Audiobooks narrated by Christopher Douyard

For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle

In 1799, at the behest of President George Washington, Patrick Henry came out of retirement to defend the Constitution that he had once opposed and to thwart Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, whom Washington accused of putting party over country and threatening the fragile union. For the People, For the Country tells the remarkable story of how the most eloquent public speaker of the American Revolutionary era and a leading antifederalist during debates over ratification of the Constitution reemerged on the side of the federalists and once again changed history. Much more than a fire-breathing demagogue, the Patrick Henry we encounter here comes to life as a principled leader of the young nation who believed above all in working with a government elected by the people, advocating for political change in 'a constitutional way'-at the ballot box. A gripping narrative, this book will change long-held views of this great Founding Father.

John A. Ragosta (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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Liberalism as a Way of Life

Where do you get your values and sensibilities from? If you grew up in a Western democracy, the answer is probably liberalism. Conservatives are right about one thing: liberalism is the ideology of our times, as omnipresent as religion once was. Yet, as Alexandre Lefebvre argues in Liberalism as a Way of Life, many of us are liberal without fully realizing it-or grasping what it means. Misled into thinking that liberalism is confined to politics, we fail to recognize that it's the water we swim in, saturating every area of public and private life, shaping our psychological and spiritual outlooks, and influencing our moral and aesthetic values-our sense of what is right, wrong, good, bad, funny, worthwhile, and more. This eye-opening book shows how so many of us are liberal to the core, why liberalism provides the basis for a good life, and how we can make our lives better and happier by becoming more aware of, and more committed to, the beliefs we already hold. A lively, engaging, and uplifting guide to living well, the liberal way, Liberalism as a Way of Life is filled with examples from television, movies, stand-up comedy, and social media-from Parks and Recreation and The Good Place to the Borat movies and Hannah Gadsby. Along the way, you'll also learn about seventeen benefits of being a liberal and practical exercises to increase these rewards.

Alexandre Lefebvre (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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Authenticity, Identity, and Being Yourself at Work

Just be yourself, right? We're complex people. Professionally, we're recent graduates, employees, star performers, and first-time managers. But we're also best friends, devoted family members, sports fans, plant parents, social justice warriors-or any other combination of these and other traits. But how much of ourselves should we really bring to the workplace? Authenticity, Identity, and Being Yourself at Work is filled with practical advice from HBR experts that can help you answer this and other questions like: What does authenticity really mean at work? What values do I want to live into? How do I take control of my professional identity? How should I disclose personal information without oversharing? In what ways can I overcome feelings of impostor syndrome? When should I conform to my company's culture-and when should I stand out? This book will help you figure out how much of 'you' to bring to work so that you feel more comfortable and confident-and ensure you're presenting yourself as you want to be seen.

Harvard Business Review (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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The City Is Up for Grabs: How Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Led and Lost a City in Crisis

Chicago is a world-class city, but it is also a city in crisis. Crime is up, schools have repeatedly shut down due to conflict between City Hall and the powerful teachers' union, and COVID-19 only deepened the entrenched poverty, institutional racism, and endless tug of war between the city's haves and have nots. For four years, the person at the center of this storm was Lori Lightfoot. A groundbreaking figure-the first Black, gay woman to be elected mayor of a major city and only the second female mayor of Chicago-she knew the city was at a critical turning point when she took office in 2019. But the once-in-a-lifetime challenges she ended up facing were beyond anything she or anyone else saw coming. Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Royal Pratt offers the first comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at the tumultuous single term of Mayor Lightfoot and the chaos that roiled the city and City Hall as she fought to live up to her promises to change the city's culture of corruption and villainy, reform its long-troubled police department, and make Chicago the safest big city in America.

Gregory Royal Pratt (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier

The opening years of the French and Indian War were disastrous for the British. Hindered by quarrelsome provincial councils, incompetent generals, and the redcoats' inability to adapt to wilderness warfare, Britain was losing the war. Learning that most of Britain's military resources were allocated to Louisbourg, the French launched a campaign along the weakened frontier. French Commander Louis-Joseph de Montcalm and his American Indian allies laid siege to Fort William Henry; Monro could not hold out and was forced to surrender. As part of the terms, the British regiment, colonial militia, and their camp followers would be allowed safe passage to nearby Fort Edward. The French watched in horror, however, as their Indian allies attacked the British column after it left the fort, an episode that sparked outrage and changed the tactics of the war. Seen through the eyes of participants such as Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a scholarly young aide-de-camp, Jabez Fitch, an amiable Connecticut sergeant, and Kisensik, a proud Nipissing chief whose father once met Louis XIV in the marbled halls of Versailles, The Siege of Fort William Henry uses contemporary newspaper reports, official documents, private letters, and published memoirs to bring the narrative to life.

Ben Hughes (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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When Washington Burned: The British Invasion of the Capital and a Nation's Rise from the Ashes

Perhaps no other single day in United States history was as threatening to the survival of the nation as August 24, 1814, when British forces captured Washington, DC. This unique moment might have significantly altered the nation's path forward, but the event and the reasons why it happened are little remembered by most Americans. When Washington Burned narrates and examines the British campaign and American missteps that led to the fall of Washington during the War of 1812. Watson analyzes the actions of key figures on both sides, such as President James Madison and General William Winder on the United States side and Rear Admiral George Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross on the British side. He pinpoints the reasons the campaign was such a disaster for the United States but also tells the redeeming stories of the courageous young clerks and the bold first lady, Dolley Madison, who risked their lives to save priceless artifacts and documents from the flames, including the Constitution. The British invasion was repulsed over the coming weeks and months, and the United States ultimately emerged stronger. General listeners interested in the history of Washington, United States history, and military history will be fascinated by this book.

Robert P. Watson (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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Germany, 1923: Hyperinflation, Hitler's Pusch and Democracy in Crisis

From a New York Times bestselling historian comes a gripping account of the crisis that threatened to unravel the Weimar Republic. The great Austrian writer Stefan Zweig confided in his autobiography: “I have a pretty thorough knowledge of history, but never, to my recollection, has it produced such madness in such gigantic proportions.” He was referring to Germany in 1923, a “year of lunacy,” defined by hyperinflation, violence, a political system on the verge of collapse, the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and separatist movements threatening to rip apart the German nation. Most observers found it miraculous that the Weimar Republic-the first German democracy-was able to survive, though some of the more astute realized that the feral undercurrents unleashed that year could lead to much worse. Now, a century later, bestselling author Volker Ullrich draws on letters, memoirs, newspaper articles, and other sources to present a riveting chronicle of one of the most difficult years any modern democracy has ever faced-one with haunting parallels to our own political moment.

Volker Ullrich (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West

Just a few years ago, people spoke of the US as a hyperpower-a titan stalking the world stage with more relative power than any empire in history. Yet as early as 1993, CIA director James Woolsey pointed out that although Western powers had 'slain a large dragon' by defeating the Soviet Union in the Cold War, they now faced a 'variety of poisonous snakes.' In The Dragons and the Snakes, the eminent soldier-scholar David Kilcullen asks how, and what, opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. Applying a combination of evolutionary theory and detailed field observation, he explains what happened to the 'snakes'-non-state threats including terrorists and guerrillas-and the 'dragons'-state-based competitors such as Russia and China. He explores how enemies learn under conditions of conflict, and examines how Western dominance over a very particular form of warfare since the Cold War has created a fitness landscape that forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies. Within the world's contemporary conflict zones, Kilcullen argues, state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, with states adopting non-state techniques and non-state actors now able to access levels of precision and lethal weapon systems once only available to governments.

David Kilcullen (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives

A powerful case for democracy and how it can adapt and survive-if we want it to Is democracy in trouble, perhaps even dying? Pundits say so, and polls show that most Americans believe that their country's system of governance is being 'tested' or is 'under attack.' But is the future of democracy necessarily so dire? In The Civic Bargain, Brook Manville and Josiah Ober push back against the prevailing pessimism about the fate of democracy around the world. Instead of an epitaph for democracy, they offer a guide for democratic renewal, calling on citizens to recommit to a 'civic bargain' with one another to guarantee civic rights of freedom, equality, and dignity. That bargain also requires them to fulfill the duties of democratic citizenship: governing themselves with no 'boss' except one another, embracing compromise, treating each other as civic friends, and investing in civic education for each rising generation. Manville and Ober trace the long progression toward self-government through four key moments in democracy's history: Classical Athens, Republican Rome, Great Britain's constitutional monarchy, and America's founding. Comparing what worked and what failed in each case, they draw out lessons for how modern democracies can survive and thrive.

Brook Manville, Josiah Ober (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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Brutal Campaign: How the 1988 Election Set the Stage for Twenty-First-Century American Politics

At 8:00 p.m. eastern standard time on election night 1988, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw informed the country that they would soon know more about the outcome of 'one of the longest, bloodiest presidential campaigns that anyone can remember.' It was a landslide victory for George H. W. Bush over Michael Dukakis, and yet Bush would serve only one term. The 1988 presidential race quickly receded into history, but it was marked by the beginning of the modern political sex scandals, the first major African American presidential candidacy, the growing power of the religious right, and other key trends that came to define the elections that followed. Bush's campaign tactics clearly illustrated the strategies and issues that allowed Republicans to control the White House for most of the 1970s and 1980s, and the election set the stage for the national political advent of both Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Robert L. Fleegler's narrative history of the 1988 election draws from untapped archival sources and revealing oral history interviews to uncover just how consequential this moment was for American politics. Identifying the seeds of political issues to come, Fleegler delivers an engaging review of an election that set a template for the political dynamics that define our lives to this day.

Robert L. Fleegler (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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The Entanglement: How Art and Philosophy Make Us What We Are

In The Entanglement, philosopher Alva Noë explores the inseparability of life, art, and philosophy, arguing that we have greatly underestimated what this entangled reality means for understanding human nature. Life supplies art with its raw materials, but art, Noë argues, remakes life by giving us resources to live differently. Our lives are permeated with the aesthetic. Indeed, human nature is an aesthetic phenomenon, and art is the truest way of understanding ourselves. All this suggests that human nature is not a natural phenomenon. Neither biology, cognitive science, nor AI can tell a complete story of us, and we can no more pin ourselves down than we can fix or settle on the meaning of an artwork. Even more, art and philosophy are the means to set ourselves free, at least to some degree, from convention, habit, technology, culture, and even biology. In making these provocative claims, Noë explores examples of entanglement and examines a range of scientific efforts to explain the human. Challenging the notions that art is a mere cultural curiosity and that philosophy has been outmoded by science, The Entanglement offers a new way of thinking about human nature, the limits of natural science in understanding the human, and the essential role of art and philosophy in trying to know ourselves.

Alva Noe (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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Crossed Wires: The Conflicted History of US Telecommunications, From The Post Office To The Internet

Telecommunications networks are vast, intricate, hugely costly systems for exchanging messages and information-within cities and across continents. From the Post Office and the telegraph to today's internet, these networks have sown domestic division while also acting as sources of international power. In Crossed Wires, Dan Schiller, who has conducted archival research on United States telecommunications for more than forty years, recovers the extraordinary social history of the major network systems of the United States. Drawing on arrays of archival documents and secondary sources, Schiller reveals that this history has been shaped by sharp social and political conflict and is embedded in the larger history of an expansionary United States political economy. Schiller argues that networks have enabled United States imperialism through a recurrent 'American system' of cross-border communications. This authoritative and comprehensive revisionist history of United States telecommunications argues that not technology but a dominative-and contested-political economy drove the evolution of this critical industry.

Dan Schiller (Author), Christopher Douyard (Narrator)

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Audiobooks Narrated by Christopher Douyard