-
A Question of Standing
- The History of the CIA
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $17.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The mission of the CIA has always been intelligence. Seventy-five years ago, in the year of its creation, the National Security Act gave the agency, uniquely in world history up to that point, a democratic mandate to pursue that mission of intelligence. It gave the CIA a special standing in the conduct of United States foreign relations. That standing diminished when successive American presidents ordered the CIA to exceed its original mission. When they tasked the agency secretly to overthrow democratic governments, the United States lost its international standing, and its command of a majority in the United Nations General Assembly. Such dubious operations, even the government's embrace of assassination and torture, did not diminish the standing of the CIA in United States public opinion. However, domestic interventions did. CIA spying on domestic protesters led to tighter congressional oversight from the 1970s on.
A Question of Standing offers a balanced narrative and perspective on recognizable episodes in the CIA's history. Famous incidents include the Bay of Pigs invasion, the War on Terror, 9/11, the weapons of mass destruction deception, the Iran estimate of 2007, the assassination of Osama bin Laden, and Fake News. The book also defends the CIA's exposure of foreign meddling in United States elections.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Cyberspies
- The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage
- By: Gordon Corera
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the digital era becomes increasingly pervasive, the intertwining forces of computers and espionage are reshaping the entire world; what was once the preserve of a few intelligence agencies now affects us all. Corera's compelling narrative takes us from the Second World War through the Cold War and the birth of the Internet to the present era of hackers and surveillance. The book is rich with historical detail and characters as well as astonishing revelations about espionage carried out in recent times by the United Kingdom, the United States, and China.
-
-
One in a Million
- By CJA on 10-15-16
By: Gordon Corera
-
Spies
- The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
- By: Calder Walton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spies is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage, sabotage, and subversion were the Kremlin’s means to equalize the imbalance of resources between the East and West before, during, and after the Cold War. There was nothing “unprecedented” about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was simply business as usual, new means used for old ends.
-
-
A detailed history, inexcusably marred by politics
- By Thomas Randolph on 08-12-23
By: Calder Walton
-
Command
- The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine
- By: Lawrence Freedman
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Using examples from a wide variety of conflicts, Lawrence Freedman shows that successful military command depends on the ability not only to use armed forces effectively, but also to understand the political context in which they are operating.
-
-
LF remains dependable for scholarship and presentation quality
- By ronald waters on 01-15-23
-
Need to Know
- World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence
- By: Nicholas Reynolds
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The entire vast modern American intelligence system—the amalgam of three-letter spy services of many stripes—can be traced back to the dire straits that Britain faced at the end of June 1940. Before World War II, the US had no organization to recruit spies and steal secrets or launch secret campaigns against enemies overseas. It was only through Winston Churchill’s determination to mobilize the US to help in their fight against Hitler that the first American spy service was born, one that was built by scratch in the background of WWII.
-
-
Verryyyy sssllllooowww
- By ed on 11-17-22
-
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms
- The History and Future of American Intelligence
- By: Amy B. Zegart
- Narrated by: Amy B. Zegart
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of US espionage, gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America's intelligence agencies, and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight.
-
-
Superb and insightful!
- By Cameron on 02-01-22
By: Amy B. Zegart
-
Inside Delta Force
- The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit
- By: Command Sergeant Major Eric L. Haney
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Delta Force—the US Army’s most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won’t hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action to reveal the never-before-told story of First Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).
-
-
Finally I get the low down on Delta Force
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-13
-
Cyberspies
- The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage
- By: Gordon Corera
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the digital era becomes increasingly pervasive, the intertwining forces of computers and espionage are reshaping the entire world; what was once the preserve of a few intelligence agencies now affects us all. Corera's compelling narrative takes us from the Second World War through the Cold War and the birth of the Internet to the present era of hackers and surveillance. The book is rich with historical detail and characters as well as astonishing revelations about espionage carried out in recent times by the United Kingdom, the United States, and China.
-
-
One in a Million
- By CJA on 10-15-16
By: Gordon Corera
-
Spies
- The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
- By: Calder Walton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spies is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage, sabotage, and subversion were the Kremlin’s means to equalize the imbalance of resources between the East and West before, during, and after the Cold War. There was nothing “unprecedented” about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was simply business as usual, new means used for old ends.
-
-
A detailed history, inexcusably marred by politics
- By Thomas Randolph on 08-12-23
By: Calder Walton
-
Command
- The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine
- By: Lawrence Freedman
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Using examples from a wide variety of conflicts, Lawrence Freedman shows that successful military command depends on the ability not only to use armed forces effectively, but also to understand the political context in which they are operating.
-
-
LF remains dependable for scholarship and presentation quality
- By ronald waters on 01-15-23
-
Need to Know
- World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence
- By: Nicholas Reynolds
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 13 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The entire vast modern American intelligence system—the amalgam of three-letter spy services of many stripes—can be traced back to the dire straits that Britain faced at the end of June 1940. Before World War II, the US had no organization to recruit spies and steal secrets or launch secret campaigns against enemies overseas. It was only through Winston Churchill’s determination to mobilize the US to help in their fight against Hitler that the first American spy service was born, one that was built by scratch in the background of WWII.
-
-
Verryyyy sssllllooowww
- By ed on 11-17-22
-
Spies, Lies, and Algorithms
- The History and Future of American Intelligence
- By: Amy B. Zegart
- Narrated by: Amy B. Zegart
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of US espionage, gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America's intelligence agencies, and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight.
-
-
Superb and insightful!
- By Cameron on 02-01-22
By: Amy B. Zegart
-
Inside Delta Force
- The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit
- By: Command Sergeant Major Eric L. Haney
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 13 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Delta Force—the US Army’s most elite top-secret strike force. They dominate the modern battlefield, but you won’t hear about their heroics on CNN. No headlines can reveal their top-secret missions, and no book has ever taken readers inside—until now. Here, a founding member of Delta Force takes us behind the veil of secrecy and into the action to reveal the never-before-told story of First Special Forces Operational Detachment-D (Delta Force).
-
-
Finally I get the low down on Delta Force
- By Amazon Customer on 08-15-13
-
Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
-
-
Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
-
Danger Zone
- The Coming Conflict with China
- By: Hal Brands, Michael Beckley
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sino-American contest is driven by clashing geopolitical interests and a stark ideological dispute over whether authoritarianism or democracy will dominate the twenty-first century. But both history and China's current trajectory suggest that this rivalry will reach its moment of maximum danger in the 2020s. The Chinese challenge will most likely prove more manageable than many pessimists currently believe—but during the 2020s, the pace of Sino-American conflict will accelerate, and the prospect of war will be frighteningly real.
-
-
Quality control issues
- By Rock Island on 09-17-22
By: Hal Brands, and others
-
Spies and Lies
- How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World
- By: Alex Joske
- Narrated by: James Daniel Burkdoll
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Spies and Lies a groundbreaking expose of elite influence operations by China's little-known Ministry of State Security. Revealing for the first time how the Chinese Communist Party has tasked its spies to deceive the world, it challenges the conventional account of China's past, present, and future.
-
-
Beware of the MSS
- By Reed Ramlow on 03-08-24
By: Alex Joske
-
Dark Alliance
- The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion
- By: Gary Webb
- Narrated by: Christian Rummel
- Length: 20 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One - the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about - without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
-
-
Bigger than You Thought
- By Susie on 04-28-14
By: Gary Webb
-
The Main Enemy
- The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB
- By: Milton Bearden, James Risen
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark collaboration between a thirty-year veteran of the CIA and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, The Main Enemy is the inside story of the CIA-KGB spy wars, told through the actions of the men who fought them. Based on hundreds of interviews with operatives from both sides, The Main Enemy puts us inside the heads of CIA officers as they dodge surveillance and walk into violent ambushes in Moscow. This is the story of the generation of spies who came of age in the shadow of the Cuban missile crisis and rose to run the CIA and KGB in the last days of the Cold War.
-
-
A masterpiece of espionage history
- By kucherv on 08-21-18
By: Milton Bearden, and others
-
Leadership
- Six Studies in World Strategy
- By: Henry Kissinger
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary leaders—Konrad Adenauer, Charles de Gaulle, Richard Nixon, Anwar Sadat, Lee Kuan Yew, and Margaret Thatcher—through the distinctive strategies of statecraft that he believes they embodied. To each of these studies, Kissinger brings historical perception, public experience and, because he knew each of the subjects and participated in many of the events he describes, personal knowledge.
-
-
Architects of World Order
- By GrimLockz on 09-21-22
By: Henry Kissinger
-
Conflict
- The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine
- By: David Petraeus, Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: David Petraeus, Robert Fass
- Length: 18 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two leading authorities—an acclaimed historian and the outstanding battlefield commander and strategist of our time—collaborate on a landmark examination of war since 1945. Conflict is both a sweeping history of the evolution of warfare up to Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine, and a penetrating analysis of what we must learn from the past—and anticipate in the future—in order to navigate an increasingly perilous world.
-
-
The Story of My Life
- By Nice guy on 03-06-24
By: David Petraeus, and others
-
The Peacemaker
- Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink
- By: William Inboden
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 23 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With decades of hindsight, the peaceful end of the Cold War seems a foregone conclusion. But in the early 1980s, most experts believed the Soviet Union was strong, stable, and would last into the next century. Ronald Reagan entered the White House with no certainty of what would happen next, only an overriding faith in democracy and an abiding belief that Soviet communism—and the threat of nuclear war—must end. The Peacemaker reveals how Reagan’s White House waged the Cold War while managing multiple crises around the globe.
-
-
a very good book
- By Dale Sarver on 01-09-23
By: William Inboden
-
By All Means Available
- Memoirs of a Life in Intelligence, Special Operations, and Strategy
- By: Michael G. Vickers
- Narrated by: Michael G. Vickers
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1984, Michael Vickers took charge of the CIA’s secret war against the Soviets in Afghanistan. After inheriting a strategy aimed at imposing costs on the Soviets for their invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, Vickers transformed the covert campaign into an all-out effort to help the Afghan resistance win their war. More than any other American, he was responsible for the outcome in Afghanistan that led to the end of the Cold War. In By All Means Available, Vickers recounts his remarkable career.
-
-
Great listen, interesting information
- By Amazon Customer on 08-02-23
-
American Cartel
- Inside the Battle to Bring Down the Opioid Industry
- By: Scott Higham, Sari Horwitz
- Narrated by: Kiff VandenHeuvel
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive investigation and exposé of how some of the nation's largest corporations created and fueled the opioid crisis—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters who first uncovered the dimensions of the deluge of pain pills that ravaged the country and the complicity of a near-omnipotent drug cartel.
-
-
A must listen.
- By JAFO on 07-29-22
By: Scott Higham, and others
-
Wise Gals
- The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage
- By: Nathalia Holt
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page, and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues because of their sharp sense of humor and even quicker intelligence, were not the stereotypical femme fatale of spy novels.
-
-
Intriguing untold history
- By Andrea Guzman on 12-15-22
By: Nathalia Holt
-
Too Big for a Single Mind
- How the Greatest Generation of Physicists Uncovered the Quantum World
- By: Tobias Hürter
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There may never be another era of science like the first half of the twentieth century, when many of the most important physicists ever to live—Marie Curie, Max Planck, Wolfgang Pauli, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Ernst Schrödinger, Albert Einstein, and others—came together to uncover the quantum world: a concept so outrageous and shocking, so contrary to traditional physics, that its own founders rebelled against it until the equations held up and fundamentally changed our understanding of reality. Tobias Hürter takes us back to this uniquely momentous and harrowing time.
-
-
Outstanding
- By Slim on 01-07-23
By: Tobias Hürter
Related to this topic
-
The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
-
-
Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
-
The Folly and the Glory
- America, Russia, and Political Warfare: 1945-2020
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the 75-year battle between the US and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president.
-
-
Worst Narration Ever
- By Amy on 02-15-21
By: Tim Weiner
-
The Plot to Betray America
- How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Plot to Betray America, New York Times best-selling author and renowned intelligence expert Malcolm Nance reveals exactly how President Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest acts of treachery in the history of the United States: Compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.
-
-
Fantastic Read
- By Customer on 11-14-19
By: Malcolm Nance
-
In Deep
- The FBI, CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"
- By: David Rohde
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three-quarters of Americans believe that a group of unelected government and military officials secretly manipulate or direct national policy in the United States. This sweeping exploration examines the CIA and FBI scandals of the past 50 years - from the Church Committee's exposure of Cold War abuses, to Abscam, to false intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, to NSA mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden. It then investigates the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era, and the relentless spread of conspiracy theories online and on-air.
-
-
Pure Propaganda
- By S Wilkey on 05-21-20
By: David Rohde
-
To Start a War
- How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even now, after more than 15 years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few of them are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps it's that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, that explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully for the first time to Robert Draper.
-
-
If you’ve grown weary of the current GOP administration’s incompetence...
- By Marynelle on 09-04-20
By: Robert Draper
-
American Exception
- Empire and the Deep State
- By: Aaron Good
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term “deep state” was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.
-
-
I buy the premises, but not the conclusions...
- By Clark on 01-05-23
By: Aaron Good
-
The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
-
-
Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
-
The Folly and the Glory
- America, Russia, and Political Warfare: 1945-2020
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the 75-year battle between the US and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president.
-
-
Worst Narration Ever
- By Amy on 02-15-21
By: Tim Weiner
-
The Plot to Betray America
- How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Plot to Betray America, New York Times best-selling author and renowned intelligence expert Malcolm Nance reveals exactly how President Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest acts of treachery in the history of the United States: Compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.
-
-
Fantastic Read
- By Customer on 11-14-19
By: Malcolm Nance
-
In Deep
- The FBI, CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"
- By: David Rohde
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three-quarters of Americans believe that a group of unelected government and military officials secretly manipulate or direct national policy in the United States. This sweeping exploration examines the CIA and FBI scandals of the past 50 years - from the Church Committee's exposure of Cold War abuses, to Abscam, to false intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, to NSA mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden. It then investigates the claims and counterclaims of the Trump era, and the relentless spread of conspiracy theories online and on-air.
-
-
Pure Propaganda
- By S Wilkey on 05-21-20
By: David Rohde
-
To Start a War
- How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even now, after more than 15 years, it is hard to see the invasion of Iraq through the cool, considered gaze of history. For too many people, the damage is still too palpable, and still unfolding. Most of the major players in that decision are still with us, and few of them are not haunted by it, in one way or another. Perhaps it's that combination, the passage of the years and the still unresolved trauma, that explains why so many protagonists opened up so fully for the first time to Robert Draper.
-
-
If you’ve grown weary of the current GOP administration’s incompetence...
- By Marynelle on 09-04-20
By: Robert Draper
-
American Exception
- Empire and the Deep State
- By: Aaron Good
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To trace the evolution of the American state, Aaron Good takes a deep-politics approach. The term “deep state” was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it here refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions.
-
-
I buy the premises, but not the conclusions...
- By Clark on 01-05-23
By: Aaron Good
-
Dirty Wars
- The World Is a Battlefield
- By: Jeremy Scahill
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 24 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From Afghanistan and Pakistan to Yemen, Somalia, and beyond, Scahill speaks to the CIA agents, mercenaries, and elite Special Operations Forces operators who populate the dark side of American war-fighting. He goes deep into al Qaeda-held territory in Yemen and walks the streets of Mogadishu with CIA-backed warlords. We also meet the survivors of US night raids and drone strikes - including families of US citizens targeted for assassination by their own government - who reveal the human consequences of the dirty wars the United States struggles to keep hidden.
-
-
Non political BUT very anti-violence
- By aaron on 05-11-13
By: Jeremy Scahill
-
Whistleblowers
- Honesty in America from Washington to Trump
- By: Allison Stanger
- Narrated by: Kate Mulligan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service - yet they always suffer for it. This episodic history brings to light how whistleblowing, an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience, has held powerful elites accountable in America.
-
-
Wow!
- By Private on 11-15-20
By: Allison Stanger
-
Kissinger's Shadow
- The Long Reach of America's Most Controversial Statesman
- By: Greg Grandin
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A new account of America's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of America's current imperial stance. In his fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin argues that to understand the crisis of contemporary America - its never-ending wars abroad and political polarization at home - we have to understand Henry Kissinger.
-
-
A Rehash of Rehashes...nothing new
- By A. M. on 10-06-19
By: Greg Grandin
-
Necessary Illusions
- Thought Control in Democratic Societies
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his 1988 CBC Massey Lecture, Noam Chomsky inquires into the nature of the media in a political system where the population cannot be disciplined by force and thus must be subjected to more subtle forms of ideological control. Specific cases are illustrated in detail, using the U.S. media primarily but also media in other societies.
-
-
Seminal work ruined by a terrible performance.
- By R. Kuprov on 04-14-17
By: Noam Chomsky
-
The War Conspiracy
- JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A remarkable analysis linking the assassination of JFK and 9/11, and how both events were used to influence war policy. Peter Dale Scott examines the many ways in which war policy has been driven by “accidents” and other events in the field, in some cases despite moves toward peace that were directed by presidents. This book explores the “deep politics” that exerts a profound but too-little-understood effect on national policy outside the control of traditional democratic processes.
-
-
data dump on every rabbit hole
- By Shawn R. Veltheim on 12-20-18
By: Peter Dale Scott
-
Active Measures
- The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare
- By: Thomas Rid
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 14 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in the age of disinformation - of organized deception. Spy agencies pour vast resources into hacking, leaking, and forging data, often with the goal of weakening the very foundation of liberal democracy: trust in facts. Thomas Rid, a renowned expert on technology and national security, was one of the first to sound the alarm, even before the 2016 election. But this is not new. The story of modern disinformation begins with the clash between communism and capitalism after the Russian Revolution.
-
-
Grounding book for COVID 19 Media
- By fjness on 05-12-20
By: Thomas Rid
-
Nemesis
- The Last Days of the American Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail the likely consequences of US dependence on a permanent war economy, and what it will mean when the globe's sole "hyperpower" is no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders - and becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all time. In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that the crisis of a financial breakdown could ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.
-
-
The Book Bill O'Rielly Doesn't Want You To Read!
- By Joe on 04-04-07
By: Chalmers Johnson
-
The Iran Wars
- Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East
- By: Jay Solomon
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Iran Wars is an absorbing account of a battle waged on many levels - military, financial, and covert. Jay Solomon’s book is the product of extensive in-depth reporting and interviews with all the key players in the conflict - from high-ranking Iranian officials to Secretary of State John Kerry and his negotiating team. With a reporter’s masterly investigative eye and the narrative dexterity of a great historian, Solomon shows how Iran’s nuclear development went unnoticed for years by the international community only to become its top security concern.
-
-
Titled Towards Confrontation
- By Jim on 03-19-17
By: Jay Solomon
-
Hegemony or Survival
- America's Quest for Global Dominance
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Brian Jones, Noam Chomsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than half a century, the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing, as in the Cuban missile crisis, to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. Now the Bush administration is intensifying this process, driving us toward the final frontiers of imperial control, toward a choice between the prerogatives of power and a livable Earth.
-
-
Read and open your mind
- By Rupert on 01-15-04
By: Noam Chomsky
-
Your Government Failed You
- Breaking the Cycle of National Security Disasters
- By: Richard A. Clarke
- Narrated by: Richard A. Clarke
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Your Government Failed You, Clarke looks at why failures have continued and how America and the world can succeed against the terrorists. But Clarke goes beyond terrorism to examine the recurring U.S. government disasters. Despite the lessons of Vietnam, we've gotten involved in Iraq. Drawing on his 30 years in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and Intelligence Community, Clarke discovers patterns in the failure and suggests ways to stop the cycle.
-
-
Stellar Criticism
- By Tim on 04-01-09
-
The Sorrows of Empire
- Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.
-
-
A must read.
- By Thomas on 02-07-15
By: Chalmers Johnson
-
The Sword and the Shield
- By: Christopher Andrew, Vasilli Mitrokhin
- Narrated by: Robert Whitfield
- Length: 31 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book reveals the most complete picture ever of the KGB and its operations in the United States and Europe. It is based on an extremely top secret archive which details the full extent of its worldwide network. Christopher Andrew is professor of modern and contemporary history and chair of the history department at Cambridge University, a former visiting professor of national security at Harvard, a frequent guest lecturer at other United States universities, and a regular host of BBC radio and TV programs.
-
-
Great book on the history of the KGB
- By Clydene on 05-28-12
By: Christopher Andrew, and others