Current Affairs Audiobooks | Politics

Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden? Audiobook

Morgan Spurlock is an award-winning writer, director and star of one of the highest-grossing documentaries of all time--the Oscar nominated, Super Size Me. He has also produced documentary films such as the current What Would Jesus Buy? and the acclaimed television show 30 Days which airs on FX. He lives in New York with his wife Alex.

Morgan Spurlock (Author), Erik Singer, Unknown (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Thirteen American Arguments

Howard Fineman is one of our best-known and most trusted political journalists. Mixing vivid scenes and figures from the campaign trail with forays into four hundred years of American history, Fineman shows that every debate, from our nation's founding to the present day, is rooted in one of thirteen arguments that-thankfully-defy resolution. It is the very process of never-ending argument, Fineman explains, that defines us, inspires us, and keeps us free. At a time when most public disagreement seems shrill and meaningless, Fineman makes a cogent case for nurturing the real American dialogue. Shouting is not arguing, Fineman notes, but often hot-button topics, media "cross-fires," and blogs reflect the deepest currents in American life. In an enlightening book that cuts through the din and makes sense of the headlines, Fineman captures the essential issues that have always compelled healthy and heated debate-and must continue to do so in order for us to prosper in the twenty-first century. The Thirteen American Arguments run the gamut, from issues of individual identity to our country's role in the world, including: • Who is a Person? The Declaration of Independence says "everyone," but it took a Civil War and the Civil Rights and other movements to make that a reality. Presently, what about human embryos and "unlawful enemy combatants?" • Who is an American? Only a nation of immigrants could argue so much about who should become one. There is currently added urgency when terrorists are at large in the world and twelve million "undocumented" aliens are in the country. • The Role of Faith. No country is more legally secular yet more avowedly prayerful. From Thomas Jefferson to Terri Schiavo, we can never quite decide where God fits in government. • Presidential Power. In a democracy, leadership is all the more difficult - and, paradoxically, all the more essential. From George Washington to George W. Bush, we have always asked: How much power should a president have? • America in the World. Uniquely, we perpetually ask ourselves whether we have a moral obligation to change the world - or, alternatively, whether we must try to change it to survive in it. Whether it's the environment, international trade, interpreting law, Congress vs. the president, or reformers vs. elites, these are the issues that galvanized the Founding Fathers and should still inspire our leaders, thinkers, and citizens. If we cease to argue about these things, we cease to be. "Argument is strength, not weakness," says Fineman. "As long as we argue, there is hope, and as long as there is hope, we will argue."

Howard Fineman (Author), Scott Sowers (Narrator)

Audiobook

Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All

With her trademark passion, intelligence, and devastating wit, Huffington Post editor in chief Arianna Huffington tackles the issues that are crucial to this year's presidential election and, even more so, to the fate of the country. Huffington makes the case that America has been hijacked from within by a radical element-the "lunatic fringe" of the Right that has taken over the Republican Party. Despite holding views at odds with the majority of Americans, these zealots have given us an endless war in Iraq, a sputtering economy, a health care system on life support, a war on science and reason, and an immoral embrace of torture. But they haven't done it on their own: they have been enabled by a compliant media that act as if there is no such thing as truth and are more interested in cozying up to those in power than in holding them accountable, and by feckless Democrats who have allowed themselves to be intimidated into backing down again and again. Both a withering indictment and a hopeful call to arms, Right Is Wrong is an explosive, boldly incisive work that will help set the national agenda.

Arianna Huffington (Author), Arianna Huffington (Narrator)

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The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time

Jeffrey D. Sachs (Author), Malcolm Hilgartner, Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)

Audiobook

Marching Toward Hell

When Michael Scheuer first questioned the goals of the Iraq War in his 2004 bestseller Imperial Hubris, policymakers and ordinary citizens alike stood up and took notice. Now, Scheuer offers a scathing and frightening look at how the Iraq War has been a huge setback to America's War on Terror, making our enemy stronger and altering the geopolitical landscape in ways that are profoundly harmful to U.S. interests and security concerns. Marching Toward Hell is not just another attack on the Bush administration. Rather, it sounds a critical alarm that must be heard in order to preserve the nation's security. Scheuer outlines the ways that America's foreign policy since the end of the Cold War has undermined the very goals for which we are fighting and played right into bin Laden's hands. The ongoing instability in Iraq, for example, has provided al Qaeda and its allies with the one thing they want most: a safe haven from which to launch operations across borders into countries that were previously difficult for them to reach. With U.S. forces and resources spread thinner every day, the war has depleted our strength and brought al Qaeda a kind of success that it could not have achieved on its own. A twenty-plus-year CIA veteran, Scheuer headed the agency's Osama bin Laden unit, managed its covert-action operations, and authored its rendition program. Scheuer spent his career developing strategies to keep America safe, by any means deemed necessary by the presidents he served. It was his job to take available intelligence and devise plans to protect Americans, without considering bias, position, or even existing alliances. In Marching Toward Hell, Scheuer takes on the questions of "What went wrong?" and "How can we fix this?" and proposes a plan to cauterize the damage that has already been done and get American strategy back on track. He lists a number of painful recommendations for how we must shift our ideological, military, and political views in order to survive, even if that means disagreeing with Israeli policy or launching more brutal campaigns against terrorists. America holds its destiny in its hands, Scheuer says, yet not nearly enough has been done to defend America and destroy its Islamist enemies. This is an eye- opening, alarming, contentious, and ultimately fascinating examination of how far off track the War on Terror has gone, and a critical read in understanding what we must do to save it.

Michael Scheuer (Author), Michael Scheuer (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Final Move Beyond Iraq: The Final Solution While the World Sleeps

Could we lose the war on terror? America is fighting for its life in the first war of the twenty-first century. The battle is for the soul of America, and ground zero is Iraq. While the United States debates, the terrorists are claiming victory and planning to take their show to American soil once again. In The Final Move Beyond Iraq, best-selling author Mike Evans gives us a wake up call, demonstrating conclusively that: An Islamic revolution is spreading and is on the brink of becoming America's greatest threat since the Civil War. Immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be disastrous and will embolden terrorists to attack America at home. Iran is playing a major role in the current violence. The U.S. must strike Iran within the next twelve months, or the next President may be presiding over a nuclear 9/11. American soldiers are risking their lives for our freedom. We must see this war through to the end--or our next battle will be much, much worse.

Mike Evans (Author), Wayne Shepherd (Narrator)

Audiobook

American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center

Noted author, war correspondent, and award-winning writer for the Atlantic Monthly, William Langewiesche furnishes a riveting firsthand account of the excavation of the World Trade Center ruins following its destruction on September 11, 2001. American Ground is an inspiring look at the often contentious mixture of personalities, politics, and emotions that fueled this massive effort. It is also a testament to American ingenuity in the aftermath of a great tragedy.

William Langewiesche (Author), Richard M. Davidson (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And Ho

The world has entered a second nuclear age. For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation is on the rise. Should such an assault occur, there is a strong likelihood that the trail of devastation will lead back to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani father of the Islamic bomb and the mastermind behind a vast clandestine enterprise that has sold nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea, and Libya. Khan's loose-knit organization was and still may be a nuclear Wal-Mart, selling weapons blueprints, parts, and the expertise to assemble the works into a do-it-yourself bomb kit. Amazingly, American authorities could have halted his operation, but they chose instead to watch and wait. Khan proved that the international safeguards the world relied on no longer worked. Journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins tell this alarming tale of international intrigue through the eyes of the European and American officials who suspected Khan, tracked him, and ultimately shut him down, but only after the nuclear genie was long out of the bottle.

Catherine Collins, Douglas Frantz (Author), Bob Craig (Narrator)

Audiobook

Life's a Campaign: What Politics Has Taught Me About Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success

Chris Matthews is like no other TV interviewer. Life’s a Campaign is like no other book on success. Famous for demanding the truth from his Hardball guests, Chris Matthews now reveals what the people running this country rarely confess: the secrets of how they got to the top. Here is the first book on power with insight snatched from those who wield it. Life’s a Campaign exposes the tactics, tricks, and truths that help people get ahead–and can help you, too, whatever your field of ambition. Written in the assertive, good-natured style that is Matthews’s trademark, Life’s a Campaign is the most useful kind of investigative reporting. You’ll benefit from his insider’s scrutiny of the Congress, the White House, and the national news media. Here are the methods, showcased in fascinating anecdotes and case histories, that presidents, senators, and other powerful people use to persuade others and win–and the life lessons they provide for the rest of us. You’ll learn about Bill Clinton’s laser-focused ability to listen to those he wants to seduce–and how he’s been teaching that craft to his wife, Hillary; how Ronald Reagan employed his basic optimism to win history to his side; the simple steps in human diplomacy that the first President Bush exploited to assemble a worldwide posse to attack Saddam Hussein and gain global approval in a way his son has failed to do; how Nancy Pelosi became the first woman Speaker of the House by practicing the most fundamental of human qualities: hardnosed loyalty. You’ll also find out, for the first time, about Matthews’s own wild ride through the turbulent, converging rapids of politics and journalism. The big payoff in Life’s a Campaign is what you’ll learn about human nature: • People would rather be listened to than listen. • People don’t mind being used; what they mind is being discarded. • People are more loyal to the people they’ve helped than the people they’ve helped are loyal to them. • Not everyone’s going to like you. • No matter what anybody says, nobody wants a level playing field. Knowing such truths is the successful person’s number one advantage in life. As you’ll learn in Life’s a Campaign, mastering–and employing–these truths separates the leaders from the followers.

Chris Matthews (Author), Chris Matthews (Narrator)

Audiobook

Report from Ground Zero: The Story of the Rescue Efforts at the World Trade Center

In this first book-length account of the rescue efforts at the World Trade Center, retired New York City firefighter Dennis Smith gives a remarkable eyewitness account of perhaps the most heroic and desperate collaborative disaster effort in recent history. Smith arrived on the scene shortly after the attacks on September 11 and stayed for weeks. He stretched hoses, picked up bodies, and talked with police, firefighters, and emergency workers who had rushed downtown to confront a spectacle no rescue worker had ever faced before. In Report from Ground Zero, Smith gives us the stories of some of the 343 firefighters who were reported missing or dead, including; Captain Pat Brown from Ladder Company 3, who was a personal friend; a father and son; the department's beloved chaplain; commanders; rookies; and entire companies that were lost. Smith pays tribute to the dozens of police and emergency workers who died, as well as those who undertook an urgent search and rescue mission and, finally, the grim and daunting task of massive clean up. Smith's rare blend of superb writing skills and up-close firefighting experience drop us into the psyche of a firefighter, which sheds light on what would make someone rush into a flaming building: it's called heroism.

Dennis Smith (Author), Eric Conger (Narrator)

Audiobook

Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

In this first collection of interviews since the bestselling 9-11, our foremost intellectual activist examines crucial new questions of U.S. foreign policy. In this important program of interviews conducted by award-winning radio journalist David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky discusses America's policies in the increasingly unstable world. With his famous insight, lucidity, and redoubtable grasp of history, Chomsky offers his views on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the doctrine of "preemptive" strikes against so-called rogue states, and the prospects of the second Bush administration, warning of the growing threat to international peace posed by the U.S. drive for domination. In his inimitable style, Chomsky also dissects the propaganda system that fabricates a mythic past and airbrushes inconvenient facts out of history. Barsamian, recipient of the ACLU's Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, has conducted more interviews and radio broadcasts with Chomsky than has any other journalist. Enriched by their unique rapport, Imperial Ambitions explores topics Chomsky has never before discussed, among them the 2004 presidential campaign and election, the future of Social Security, and the increasing threat, including devastating weather patterns, of global warming. The result is an illuminating dialogue with one of the leading thinkers of our time-and a startling picture of the turbulent world in which we live.

David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky (Author), David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Best and the Brightest

David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy, with a new Foreword by Senator John McCain. Using portraits of America’s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country’s recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam, and why did we lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It is an American classic.

David Halberstam (Author), David Clennon (Narrator)

Audiobook

Current Affairs Audiobooks in Politics