Political Ideologies Audiobooks | Politics

In his major bestseller, Race Matters, philosopher Cornel West burst onto the national scene with his searing analysis of the scars of racism in American democracy. Race Matters has become a contemporary classic, still in print after ten years, having sold more than four hundred thousand copies. A mesmerizing speaker with a host of fervidly devoted fans, West gives as many as one hundred public lectures a year and appears regularly on radio and television. Praised by The New York Times for his "ferocious moral vision" and hailed by Newsweek as "an elegant prophet with attitude," he bridges the gap between black and white opinion about the country's problems. In Democracy Matters, West returns to the analysis of the arrested development of democracy-both in America and in the crisis-ridden Middle East. In a strikingly original diagnosis, he argues that if America is to become a better steward of democratization around the world, we must first wake up to the long history of imperialist corruption that has plagued our own democracy. Both our failure to foster peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the crisis of Islamist anti-Americanism stem largely from hypocrisies in our dealings with the world. Racism and imperial expansionism have gone hand in hand in our country's inexorable drive toward hegemony, and our current militarism is only the latest expression of that drive. Even as we are shocked by Islamic fundamentalism, our own brand of fundamentalism, which West dubs Constantinian Christianity, has joined forces with imperialist corporate and political elites in an unholy alliance, and four decades after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., insidious racism still inflicts debilitating psychic pain on so many of our citizens. But there is a deep democratic tradition in America of impassioned commitment to the fight against imperialist corruptions-the last great expression of which was the civil rights movement led by Dr. King-and West brings forth the powerful voices of that great democratizing tradition in a brilliant and deeply moving call for the revival of our better democratic nature. His impassioned and provocative argument for the revitalization of America's democracy will reshape the terms of the raging national debate about America's role in today's troubled world.

Cornel West (Author), Cornel West (Narrator)

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My Turn at the Bully Pulpit: Straight Talk About the Things That Drive Me Nuts

Welcome to the bully pulpit where opinions fly but common sense rules. Here's where you'll find straight talk about the most pressing issues of the day, all delivered in the trademark commonsense style of one of America's most popular and admired television news anchors. Always resisting the political label that attempts to place people in one ideological camp or another, Greta Van Susteren speaks from the mind and the heart, not as a liberal or a conservative, but as a right-thinking, sensible citizen. "Our country is at a critical juncture," she writes, and "too many of us are caught up in old definitions of left and right that no longer apply. If I favor the death penalty in some cases, does that make me right-wing? If I think hate crimes legislation is stupid, does that make me a conservative? If I happen to like and enjoy Ozzy Osbourne and have him on my show, does that make me a liberal? And if I believe that corporations should be held accountable if their products harm citizens and they should be subject to the rulings of a jury-ditto for doctors who commit medical malpractice-does that make me a lefty trial lawyer?" Here's more of Greta in her own words: On the military: Liberty isn't free. As a nation, we must provide for the men and women who put their lives on the line for us. That means good pay, adequate funding for defense, and our heartfelt support. Vietnam was a very long time ago. We Baby Boomers have to wake up and realize that today's military is a different military from the one we grew up with, and we are fighting a very different war. Patriotism is not a conservative or a liberal thing. Patriotism, as far as I am concerned, is the duty and obligation of every American. On the Supreme Court: There should be a litmus test for Supreme Court and federal court judges, and that test should be their opinion about allowing public access to court proceedings. Let cameras inside the courthouse, or at least allow an audio feed to radio. What are they hiding? On the death penalty: It should be legal and available to courts and juries . . . but it should be used extremely rarely, and only when we are absolutely certain that a fair trial has taken place. On how you look: It's your business and nobody else's. Your looks and your life are not a democracy-not everybody gets a vote. Make your appearance and your choices a totalitarian regime-you are the boss. On fun: It isn't a curse word. It's actually quite serious business, as it makes the hard times livable and the sad times bearable. Fun should be part of a work environment, too. Stuffed shirts and snobs who can't stop and laugh at themselves should be banished! In Greta's company you're guaranteed to get a fresh dose of common sense and a good hearty rant on many of the most important issues we face today. One more guarantee: you'll have some good fun while you're at it.

Elaine Lafferty, Greta Van Susteren (Author), Greta Van Susteren (Narrator)

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Communism

From the acclaimed Modern Library Chronicles comes an exploration of a promising theory that when put to practice wreaked havoc on the world. An expert on communism, Richard Pipes follows the history of the Soviet Union from the 1917 revolution to the Cold War, and finally, to its deterioration and collapse.

Richard Pipes (Author), George K. Wilson, George Wilson (Narrator)

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Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism

“Liberals’ loyalty to the United States is off-limits as a subject of political debate. Why is the relative patriotism of the two parties the only issue that is out of bounds for rational discussion?” In a stunning follow-up to her number one bestseller Slander, leading conservative pundit Ann Coulter contends that liberals have been wrong on every foreign policy issue, from the fight against Communism at home and abroad, the Nixon and the Clinton presidencies, and the struggle with the Soviet empire right up to today’s war on terrorism. “Liberals have a preternatural gift for always striking a position on the side of treason,” says Coulter. “Everyone says liberals love America, too. No, they don’t.” From Truman to Kennedy to Carter to Clinton, America has contained, appeased, and retreated, often sacrificing America’s best interests and security. With the fate of the world in the balance, liberals should leave the defense of the nation to conservatives. Reexamining the sixty-year history of the Cold War and beyond—including the career of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the Whittaker Chambers–Alger Hiss affair, Ronald Reagan’s challenge to Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall,” the Gulf War, and our present war on terrorism—Coulter reveals how liberals have been horribly wrong in all their political analyses and policy prescriptions. McCarthy, exonerated by the Venona Papers if not before, was basically right about Soviet agents working for the U.S. government. Hiss turned out to be a high-ranking Soviet spy (who consulted Roosevelt at Yalta). Reagan, ridiculed throughout his presidency, ended up winning the Cold War. And George W. Bush, also an object of ridicule, has performed exceptionally in responding to America’s newest threats at home and abroad. Coulter, who in Slander exposed a liberal bias in today’s media, also examines how history, especially in the latter half of the twentieth century, has been written by liberals and, therefore, distorted by their perspective. Far from being irrelevant today, her clearheaded and piercing view of what we’ve been through informs us perfectly for challenges today and in the future. With Slander, Ann Coulter became the most recognized and talked-about conservative intellectual of the year. Treason, in many ways an even more controversial and prescient book, will ignite impassioned political debate at one of the most crucial moments in our history.

Ann Coulter (Author), Ann Coulter (Narrator)

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Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush's America

From Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose, authors of Shrub, Bushwhacked is a hilarious, no-holds-barred look at George W. Bush and his administration, and an essential book for understanding the full, destructive impact of his presidency. For years, bestselling political commentator Molly Ivins has been sounding the alarm about George W. Bush. In Shrub, her 2000 skewering of presidential candidate Bush, the inimitable Ivins, with co-author Lou Dubose, offered a devastating exposé of Dubya's career and abysmal record as governor of Texas. Now, in their second book on our current White House occupant, Ivins and Dubose take the wire brush to the Bush presidency and show how he has applied the same flawed strategies he used in governing Texas to running the largest superpower in the world. Bushwhacked brings to light the horrendous legacy of the Bush tax cut, his increasingly appalling environmental record, his administration's involvement in the Enron scandal, and the real Bush foreign policy-botched nation building in Kabul and Baghdad, alienation of former allies-and, unfortunately, much more. Ivins and Dubose go beyond the too frequently soft media coverage of Bush to show us just how damaging his policies have been to ordinary Americans-"the Doug Jones Average," rather than the Dow Jones Average. Bushwhacked is filled with sharp observation, humor, and compassion for the people often ignored by the federal government and the Washington press corps. With the war on terrorism posing unprecedented challenges to our civil liberties, and with the Bush economic policy in shambles, it is high time for a close look at the state of our Union. Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose provide just that in Bushwhacked-an incisive, entertaining, and damning indictment of the Bush presidency. We've been Bushwhacked Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose on: Dubya's involvement in the failure of Harken Energy Corporation: "There are countless subjects on which George W. Bush might have pleaded ignorance in 1990, but a failing oil business was not one of them." Dubya's accomplishments as governor of Texas: "As full-time residents of the state that gave you tort reform, H. Ross Perot, and penis-enlargement options on executive health plans, we're obliged to warn you that if Dubya Bush really had exported 'the Texas Miracle,' the country would be in deep shit." Dubya's environmental record: "Bush has a chemical-dependency problem, but it's not cocaine. It's Monsanto, Dow, and Union Carbide. They wrote the checks that put him in the Texas governor's mansion....Bush had two voluntary emissions-control programs here in Texas. One involved polluting industries. The other was directed at adolescent males, who were encouraged to 'try abstinence.' Only 3 of our 8,645 most obnoxiously polluting refineries actually volunteered to cut back on their toxic emissions. Numbers on teenage boys are not yet in." Why the Republican Party is the party of unregulated meat and poultry: "The Republicans win elections in the 'red states' in the center of the country, where cattle and chickens are produced and slaughtered. Democrats win their elections in the 'blue states' on the coasts. Republicans use the USDA to pay off their contributors in the red states. The result of that crude electoral calculus is laissez-faire food-safety policy whenever a Republican is in the White House. (If you must eat while the Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress, and the judiciary, you might want to consider becoming a vegetarian about now.)"

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

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Le manifeste du parti communiste

Karl Marx est nE en 1818 A TrEves (Allemagne). Il Etudie le droit A Bonn puis A Berlin et s'associe A des cercles universitaires d'hEgEliens de gauche. MalgrE son diplOme, Marx devient journaliste en 1842 et il rencontre Engels. Il s'installe alors en France oU il rencontre Proudhon mais il est expulsE sur intervention de la Prusse. Suite A la la parution du Manifeste du Parti communiste, il est Egalement expulsE d'Allemagne. Il s'installe alors A New York puis A Londres, d'oU il fonde l'Internationale des Travailleurs (AIT) et renoue avec Bakounine. Marx rEdige le premier tome du Capital en 1867, texte auquel il travaillera jusqu'A sa mort en 1883, les tomes 2 et 3 ne paraItront qu'en 1885.

Karl Marx (Author), Pierre-Francois Garel, Pierre-François Garel (Narrator)

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American: Beyond Our Grandest Notions

From Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, star of NBC's The Chris Matthews Show, and the New York Times bestselling author of Now, Let Me Tell You What I Really Think, comes this celebration of the American Spirit. Fiercely independent, in love with freedom, convinced we can make it, we are like no other people on earth. We are a people reluctant to fight who become ferocious warriors when threatened or attacked. We are suspicious of govermental power yet quick to embrace our flag in times of danger. A deeply practical nation, we loom as the world's great optimists. What unites us Americans is not so much language or ethnicity, but a set of distinct notions about ourselves that comprise our American-ness. The self-made country. The constant rebel. The reluctant warrior. The lone hero. The pioneer. The optimist. You see them in the movies we make, the books we write, the history we have lived. What stirred the souls of our ancestors two centuries ago -- and all the generations in between -- still does. In American, Matthews presents a portrait of a country that enters the world arena armed with an extremely potent weapon: the collective notions we carry of America at its best. It's a picture of more than just a nation challenged but of a people ready, and eager to prevail.

Chris Matthews (Author), Chris Matthews (Narrator)

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I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It

If there's one thing Charles Barkley knows, it's the crying need for honest, open discussion in this country-the more uncomfortable the subject, the more necessary the dialogue. And if the discussion leader can be as wise, irreverent, (occasionally) profane and (consistently) funny as Charles Barkley, so much the better. Many people are going to be shocked and scandalized by I May Be Wrong but I Doubt It, but many more will stand up and cheer. Like Molly Ivins or Bill O'Reilly, Charles Barkley is utterly his own thinker, and everything he says comes from deep reflection. One way or another, if more blood hasn't reached your brain by the time you've finished this book, maybe you've been embalmed.

Charles Barkley (Author), Charles Barkley (Narrator)

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Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right

“The immutable fact of politics in America is this: liberals hate conservatives.” Ann Coulter, whose examination of the Clinton impeachment was a major national bestseller and earned widespread praise, now takes on an even tougher issue. At a time when Democrats and Republicans should be overwhelmingly congenial, American political debate has become increasingly hostile, overly personal, and insufferably trivial. Whether conducted in Congress or on the political talk shows, played out at dinners or cocktail parties, politics is a nasty sport. At the risk of giving away the ending: It’s all liberals’ fault. Cultlike in their behavior, vicious in their attacks on Republicans, and in almost complete control of mainstream national media, the left has been merciless in portraying all conservatives as dumb, racist, power hungry, homophobic, and downright scary. This despite the many Republican accomplishments of the last few decades, as well as the Bush administration’s expert handling of the country’s affairs in the wake of the worst attacks on American soil and of the war that followed. With incisive reasoning and meticulous research, Ann Coulter examines the events and personalities that have shaped modern political discourse—the bickering, backstabbing, and name-calling that have made cultural mountains out of partisan molehills. She demonstrates how the media, especially, are biased—and usually wrongheaded—and have done all in their power to obfuscate the issues and the people behind them, bending over backward to villainize and belittle the right, while rarely missing an opportunity to praise the left. Perhaps if conservatives had had total control over every major means of news dissemination for a quarter century, they would have forgotten how to debate, too, and would just call liberals stupid and mean. But that’s an alternative universe. In this universe, the public square is wall-to-wall liberal propaganda. Refreshingly honest and unerringly timely, Slander continues where Bernard Goldberg’s number one bestselling Bias left off.

Ann Coulter (Author), Ann Coulter (Narrator)

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Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right

The hottest and most controversial book of the year! Find out who really controls the media in America. “[Ann Coulter] is never in doubt. And that, along with her bright writing, sense of irony and outrage, and her relish at finally hitting back at political opponents (especially in the media) is what makes Slander such refreshing and provocative reading.” —Los Angeles Times “[Ann Coulter] is a fluent polemicist with a gift for Menckenesque invective . . . and she can harness such language to subtle, syllogistic argument.” —Washington Post Book World “The most popular nonfiction book in America.”—New York Times “The real value of Slander . . . is not in the jokes or devastating exposés of liberal politicians and their allies, but the serious and scholarly study of just how entrenched the media prejudice is against anyone whose politics are even faintly conservative.” —New York Sun “Written with a great deal of passion . . . the real source of its strength—and its usefulness—was its painstaking marshalling of evidence . . . More important than [High Crimes and Misdemeanors] because it addresses a much broader issue, and one of lasting significance.”—National Review

Ann Coulter (Author), Kathe Mazur (Narrator)

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Taliban: Islam, Oil, and the Great New Game in Central Asia

In this enormously insightful book, correspondent Ahmed Rashid brings the shadowy world of the Taliban, the world’s most extreme and radical Islamic organization, into sharp focus. He explains the Taliban’s rise to power, its impact on Afghanistan and the region, its role in oil and gas company decisions, and the effects of changing American attitudes toward the Taliban. He also describes the new face of Islamic fundamentalism and explains why Afghanistan has become the world center for international terrorism. “The broader story here is powerful…A great deal from Mr. Rashid’s book [is] about the nature of local Central Asian politics and the consequences of interference by outside powers…Valuable and informative work.”—New York Times

Ahmed Rashid (Author), Wanda McCaddon (Narrator)

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Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965

Michael Beschloss has been called by Newsweek "the nation's leading presidential historian." Author of five previous books on American Presidents, he is a frequent lecturer and a regular commentator on ABC News and PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Born in Chicago, he is a trustee of the White House Historical Association, the National Archives Foundation, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Michael Beschloss, Michael R. Beschloss (Author), Michael Beschloss, Michael R. Beschloss (Narrator)

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Political Ideologies Audiobooks in Politics