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Title: Comedy at the Edge

Subtitle: How Stand-up in the 1970s Changed America

Author: Richard Zoglin

Narrator: Bob Benson

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-16-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 48 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

What Peter Biskind did for filmmaking, Richard Zoglin does for comedy in this meticulously researched and eminently readable account of stand-up comedy in the 1970s, when a small group of brilliant, iconoclastic comedians ruled the world and quite possibly changed it, too.

Critic Reviews:

"Although some subjects (Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, David Letterman) were initially reluctant to be interviewed, Zoglin's conversations with numerous top talents enabled him to add fresh quotations to his extensive research through books, magazines and liner notes. Always highlighting how these comics transformed the culture, Zoglin on standup is standout." (Publishers Weekly)

"Zoglin does a good job telling the story of the rise of the comedy club, from its humble beginnings in a seedy New York dive called the Improv, to its growing influence in supplying talent for TV and film and the boom that filled American towns and cities with Seinfeld wannabes." (Weekly Standard)

"The stand-ups are the warriors of show business, and Richard Zoglin has brilliantly captured their funny and often desperate world." (Charles Grodin)

Members Reviews:

Great Listen

What made the experience of listening to Comedy at the Edge the most enjoyable?

hearing old routines of famous comics.

What did you like best about this story?

The great variety of standup comics in their respective eras.

Have you listened to any of Bob Bensons other performances before? How does this one compare?

This was my first experience.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Many good laughs

Any additional comments?

No. Just glad I bought it.

100 percent truth!

If you always wondered "What is Scientology" than this is the audible for you. very precise detailed exciting account of Scientology. I was a Los Angeles member in 1997 to 2007. My uncle is John Travolta and I joined on my own out of curiosity. I was not given any special treatment because I was a OT's relative. I quit and bought an anti-scientology book but not did not get to finish it. I was a victim of Operation Freak Out where you are framed for something you did not do, then you run to a county psyche ward and they label you schizophrenic so nobody believes you. After I got out of the hospital I was given the FAIR GAME treatment. Which is to destroy and isolate you until you kill yourself. If you want a good scare and a good comedy all in one this is the one for you. It's long but it's worth it. Everything in this audible I have seen first hand. I wish this audio was around before i joined.

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Title: Unlikely Allies

Subtitle: How a Merchant, a Playwright, and a Spy Saved the American Revolution

Author: Joel Richard Paul

Narrator: Arthur Morey

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-18-10

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 16 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Unlikely Allies is the story of three remarkable historical figures. Silas Deane was a Connecticut merchant and delegate to the Continental Congress as the American colonies struggled to break with England. Caron de Beaumarchais was a successful playwright who wrote The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. And the flamboyant and mysterious Chevalier d'Eon - officer, diplomat, and sometime spy - was the talk of London and Paris. Is the Chevalier a man or a woman?

When Deane is sent to France to convince the French government to support the revolutionary cause, he enlists the help of Beaumarchais. Together, they successfully smuggle weapons, ammunition, and supplies to New England just in time for the crucial Battle of Saratoga, which turned the tide of the American Revolution. And the catalyst for Louis XVI's support of the Americans against England was the Chevalier d'Eon, whose decision to declare herself a woman helped to lead to the Franco-American alliance. These three people spin a fascinating web of political intrigue and international politics that stretches across oceans as they ricochet from Versailles to Georgian London to the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. Each man has his own reasons for wanting to see America triumph over the British, and each contends daily with the certainty that no one is what they seem. The line between friends and enemies is blurred, spies lurk in every corner, and the only way to survive is to trust no one.

An edge-of-your-seat story full of fascinating characters and lavish with period detail and sense of place, Unlikely Allies is Revolutionary history in all of its juicy, lurid glory.

Critic Reviews:

"A rollicking romp as well as a serious history, it reminds us of the role of duplicity, hypocrisy and corruption...in safeguarding the American Revolution." (William Taubman, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Khrushchev: The Man and His Era)

Members Reviews:

Love it

I am a history geek...so naturally I loved it. It kept me engaged the whole way through. It also integrated everything I learned in college and had all the historical rock stars that made it fun and familiar.

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Title: Wars Within a War

Subtitle: Controversy and Conflict Over the American Civil War

Author: Joan Waugh, Gary Gallagher

Narrator: Jean Barrett

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-07-10

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 1 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Comprised of contributions from leading scholars, this volume extends the discussion of controversies far past the death of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865. Contributors address, among other topics, Walt Whitman's poetry, the handling of the Union and Confederate dead, the treatment of disabled and destitute northern veterans, Ulysses S. Grant's imposing tomb, and Hollywood's long relationship with the Lost Cause narrative.

Reflecting a variety of approaches and methodologies, these essays provide a starting point for anyone interested in how Americans have argued about the prosecution, meaning, and memory of the war.

Members Reviews:

Mixed Essays, but Good on Balance

This work is a collection of essays over various facets of the American Civil Way and its meaning and impact on Americans. It even included an analysis of how Hollywood has portrayed "The Lost Cause," a subject that is interesting but hardly meaningful except to show how attitudes are shaped through media presentations and propaganda. On the whole I liked this book. Several contributions were quite good, several were interesting but did not really add anything to the body of literature on the Civil War, and one was definitely a non-read -- the one by Cushman on Walt Whitman's views. The reader should be advised that there is little of the actual war in this work, and it more properly falls into the category of social history.

I particularly liked four essays: Stephanie McCurry's on Southern women during the war, their hardships and activitism; Matthew Gallman's on Colored troops and the Battle of Olustee, Florida; Drew Faust's discussion over burying the dead from the war in the following years (particularly recovering bodies of federal troops from the South); and James Marten's depiction of Soldier's Homes after the war. All of these were scholarly and added thoughtful, if peripheral, contributions to Civil War literature.

Other than the overly erudite essay by Cushman that seemed to be written to display the author's command of academese, I was particularly disappointed in the essay by James McPherson, normally one of my favorite authors. His treatise on McClellan (a relative of mine) and his relationship with Lincoln read like it had been quickly dashed off from bits and pieces of his other works to satisfy a publisher's deadline. I don't mean to be harsh, but sometimes academics are pushed for time for small contributions while concentrating on some major new work and essays like this result.

The discussion over treating Southern rebellious activities as treason and the confiscation of Southern property by William Blair was perhaps enlightening to modern readers. The Federal Government adopted a very modern and generous attitude on these issues, and the reader should consider whether our current Federal Government would be so lenient when rebellions break out as the United States collapses under the weight of its debt in the next twenty years as seems inevitable.

Glatthaar's contribution on Lee's first month of command (& a little more) might be useful and even earth-shaking to a novice reader, but does not contribute anything new for the Civil War historian. In fact, it leaves out critical elements in its quest for brevity.

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Title: Massacre at Mountain Meadows

Author: Ronald W Walker, Richard E Turley, Glen M Leonard

Narrator: Bill Dewees

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-24-09

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 86 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

On September 11, 1857, a band of Mormon militia, under a flag of truce, lured unarmed members of a party of emigrants from their fortified encampment and, with their Paiute allies, killed them. More than 120 men, women, and children perished in the slaughter.

Massacre at Mountain Meadows offers the most thoroughly researched account of the massacre ever written. Drawn from documents previously not available to scholars and a careful re-reading of traditional sources, this gripping narrative offers fascinating new insight into why Mormons settlers in isolated southern Utah deceived the emigrant party with a promise of safety and then killed the adults and all but seventeen of the youngest children. The book sheds light on factors contributing to the tragic event, including the war hysteria that overcame the Mormons after President James Buchanan dispatched federal troops to Utah Territory to put down a supposed rebellion, the suspicion and conflicts that polarized the perpetrators and victims, and the reminders of attacks on Mormons in earlier settlements in Missouri and Illinois. It also analyzes the influence of Brigham Young's rhetoric and military strategy during the infamous "Utah War" and the role of local Mormon militia leaders in enticing Paiute Indians to join in the attack. Throughout the book, the authors paint finely drawn portraits of the key players in the drama, their backgrounds, personalities, and roles in the unfolding story of misunderstanding, misinformation, indecision, and personal vendettas.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre stands as one of the darkest events in Mormon history. Neither a whitewash nor an expose, Massacre at Mountain Meadows provides the clearest and most accurate account of a key event in American religious history.

Members Reviews:

Thoroughly Researched

Any additional comments?

Was the mountain meadows massacre an attack led by Mormons, on innocent immigrants? Yes, but to accurately judge a historic event like this you really need to examine surrounding events that led up to this point. The authors are not (as other reviewers have mentioned) 'trying to make the Mormon church look good', they are trying to give you an accurate window into the lives of Mormons at that point in history. By doing this, the authors help us gain better understanding and insight into what the Mormon people might have been thinking and feeling at the time and WHY this tragic event happened. The authors of this book did an excellent job. If you read the preface you will find that they were aware of their potential biases and they explain the steps they took to give the reader an accurate and unbiased account of what happened. They included information from as many primary sources as were available. This is a very well researched book and if you have a physical copy of the book, you can see that about 1/3 to 1/4 of the book are pages dedicated to citing their sources.

Slow to get started - not fully balanced.

I was a bit nervous when the authors "confessed" they relied on the church for much of thier research. At least the first 3/4 of the book a felt a bit like I was being manipulated, but when the bad things start happening the authors do not try to pull punches.

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Title: Cowboys Full

Author: James McManus

Narrator: Oliver Wyman

Format: Abridged

Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-10-09

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 36 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

From the kitchen-table games of ordinary citizens to its influence on generals and diplomats, poker has gone hand in hand with our national experience. Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama have deployed poker and its strategies to explain policy, to relax with friends, to negotiate treaties and crises, and as a political networking tool. The ways we all do battle and business are echoed by poker tactics: cheating and thwarting cheaters, leveraging uncertainty, bluffing and sussing out bluffers, managing risk and reward.

Cowboys Full shows how what was once accurately called the cheater's game has become a mostly honest contest of cunning, mathematical precision, and luck. It explains how poker, formerly dominated by cardsharps, is now the most popular card game in Europe, East Asia, Australia, South America, and cyberspace, as well as on television. It combines colorful history with firsthand experience from today's professional tour. And it examines poker's remarkable hold on American culture, from paintings by Frederic Remington to countless poker novels, movies, and plays.

Braiding the thrill of individual hands with new ways of seeing poker's relevance to our military, diplomatic, business, and personal affairs, Cowboys Full is sure to become the classic account of America's favorite pastime.

Critic Reviews:

"Although positioning it alongside Mom and apple pie may be a stretch, Cowboys Full nevertheless presents a compelling case that the essence of America is best understood through a few hands of its favorite card game." (Amazon.com review)

Members Reviews:

Big disappointment

I read Positively Fifth Street (a great read) and was very disappointed by this tedious exposition. The author didn't give the narrator much to work with and the reader returned the favor. This is a very dry read. I like Poker but if this was my introduction to it, I'd try something else. Long lists of data, names, countries from which players come. Just tiresome filler that an editor should have deleted. Very disappointing from an author who has demonstrated the ability to do far better.

More like a pair of deuces

What's interesting about poker? How about hands that play out in surprising ways, big personalities, shady characters, heartwarming generosity just when you least expect it, and the combination of camaraderie and cutthroat competition in poker rooms. Sadly, this book delivers too much incidental material about presidents who happened to play poker (without the animating effects of accounts of how the presidents played) and too little of the heart and soul of the game. A moderately interesting listen.

A good history of poker, but insulting to Republicans.

Overall a good history of Poker. I thought it was a bit disorganized as it jumped time periods. I believe he ran out of material and devoted an unusual amount of time to the Andy Beal story.

For the entire book, many parts were interesting.

McManus is obviously a radical left winger and had to put in his slaps at the right. Instead of buying a poker history book I got a left wing poker history book, which doesn't make sense.

The reader had no idea how to pronounce poker player's names.

Too much detail!

Not for me. Too much detail. The reader was okay, I didn't like the "book."

Poker for Players and Nonplayers Alike

McManus has provided a great book about poker in Cowboys Full.

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Title: American Indian Stories

Author: Zitkala-Sa

Narrator: Nancy Lee

Format: Unabridged

Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins

Language: English

Release date: 10-02-09

Publisher: CoolBeat Audiobook Publishing

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 2 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

This audiobook consists of several distinct parts. Part One is based on the experiences of the author, and describes a young girl growing up in a changing environment. Part Two consists of revealing stories about other members of her tribe. In the Outro, the author decries the handling of America's Indian problem.

Members Reviews:

This book covers far more than legends

I agree with a letter written by Helen Keller, this book belongs in all American homes. It's full of stories and legends, but it also lays bare the misunderstandings of divergent cultures. A well meant gesture of an easterner that is considered a rudeness by a Native American, phrases and gestures that mean different things to different cultures. Then it goes on into the outright defrauding perpetrated by those who want to get rich off of another's back. This is an easy read, but a valuable one.

beautifully told stories

Zitkala-Sa was a remarkable woman, especially for her time because she was a woman and an Indian and her writings had to penetrate the white press, and white prejudice. She was acceptionally talented as an orator, a musician and a story teller. She was an Ihanktonwan (Yankton Sioux)) who was born in 1876, the same year as the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Her early years were during the transitional period, before much of the bureaucratic brutality of the U S Indian service took control of the Sioux. She vividly brought to life early childhood memories and her innocence and along with it her search and her relections of all living things to find the Devine in all of life. With this also came extended families who shared their worldly goods. Such a life was not perfect because warfare with other tribes was also a part of life. Their way of life did lack the corruption of the big Corporations, and the poisonous corruption of people who are out for themselves, and just wanted to make it to the top at others expense. These two factors made for a way of life that dispossessed the weak, those born near the bottom of society, and, also, whoever else was there for the taking. I have never liked Christianiy, but not because of Jesus' teachings. Because people can be terrible, who are out for themselves alone, and yet be saved because they accept Jesus personally. People who are good and not Christian, whether or not they have heard of Christianity are damned.(I am getting away from this book, but the American Indians were mainly not Christian for a long time, and Zitkala-Sa was not a Cristian).

The Indians were not perfect, they did fight wars against other tribes, which Zitkala-Sa described in her more mature stories, after her boarding school stories. In one of her childhood stories, she described how she wanted to go to the White run Indian boarding school, probably because she was curious and she wanted to learn to read and write, but the story was not so explicit, but it is why she is known to us today.

Her boarding school memories were vivid also, including her ongoing revolt against extreme regimentation, usually in a personal way. She expressed that the strict, by the order way of life took her away from her vital nature experiences, so important to her.

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Title: Gallo Be Thy Name

Subtitle: The Inside Story of How One Family Rose to Dominate the U.S. Wine Market

Author: Jerome Tuccille

Narrator: Grainger Hines

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-20-09

Publisher: Phoenix Books

Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 27 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Gallo Be Thy Name is the portrait of an American dynasty that rose from hardscrabble poverty in the early 1900s to become the most successful wine company in the world through toil, cunning, and crime. From selling Dago Red to Al Capone during Prohibition to conquering Americas wine market with such plonk as Thunderbird and Ripple, and from the Great Depression to the roiling farm labor movements of the 60s and 70s, the Gallos rode the turbulent currents of history to triumph, with iconic brothers Ernest and Julio steering the ship. But beneath the E. & J. Gallo Winerys carefully polished surface is a sweeping story of passion and power, swirling with rumors of murder.

©2009 Jerome Tuccille; (P)2009 Zondervan

Members Reviews:

Fire this reader

I have no idea if this book is awful or if it's just badly read.

Mispronunciations abound, the voice is irritating, and the pace is uneven.

I will search out who this reader is and NEVER buy another audio book read by him.

Fascinating read. Distractingly awful reading.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes. Overall informative.

What did you like best about this story?

They were truly awful people. Always fun to see where moguls come from.

Would you be willing to try another one of Grainger Hiness performances?

Absolutely not. You speak for a living. Please check out your pronunciation. It's not "pinot noyer" or "malbe". He's constantly missing or adding letters in the commonest words. It's painful to hear.

Great story, poorly written and narrated

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The book feels very disjointed for the first 1/3 or so of the story, making it difficult to keep up with who the characters are because you haven't spent enough time with any one before the discussion turns to another.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narration was pretty poor. Mispronunciations all over the place were the biggest issue.

Was Gallo Be Thy Name worth the listening time?

If you enjoy stories about wine families, as I do, the story itself warrants a listen. You simply need to be prepared to be a little lost at the beginning and ignore all of the wine-related mispronunciations provided by the narrator.

Interesting tale, poorly performed by narrator

I knew going in, based on other reviewers, that narration was a problem with this audio book. In listening to the sample, I didn't think the narrator's voice would grate, so off a-listening I went, knowing that most narrator's of wine books frequently mispronounce wine terms. Sadly, the reviews were all too right, only it wasn't merely mispronunciation of wine terms, it was both wine terminology and plain old english usage that he could not get straight. Or off cadence, and even substituting words on several occasions ('substantial winemaking' instead of 'sustainable winemaking' as one of too many examples). I even thought at several points that he sounded 'under the influence' while performing the reading. Unfortunately, the many mistakes made by the narrator got old towards the end of the book.

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Title: Abuse of Power

Subtitle: The New Nixon Tapes

Author: Stanley I. Kutler

Narrator: David Ackroyd, David Dukes, William Window

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-19-09

Publisher: Phoenix Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 29 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

Packed with revelations, Abuse of Power offers a spellbinding portrait of raw power and a Shakespearean depiction of a King and his court. Now, in this dramatic reconstruction of the tapes, the personalities of Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Colson, Haig, Kissinger, and Dean are vividly captured in their own words. Finally, the full story of Nixon's downfall can be told.

Members Reviews:

Good cast of characters for this reenactment

First, William Windom's surname is misspelled. I hope someone will correct that one day. Second, he does a great job as Nixon. I've heard the actual tapes but could not always understand what was said. I'm glad they recreated the text so listeners can follow every word, still a chore given Nixon's verbal ping-ponging. So many actors have played Nixon over the past few years. I won't forget Frank Langella in the film version of the Nixon/Frost interviews. WW will leave his mark on this acting legacy as well.

A legal train-wreck I have to gaze at

Nixon is an all-time favorite non-fiction character for me. There is no end to all his facets and defects, all bundled up in one super-ambitious person bound to achieve greatly in the very moment he crashes and burns. He is a sort of everyman, if every man was a hard-drinking bright paranoid lawyer, playing manic 'roid-laced poker with politics, human careers, lives and national destinies, unable to stop self-destructing amidst seat-of-the-pants cliffhanger episodes all through. He wails and lashes out, but always with a touch of arch-lawyerly cleverness. He constructs plausible stories (and perjuries) on the fly, all phrased in mom-apple-pie-Americana window dressing, out of hopeless losing situations, prompting his cronies while trying to buck them up and prevent their jumping ship. One by one, they do, peeling away into court and congressional hearings, and they instantly become the new demons and enemies to be "destroyed." The voices here are actors, well-done, but the script is verbatim from the White House tapes. I like nothing better than to curl up on a chilly night and listen to Nixon conniving mentally-aloud with his (latest set of) cronies to extricate himself in underhanded fashion from the complex puzzles he has stumbled into. Call me crazy that way. He is really coming unraveled toward the end. I can't not listen in.

The listener should already be familiar with the basics of the Watergate story, to fully enjoy this.

I was hoping for better

The audible version of this book is somewhat disappointing: the characters are actors, which is surprising since, to the best of my knowledge, clean and digitized versions of the tapes are available. The actor playing Nixon is especially bad, he speaks much faster and is accent is very different. The other actors are not much better.

The tapes, fascinating in the beginning, become redundant after awhile. Nevertheless, it is an amazing piece of history, and in spite of the audio's shortcomings, I would still buy it again.

Listen to the dominoes fall

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

The "dramatizing" of this material makes it easier to comprehend and reveals clearly the events, words and act that resulted in Nixon's political and personal downfall.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The actor who portrays Nixon captures the essence of the tapes.

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Title: The Modern Scholar

Subtitle: Rethinking Our Past: Recognizing Facts, Fictions, and Lies in American History

Author: James W. Loewen

Narrator: James W. Loewen

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins

Language: English

Release date: 01-14-09

Publisher: Recorded Books

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 206 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

You will get the most from this course by reading or listening to Professor Loewen's book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. Within that book are many facts about American (and world) history to which most people have simply never been exposed. Nationalist history by textbook authors and the descendants or biographers of the famous and infamous have given history students a very skewed vision of our true history - indeed, the true history of mankind. This course is designed to enlighten and encourage you to consider the factual basis of many of our most-cherished yet glossed-over stories and the real-life characters who populate them. From archaeological misinformation to investigations into the nature of modern public policy, Professor Loewen challenges you to consider the history of what "was" rather than what has been told by standard teaching methods and textbooks.

©2004 James M. Loewen; (P)2004 Recorded Books

Members Reviews:

More than a retelling of history

In this book Dr. Loewen takes a look at the some of the major conflicting issues in our most commonly re-told histories of the USA. His choice of historical material touched on many of the taboo subject other history courses seem to skim over, yet fit into the limit of 8 hours The Modern Scholar series seems to have. You can tell that Dr. Loewen takes pride in his work and enjoys talking about it, which adds to the enjoyment of the listener. In the end, I thoroughly enjoyed re-looking at the history of the USA with a slightly different, perhaps less bias view. I have not checked his references, so I hope we can take his word for it.

So why the 4 star review? Chapter 13, his last chapter, did not seem as organized or as focused as the others. His overall premise is sold, just the choice of words and stories were not effective, I felt. I would give a 4.5 if I could for this small complaint.

A worthy course

As a recent immigrated Taiwanese South African to USA, I could not understand why everybody (especially African Americans/Europeam Americans)are so obsessed with Race relations, this course explained it to me forcibly. I think Ethnocentrism is a danger to American mind, when my African American co-worker jokingly accused me of "racism" when I greeted her with "Yo", I hesitated to explain to her in Taiwanese schools and millitary, "Yo" was a standard reply as in "Yes Sir"...

Vital in its details; flawed in its scope

The title gets one star just for its iconoclasm. The biggest flaw is obvious. The lecture is looking to do a rewrite of American history starting with prehistory and the introduction of H. Sapiens to the continent. There's just no way that the lecture can provide sufficient detail on any one point. But this is information you (probably) don't know, and these are ideas you need to be thinking about. It's an important rewrite, and if you don't think you need it, the more likely it is that you do.I greatly disagree with some of the author's larger conclusions, but there are some vitally interesting facts in there that every good citizen should know.

Everyone should listen to this!

Would you consider the audio edition of The Modern Scholar to be better than the print version?

I am a huge fan of people who tell proper, truthful history.

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Title: Samuel Adams

Subtitle: A Life

Author: Ira Stoll

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Format: Unabridged

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-04-08

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 114 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

And yet history has neglected him; today Samuel Adams is best known as a brand of beer. As relations with Great Britain healed in the 19th century, historians were all too willing to dismiss him as a zealot; Adams's distrust of secularism (he envisioned America as a "Christian Sparta") has not endeared him to many contemporary scholars, either. Ira Stoll's fascinating biography not only restores this figure to his rightful place in history but portrays him as a man of God whose skepticism of a powerful central government, uncompromising support for freedom of the press, concern about the influence of money on elections, voluble love of liberty, and selfless endurance in a war for freedom has enormous relevance to Americans today.

Editorial Reviews:

Ira Stoll places Samuel Adams, the "forgotten Founding Father," in historical context, delving into how his Puritan sensibilities informed his vision of independence. Paul Boehmer competently handles the task of narrating extended passages of Adams's writings in the slightly foreign-sounding English of the Colonial period, although his attempts to give a British accent to British quotes detract from the overall delivery. With its overabundance of repetitive text, listening to this work is often tediously reminiscent of a college history course, but the importance of this "apostle of liberty" and his influence on our national psyche make this chapter of American history vital to understanding how the past informs our present and our view of ourselves as God's new "chosen people."

Members Reviews:

Not just a biography. Must-read American History!

I listened to this book at the suggestion of a friend, and I was very impressed! I had no idea how much I did not know about Samuel Adams. I discovered a lot of new details I didn't know surrounding many historical events in American history, like Paul Revere's ride and the creation of the U.S. Constitution. I thought Chapters 6 and 7 were worth the price of the book all by themselves! Even if you don't think you are interested in this founding father, if you are interested in American History, you need to listen to this book.

Rabble Rousing man of the Common People

Samuel Adams (1722-1803) was one of the founding fathers that historians have not written much about. I recently read Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation by Harlow Giles Unger as part of my attempt to read about the lesser known founding fathers.

Stolls book provides basic information but unfortunately is not an in-depth biography. Adamss father sold beer malt and also was christened Samuel. Before hostilities began Adams the younger was a fiery journalist writing under a variety of pen names. He made invaluable contributions to the revolution. Samuel Adams and John Hancock were hiding from the British in Lexington and heard the first shot of the revolution. Samuel Adams was John Adams cousin. John Adams was the second president of the United States.

Before and after the revolution Adams devoted much of his life to public service, as a reprehensive to Continental congresses, a state legislator, lieutenant governor and the governor of Massachusetts. He also helped create the Massachusetts constitution.

Stoll quotes frequently from Adams published articles and correspondence. Adams likes to compare Americans revolutionaries with the biblical Israelites.