American Politics Audiobooks | Politics

Extraordinarily powerful stories of ordinary people locked up for crimes they did not commit, and how they were freed against great odds. A nightmare from a thousand B-movies: a horrible crime is committed in your neighborhood, and the police knock at your door. A witness swears you are the perpetrator; you have no alibi, and no one believes your protestations of innocence. You’re convicted, sentenced to hard time in maximum security, or even death row, where you await the executioner’s needle. Tragically, this is no movie script but reality for hundreds of American citizens. Our criminal justice system is broken, and people from all walks of life have been destroyed by its failures. But science and a group of incredibly dedicated crusaders are working to repair the damage. In the last ten years, DNA testing has uncovered stone-cold proof that sixty-five completely innocent people have been sent to prison and death row. But even in cases where there is physical evidence, the criminal justice system frees prisoners only after a torturous legal process. Incredibly, according to many trial judges, "actual innocence" is not grounds for release from prison. At the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld have helped to free thirty-seven wrongly convicted people, and have taken up the cause of hundreds more. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Jim Dwyer has been covering innocence cases for a decade. In Actual Innocence, Scheck, Neufeld, and Dwyer relate the harrowing stories of ten innocent men–convicted by sloppy police work, corrupt prosecutors, jailhouse snitches, mistaken eyewitnesses, and other all-too-common flaws of the trial system–and tell of the heroic efforts to free them. Intense, startling, and utterly compelling, Actual Innocence is a passionate and fascinating journey through the looking glass of the American criminal justice system.

Barry Scheck, Jim Dwyer, Peter Neufeld (Author), Michael Boatman (Narrator)

Audiobook

HOMICIDE

Through wonderfully descriptive writing, Simon details the work of fifteen detectives, three sergeants and a lieutenant charged with investigating dozens of Baltimore's 234 murders that year. Simon takes listeners inside the detectives' lives, describing the frustration of departmental red tape and politics, the bursts of energy and moments of despair. With an eye for the scenes of slaughter and pursuit and an ear for the cadences of cop talk, both business and banter, Simon gives this brilliant, harrowing account its authenticity and fascinating edge. Simon plants us so close to these detectives that we see everything--the Police Department, the prosecutors, the courts, the city of Baltimore itself--from their angle. This is a never-before-seen look at what it's really like to investigate murders for a living.

David Simon (Author), Reed Diamond (Narrator)

Audiobook

Speaking My Mind

One man, more than any other, has helped define the most important issues of our time. His name is Ronald Reagon -- one of our nation's most powerful and popular Presidents. This extraordinary audio collection includes historical excerpts from selected addresses that span his political career, laying out his vision for America and the world. From his cornerstone 1964 speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater to his moving farewell address in January of 1989, here is President Reagan as we came to know him: the public figure, the political leader, the private man. Included are personal reflections from President Reagan recorded exclusively for this production -- in an audio presentation that captures the voice, the spirit, and the intellect of the greatest communicator America has ever known.

Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan (Author), Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan (Narrator)

Audiobook

Cuba

This island was once a clearing house for importing slaves into the New World. It later became one of the world's few remaining bastions of Marxism, proclaiming socio-economic equality. In both forms, Cuba has played a unique and dramatic role in American affairs. This presentation focuses on Cuba's economic and social upheaval, with special attention to how this has affected the United States. The World's Political Hot Spots series explains the basis of conflicts in some of the world's most politically sensitive areas. Many of these regions are in today's headlines, and tensions recently have become violent in virtually all of them. Each presentation covers up to ten centuries of background, revealing how and why today's problems occur.

Joseph Stromberg (Author), Harry Reasoner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Inside the White House

"If the general public knew what was going on inside the White House, they would scream." So states one Secret Service agent, just a small link in the chain of security that has guarded the public image of the presidency and the men who define it-until now.With unprecedented access to Secret Service agents, domestic servants, Air Force One stewards, and military aides, journalist Ronald Kessler has gone behind the scenes to uncover the inside story of the White House. From the hidden lives of the last seven presidents and first families to the intricate inner workings of this all-powerful institution, Kessler peels away the White House facade to reveal the fascinating and often scandalous reality behind the stately illusion. Exposing presidential misconduct, blunders, and cover-ups, this fascinating examination ensures that Americans will never view their chief executives the same way again.

Ronald Kessler (Author), Jeff Riggenbach (Narrator)

Audiobook

American Politics Audiobooks in Politics