Top Full Audiobooks in Non-Fiction, Current Affairs, Law, & Politics

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/614605 to listen full audiobooks. Title: America and the Art of the Possible: Restoring National Vitality in an Age of Decay Author: Christopher Buskirk Narrator: Alex Boyles Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 22 minutes Release date: January 10, 2023 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: Between 1920 and 1950, America saw an unprecedented expansion of wealth and power underwritten by technological innovation, cultural confidence, and victory in war. American elites won World War II, rebuilt the world order with America at its head, inaugurated the jet age, and put a man on the moon. The boom led to a larger, richer middle class that confirmed America’s best ideals. By the early 1970s, that ended. American elites have captured a disproportionate share of the social and economic rewards over the last fifty years. Meanwhile, the middle class has shrunk in size and has become economically insecure, owning a smaller share of national wealth than at any time in the nation’s history. This has happened even while most households have two income earners, versus the single-income households that characterized the period of shared prosperity. At the same time, technological innovation that improves people’s standard of living has dramatically slowed. These trends undermine the basic premise behind the broad acceptance of a meritocratic elite, whose rule is predicated on the belief that if the best rise to the top, their talent and energy will create a rising tide that lifts all boats. We had that once. We can have it again.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/618509 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Pacific Power Paradox: American Statecraft and the Fate of the Asian Peace Author: Van Jackson Narrator: Tim H. Dixon Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 4 minutes Release date: January 10, 2023 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: A new history of Asian peace since 1979 that considers America’s paradoxical role After more than a century of recurring conflict, the countries of the Asia-Pacific region have managed something remarkable: avoiding war among nations. Since 1979, Asia has endured threats, near-miss crises, and nuclear proliferation but no interstate war. How fragile is this “Asian peace,” and what is America’s role in it? Van Jackson argues that because Washington takes it for granted that the United States is a force for good, successive presidencies have failed to see how American statecraft impedes more durable forms of security and inadvertently embrittles peace. At times, the United States has been the region’s bulwark against instability, but America has been a threat to Asian peace as much as it has been its guarantor. By grappling with how America fits into the Asian story, Van Jackson shows how regional stability has diminished because of U.S. choices and why America’s margin for geopolitical error is less now than ever before.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/613920 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Rise of a New Left: How Young Radicals Are Shaping the Future of American Politics Author: Raina Lipsitz Narrator: Megan Tusing Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 8 hours 25 minutes Release date: December 27, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: A new progressive generation is on the rise in the United States, reflected in the mushrooming rolls of the Democratic Socialists of America (90,000 mostly twentysomething members), Marxist explainers in Teen Vogue, and perhaps most famously of all, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The Rise of a New American Left is the first book to look closely at this new politics. Propelled by interviews with AOC and the other key figures and organizations that have shaken up American politics, the book includes portraits of groups like Democratic Socialists of America, the Sunrise Movement, and Justice Democrats, explaining who they are, where they come from, and what they want. Investigating the panoply of strategies employed by the new movements and their relationships to politicians from Bernie Sanders to Nancy Pelosi, the book describes how the generational focus on insurgent electoral campaigns both aims to transform the Democratic Party and threatens to be captured by it. Written with panache by a member of this rising generation, this book immerses the listener in a youth culture the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Sixties.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/613910 to listen full audiobooks. Title: A Nation So Conceived: Abraham Lincoln and the Paradox of Democratic Sovereignty Author: Michael P. Zuckert Narrator: David Colacci Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 19 hours 54 minutes Release date: December 27, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: The culmination of years of work on Abraham Lincoln's political thought, Michael Zuckert's A Nation So Conceived argues for a coherent center to Lincoln's political ideology. Zuckert provides invaluable guidance to understanding both Lincoln and the politics of the United States between 1845 and Lincoln's death in 1865 by focusing on roughly a dozen speeches that Lincoln made during his career. This listener-friendly chronological organization is motivated by Zuckert's emphasis on Lincoln as a practical politician who was always fully aware of the political context of the moment. According to Lincoln's speech at Gettysburg, America was new precisely because it was born in dedication to the first premise of the theory of democratic sovereignty: that all men are created equal. Lincoln's thought consisted in an ever-deepening meditation on the grounds and implications of that proposition, both in its constructive and in its destructive potential. A Nation So Conceived is devoted to exploring the paradoxical duality of 'created equal.' In a nearly comprehensive study of Lincoln's thought, Zuckert uses lessons he learned from decades of teaching to reveal how Lincoln understood both its truth and its pathological consequences while offering an assessment of his aims and achievements as a statesman.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/616907 to listen full audiobooks. Title: The Propagandists' Playbook: How Conservative Elites Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy Author: Francesca Bolla Tripodi Narrator: Francesca Bolla Tripodi Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 10 hours 10 minutes Release date: December 20, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: The Propagandists' Playbook peels back the layers of the right-wing media manipulation machine to reveal why its strategies are so effective and pervasive, while also humanizing the people whose worldviews and media practices conservatism embodies. Based on interviews and ethnographic observations of two Republican groups over the course of the 2018 Virginia gubernatorial race—including the author's firsthand experience of the 2017 Unite the Right rally—the book considers how Google algorithms, YouTube playlists, pundits, and politicians can manipulate audiences, reaffirm beliefs, and expose audiences to more extremist ideas, blurring the lines between reality and fiction. Francesca Tripodi argues that conservatives who embody the Christian worldview give authoritative weight to original texts and interrogate the media using the same tools taught to them in Bible study—for example, using Google to 'fact check' the news. The result of this practice, tied to conservative marketing tactics, is more than a reaffirmation of existing beliefs: it is a radicalization of content and a changing of narratives adopted by the media. Tripodi also demonstrates the pervasiveness of white supremacy in the conservative media ecosystem, as well as its mainstream appeal, scope, and spread.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/615959 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism Author: Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way Narrator: Joe Barrett Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 17 hours 16 minutes Release date: December 13, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: Revolution and Dictatorship explores why dictatorships born of social revolution—such as those in China, Cuba, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam—are extraordinarily durable, even in the face of economic crisis, large-scale policy failure, mass discontent, and intense external pressure. Few other modern autocracies have survived in the face of such extreme challenges. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argue that radical efforts to transform the social and geopolitical order trigger intense counterrevolutionary conflict, which initially threatens regime survival, but ultimately fosters the unity and state-building that supports authoritarianism. Although most revolutionary governments begin weak, they challenge powerful domestic and foreign actors, often bringing about civil or external wars. These counterrevolutionary wars pose a threat that can destroy new regimes, as in the cases of Afghanistan and Cambodia. Among regimes that survive, however, prolonged conflicts give rise to a cohesive ruling elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus. This leads to the downfall of rival organizations and alternative centers of power, such as armies, churches, and landowners, and helps to inoculate revolutionary regimes against elite defection, military coups, and mass protest—principal sources of authoritarian breakdown.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/619194 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower Author: Charlie Angus Narrator: Charles Constant Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 25 minutes Release date: December 13, 2022 Ratings: Ratings of Book: 5 of Total 1 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: The world is desperate for cobalt. It drives the proliferation of digital and clean technologies. But this 'demon metal' has a horrific present and a troubled history. The modern search for cobalt has brought investors back to a small town in Northern Canada, a place called Cobalt. Like the demon metal, this town has a dark and turbulent history. The tale of the early-twentieth-century mining rush at Cobalt has been told as a settle's adventure, but Indigenous people had already been trading in metals from the region for two thousand years. And the events that happened here—the theft of Indigenous lands, the exploitation of a multicultural workforce, and the destruction of the natural environment—established a template for resource extraction that has been exported around the world. Charlie Angus reframes the complex and intersectional history of Cobalt within a broader international frame—from the conquistadores to the Western gold rush to the struggles in the Democratic Republic of Congo today. He demonstrates how Cobalt set Canada on its path to become the world's dominant mining superpower.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/619319 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Gold, Oil and Avocados: A Recent History of Latin America in Sixteen Commodities Author: Andy Robinson Narrator: Andre Bellido Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 9 hours 31 minutes Release date: December 13, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: The twenty-first century began optimistically in Latin America. Left-leaning leaders armed with programs to reduce poverty and reclaim national wealth were seeing results—but as the aughts gave way to the teens, they began to fall like dominos. Where did the dreams of this 'pink tide' go? Look no further than the original culprits of Latin American disenfranchisement: resource-rich land and unscrupulous extraction. Recounting the story commodity by commodity, Andy Robinson reveals what oxen have to do with the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, how quinoa explains the mob that descended on Evo Morales, and why oil is the culprit behind the protracted coup in Venezuela. In addition to the usual suspects like gold and bananas which underscored the original plunder of the Americas, Robinson also shows how a new generation of valuable resources—like coltan for smartphones and lithium for electric cars—have become important players in the fate of Latin America. And as the energy transition sets mineral prices soaring, Latin America remains at the mercy of the rollercoaster of commodity prices. Robinson takes listeners from the salt plains of Chile to the depths of the Amazonian jungle to stitch together the story of Latin America's last decade, showing how the imperial plunder of the past carries on today under a new name.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/622419 to listen full audiobooks. Title: Out of the Blue: The inside story of the unexpected rise and rapid fall of Liz Truss Author: James Heale, Harry Cole Narrator: Emily C Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 11 hours 12 minutes Release date: December 8, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: Liz Truss’s journey from schoolgirl revolutionary to Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister The Sunday Times Politics Book of the Year A Guardian Politics Book of the Year 2023 ‘An insightful and at times riotously entertaining account of the lengthy rise and abrupt fall of Britain’s 56th Prime Minister. What was intended as a prologue to her premiership is now a riveting political obituary in which every page drips with the seeds of both triumph and disaster. Cole and Heale have produced a meticulously reported account of Truss’s drive, impulsiveness, eccentricity and ideological certainty which reads like a warning from history. It has elements of tragedy but is frequently very, very funny.’ Tim Shipman 'Make sure you put your seat belt on. Heale and Cole put you in the passenger seat of the fastest car crash in recent political history. It's an unmissable romp through Liz Truss's long journey to the top, fuelled by ambition and espresso. The clues that foretold the extraordinary catastrophe are all there, as the authors reveal in gory detail how Liz Truss nearly had the last laugh, before finally, as her government imploded, the joke was on her.' Laura Kuenssberg Despite being written off and mocked by even her closest colleagues, Liz Truss slowly but determinedly achieved her goal of taking over 10 Downing Street – only to instantly plunge her administration into chaos and announce her resignation after a record-breaking 44 days. How did she do it? And what exactly went so wrong? With unrivalled access and insight, award-winning political journalists Harry Cole and James Heale provide the answers, drawing on interviews with Truss’s friends and supporters, as well as her worst critics and rivals, from Kwasi Kwarteng to Michael Gove. Tracking Truss’s transformation from geeky teenage Lib Dem to Tory PM, with the inside scoop on her first – and only – month in office, Out of the Blue is the unmissable behind-the-scenes account of Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister.

Please visit https://thebookvoice.com/podcasts/1/audiobook/614609 to listen full audiobooks. Title: American Amnesia: How We Lost Our National Memory―and How to Recover It Author: Helen E. Krieble Narrator: Marguerite Gavin Format: Unabridged Audiobook Length: 6 hours 22 minutes Release date: December 6, 2022 Genres: Current Affairs, Law, & Politics Publisher's Summary: People are who they are because of what they have been through, where they came from, who they learned from, and all the things that have happened to them. The same is true not just for individuals, but also for families, communities, and nations. America, too, has its own unique character, also formed by its memories, history, things it has been through, and what it has learned. If people, communities, or even nations lose their memory, they lose their character. That is why cultures throughout the world work at maintaining their identity and passing traditions along to future generations. But what if a nation purposely decides it no longer wants to remember its history? What if a country imposes amnesia on itself? Helen Krieble argues persuasively that this is precisely what has happened to America. It has lost the memory of its own founding principles, and the sacrifices made over the past 250 years to preserve them. The nation is losing its character. She writes that America cannot be preserved as “the last best hope of Earth” if its own people no longer understand why that is true and are no longer willing to do what it takes to preserve it. “The duties of citizenship are vitally important,” Krieble writes, “but they are not complicated. It is our duty, as the owners, to defend our freedom against all threats, and to pass it along to future generations undiminished.” Americans are failing in that duty, but Krieble says there is still time to cure our national amnesia. It begins with rebuilding our understanding of, and commitment to, those founding principles, regaining our national memory.