Political Advocacy Audiobooks | Politics

First, Best: Lessons in Leadership and Legacy from Today's Civil Rights Movement

The first Black mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, shares his story of making his way in a world that wasn't built for him, drawing on his rich heritage as the son of a civil rights leader. As a proud son of a civil rights leader, Steven L. Reed grew up hearing stories about how his father integrated Montgomery lunch counters and took advice directly from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy. However, it wasn't until Reed was in the fourth grade and received a death threat against his father that he began to understand more fully the importance of the lessons his father was trying to impart. At this pivotal moment, his father explained, "My job is to prepare you to be a cross-bearer and not just a crown-wearer. Bigotry has no place in our household. It will only hold you down and make you small." First, Best is an essential antidote to the perpetual dehumanization and distortions of Black men in our culture and media. By sharing the story of forging his own path, Reed offers an alternative narrative to Black men coming of age, catalyzing their hope and sense of possibility. Although Reed took a circuitous path to the office of mayor that began by forging his identity at Morehouse College, pursuing entrepreneurship and exploring the wider world, and serving as a probate judge, each step was guided by the values of his father's generation. First, Best is not just about assuming the mantle of manhood or leadership, nor is it only about the expectation of greatness. Fundamentally, it's about responsibility and preparation, serving others, and being willing to pay the price of leadership by carrying the weight of each decision. First, Best affirms the next generation of Black men and women by showing, through story and example, their power and potential in a world that doesn't always root for them. Permission to reproduce 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March (2015) mural provided by the artist Sunny Paulk and the City of Montgomery's Public Art Commission.

Fagan Harris, Steven L. Reed (Author), Steven L. Reed (Narrator)

Audiobook

Terror and Truth: Civil Rights Tourism and the Mississippi Movement

Stephen A. King and Roger Davis Gatchet examine how Mississippi confronts its history of racial violence and injustice through civil rights tourism. Mississippi's civil rights memorials include a vast constellation of sites and experiences—from the humble Fannie Lou Hamer Museum in Ruleville to the expansive Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson—where the state's collective memories of the movement are enshrined, constructed, and contested. Rather than chronicle the history of the Mississippi Movement, the authors explore the museums, monuments, memorials, interpretive centers, homes, and historical markers marketed to heritage tourists in the state. Terror and Truth: Civil Rights Tourism and the Mississippi Movement is the first book to examine critically and unflinchingly Mississippi's civil rights tourism industry. Combining rhetorical analysis, onsite fieldwork, and interviews with museum directors, local civil rights entrepreneurs, historians, and movement veterans, the authors address important questions of memory and the Mississippi Movement. How is Mississippi, a poor, racially divided state with a long history of systemic racial oppression and white supremacy, actively packaging its civil rights history for tourists? Whose stories are told? And what perspectives are marginalized in telling those stories? The ascendency of civil rights memorialization in Mississippi comes at a time when the nation is reckoning with its racial past, as evidenced by the Black Lives Matter movement, Mississippi's adoption of a new state flag, the conviction of former members of the Ku Klux Klan, and the removal of Confederate monuments throughout the South. Terror and Truth directly engages this national conversation. This recording is presented by University Press of Mississippi and has been digitally produced by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator's voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.

Stephen A. King (Author), Edward Herrman (Narrator)

Audiobook

Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture

Revelations about U.S. policies and practices of torture and abuse have captured headlines ever since the breaking of the Abu Ghraib prison story in April 2004. Since then, a debate has raged regarding what is and what is not acceptable behavior for the world's leading democracy. It is within this context that Angela Davis, one of America's most remarkable political figures, gave a series of interviews to discuss resistance and law, institutional sexual coercion, politics, and prison. Davis talks about her own incarceration, as well as her experiences as 'enemy of the state,' and about having been put on the FBI's 'most wanted' list. She talks about the crucial role that international activism played in her case and the case of many other political prisoners. Throughout these interviews, Davis returns to her critique of a democracy that has been compromised by its racist origins and institutions. Discussing the most recent disclosures about the disavowed 'chain of command,' and the formal reports by the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch denouncing U.S. violation of human rights and the laws of war in Guantánamo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Davis focuses on the underpinnings of prison regimes in the United States.

Angela Y. Davis (Author), Andrew Joseph Perez, Angela Y. Davis (Narrator)

Audiobook

Neurosultan Volume 1: 50 Sonnets of Naskar

An offering of 50 sonnets to the brave and conscientious, from Abhijit Naskar's vast ocean of over 1200 sonnets, in the voice of the humanitarian scientist himself. The volume contains selected sonnets from: 1. Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science, 2023 2. Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth, 2023 3. Insan Himalayanoğlu: It's Time to Defect, 2023 4. Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat, 2023 5. Aşk Mafia: Armor of The World, 2023 6. The Centurion Sermon: Mental Por El Mundo, 2023 7. Yarasistan: My Wounds, My Crown, 2023 8. Mukemmel Musalman: Kafir Biraz, Peygamber Biraz, 2022

Abhijit Naskar (Author), Abhijit Naskar (Narrator)

Audiobook

Making Britain Civilized: How to Gain Readmission to The Human Race

'Hitler's holocaust took over 6 million lives, hence he is rightly deemed a monster, but the british empire uprooted 15 million people from their homes, massacred millions and starved four million people to death. What about that?' Abhijit Naskar, the scientist and reformer who's been at the forefront of humankind's struggle against discrimination, prejudice and injustice, gives us a work of making amends. In his simple yet bold words, as always, Naskar states: 'There is no such thing as constitutional monarchy, you can either have constitution or monarchy.'

Abhijit Naskar (Author), Abhijit Naskar (Narrator)

Audiobook

[Spanish] - Hacer disidencia: Una política de nosotros mismos

Ante los continuos desengaños políticos, los nuevos modelos de sometimiento del neoliberalismo y la complicidad de nuestros dirigentes para que nada de esto cambie, el mayor reto que se nos presenta hoy en día es despertar de nuestro estado de parálisis y movilizar nuestras propias fuerzas. Hacer disidencia supone romper con muchos reflejos, hábitos y representaciones que siguen manteniendo patrones más inoperantes que nunca, debilitando así nuestras voluntades y abocándonos a la pasividad. En este libro, Éric Sadin renueva las perspectivas de emancipación y elabora un registro de acciones concretas capaces de influir en el curso de nuestros propios destinos. Eso supone realizar una crítica de los discursos que defienden intereses privados, dejar de aceptar situaciones injustas y crear una gran cantidad de colectivos –en todos los ámbitos de la vida− que favorezcan la experimentación y la mejor expresión de cada uno.

Eric Sadin (Author), Jordi Llovet (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Bodies Keep Coming: Dispatches from a Black Trauma Surgeon on Racism, Violence, and How We Heal

Trauma surgeon Dr. Brian H. Williams has seen it all—gunshot wounds, stabbings, traumatic brain injuries—and ushers us into the trauma bay, where the wounds of a national emergency amass. As a Harvard-trained physician, he learned to keep his head down and his scalpel ready. As a Black man, he learned to swallow rage when patients told him to take out the trash. Just days after the tragic police shootings of two Black men, he tried to save the lives of officers shot in the deadliest incident for US law enforcement since 9/11. Thrust into the spotlight in a nation that loves feel-good stories more than hard truths, he came to rethink everything he thought he knew about medicine, injustice, and what true healing looks like. Now, in raw, intimate detail, he narrates not only the events of that night, but the grief and anger of a Black doctor on the front lines of trauma care. Working in the physician-writer tradition of Gawande and Tweedy, he diagnoses the roots of the violence that plagues us. He draws a through line between white supremacy, gun violence, and the bodies he tries to revive, training his surgeon's gaze on the structural ills manifesting themselves in his patients' bodies. What if racism is a feature of our healthcare system, not a bug? What if profiting from racial inequality is exactly what it's designed to do? Black and brown bodies will continue to be wracked by all types of violence, Williams argues, until we transform policy and law with compassion and care.

Brian H. Williams (Author), Brian H. Williams (Narrator)

Audiobook

Subtle Acts of Exclusion, Second Edition: How to Understand, Identify, and Stop Microaggressions

This new edition of the first practical, nonjudgmental handbook on dealing with microaggressions has been thoroughly updated for the post George Floyd, post COVID world. Overt discrimination is relatively easy to spot. But the less obvious but more common actions that make people feel left out or stigmatized in our workplaces, commonly called microaggressions, can be hard to identify and even harder to deal with. The author use a clearer, more accurate term: subtle acts of exclusion (SAE). After all, people generally aren't trying to be aggressive-usually they're trying to say something nice, learn more about a person, or be funny. Bring accused of aggression shuts the conversation down, when you want to open it up. This book features examples, tools, sample scripts, and action plans to help readers prevent subtle acts of aggression from happening, or deal with them when they do. Updated throughout, this second edition features: A greatly expanded chapter on intentional acts of inclusion-actions for creating a sense of belonging. A discussion and activity guide ideal for book clubs and training sessions A new concluding chapter, Hope for Humanity Whether in the form of stereotypes, assumptions, backhanded compliments, or objectification, SAEs are damaging to our coworkers, friends, and acquaintances. This book is your friendly, accessible, non-judgemental guide to creating a welcoming workplace.

Michael Baran, Tiffany Jana (Author), Janina Edwards (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Court at War: FDR, His Justices, and the World They Made

The inside story of how one president forever altered the most powerful legal institution in the country-with consequences that endure today By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices-the most by any president except George Washington-and handpicked the chief justice. But the wartime Roosevelt Court had two faces. One was bold and progressive, the other supine and abject, cowed by the charisma of the revered president. The Court at War explores this pivotal period. It provides a cast of unforgettable characters in the justices-from the mercurial, Vienna-born intellectual Felix Frankfurter to the Alabama populist Hugo Black; from the western prodigy William O. Douglas, FDR's initial pick to be his running mate in 1944, to Roosevelt's former attorney general and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson. The justices' shameless capitulation and unwillingness to cross their beloved president highlight the dangers of an unseemly closeness between Supreme Court justices and their political patrons. But the FDR Court's finest moments also provided a robust defense of individual rights, rights the current Court has put in jeopardy. Sloan's intimate portrait is a vivid, instructive tale for modern times.

Cliff Sloan (Author), Brian Troxell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England

Shortly after the first Europeans arrived in seventeenth-century New England, they began to import Africans and capture the area's indigenous peoples as slaves. By the eve of the American Revolution, enslaved people comprised only about 4 percent of the population, but slavery had become instrumental to the region's economy and had shaped its cultural traditions. This story of slavery in New England has been little told. In this concise yet comprehensive history, Jared Ross Hardesty focuses on the individual stories of enslaved people, bringing their experiences to life. He also explores larger issues such as the importance of slavery to the colonization of the region and to agriculture and industry, New England's deep connections to Caribbean plantation societies, and the significance of emancipation movements in the era of the American Revolution. Thoroughly researched and engagingly written, Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds is a must-listen for anyone interested in the history of New England.

Jared Ross Hardesty (Author), Sanya Simmons (Narrator)

Audiobook

Our History Has Always Been Contraband: In Defense of Black Studies

Since its founding as a discipline, Black Studies has been under relentless attack by social and political forces seeking to discredit and neutralize it. Our History Has Always Been Contraband was born out of an urgent need to respond to the latest threat: efforts to remove content from an AP African American Studies course being piloted in high schools across the United States. Edited by Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Our History Has Always Been Contraband brings together canonical texts and authors in Black Studies, including those excised from or not included in the AP curriculum. Featuring writings by: David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, Zora Neale Hurston, W. E. B. Du Bois, C. L. R. James, James Baldwin, June Jordan, Angela Y. Davis, Robert Allen, Barbara Smith, Toni Cade Bambara, bell hooks, Barbara Christian, and many others. Our History Has Always Been Contraband excerpts readings that cut across and between literature, political theory, law, psychology, sociology, gender and sexuality studies, queer and feminist theory, and history. This volume also includes original essays by editors Kaepernick, Kelley, and Taylor, elucidating how we got here, and pieces by Brea Baker, Marlon Williams-Clark, and Roderick A. Ferguson detailing how we can fight back.

Tbd (Author), Jaime Lincoln Smith (Narrator)

Audiobook

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)

Audiobook

Political Advocacy Audiobooks in Politics