Law & Politics Audiobooks | Biography & Memoir

JFK Jr.: An Intimate Oral Biography Audiobook

The first oral biography of John F. Kennedy Jr. is an extraordinarily intimate, comprehensive look at the real man behind the myth. Sharing never-before-told stories and insights, his closest friends, confidantes, lovers, classmates, teachers, and colleagues paint a vivid portrait of one of the most beloved figures of the 20th century, revealing how the boy who saluted became the man America came to know and love who still captures public imagination twenty-five years after his tragic death. Born into the spotlight, John F. Kennedy Jr. lived a short but remarkable life filled with expectation, ambition, family pressures, love, and tragedy. JFK Jr. dives deep into his complicated psyche and explores the what-ifs, illuminating both the cultural and political moment he inhabited and the way this son of a president, so full of promise and possibility, embodied America's most cherished hopes.

Liz Mcneil, Rosemarie Terenzio (Author), Jade Wheeler, Kathe Mazur, Kevin R. Free, Lanna Joffrey, Leon Nixon, Michael David Axtell, Rosemarie Terenzio, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Why We Were Right

Rosie Holt (Author), Rosie Holt, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House

Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner: 'Of all the Kennedy books . . . this is the best.' -Time Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. served as special assistant to President John F. Kennedy throughout his presidency-from the long and grueling campaign to Kennedy's tragic and unexpected assassination by Lee Harvey Oswald. In A Thousand Days, Schlesinger combines intimate knowledge as one of President Kennedy's inner circle with sweeping research and historic context to provide a look at one of the most legendary presidential administrations in American history. From JFK's battle with Nixon during the 1960 election, to the seemingly charmed inaugural days, to international conflict and domestic unrest, Schlesinger takes a close and fond, but unsparing, look at Kennedy's tenure in the White House, covering well-known successes, like his involvement in the Civil Rights movement; infamous humiliations, like the Bay of Pigs; and often overlooked struggles, like the Skybolt missile mix-up, alike. Praised by the New York Times as 'at once a masterly literary achievement and a work of major historical significance,' A Thousand Days is not only a fascinating look at an American president, but a towering achievement in historical documentation.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (Author), Adam Verner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Madoff: The Final Word

Fifteen years after Bernie Madoff's arrest, renowned investigative journalist Richard Behar delivers the definitive account of history's largest—and longest-running—financial fraud. Some $65 billion evaporated during Bernie Madoff's epic confidence game. Two people were driven to suicide in the wake of the Ponzi Scheme's exposure. Others went to prison. But there has never been a satisfying accounting for how Bernie got away with so much, for so long. Until now. Richard Behar's relationship with Madoff began in 2011 with a simple email request from the inmate. By the time he died in 2021, he had sent Behar more than 300 emails and dozens of hand-written letters, participated in some fifty (recorded) phone conversations, and sat for three in-person jailhouse interviews—a level of access provided to no other reporter. Behar also established unique relationships with dozens of regulators, prosecutors, investors, Wall Street experts, ex-employees of Madoff's, and FBI agents. The result is the final word on the criminal behind history's most enduring fraud—and on those who believed him, covered for him, or locked him up. Behar reveals not only that the fraud traces back decades earlier than Madoff claimed in his confession, but also the complicity of investors (who unfairly blame the SEC), Wall Street insiders, family members, and some of the largest banks in the US and Europe. Shocking, infuriating, riveting (and at times absurdly funny), Madoff shows us how Bernie ensnared thousands of investors. As Behar's dogged reporting over the last fifteen years makes clear, however, there aren't many innocents left standing by the end of this tale. Just about everyone involved is guilty, at a minimum, of humanity's most consistent weakness: greed.

Richard Behar (Author), Bernie Madoff, Michael David Axtell, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Light of Battle: Eisenhower, Normandy, and the Birth of the American Superpower

A thrilling new biography of Dwight Eisenhower set in the months leading up to D-Day, when he grew from a well-liked general into one of the singular figures of American history. On June 6, 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower addressed the thousands of American troops preparing to invade Normandy, exhorting them to embrace the “Great Crusade” they faced. Then, in a fleeting moment alone, he drafted a resignation letter in case the invasion failed. In The Light of Battle, Michel Paradis, acclaimed author of Last Mission to Tokyo, paints a vivid portrait of Dwight Eisenhower as he learns to navigate the crosscurrents of diplomacy, politics, strategy, family, and fame with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance. In a world of giants—Churchill, Roosevelt, De Gaulle, Marshall, MacArthur—it was a barefoot boy from Abilene, Kansas, who would master the art of power and become a modern-day George Washington. Drawing upon meticulous research and a voluminous body of newly discovered records, letters, diaries, and firsthand accounts from three continents, Paradis brings Eisenhower to life, as a complicated man who craved simplicity, a genial cipher whose smile was a lethal political weapon. With a page-turning pace and an eye for the overlooked, Paradis interweaves the grand arc of history with more human concerns, bringing readers into the private moments that led to Eisenhower’s most pivotal decisions. By deftly integrating the personal and the political, he reveals how Eisenhower’s rise both reflected and was integral to America’s rise as a global superpower. An unflinching look at how character is forged, and leadership is learned, The Light of Battle breathes new life into the man who made “the leader of the free world” the mantle of the American presidency.

Michel Paradis (Author), Jacques Roy, Tbd (Narrator)

Audiobook

All the Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians

A bridge-burning, riotous memoir by a top PR operative in Washington who exposes the secrets of the $129-billion industry that controls so much of what we see and hear in the media—from a man who used to pull the strings, and who is now pulling back the curtain. After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that’s made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he’s been up to for the past twenty years—and it isn’t pretty. Elwood has worked for a murderer’s row of clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar—namely, the bad guys. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the public—not shying away from the gritty details of his unlikely career. This is a piercing look into the corridors of money, power, politics, and control, all told in Elwood’s disarmingly funny and entertaining voice. He recounts a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictator’s son, plotting communications strategies against a terrorist organization in Western Africa, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictator’s wife a glowing profile in Vogue on the same time the Arab Spring broke out. And he reveals all his slippery tricks for seducing journalists in order to create chaos and ultimately cover for politicians, dictators, and spies—the industry-secret tactics that led to his rise as a political PR pro. Along the way, Phil walks the halls of the Capitol, rides in armored cars through Abuja, and watches his client lose his annual income at the roulette table. But as he moved up the ranks, he felt worse and worse about the sleaziness of it all—until Elwood receives a shocking wake-up call from the FBI. This risky game nearly cost Elwood his life and his freedom. Seeing the light, Elwood decides to change his ways, and his clients, and to tell the full truth about who is the worst human.

Phil Elwood (Author), Holter Graham, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People

A magisterial journey through the epic life and transformative times of John Quincy Adams In this masterful biography, historian Randall B. Woods peels back the many layers of John Quincy's long life, exposing a rich and complicated family saga and a political legacy that transformed the American Republic. Born the first son of John and Abigail Adams, he was pressured to follow in his father's footsteps in both law and politics. His boyhood was spent amid the furor of the American Revolution, and as a teen he assisted his father on diplomatic missions in Europe, hobnobbing with monarchs and statesmen, dining with Ben Franklin, sitting by Voltaire at the opera. He received a world-class education, becoming fluent in Latin, Greek, German, and French. His astonishing intellect and poise would lead to a diplomatic career of his own, in which he'd help solidify his fledgling nation's standing in the world. He was intertwined with every famous American of his day, from Washington to Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, Jackson, Calhoun, Clay, and Webster. He was on stage, frequently front and center, during the Revolutionary Era, the fractious birth of American party politics, the War of 1812, the Era of Good Feelings, and the peak of Continental Expansion. It was against this backdrop that he served as an ambassador, senator, secretary of state, and, unhappily, as president. The driving force behind both the Transcontinental Treaty and the Monroe Doctrine, this champion of Manifest Destiny spent the last years of his life fighting against the annexation of Texas because it would facilitate the spread of slavery. This deeply researched, brilliantly written volume delves into John Quincy's intellectual pursuits and political thought; his loving, yet at times strained, marriage to Louisa Catherine Johnson, whom he met in London; his troubling relationships with his three sons; and his fiery post-presidency rebirth in Congress as he became the chamber's most vocal opponent of slavery.

Randall Woods (Author), Mark Bramhall, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish

Part memoir, part explosive window into the mind of a catfish, a thrilling personal account of three women coming face-to-face with an internet predator and teaming up to expose them. In 2011, three successful and highly educated women fell head over heels for the brilliant and charming Ethan Schuman. Unbeknownst to the others, each exchanged countless messages with Ethan, staying up late into the evenings to deepen their connections with this seemingly perfect man. His detailed excuses about broken webcams and complicated international calling plans seemed believable, as did last minute trip cancellations. After all, why would he lie? Ethan wasn't after money - he never convinced his marks to shell out thousands of dollars for some imagined crisis. Rather, he ensnared these women in a web of intense emotional intimacy. After the trio independently began to question inconsistencies in their new flame's stories, they managed to find one another and uncover a greater deception than they could've ever imagined. As Anna Akbari and the women untangled their catish's web, they found dozens of other victims and realized that without a proper crime, there was no legal reason for "Ethan" to ever stop. THERE IS NO ETHAN catalogues Akbari's experience as both victim and observer. By looking at the bigger picture of where these stories unfold - a world where technology mediates our relationships; where words and images are easily manipulated; and where truth, reality, and identity have become slippery terms - Akbari gives a page-turning and riveting examination of why stories like Ethan's matter for us all.

Anna Akbari (Author), Anna Akbari, Justin Price, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Boy from Baghdad: My Journey from Waziriyah to Westminster

The first memoir from Nadhim Zahawi MP Born and raised in Baghdad, Nadhim Zahawi arrived in the UK aged 11, having been forced to flee Iraq with his family, under threat from Saddam Hussein’s regime. In this candid and poignant memoir, Nadhim vividly recalls his upbringing in the Middle East, his family’s adjustment to their new life in Britain and his rise to Second Lord of the Treasury, one of the highest offices in his adoptive homeland. From his family home being repossessed in his teens to the incredible success of YouGov, and from the highs (and lows) of Jeffrey Archer’s mayoral campaign to overseeing Britain’s rollout as Minister for COVID Vaccine Deployment, every setback faced and hurdle cleared have reinforced Nadhim’s belief in the power of hard work and the benefits of an open, inclusive society. The Boy from Baghdad is the full and fascinating story of Nadhim’s personal, professional and political journey from Waziriyah to Westminster.

Nadhim Zahawi (Author), Nadhim Zahawi, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

Downfall: Prigozhin and Putin, and the new fight for the future of Russia

Brought to you by Penguin. Evgeny Prigozhin emerged as one of the most dangerous warlords in the world and as one of Vladimir Putin's chief rivals in Russia's tumultuous political climate, exiled after leading Wagner's attempted coup and killed in a mysterious plane crash. But what is the truth about this enigmatic figure, his role in the war with Ukraine, and the chaos unleashed across Russia by his turn against Putin? And, the aftermath of his death, what is next for Russia in the new stage of late Putinism that Prigozhin's life forged? Drawing on years of research, this book traces the rise of Russia's most prominent non-state actor and examines the political climate that propelled a convicted gangster with no government office to the formidable role he has come to occupy. An essential story of Russia's recent history, The Warlord is also a compelling insight into its likely future. ©2024 Anna Arutunyan & Mark Galeotti (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Anna Arutunyan, Mark Galeotti (Author), Mark Galeotti, TBD (Narrator)

Audiobook

On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service

The memoir by the doctor who became a beacon of hope for millions through the COVID pandemic, and whose six-decade career in high-level public service put him in the room with seven presidents Anthony Fauci is arguably the most famous - and most revered - doctor in the world today. His role guiding America sanely and calmly through Covid (and through the torrents of Trump) earned him the trust of millions during one of the most terrifying periods in modern American history, but this was only the most recent of the global epidemics in which Dr. Fauci played a major role. His crucial role in researching HIV and bringing AIDS into sympathetic public view and his leadership in navigating the Ebola, SARS, West Nile, and anthrax crises, make him truly an American hero. His memoir reaches back to his boyhood in Brooklyn, New York, and carries through decades of caring for critically ill patients, navigating the whirlpools of Washington politics, and behind-the-scenes advising and negotiating with seven presidents on key issues from global AIDS relief to infectious disease preparedness at home. ON CALL will be an inspiration for readers who admire and are grateful to him and for those who want to emulate him in public service. He is the embodiment of "speaking truth to power," with dignity and results.

Anthony Fauci (Author), Anthony Fauci (Narrator)

Audiobook

Tony Benn at the BBC: The Benn Tapes, Free at Last! and more

A collection of Tony Benn’s private audio diaries, documentaries and archive interviews Tony Benn was the patriarch of the Labour left, a radical statesman, orator and anti-war campaigner who spent over 50 years as an MP, serving in the Cabinet under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan. A prolific diarist, his political memoirs have been compared to Pepys in their detail, scope and accuracy. Three volumes are included here, read by Benn himself, together with four fascinating programmes focussing on the man behind the diaries. Part I: Tony Benn’s Diaries The Benn Tapes 1 – For over 25 years, Tony Benn sat late into the night dictating his personal account of the daily happenings at the heart of government. In this unique series, he shares his remarkable recordings from history’s front line, recalling events such as Harold Wilson’s surprise 1976 resignation; the miners’ strike of 1984-1985 and the 1992 general election. The Benn Tapes 2 – This second series of behind-the-scenes revelations sees Benn recounting why he believes nuclear power is unsafe, disclosing what went on during Cabinet reshuffles and tracing the split in the party following its 1979 defeat, the emergence of the Social Democratic Party, and his challenge to deputy leader Denis Healy. Free at Last!: The Diaries 1991-2001 – Spanning Tony Benn’s final decade as an MP, this third volume covers the Gulf War, the rise of New Labour, the death of Diana Princess of Wales and peace in Northern Ireland. Mixing political observations with a moving account of family life, it is full of humour, insight, joy and sadness. Part 2: Tony Benn’s Life In the Psychiatrist’s Chair: Tony Benn – Dr Anthony Clare talks to the legendary parliamentarian about his life, his career and how his guiding principles were influenced by his parents’ social and political convictions. Sentimental Journey: Tony Benn – Arthur Smith accompanies Tony Benn on a trip back to the place where he was born, grew up, and spent most of his political life – the City of Westminster. With Great Pleasure: Tony Benn – The veteran politician presents a selection of the prose and poetry that has shaped his personal philosophy, including the words of Mahatma Gandhi, Dwight D Eisenhower, Oscar Wilde and John Bunyan. Night Waves: Tony Benn – In an event from the 2008 Free Thinking festival, Tony Benn talks about the value of experience and discusses his own life experience with presenter Susan Hitch and the audience. Cast and credits The Benn Tapes Read by Tony Benn Produced by Keith Jones First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 21 Jul-8 Sep 1993 (Series 1), 17 Oct- 5 Dec 1994 (Series 2) Free at Last!: The Diaries 1991-2001 Read by Tony Benn Produced by Jane Ray First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13-17 Oct 2003 In the Psychiatrist’s Chair: Tony Benn Presented by Dr Anthony Clare A Michael Ember production First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 13 Aug 1995 Sentimental Journey: Tony Benn With Arthur Smith and Tony Benn Produced by Dilly Barlow First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 29 Jul 2006 With Great Pleasure: Tony Benn Presented by Tony Benn Readers: Saffron Burrows, Jim Findley and Carl Prekopp Produced by Christine Hall First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 26 Jul 2007 Night Waves: Tony Benn Presented by Susan Hitch With Tony Benn Produced by Allegra McIlroy First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 11 Dec 2008 © 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Tony Benn (Author), Tony Benn (Narrator)

Audiobook

Law & Politics Audiobooks in Biography & Memoir