summers of England for the blue skies and sunshine of the coast of southern France. And then they made it happen. They moved into an old farmhouse at the foot of the Luberon mountains and embarked on a wonderful, if at times bewildering, new life. Among their experiences that first year: being inundated with builders and visitors, grappling with the native accent, taking part in goat races and supervising the planting of a new vineyard. Peter Mayle personally recounts the pleasures and frustrations of Provençal life-sharing in a way no one else can, the unique and endearing culture that is Provence. A Year in Provence was a New York Times bestseller for three years and won the British Book Awards' "Best Travel Book of the Year."

Peter Mayle (Author), Peter Mayle (Narrator)

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The Compleat Gentleman: The Modern Man’s Guide to Chivalry

At a time of astonishing confusion about what it means to be a man, Brad Miner has recovered the oldest and best ideal of manhood: the gentleman. Reviving a thousand-year tradition of chivalry, honor, and heroism, The Compleat Gentleman provides the essential model for twenty-first-century masculinity. Despite our confusion, real manhood is not complicated. It is an ancient ideal based on service to one's God, country, family, and friends—a simple but arduous ideal worthy of a lifetime of struggle. Miner's gentleman stands out for his dignity, restraint, and discernment. He rejects the notion that one way of behaving is as good as another. He belongs to an aristocracy of virtue, not of wealth or birth. Proposing neither a club nor a movement, Miner describes a lofty code of manly conduct, which, far from threatening democracy, is necessary for its survival. Miner traces the concept of manliness from the jousting fields of the twelfth century to the decks of the Titanic. The three masculine archetypes that emerge—the warrior, the lover, and the monk—all come together to make up the character of the 'compleat gentleman.' This modern knight cultivates a martial spirit in defense of the true and the beautiful. He treats the opposite sex with the passionate respect required by courtly love. And he values learning in the pursuit of truth—all with the discretion, decorum, and nonchalance that the Renaissance called sprezzatura. The Compleat Gentleman is filled with examples from the past and the present of the man our increasingly uncivilized age demands.

Brad Miner, Dale Archer (Author), Christopher Lane (Narrator)

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The Journey of Crazy Horse

In the great oral tradition of the Lakota people, author Joseph M. Marshall III shares the compelling history of a man, a tribe, and a legacy of courage and endurance. Tasunke Witko, or Crazy Horse, as he is often remembered, brought the U.S. Army to its knees in 1876. His valor and leadership elevated him to legendary status among Native American people; in this riveting biography, Joseph Marshall (himself a Lakota Indian) combines firsthand research and a rich oral history to offer a fully-faceted portrait of the spirited warrior and revered hero, and a profound celebration of an enduring culture. When Marshall was a child, his grandfather and great uncles would tell vivid tales of the Battle of Little Bighorn as if the decisive battle had happened only the day before; his research for this book included in-depth, lengthy conversations with elderly storytellers who describe details and perspectives that could only come from firsthand accounts. The Journey of Crazy Horse is a unique opportunity to hear legends of a great man as they have told for generations—and rarely shared outside the Native American community.

Joseph Marshall (Author), Joseph Marshall (Narrator)

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Planet Simpson

Planet Simpson is the first book to bring in-depth analysis to that most important pop-cultural institution of the last decade-Fox TV's "The Simpsons"-and use the show as a microcosm of the Western culture it has hilariously (and mercilessly) reflected and influenced. In an age of unprecedented transformation, "The Simpsons" alone has had the depth, intelligence, scope, and, most importantly, humor to chart the links between popular culture and the world we live in. Planet Simpson is broken down into scathingly funny chapters analyzing each major character's relationship to different facets of the American character: Homer Simpson, the ultimate everyman of the American century; Lisa Simpson, the voice of the show's social conscience; Bart Simpson, punk icon; Marge Simpson, maternal voice of moral authority and anchor of Simpsons family values; C. Montgomery Burns, unchecked capitalism personified...and every bit character on down from Barney to Smithers to Krusty the Clown, coupled with intelligent, friendly, and entertaining analysis of the show's greater themes. Going well beyond a critical discussion of a single television program, Planet Simpson will use "The Simpsons" as a window on the culture at large to deliver first-hand reportage of the Internet boom, the alternative-rock explosion, the triumph of irony, the cultural origins of anti-globalization, and other defining events and trends of our accelerated, confounding era.

Chris Turner (Author), Oliver Wyman (Narrator)

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The Incas

The Incas were a small ethic group from the southern Peruvian highlands who created the greatest empire ever seen in the independent Americas--an empire of 10 to 12 million people. Inca history, largely presented to us by the conquering Spanish, reveals a rich culture of stunning achievement. In many ways, Inca life was defined by its unique geographical setting in the Andes, whose climate influenced everything from the crops the Incas grew to the altitudes in which they lived. This course focuses on Inca life at the height of empire, the society's origins, its military, religion, ruling structure, and finally, the Incas' legacy today. ** Please contact Customer Service for additional content.

Terence N. D'Altroy (Author), Denis Judd (Narrator)

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Lost and Found Sound

Jay Allison, The Kitchen Sisters (Author), Noah Adams (Narrator)

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Lost and Found Sound and Beyond: Stories from NPR's All Things Considered

Jay Allison, The Kitchen Sisters (Author), Francis Ford Coppola (Narrator)

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Social Science Audiobooks in Non-Fiction