Politics Audiobooks | LoveReading

X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos Who Helped Defeat the Nazis

Brought to you by Penguin. June 1942. The Third Reich is victorious everywhere. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria who escaped to Britain just before the War. Many have lost their families, their homes - their whole worlds. And now, in the crucial final battles against the Nazis, they will stop at nothing to defeat them. Trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, this top secret unit becomes known as X Troop. Some simply call them a suicide squad. Drawing on extensive original research, including interviews with the last surviving members, Leah Garrett follows this unique band of brothers from Europe to England and back again, with stops at British internment camps, the beaches of Normandy, the battlefields of Italy and Holland, and the hellscape of Terezin concentration camp - the scene of one of the most dramatic, untold rescues of the war. For the first time, X Troop tells the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis. © Leah Garrett 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Leah Garrett (Author), John Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

Crackup: The Republican Implosion and the Future of Presidential Politics

In Crackup, Samuel L. Popkin tells the story of how the Republican Party fractured into uncompromising groups with irreconcilable demands. Changes in campaign finance laws and the proliferation of mass media opened the way for newly energized groups to split the party. The 2002 'McCain-Feingold' campaign finance reform bill aimed to weaken the power of big corporations and strengthen political parties by ending corporate donations to the parties. Instead, it weakened legislative leaders and made bipartisanship toxic. Popkin argues that moving money outside the political parties fueled the rise of single-issue advocacy groups and Super PACs funded by billionaires with pet issues. This allowed self-promoting politicians to undermine colleagues with an unprecedented use of tactics once only used to disrupt the other party. One such politician was Ted Cruz, who effectively promoted himself at the expense of the party, mobilized other obstructionists in Congress, and blocked compromises on immigration and healthcare. Into this abyss came Donald J. Trump, who took advantage of the party's inability to do anything for Republican voters struggling with economic decline. A gripping explanation of why the GOP ended up with Trump as their standard bearer, Crackup forces us to look at the deeper forces set in motion two decades ago.

Samuel L. Popkin (Author), John Pruden (Narrator)

Audiobook

Liars: Falsehoods and Free Speech in an Age of Deception

A powerful analysis of why lies and falsehoods spread so rapidly now, and how we can reform our laws and policies regarding speech to alleviate the problem. Lying has been with us from time immemorial. Yet today is different-and in many respects worse. All over the world, people are circulating damaging lies, and these falsehoods are amplified as never before through powerful social media platforms that reach billions. Liars are saying that COVID-19 is a hoax. They are claiming that vaccines cause autism. They are lying about public officials and about people who aspire to high office. They are lying about their friends and neighbors. They are trying to sell products on the basis of untruths. Unfriendly governments, including Russia, are circulating lies in order to destabilize other nations, including the United Kingdom and the United States. In the face of those problems, the renowned legal scholar Cass Sunstein probes the fundamental question of how we can deter lies while also protecting freedom of speech. To be sure, we cannot eliminate lying, nor should we try to do so. Sunstein shows why free societies must generally allow falsehoods and lies, which cannot and should not be excised from democratic debate. A main reason is that we cannot trust governments to make unbiased judgments about what counts as 'fake news.' However, governments should have the power to regulate specific kinds of falsehoods: those that genuinely endanger health, safety, and the capacity of the public to govern itself. Sunstein also suggests that private institutions, such as Facebook and Twitter, have a great deal of room to stop the spread of falsehoods, and they should be exercising their authority far more than they are now doing. As Sunstein contends, we are allowing far too many lies, including those that both threaten public health and undermine the foundations of democracy itself.

Cass R. Sunstein (Author), Jeff Harding (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Rise and Decline of the American Presidency

One Day University presents a series of audio lectures recorded in real-time from some of the top minds in the United States. Given by award-winning professors and experts in their field, these recorded lectures dive deep into the worlds of religion, government, literature, and social justice.The American presidency is the most powerful political office in the world. Surprisingly, most contemporary presidents have found themselves severely constrained in their ability to pursue their chosen agendas for domestic and foreign policy change. This lecture will explain why, focusing on the nature of government bureaucracy, the range of American challenges and commitments, and the development of the modern media. We will begin with the founding vision of the U.S. presidency and the actions of its first occupant, George Washington. Then, we'll examine the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and the most recent office-holders. We will focus on how the power of the presidency has changed over time and what that has meant for American society. The lecture will close with reflections on how we can improve presidential leadership in future years.

Jeremi Suri (Author), Jeremi Suri (Narrator)

Audiobook

Postcapitalist Desire: The Final Lectures

Edited with an introduction by Matt Colquhoun, this collection of lecture notes and transcriptions reveals acclaimed writer and blogger Mark Fisher in his element - the classroom - outlining a project that Fisher's death left so bittersweetly unfinished. Beginning with that most fundamental of questions - 'Do we really want what we say we want?' - Fisher explores the relationship between desire and capitalism, and wonders what new forms of desire we might still excavate from the past, present, and future. From the emergence and failure of the counterculture in the 1970s to the continued development of his left-accelerationist line of thinking, this volume charts a tragically interrupted course for thinking about the raising of a new kind of consciousness, and the cultural and political implications of doing so. For Fisher, this process of consciousness raising was always, fundamentally, psychedelic - just not in the way that we might think...

Mark Fisher (Author), Tom Lawrence (Narrator)

Audiobook

China's Strategic Arsenal: Worldview, Doctrine, and Systems

China's strategic capabilities and doctrine have historically differed from the United States' and Russia's. China has continued to modernize and expand its arsenal despite its policy of no first use, while the United States and Russia have decreased deployed weapons stocks. This volume brings together an international group of distinguished scholars to provide a fresh assessment of China's strategic military capabilities, doctrines, and political perceptions in light of rapidly advancing technologies, an expanding and modernizing nuclear arsenal, and an increased great-power competition with the United States. Analyzing China's strategic arsenal is critical for a deeper understanding of China's relations with both its neighbors and the world. Without a doubt, China's arsenal is growing in size and sophistication, but key uncertainties also lie ahead. Will China's new capabilities and confidence lead it to be more assertive and take more risks? Will China's nuclear traditions change as the strategic balance improves? Will China's approach to military competition be guided by a notion of strategic stability or not? Will there be a strategic arms race with the United States? China's Strategic Arsenal provides a current understanding of these issues as we strive for a stable strategic future with China.

James M. Smith, Paul J. Bolt (Author), P.J. Ochlan (Narrator)

Audiobook

For ALL The People: RedRedeeming the Broken Promises of Modern Media and Reclaiming Our Civic Life

Greater connectivity and superpowered storytelling through digital media systems were supposed to spark a democratic renaissance. Instead, our platforms don’t work for us—we’re the inventory, and our outrage fuels a tech revolution optimized for profit. But we have the power to break free and create a healthy civic life for all Americans. Michael Slaby identifies four necessary avenues to build a future that serves us all: redesign our platforms; restore journalism, government, and corporations; reclaim the power and diversity of our storytelling; and ultimately redeem ourselves. Optimistic and passionate, For ALL the People breaks down how we got here and how we can work together toward a better democracy empowered by—rather than exploited by—technology.

Michael Slaby (Author), Michael Slaby (Narrator)

Audiobook

Os engenheiros do caos: Como as fake news, as teorias da conspiração e os algoritmos estão sendo uti

'Uma mentira pode dar a volta ao mundo no mesmo tempo que a verdade leva para calçar seus sapatos.' Mark Twain Aos olhos dos seus eleitores, as deficiências dos líderes populistas se transformam em qualidades, sua inexperiência demonstra que não pertencem ao círculo da 'velha política', e sua incompetência é uma garantia da sua autenticidade. As tensões que causam em nível internacional são vistas como mostras de sua independência, e as fake News, marca inequívoca de sua propaganda, evidenciam sua liberdade de pensamento. No mundo de Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Matteo Salvini e Jair Bolsonaro, cada dia traz sua própria gafe, sua própria polêmica, seu próprio golpe brilhante. No entanto, por trás das manifestações desenfreadas do carnaval populista, está o trabalho árduo de ideólogos e, cada vez mais, de cientistas e especialistas do Big Data, sem os quais esses líderes nunca teriam chegado ao poder. É o retrato desses engenheiros do caos que Giuliano da Empoli nos apresenta, através de uma investigação ampla e contundente que vai muito além do caso Cambridge Analytica e remonta ao início dos anos 2000, quando o movimento populista global, hoje em pleno curso, dava seus primeiros passos na Itália. O resultado é uma galeria de personagens variados, quase todos desconhecidos do público em geral, mas que vêm mudando as regras do jogo político e a face das nossas sociedades.

Giuliano Da Empoli (Author), Luciano Andrey (Narrator)

Audiobook

Un viitor luminos: Crescut în Transilvania în umbra comunismului

Povestea tânărului Teodor se desfășoară pe fundalul dramei pe care familia și țara sa o trăiesc în zilele cumplite ale anilor 1950 într-o Românie stalinistă. În timp ce țările occidentale sunt angajate în reconstrucția postbelică, regimul comunist, impus românilor de Uniunea Sovietică, îi privează pe cetățenii săi de cele mai elementare libertăți și reduc un popor întreg la foame. Regimul amenință să elimine familia Flonta, declarându-l pe Pavel, tatăl lui Teodor, chiabur, adică „dușman al poporului”. În consecință, Pavel este arestat, întemnițat și torturat. Când valul de persecuție atinge punctul culminant, este forțat să trăiască ascuns. O meserie pe care Pavel o învățase în tinerețe îl salvează: rușii, care extrag uraniu în Carpați pentru bomba lor atomică, îl angajează. Acolo, la mină, brațul lung al Securității, nu poate sa-l ajungă. Și, din moment ce în comunism copiii trebuiau să sufere pentru „păcatele” pe care poliția secretă le atribuie părinților lor, Teodor suferă și el, încă de la o vârstă fragedă, nenumărate abuzuri: meritele sale nu sunt recunoscute în timpul școlii elementare, este expulzat din liceu și nu i se permite să dea exam la facultatea aleasă de el. Când tânărul Teodor termină școala elementară, tatăl său îi face un cadou pe care îl dorea atât de mult. Era un radio cu tranzistori pe care îl va lua cu el peste tot. Într-o zi, în timp ce era la pășunat cu vacile lor, descoperă sunetul unei limbi frumoase: italiana. Din acel moment viața lui începe să se schimbe. În timp ce studiază limba italiană la Universitatea din București, întâlnește femeia viselor sale, Ariella, care îl va salva de comunism. Căderea comunismului îl va găsi pe Teodor „la sfârșitul lumii” în Tasmania, în timp ce tatăl său, ultimul membru al familiei, va fi implicat în recuperarea terenului pe care comuniștii i-l confiscaseră cu zeci de ani mai devreme.

Teodor Flonta (Author), Teodor Flonta (Narrator)

Audiobook

Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat Trump

An award-winning political journalist for The Atlantic tells the inside story of how the embattled Democratic party, seeking a direction for its future during the Trump years, successfully regained the White House. The 2020 presidential campaign was a defining moment for America. As Donald Trump and his nativist populism cowed the Republican Party into submission, many Democrats-haunted by Hillary Clinton's shocking loss in 2016, which led to a four-year-long identity crisis-were convinced he would be unbeatable. Their party and the country, it seemed, might never recover. How, then, did Democrats manage to win the presidency, especially after the longest primary race and the biggest field ever? How did they keep themselves united through an internal struggle between newly empowered progressives and establishment forces-playing out against a pandemic, an economic crisis, and a new racial reckoning? Edward-Isaac Dovere's Battle for the Soul is the searing, fly-on-the-wall account of the Democrats' journey through recalibration and rebirth. Dovere traces this process from the early days in the wilderness of the post-Obama era, though the jockeying of potential candidates, to the backroom battles and exhausting campaigns, to the unlikely triumph of the man few expected to win, and through the inauguration and insurrection at the Capitol. Dovere draws on years of on-the-ground reporting and contemporaneous conversations with the key players-whether in Pete Buttigieg's hotel suite in Des Moines an hour before he won the Iowa caucuses or Joe Biden's first-ever interview in the Oval Office-as well as aides, advisors, and voters. With unparalleled access and an insider's command of the campaign, Battle for the Soul offers a compelling look at the policies, politics, people and the often absurd process of running for president. This fresh and timely story brings you on the trail, into the private rooms and along to eavesdrop on critical conversations. You will never see campaigns or this turning point in our history the same way again.

Edward-Isaac Dovere (Author), Holter Graham (Narrator)

Audiobook

Blood Washing Blood: Afghanistan's Hundred-Year War

A clear-eyed view of the conflict in Afghanistan and its century-deep roots. The war in Afghanistan has consumed vast amounts of blood and treasure, causing the Western powers to seek an exit without achieving victory. Seemingly never-ending, the conflict has become synonymous with a number of issues-global jihad, rampant tribalism, and the narcotics trade-but even though they are cited as the causes of the conflict, they are in fact symptoms. Rather than beginning after 9/11 or with the Soviet 'invasion' in 1979, the current conflict in Afghanistan began with the social reforms imposed by Amanullah Amir in 1919. Western powers have failed to recognize that legitimate grievances are driving the local population to turn to insurgency in Afghanistan. The issues they are willing to fight for have deep roots, forming a hundred-year-long social conflict over questions of secularism, modernity, and centralized power. The first step toward achieving a 'solution' to the Afghanistan 'problem' is to have a clear-eyed view of what is really driving it.

Phil Halton (Author), Sean Runnette (Narrator)

Audiobook

Divided by Terror: American Patriotism after 9/11

Americans responded to the deadly terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, with an outpouring of patriotism, though all were not united in their expression. A war-based patriotism inspired millions of Americans to wave the flag and support a brutal War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, while many other Americans demanded an empathic patriotism that would bear witness to the death and suffering surrounding the attack. Twenty years later, the war still simmers, and both forms of patriotism continue to shape historical understandings of 9/11's legacy and the political life of the nation. John Bodnar's compelling history shifts the focus on America's War on Terror from the battlefield to the arena of political and cultural conflict, revealing how fierce debates over the war are inseparable from debates about the meaning of patriotism itself. Bodnar probes how honor, brutality, trauma, and suffering have become highly contested in commemorations, congressional correspondence, films, soldier memoirs, and works of art. He concludes that Americans continue to be deeply divided over the War on Terror and how to define the terms of their allegiance-a fissure that has deepened as American politics has become dangerously polarized over the first two decades of this new century.

John Bodnar (Author), David Colacci (Narrator)

Audiobook