History Audiobooks | TV & Radio

Introduction to Politics 4th Edition Audiobook

Combining theory, comparative politics, and international relations, Introduction to Politics, Fourth Edition provides the most comprehensive introduction to the subject for first year undergraduate students, with the most global perspective. Written by three experts in the field, this book takes a balanced approached to the subject, serving as a strong foundation for further study. Assuming no prior knowledge, the authors use an accessible yet analytical approach which encourages critical analysis and debate, helping students to develop the vital skills they need for future studies and employment. The new edition has been fully updated with additional case studies and examples to help students to understand how key theories and principles apply in the context of real-world events. New to the fourth edition is a chapter on 'Non-Western Approaches,' which helps students to bring more diverse perspectives to their study of politics. Furthermore, additional coverage of populism has been included, to reflect current events and developments in discourse. This ensures that Introduction to Politics, Fourth Edition is the most contemporary, relevant, and essential guide for students new to the study of politics.

Peter Ferdinand, Robert Garner, Stephanie Lawson (Author), Corrie James (Narrator)

Audiobook

Fake News: La nueva realidad

El mayor peligro del acceso ilimitado a la información es que siempre hay alguien que la acepta sin cuestionar. En la prensa escrita y en la digital, en las redes sociales y en los medios tradicionales, un torrente de mentiras, propaganda e inexactitudes -motivadas por el afán de dinero, notoriedad o poder- se mezcla y confunde con el reporte de hechos reales. Jamás ha sido tan fácil ser engañado: a la censura y el espionaje se han sumado la sobreinformación y las fake news. En este escenario, que parece sacado de una distopía orwelliana, la ética periodística, la confirmación y el rigor parecen reliquias olvidadas. El fenómeno es poderosísimo y ya define el rumbo del mundo: en buena parte gracias a la difusión de «noticias» falsas, Donald Trump ganó la Presidencia de Estados Unidos. Y no es un fenómeno ajeno. En México, las fake news son pan de todos los días, como lo demostró el «caso Frida Sofía». Ya jugaron un papel clave en la elección de 2012 y sin duda serán protagonistas este 2018. En este libro, el periodista Esteban Illades examina decenas de casos en los que la confusión y la falsedad han llevado a resultados catastróficos, y explora las razones de que -en plena Era del Conocimiento- sigamos creyendo datos imposibles y, por el contrario, negando evidencias irrefutables.

Esteban Illades (Author), Alex Ortega (Narrator)

Audiobook

Hero of the Empire: The Making of Winston Churchill

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard, read by Simon Vance. 'Completely engrossing' Andrew Roberts From The New York Times bestselling author Candice Millard, this is the gripping true story of one dramatic - and emblematic - year in the early life of Winston Churchill At the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill believed that to achieve his ambition of becoming Prime Minister he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Although he had put himself in real danger in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering the Spanish-American War in Cuba, glory and fame had eluded him. Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899 to write about the brutal colonial war against the Boers. Just two weeks later, he was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape - but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory alone. The story of his escape is extraordinary enough, but then Churchill enlisted, returned to South Africa, fought in several battles and ultimately liberated the men with whom he had been imprisoned. Churchill would later remark that this period, 'could I have seen my future, was to lay the foundations of my later life'. Candice Millard tells a magnificent story of bravery, savagery and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters - including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener and Gandhi - with whom he would later share the world stage, and gives us an unexpected perspective on one of the iconic figures in our history.

Candice Millard (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Audiobook

Appeasing Hitler: Chamberlain, Churchill and the Road to War

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Appeasing Hitler by Tim Bouverie, read by John Sessions. 'Appeasing Hitler is an astonishingly accomplished debut. Bouverie writes with a wonderful clarity and we will no doubt hear a lot more of his voice in future' ANTONY BEEVOR On a wet afternoon in September 1938, Neville Chamberlain stepped off an aeroplane and announced that his visit to Hitler had averted the greatest crisis in recent memory. It was, he later assured the crowd in Downing Street, 'peace for our time'. Less than a year later, Germany invaded Poland and the Second World War began. Appeasing Hitler is a compelling new narrative history of the disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy and parliamentary infighting that enabled Nazi domination of Europe. Beginning with the advent of Hitler in 1933, it sweeps from the early days of the Third Reich to the beaches of Dunkirk. Bouverie takes us into the backrooms of 10 Downing Street and Parliament, where a small group of rebellious MPs, including the indomitable Winston Churchill, were among the few to realise that the only choice was between 'war now or war later'. And we enter the drawing rooms and dining clubs of fading imperial Britain, where Hitler enjoyed surprising support among the ruling class and even some members of the Royal Family. Drawing on deep archival research, including previously unseen sources, this is an unforgettable portrait of the ministers, aristocrats and amateur diplomats who, through their actions and inaction, shaped their country's policy and determined the fate of Europe. Both sweeping and intimate, Appeasing Hitler is not only eye-opening history but a timeless lesson on the challenges of standing up to aggression and authoritarianism - and the calamity that results from failing to do so.

Tim Bouverie (Author), John L. Sessions, John Sessions (Narrator)

Audiobook

Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy

The definitive biography of the most dangerous demagogue in American history, based on first-ever review of his personal and professional papers, medical and military records, and recently unsealed transcripts of his closed-door Congressional hearings In the long history of American demagogues, from Huey Long to Donald Trump, never has one man caused so much damage in such a short time as Senator Joseph McCarthy. We still use "McCarthyism" to stand for outrageous charges of guilt by association, a weapon of polarizing slander. From 1950 to 1954, McCarthy destroyed many careers and even entire lives, whipping the nation into a frenzy of paranoia, accusation, loyalty oaths, and terror. When the public finally turned on him, he came crashing down, dying of alcoholism in 1957. Only now, through bestselling author Larry Tye's exclusive look at the senator's records, can the full story be told. Demagogue is a masterful portrait of a human being capable of immense evil, yet beguiling charm. McCarthy was a tireless worker and a genuine war hero. His ambitions knew few limits. Neither did his socializing, his drinking, nor his gambling. When he finally made it to the Senate, he flailed around in search of an agenda and angered many with his sharp elbows and lack of integrity. Finally, after three years, he hit upon anti-communism. By recklessly charging treason against everyone from George Marshall to much of the State Department, he became the most influential and controversial man in America. His chaotic, meteoric rise is a gripping and terrifying object lesson for us all. Yet his equally sudden fall from fame offers reason for hope that, given the rope, most American demagogues eventually hang themselves.

Larry Tye (Author), Ben Jaeger-Thomas (Narrator)

Audiobook

Everything, All the Time, Everywhere: How We Became Postmodern

Post-Modernity is the creative destruction that has shattered our present times into fragments. It dynamited modernism which had dominated the western world for most of the twentieth century. Post-modernism stood for everything modernism rejected: fun, exuberance, irresponsibility. But beneath its glitzy surface, post-modernism had a dirty secret: it was the fig leaf for a rapacious new kind of capitalism. It was also the forcing ground of the 'post truth,' by means of which western values got turned upside down. But where do these ideas come from and how have they impacted on the world? In his brilliant history of a dangerous idea, Stuart Jeffries tells a narrative that starts in the early 1970s and continues to today. He tells this history through a riotous gallery that includes David Bowie, the iPod, Frederic Jameson, the demolition of Pruit-Igoe, Madonna, Post-Fordism, Jeff Koon's 'Rabbit,' Deleuze and Guattari, the Nixon Shock, The Bowery series, Judith Butler, and more. We are today scarcely capable of conceiving politics as a communal activity because we have become habituated to being consumers rather than citizens. Can we do anything else than suffer from buyer's remorse?

Stuart Jeffries (Author), Jonathan Cowley (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Revenge of Power: How Autocrats are Reinventing Politics for the 21st Century

Moisés Naím’s The Revenge of Power is an urgent, thrilling, and original look at the future of democracy. It illuminates one of the most important battles of our time: the future of freedom and how to contain and defeat the autocrats mushrooming around the world. In his New York Times bestselling book The End of Power, Moisés Naím examined power-diluting forces. In The Revenge of Power, Naím turns to the trends, conditions, and behaviors that are contributing to the concentration of power, and to the clash between those forces that weaken power and those that strengthen it. He concentrates on the three “P”s—populism, polarization, and post-truths. All of which are as old as time, but are combined by today’s autocrats to undermine democratic life in new and frightening ways. Power has not changed. But the way people go about gaining it and using it has been transformed. The Revenge of Power connects the dots between global events and political tactics that, when taken together, show a profound and often stealthy transformation in power and politics worldwide. Using the best available data and insights taken from recent research in the social sciences, Naím reveals how, on close examination, the same set of strategies to consolidate power pop up again and again in places with vastly different political, economic, and social circumstances, and offers insights about what can be done to ensure that freedom and democracy prevail. The outcomes of these battles for power will determine if our future will be more autocratic or more democratic. These outcomes will, in turn, depend on the capacity of our democracies to survive the attacks and dirty tricks of autocratic leaders bent on weakening the checks and balances that limit their power. Naím addresses the questions at the heart of the matter: What are, in practice, those attacks and tricks? Why is power concentrating in some places while in others it is fragmenting and degrading? And the big question: What is the future of freedom? A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin's Press

Moisés Naím (Author), Larry Herron (Narrator)

Audiobook

Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire

Brought to you by Penguin. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian: a searing study of the British Empire that interrogates the pervasive use of violence throughout the twentieth century and traces how these practices were exported, modified, and institutionalized in colonies around the globe. Sprawling across a quarter of the world's land mass and claiming nearly 500 colonial subjects, Britain's empire was the largest empire in human history. For many, it epitomized our nation's cultural superiority, but what legacy have we delivered to the world? Spanning more than two hundred years of history, Caroline Elkins reveals evolutionary and racialized doctrines that espoused an unrelenting deployment of violence to secure and preserve British imperial interests. She outlines how ideological foundations of violence were rooted in Victorian calls for punishing indigenous peoples who resisted subjugation, and how over time, this treatment became increasingly institutionalized. Elkins reveals how, when violence could no longer be controlled, Britain retreated from its empire, whilst destroying and hiding incriminating evidence of its policies and practices. Drawing on more than a decade of research on four continents, Legacy of Violence implicates all sides of the political divide regarding the creation, execution, and cover-up of imperial violence. By demonstrating how and why violence was the most salient factor underwriting both the empire and British imperial identity, Elkins upends long-held myths and sheds new light on empire's role in shaping the world today. © Caroline Elkins 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Caroline Elkins (Author), Adam Barr (Narrator)

Audiobook

Africa’s Struggle for Its Art: History of a Postcolonial Defeat

Ronnie Archer-Morgan narrates this major new history of how African nations sought to reclaim the art looted by Western colonial powers For decades, African nations have fought for the return of countless works of art stolen during the colonial era and placed in Western museums. In Africa’s Struggle for Its Art, Bénédicte Savoy brings to light this largely unknown but deeply important history. One of the world’s foremost experts on restitution and cultural heritage, Savoy investigates extensive, previously unpublished sources to reveal that the roots of the struggle extend much further back than prominent recent debates indicate, and that these efforts were covered up by myriad opponents. Shortly after 1960, when eighteen former colonies in Africa gained independence, a movement to pursue repatriation was spearheaded by African intellectual and political classes. Savoy looks at pivotal events, including the watershed speech delivered at the UN General Assembly by Zaire’s president, Mobutu Sese Seko, which started the debate regarding restitution of colonial-era assets and resulted in the first UN resolution on the subject. She examines how German museums tried to withhold information about their inventory and how the British Parliament failed to pass a proposed amendment to the British Museum Act, which protected the country's collections. Savoy concludes in the mid-1980s, when African nations enacted the first laws focusing on the protection of their cultural heritage. Making the case for why restitution is essential to any future relationship between African countries and the West, Africa’s Struggle for Its Art will shape conversations around these crucial issues for years to come.

Bénédicte Savoy (Author), Ronnie Archer-Morgan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cairo 1921: Ten Days that Made the Middle East

The first comprehensive history of the 1921 Cairo Conference which reveals its enduring impact on the modern Middle East Called by Winston Churchill in 1921, the Cairo Conference set out to redraw the map of the Middle East in the wake of the First World War and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The summit established the states of Iraq and Jordan as part of the Sherifian Solution and confirmed the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine-the future state of Israel. No other conference had such an enduring impact on the region. C. Brad Faught demonstrates how the conference, although dominated by the British with limited local participation, was an ambitious, if ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to move the Middle East into the world of modern nationalism. Faught reveals that many officials, including T. E. Lawrence and Gertrude Bell, were driven by the determination for state building in the area to succeed. Their prejudices, combined with their abilities, would profoundly alter the Middle East for decades to come.

C. Brad Faught (Author), Julian Elfer (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen―America’s Most Damaging Russian

A legal analyst for NPR, NBC, and CNN, delves into the facts surrounding what has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in US history”: the case of Robert Hanssen—a Russian spy who was embedded in the FBI for two decades. As a federal prosecutor and the daughter of an FBI agent, Wiehl has an inside perspective. She brings her experience and the ingrained lessons of her upraising to bear on her remarkable exploration of the case, interviewing numerous FBI and CIA agents both past and present as well as the individuals closest to Hanssen. She speaks with his brother-in-law, his oldest and best friend, and even his psychiatrist. In all her conversations, Wiehl is trying to figure out how he did it—and at what cost. But she also pursues questions urgently relevant to our national security today. Could there be another spy in the system? Could the presence of a spy be an even greater threat now than ever before, with the greater prominence cyber security has taken in recent years? Wiehl explores the mechanisms and politics of our national security apparatus and how they make us vulnerable to precisely this kind of threat.

Lis Wiehl (Author), Lis Wiehl (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates made history and changed its course through seven legendary match-ups between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the 1858 Illinois senatorial race. Although he lost the election, Lincoln's gift for oratory and his antislavery stance made him a nationally known figure, and led to his election to the presidency in 1860. Never before presented in audio, these debates and great statesmen are brought to life by narrators Richard Dreyfuss (Douglas) and David Strathairn (Lincoln). Perfectly timed for the Lincoln Bicentennial celebrations, The Lincoln-Douglas Debates provide a soundtrack to a nation discovering its better self.

Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas (Author), David Strathairn, Richard Dreyfuss (Narrator)

Audiobook

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