Politics Audiobooks | LoveReading

Acclaimed historian Edward J. Renehan, Jr., author of The Lion's Pride, focuses on the World War II era to craft a welcome addition to the Kennedy literature. Renehan shows how family patriarch Joseph was an ambitious but occasionally embarrassing diplomat, while wartime disaster elevated second son John to great heights. Sisters Kathleen and Rosemary also emerge as strong individuals in this compelling glimpse at the great American dynasty.

Edward Renehan (Author), Richard Poe (Narrator)

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Who Let the Dogs In?: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known

The dazzling, inimitable Molly Ivins is back, with her own personal Hall of Fame of America's most amazing and outlandish politicians-the wicked, the wise, the witty, and the witless-drawn from more than twenty years of reporting on the folks who attempt to run our government (in some cases, into the ground). Who Let the Dogs In? takes us on a wild ride through two decades of political life, from Ronald Reagan, through Big George and Bill Clinton, to our current top dog, known to Ivins readers simply as Dubya. But those are just a few of the political animals who are honored and skewered for our amusement. Ivins also writes hilariously, perceptively, and at times witheringly of John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, H. Ross Perot, Tom DeLay, Ann Richards, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and the current governor of Texas, who is known as Rick "Goodhair" Perry. Following close on the heels of her phenomenally successful Bushwhacked and containing an up-to-the-minute Introduction for the campaign season, Who Let the Dogs In? is political writing at its best.

Molly Ivins (Author), Anna Fields, Anna Fields (Narrator)

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A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies

The bestselling author of Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace presents his most hard-hitting book to date—a sweeping, authoritative, and fearless account of the failures of America’s intelligence agencies and the Bush administration’s calculated efforts to sell a war to the American people. In The Puzzle Palace, James Bamford revealed the existence of the NSA, the largest, most secretive, and best-financed intelligence organization in the world. In Body of Secrets, he took readers inside the ultrasecret agency, charting its deeds and misdeeds from its founding in 1952 to the end of the twentieth century. Now Bamford applies his relentless investigative drive and unparalleled access to intelligence sources to produce a headline-making book about the most pressing issues of the present day. From the mishandling of the pre-9/11 threat to the unproven claims about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, Bamford argues that the Bush administration has co-opted the intelligence community for its own political ends, and at the expense of American security. Bamford makes the case that the Bush administration’s Middle East policy decisions, from overthrowing Saddam to ignoring the situation of the Palestinians, are driven by long-held beliefs and goals of an elite group of conservatives inside and outside of government. A Pretext for War homes in on the systematic weakness that led the intelligence community to ignore or misinterpret evidence of the impending terrorist attacks of 9/11—a failure rooted in the refusal to acknowledge the central role of the Palestinian cause in igniting Arab rage against the United States. Compounding the errors, the Bush administration’s immediate response to 9/11 was to call for an attack on Iraq, and it subsequently invented justifications for the preemptive war that has ultimately left the United States more vulnerable to terrorism. A Pretext for War is an unprecedented, utterly convincing exposé of the most secretive administration in history.

James Bamford (Author), Ray Childs (Narrator)

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Who Let the Dogs In?: Incredible Political Animals I Have Known

The dazzling, inimitable Molly Ivins is back, with her own personal Hall of Fame of America’s most amazing and outlandish politicians–the wicked, the wise, the witty, and the witless–drawn from more than twenty years of reporting on the folks who attempt to run our government (in some cases, into the ground). Who Let the Dogs In? takes us on a wild ride through two decades of political life, from Ronald Reagan, through Big George and Bill Clinton, to our current top dog, known to Ivins readers simply as Dubya. But those are just a few of the political animals who are honored and skewered for our amusement. Ivins also writes hilariously, perceptively, and at times witheringly of John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, H. Ross Perot, Tom DeLay, Ann Richards, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter, and the current governor of Texas, who is known as Rick “Goodhair” Perry. Following close on the heels of her phenomenally successful Bushwhacked and containing an up-to-the-minute Introduction for the campaign season, Who Let the Dogs In? is political writing at its best. From the Hardcover edition.

Molly Ivins (Author), Molly Ivins (Narrator)

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Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism

As Americans face the ongoing war against terrorists and their state sponsors around the world, Sean Hannity reminds us we must also cope with the continuing scourge of accommodation and cowardice at home. With his trademark blend of passion and hard-hitting commentary, he urges Americans to recognize the dangers of putting our faith in toothless "multilateralism" when the times call for decisive action. He believes that only through strong defense of our freedoms, at home and around the world, can we preserve America's security and liberty in the dangerous twenty-first century. "Evil exists," Hannity believes. "It is real, and it means to harm us." Tracing a direct line from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin through Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, he reminds us of the courage and moral clarity of our great leaders. And he reveals how the disgraceful history of appeasement has reached forward from the days of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter to corrupt the unrepentant leftists of the modern Democratic Party -- from Howard Dean and John Kerry to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hannity's first blockbuster book, the New York Times bestseller Let Freedom Ring, cemented his place as the freshest and most compelling conservative voice in the country. As host of the phenomenally successful Hannity Colmes and The Sean Hannity Show, Hannity has won a wildly devoted fan base. Now he brings his plainspoken, take-no-prisoners style to the continuing War on Terror abroad -- and liberalism at home -- in Deliver Us from Evil.

Sean Hannity (Author), Sean Hannity (Narrator)

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Reason: Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America

Reich sees the radical conservatism that has taken over the public agenda, the desire to fight unilateral "preemptive" wars, to stifle dissent and restrict civil liberties, to shower the rich with tax breaks and cut social services, as dangerous for both America and the world. He argues convincingly that the tenets of the liberal tradition must be a part of our national governance. He makes clear that radical conservatives have ascended in part because of an efficient infrastructure and a political organization driven by big money, and shock troops of mediagenic personalities. He explains how liberals can begin to re-ascend the political ladder by reclaiming the courage of their convictions, and finding powerfully effective ways to minimize the abuse of wealth and power in our political system.

Robert B. Reich (Author), Robert B. Reich (Narrator)

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The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy

In The Republican Noise Machine, David Brock skillfully documents perhaps the most important but least understood political development of the last thirty years: how the Republican Right has won political power and hijacked public discourse in the United States. Brock, a former right-wing insider and the author of the New York Times bestseller Blinded by the Right, uses his keen understanding of the strategies, tactics, financing, and personalities of the American right wing to demonstrate how the once-fringe phenomenon of right-wing media has all but subsumed the regular media conversation, shaped the national consciousness, and turned American politics sharply to the right. Brock documents how in the last several decades the GOP built a powerful media machine--newspapers and magazines, think tanks, talk radio networks, op-ed columnists, the FOX News Channel, Christian Right broadcasting, book publishers, and high-traffic internet sites--to sell conservatism to the public and discredit its opponents. This unabashedly biased multibillion-dollar communications empire disregards journalistic ethics and universal standards of fairness and accuracy, manufacturing 'news' that is often bought and paid for by a tight network of corporate-backed foundations and old family fortunes. By dissecting the appeal, techniques, and reach of the booming right-wing media market, Brock demonstrates that it is largely based on bigotry, ignorance, and emotional manipulation closely tied to America’s longstanding cultural divisions and the buying power of anti-intellectual traditionalists. From the disputed 2000 presidential election to the war with Iraq to the political battles of 2004, Brock's penetrating analysis of right-wing media theories and methodology reveals that the Republican Right views the media as an extension of a broader struggle for political power. By tracing the political impact of right-wing media, Brock shows how disproportionate conservative influence in the media is integrally linked to the Republican Right’s current domination of all three branches of government, to the propping up of the Bush administration, and to the inability of Democrats to voice their opposition to this political sea change or to compete on an even playing field. As only an ex-conservative intimately familiar with the imperatives of the American right wing could, David Brock suggests ways in which concerned Americans can begin to redress the conservative ascendancy and cut through the propagandistic fog. Writing with verve and deep insight, he reaches far beyond typical bromides about media bias to produce an invaluable account of the rise of right-wing media and its political consequences. Promising to be the political book of the year, The Republican Noise Machine will transform the raging yet heretofore unsatisfying debate over the politics of the media for years to come. From the Hardcover edition.

David Brock (Author), David Brock (Narrator)

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American Inquisition: The Era of McCarthyism

During the early years of the Cold War, the anticommunist witch hunt that we now call McCarthyism swept through American society. As we will discover, McCarthyism was much more than the career of the blustering senator from Wisconsin who gave it a name. It was the most widespread and longest-lasting episode of political repression in American history. Dozens of men and women went to prison, thousands lost their jobs, and untold numbers of others saw what happened to those people and refrained from expressing controversial or unpopular ideas. McCarthyism remains all too relevant today; if nothing else, it reminds us that we cannot take our basic freedoms for granted. This course aims to provide a basic understanding of what happened during the Cold War red scare of the late 1940s and 1950s. It will look at this red scare from the perspective of both the victims and the perpetrators, and will try to answer the following question: How could such a politically repressive movement arise in a modern democratic society such as the post-World War II United States? In order to answer that question, this course will look at earlier red scares as well as at some of the key players and institutions involved. It will examine those aspects of the domestic and international politics of the late 1940s and 1950s that contributed to the rise of the anticommunist furor. It will also explore the most important political trials of the era as well as investigate the experiences of its more anonymous (and perhaps more typical) victims. Finally, it will assess the costs of McCarthyism. How did it affect the men and women directly involved with it? And, more important, how did it affect American culture, politics, and the rest of American society?

Ellen Schrecker, Professor Ellen Schrecker (Author), Ellen Schrecker, Professor Ellen Schrecker (Narrator)

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The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos and Crime

Riveting stories of our last frontier and the acts of God and man upon it Even if we live within sight of the sea, it is easy to forget that our world is an ocean world. The open ocean spreads across three-fourths of the globe. It is a place of storms and danger, both natural and manmade. And at a time when every last patch of land is claimed by one government or another, it is a place that remains radically free. With typically understated lyricism, William Langewiesche explores this ocean world and the enterprises--licit and illicit--that flourish in the privacy afforded by its horizons. Forty-three thousand gargantuan ships ply the open ocean, carrying nearly all the raw materials and products on which our lives are built. Many are owned or managed by one-ship companies so ghostly that they exist only on paper. They are the embodiment of modern global capital and the most independent objects on earth--many of them without allegiances of any kind, changing identity and nationality at will. Here is free enterprise at it freest, opportunity taken to extremes. But its efficiencies are accompanied by global problems--shipwrecks and pollution, the hard lives and deaths of the crews, and the growth of two perfectly adapted pathogens: a modern and sophisticated strain of piracy and its close cousin, the maritime form of the new stateless terrorism. This is the outlaw sea--perennially defiant and untamable--that Langewiesche brings startlingly into view. The ocean is our world, he reminds us, and it is wild.

William Langewiesche (Author), William Langewiesche (Narrator)

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Dismantling the Empire From the Inside Out

Jensen's perspective from within the conservative halls of a southern state university names the United States as an empire driven by the desire to create puppet governments in key areas around the world. He reminds us that every empire in the history of the world has been destroyed, usually in a burst of brutality. Jensen invites each of us to take steps to dismantle this empire, but he also tells us how we can do it in a nonviolent way.

Robert Jensen (Author), Michael Toms (Narrator)

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George Herbert Walker Bush

In this revealing biography of the elder George Bush, Tom Wicker, a political correspondent for The New York Times for more than 30 years, draws a sympathetic and insightful portrait of the man at the helm of one of the most powerful families today. From his New England roots and his decorated service in World War II to his oil business and transition to politics, Bush has had the fortunate gift for creating friendships and inspiring loyalty; this, as Wicker makes the case, was the key to his success. While charting Bush's career and providing in-depth analysis of his campaign tactics, Wicker also offers a glimpse into the workings of the current administration and the continued legacy of the Bush family.

Tom Wicker (Author), Michael Prichard (Narrator)

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Losing Bin Laden: How Bill Clinton's Failures Unleashed Global Terror

"If Clinton had fought back, the attacks on September 11, 2001, might never have happened." Years before the public knew about bin Laden, Bill Clinton did. Bin Laden first attacked Americans during Clinton's presidential transition in December 1992. He struck again at the World Trade Center in February 1993. Over the next eight years the arch-terrorist's attacks would escalate, killing hundreds and wounding thousands - while Clinton did his best to stymie the FBI and CIA, and refused to wage a real war on terror. Why? The answer is here in investigative reporter Richard Miniter's stunning exposé that includes exclusive interviews with both of Clinton's National Security Advisors, Clinton's counter-terrorism czar, his first Director of Central Intelligence, his Secretary of State, top CIA and FBI agents, lawmakers from both parties and foreign intelligence officials from France, the Middle East and Egypt, as well as on-the-scene coverage. Losing bin Laden takes you inside the Oval Office, the White House Situation Room and some of the deadliest terrorist cells that America has ever faced. It is a riveting account of a terror war that bin Laden openly declared, but that Clinton left largely unfought.

Ian Ferguson, Richard Miniter (Author), Alan Sklar (Narrator)

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