Politics Audiobooks | LoveReading

Postmodernism seemed to promise an end to the grim Cold War era of nuclear confrontation and oppressive ideologies. The notoriously proclaimed 'end of history', the triumph of liberal democracy over Communist tyranny, proved to be an illusion, and we awoke in the anxious grip of globalization, unpredictable terrorism and unforeseen war. Has the twenty-first century resolved the question of postmodernism or are we more than ever ensnared in its perplexities? Recorded in association with Icon Books.

Chris Garratt, Richard Appignanesi (Author), Richard Appignanesi (Narrator)

Audiobook

Chatter

How does our government eavesdrop? Whom do they eavesdrop on? And is the interception of communication an effective means of predicting and preventing future attacks? These are some of the questions at the heart of Patrick Radden Keefe's brilliant new book, Chatter. In the late 1990s, when Keefe was a graduate student in England, he heard stories about an eavesdropping network led by the United States that spanned the planet. The system, known as Echelon, allowed America and its allies to intercept the private phone calls and e-mails of civilians and governments around the world. Taking the mystery of Echelon as his point of departure, Keefe explores the nature and context of communications interception, drawing together fascinating strands of history, fresh investigative reporting, and riveting, eye-opening anecdotes. The result is a bold and distinctive book, part detective story, part travel-writing, part essay on paranoia and secrecy in a digital age. Chatter starts out at Menwith Hill, a secret eavesdropping station covered in mysterious, gargantuan golf balls, in England's Yorkshire moors. From there, the narrative moves quickly to another American spy station hidden in the Australian outback; from the intelligence bureaucracy in Washington to the European Parliament in Brussels; from an abandoned National Security Agency base in the mountains of North Carolina to the remote Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. As Keefe chases down the truth of contemporary surveillance by intelligence agencies, he unearths reams of little-known information and introduces us to a rogue's gallery of unforgettable characters. We meet a former British eavesdropper who now listens in on the United States Air Force for sport; an intelligence translator who risked prison to reveal an American operation to spy on the United Nations Security Council; a former member of the Senate committee on intelligence who says that oversight is so bad, a lot of senators only sit on the committee for the travel. Provocative, often funny, and alarming without being alarmist, Chatter is a journey through a bizarre and shadowy world with vast implications for our security as well as our privacy. It is also the debut of a major new voice in nonfiction. From the Hardcover edition.

Patrick Radden Keefe (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

Audiobook

Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America

In the twenty-first century, America could be destroyed. The dangers are manifold: Terrorism. Judges who think they're God (and who are anti-God). Rising economic challenges from China and India. Immigrants and young Americans who know little about American history and values. Can America survive? Yes, says Newt Gingrich, and we as Americans can do more: We can create a safer, more prosperous, and healthier America for our children and grandchildren. How? By enacting a 21st Century Contract with America. When he was Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich issued his first Contract with America. What was the result? Sweeping reform that shocked Washington and spurred an economic recovery for the nation, including: the first major tax cut in sixteen years; real, lasting welfare reform; and four years of balanced budgets. But the challenges now are even starker, and Newt is back with a new plan for American greatness. The challenges of the 21st Century are great, says Newt Gingrich, but so are the opportunities. The decisions we make over the next four years will determine our future. And no book can be more important for making the right choices than Newt Gingrich's national bestseller Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America.

Newt Gingrich (Author), Alan Sklar (Narrator)

Audiobook

War Stories II: Heroism in the Pacific

New York Times best-selling author Oliver North, host of FOX News Channel's top-rated War Stories program, describes the remarkable accomplishments of the heroic men who fought in the Pacific theater of World War II. The American and Japanese veterans of such terrible campaigns as Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima shared their stories with North, who presents them here in the soldiers' own words. More than a fascinating history of combat, War Stories II stands as a testament to the unmatched valor and bravery of an extraordinary generation.

Oliver North (Author), Joel Leffert (Narrator)

Audiobook

Peace Is the Way: Bringing War and Violence to an End

Deepak Chopra’s passionate new book, Peace Is the Way, was inspired by a saying from Mahatma Gandhi: “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” In a world where every path to peace has proved futile, the one strategy that hasn’t been tried is the way of peace itself. “We must not bring one war to an end, or thirty,” Chopra tells us, “but the idea of war itself.” How can this be done? By facing the truth that war is satisfying, and then substituting new satisfactions so that violence is no longer appealing. “War has become a habit. We reach for it the way a chain smoker reaches for a cigarette, promising to quit but somehow never kicking the habit.” But Chopra tells us that peace has its own power, and our task now is to direct that power and multiply it one person at a time. Behind the numbing headlines of violence running out of control there are unmistakable signs of a change—Chopra believes that a majority of people are ready to see an end to war. “Right now 23 million soldiers serve in armies around the world. Can’t we find ten times that number who will dedicate themselves to peace? A hundred times?” Peace Is the Way challenges each of us to take the next leap in personal evolution. “You aren’t asked to be a saint, or to give up any belief. You are only asked to stop reacting out of fear, to change your allegiance from violence to peace.” In a practical seven-step program, Chopra shows the reader how to become a true peacemaker. “Violence may be innate in human nature, but so is its opposite: love. The next stage of humanity, the leap which we are poised to take, will be guided by the force of that love.” This is more than a hope or an aspiration. It is a new way of being in the world, giving each individual the power to end war in our time. From the Hardcover edition.

Deepak Chopra MD, Deepak Chopra, M.D., M.D. Deepak Chopra (Author), Deepak Chopra MD, Deepak Chopra, M.D., M.D. Deepak Chopra (Narrator)

Audiobook

A Struggle of Ideas

This audiobook is a reading of a report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Defense. Officially, the work is entitled: 'Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Strategic Communication.' Dick Hill, an accomplished reader of audiobooks, does a fine job, reading with clarity and appropriate seriousness. As one would expect from a government report, the prose is not dramatic; nevertheless, Hill's reading is as lively as possible. This task force, far less famous than the 9/11 Commission, was established to advise the DOD on how to gain strategic advantage through public diplomacy. In simpler terms, the report addresses this question: How do we change the minds of terrorists and would-be terrorists?

Department Of Defense (Author), Dick Hill (Narrator)

Audiobook

Right Turns: From Liberal Activist to Conservative Champion in 35 Unconventional Lessons

Nationally syndicated talk-radio host and noted film critic Michael Medved has taken an extraordinary journey from liberal activist to outspoken conservative. Along the way he has earned millions of admirers, and more than his share of enemies, by advancing controversial, often counterintuitive arguments, including: • Liberals love losing because it makes them feel virtuous• America isn't normal, it's bizarrely blessed• Hollywood has lost touch with America, and punishes people who point that out• Conservatives are both happier and nicer than liberals• Talk radio is a source of hope, not hatred• Business isn't exploitative, it's heroic • There is no such thing as 'planned parenthood'• A more Christian America is good for the Jews• Do-it-yourself conservatism provides the only cure for save-the-world liberalism In the candid, electrifying Right Turns, Medved chronicles the adventures that taught him these and many other lessons, the startling events that propelled him from Vietnam protest leader to optimistic promoter of American patriotism, from secularism to religion, from adventurous single guy to doting husband and father. In the process he skewers leftist orthodoxy, revealing why the Right is right and why his former colleagues on the Left remain hopelessly wrong on every cultural, political, and social issue. Medved enters today's ideological fray armed with experience as, among many other things, a campaign aide for radical Democrats, a minority recruiter for police departments, a Hollywood screenwriter, a Bobby Kennedy volunteer, a teacher at religious schools, a world-champion hitchhiker, an expert on bad movies, and a veteran TV host on PBS and a British network, who declines to own a TV himself. Medved relishes the contradictions behind the high-profile controversies in which he's played a leading role, as a prominent movie reviewer who attacked the film industry in a bestselling book, as an observant Jew whose radio show is a favorite with evangelical Christians, as a writer once designated the 'Bard of the Baby Boomers' who now expresses contempt for his generation's arrogant indulgence, and as a fearless battler who has sought advice from both Rush Limbaugh and Hillary Clinton and has given advice to both Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand. Right Turns displays the slashing argument and disarming wit that have made Medved's radio program America's number one show on politics and pop culture.

Michael Medved (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

Audiobook

Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life

Nationally syndicated talk-radio host and noted film critic Michael Medved has taken an extraordinary journey from liberal activist to outspoken conservative. Along the way he has earned millions of admirers—and more than his share of enemies—by advancing controversial, often counterintuitive arguments, including: • Liberals love losing because it makes them feel virtuous • America isn’t normal—it’s bizarrely blessed • Hollywood has lost touch with America—and punishes people who point that out • Conservatives are both happier and nicer than liberals • Talk radio is a source of hope, not hatred • Business isn’t exploitative—it’s heroic • There is no such thing as “planned parenthood” • A more Christian America is good for the Jews • Do-it-yourself conservatism provides the only cure for save-the-world liberalism In the candid, electrifying Right Turns, Medved chronicles the adventures that taught him these and many other lessons—the startling events that propelled him from Vietnam protest leader to optimistic promoter of American patriotism, from secularism to religion, from adventurous single guy to doting husband and father. In the process he skewers leftist orthodoxy, revealing why the Right is right and why his former colleagues on the Left remain hopelessly wrong on every cultural, political, and social issue. Medved enters today’s ideological fray armed with experience as, among many other things, a campaign aide for radical Democrats, a minority recruiter for police departments, a Hollywood screenwriter, a Bobby Kennedy volunteer, a teacher at religious schools, a world-champion hitchhiker, an expert on bad movies, and a veteran TV host on PBS and a British network—who declines to own a TV himself. Medved relishes the contradictions behind the high-profile controversies in which he’s played a leading role—as a prominent movie reviewer who attacked the film industry in a bestselling book, as an observant Jew whose radio show is a favorite with evangelical Christians, as a writer once designated the “Bard of the Baby Boomers” who now expresses contempt for his generation’s arrogant indulgence, and as a fearless battler who has sought advice from both Rush Limbaugh and Hillary Clinton and has given advice to both Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand. Right Turns displays the slashing argument and disarming wit that have made Medved’s radio program America’s number one show on politics and pop culture.

Michael Medved (Author), Michael Medved (Narrator)

Audiobook

Do-Gooders

Mona Charen has a loyal following from her syndicated newspaper column (which runs in more than two hundred newspapers) and her many television and radio appearances. Her first book, Useful Idiots, was a six-week New York Times bestseller. Now she's back, switching her focus from foreign policy to domestic issues. Unlike some conservatives who throw verbal hand-grenades, Charen never gets shrill or mean. Instead, she focuses on the facts to reveal exactly why liberals are wrong - and how their proposals hurt the very people they claim to be fighting for, as well as the country as a whole. Do-Gooders is a guide to the smug know-it-alls in politics, the news media, and Hollywood who think they know what's best for the poor and other needy Americans. From Marion Wright Edelman to Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton to Rob Reiner, this book will skewer the liberals by name. It covers topics like: Â· Education: Do-gooders send their own kids to private schools while working to deny poor children a better education through voucher programs. Â· Affirmative Action: Do-gooders defend racial preferences at all costs, while ignoring the enormous problems they create for African Americans at all levels of achievement. Â· Welfare: Do-gooders thought welfare reform in the 1990s would hurt the poor, and they still refuse to admit how much it actually helped. By collecting and exposing the most outrageous quotes and actions of the do-gooders, this book will become a must-read for conservatives across the country as they gear up for the next round of policy battles.

Mona Charen (Author), Sandra Burr (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Benn Tapes - Vol 1

This is the first series of Labour MP Tony Benn's behind-the-scenes revelations from the highly acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series. 'The Observer' called it 'Irresistible fly-on-the-wall history as it actually happens.' Late each night for over twenty-five years the Labour MP and former Secretary of State Tony Benn sat alone and dictated onto tape his account of the daily events at the heart of government. The immediacy, passion and mood is striking as he unburdens himself of the pressure and stress, trials and tribulations of government and opposition with accounts veering from anecdotal to almost confessional. Events recalled in the first of these unique and remarkable recordings - heard by the public for the very first time on Radio 4 - include Harold Wilson's surprise resignation in 1976; the potentially catastrophic 1977 strike at Windscale; the year-long miners' strike in 1984 and the general election in 1992.

Tony Benn (Author), Full Cast, Tony Benn (Narrator)

Audiobook

La Ola Latina: Como los Hispanos Estan Transformando la Politica en los Estados Unidos

Jorge Ramos (Author), Jorge Ramos (Narrator)

Audiobook

Persecution

In his new book, Persecution, bestselling author (Absolute Power) David Limbaugh makes a compelling case that liberals across the country are wasging an undeclared war on Christianity in our culture and in our government-especially our schools. Limbaugh exposes the farce of liberal "tolerance" and reveals the true agenda of liberals who misuse the law to force Christianity out of the public square. Persecution includes how: * A Georgia school board, after being threatened with a suit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), deleted the word "Christmas" from the school calendar. * A Frederick County (Maryland) school employee was prohibited from passing out Christmas cards at school because it "may not be a legally protected right on a public school campus." * The ACLU went on the offensive when county road crews helped erect a religious sign along the highway even though no state funds were used for the sign and such crews regularly assist private groups when requested. * The liberal double standard allows intolerance of Christianity, yet promotes non-traditional, non-Western celebrations, such as Kwanza. * The liberal war against Christianity is a threat to the freedom of all Americans regardless of their religious persuasion. Persecution is a wake-up call to lovers of liberty everywhere and a call to action to conservatives and Christians to defend the religious freedom envisioned and practiced by the founders.

David Limbaugh (Author), David Limbaugh (Narrator)

Audiobook