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After the Ivory Tower Falls
- How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics—and How to Fix It
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
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Publisher's summary
From Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Will Bunch, the epic untold story of college—the great political and cultural fault line of American life
Winner of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia Literary Award | Longlisted for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction | ""This book is simply terrific."" —Heather Cox Richardson | ""Ambitious and engrossing."" —New York Times Book Review | ""A must-read."" —Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains
Today there are two Americas, separate and unequal, one educated and one not. And these two tribes—the resentful “non-college” crowd and their diploma-bearing yet increasingly disillusioned adversaries—seem on the brink of a civil war. The strongest determinant of whether a voter was likely to support Donald Trump in 2016 was whether or not they attended college, and the degree of loathing they reported feeling toward the so-called “knowledge economy"" of clustered, educated elites. Somewhere in the winding last half-century of the United States, the quest for a college diploma devolved from being proof of America’s commitment to learning, science, and social mobility into a kind of Hunger Games contest to the death. That quest has infuriated both the millions who got shut out and millions who got into deep debt to stay afloat.
In After the Ivory Tower Falls, award-winning journalist Will Bunch embarks on a deeply reported journey to the heart of the American Dream. That journey begins in Gambier, Ohio, home to affluent, liberal Kenyon College, a tiny speck of Democratic blue amidst the vast red swath of white, post-industrial, rural midwestern America. To understand “the college question,” there is no better entry point than Gambier, where a world-class institution caters to elite students amidst a sea of economic despair.
From there, Bunch traces the history of college in the U.S., from the landmark GI Bill through the culture wars of the 60’s and 70’s, which found their start on college campuses. We see how resentment of college-educated elites morphed into a rejection of knowledge itself—and how the explosion in student loan debt fueled major social movements like Occupy Wall Street. Bunch then takes a question we need to ask all over again—what, and who, is college even for?—and pushes it into the 21st century by proposing a new model that works for all Americans.
The sum total is a stunning work of journalism, one that lays bare the root of our political, cultural, and economic division—and charts a path forward for America.
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To understand the Trump White House, you need to understand Steve Bannon: what's driving him, what his true role is, and what he's trying to accomplish on behalf of the American middle class. White House reporter Keith Koffler penetrates the fog surrounding the mysterious senior White House advisor, tracing Bannon's wild and distinctly American path to the White House in this first-ever honest biography of the controversial figure.
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The "real" Steve Bannon! Great read!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-20-17
By: Keith Koffler
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Cowards
- What Politicians, Radicals, and the Media Refuse to Say
- By: Glenn Beck
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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As we approach the most important presidential election in America’s history, something has been lost among all of the debates, attack ads, and super- PACs - something that Americans used to hold in very high regard: THE TRUTH. The truth can no longer be something we hope for; it must be something we live. When courage prevails, cowards do not - and this book was written to ensure that’s exactly what happens.
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Guess what... Its by Glenn Beck!!
- By Joseph on 07-17-12
By: Glenn Beck
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The Conservative Heart
- How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America
- By: Arthur C. Brooks
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Conservative Heart, Arthur C. Brooks contends that after years of focusing on economic growth and traditional social values, it is time for a new kind of conservatism - one that helps the vulnerable without mortgaging our children's future. In Brooks' daring vision, this conservative movement fights poverty, promotes equal opportunity, celebrates earned success, and values spiritual enlightenment. It is an inclusive movement with a positive agenda to help people lead happier, more hopeful, and more satisfied lives.
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Outstanding recitation of conservatism!
- By GLENNO on 08-06-15
By: Arthur C. Brooks
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Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right
- What America Can Learn from the Strange Genius of Texas
- By: Erica Grieder
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Texas may well be America’s most controversial state. Evangelicals dominate the halls of power, millions of its people live in poverty, and its death row is the busiest in the country. Skeptical outsiders have found much to be offended by in the state’s politics and attitude, and yet, according to journalist and Texan Erica Grieder, the United States has a great deal to learn from Texas. In Big, Hot, Cheap, and Right, Grieder traces the political history of a state that was always larger than life. From its rowdy beginnings, Texas has combined a long-standing suspicion of government intrusion with a passion for business.
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Loved this book!
- By ccarp on 06-04-14
By: Erica Grieder
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Boom!
- Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today
- By: Tom Brokaw
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to "turn on, tune in, drop out". While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.
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boring survey of a generation
- By Andy on 01-01-08
By: Tom Brokaw
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Trickle Up Poverty
- Stopping Obama's Attack on Our Borders, Economy, and Security
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Robert Louis
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Trickle Up Poverty is your best defense against the Obamanomics that are dragging the middle class, and everyone else, into a Marxist-Socialist death spiral. The Savage manifesto you hold in your hands shows how Obama is circumventing the Constitution to push through his radical agenda - and, most important, how we can restore our country to the power and prestige that Barack Obama and his corrupt and degenerate "czars" are trying to destroy.
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The book is much better than the radio show
- By Jonnie on 12-19-10
By: Michael Savage
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Reason
- Why Liberals Will Win the Battle for America
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 7 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
- By Ron Green on 03-13-05
By: Robert B. Reich
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The Big Sort
- Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart
- By: Bill Bishop, Robert G. Cushing
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop coined the term "the big sort". Armed with startling new demographic data, he made national news in a series of articles showing how Americans have been sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities - not by region or by state but by city and even neighborhood. Over the past three decades, we have been choosing the neighborhoods (and churches and news shows) compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs.
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Build the Wall?
- By Amazon Customer on 01-23-19
By: Bill Bishop, and others
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The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution: 1763-1789
- By: Robert Middlekauff
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically-acclaimed volume - a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize - offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic.
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Strong History Rich With Behind The Scenes Details
- By John on 10-06-11
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Stayin' Alive
- The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class
- By: Jefferson R. Cowie
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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A wide-ranging cultural and political history that will forever redefine a misunderstood decade, Stayin' Alive is prize-winning historian Jefferson Cowie's remarkable account of how working-class America hit the rocks in the political and economic upheavals of the 1970s. In this edgy and incisive book, Cowie, with "an ear for the power and poetry of vernacular speech" (Cleveland Plain Dealer), reveals America's fascinating path from rising incomes and optimism of the New Deal to the widening economic inequalities and dampened expectations of the present.
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Couldn’t get past “rank and file”
- By A. Arena on 10-13-21
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A Nation of Nations
- A Story of America After the 1965 Immigration Law
- By: Tom Gjelten
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1950, Fairfax County, Virginia, was 90 percent white, 10 percent African American, with a little more than 100 families who were "other". Currently the African American percentage of the population is about the same, but the Anglo white population is less than 50 percent, and there are families of Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American origin living all over the county. A Nation of Nations follows the lives of a few immigrants to Fairfax County over recent decades as they gradually "Americanize".
By: Tom Gjelten
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What listeners say about After the Ivory Tower Falls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Melissa Marie Croteau
- 01-29-23
A Must Read for Those Working in the College Industrial Complex
Having been a college professor for 27 years, I have seen many of the negative shifts in higher ed that Bunch discusses, but this compelling book delves deeply into the history and causes of the crises in higher ed in the US. The problems seem intractable and the data Bunch provides can be depressing, but he also opines that we may be able to crawl out of the chasm of student debt as a nation with some changes that could reasonably be/become bipartisan.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Doug
- 08-13-22
Thought provoking
I heard an interview on NPR about this book, having been a victim of predatory for profit college lending it piqued my interest. I’ve got to say, a well written and excellent dive into the higher education system and all of its issues.
It can be easy listening to feel like this is a left slanted book criticizing the right, however it isn’t.
The book masterfully ties everything together as it comes to an end. It really does a great job showing you the real issues that we’re facing.
Worth the listen!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jeanne Purser
- 08-21-22
Excellent analysis of what ails the US
Will Bunch paints an accurate picture of higher education today and what's needed to prepare our young Americans for the future and a stronger country. If only congress and 'we the people 'will listen and act.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nicole
- 08-19-22
A MUST “HEAR”!
I learned so much from this book. Having moved here from Europe only in 1987 (though I am American) it taught me a lot about the History of our Higher Education System over the last 75 years. This helped me better understand how we became such a divided Nation. I very much like his suggestions of how we could fix our Higher Ed System and maybe, maybe bring the “right” and “left” closer together to find solutions to fight emprisonnent, drug abuse and enormous debt of the young in this country. We are in this together. We need to do this together as a Nation, without always pointing fingers to the other party and blaming each other. A must read (or hear on Audible!).
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-16-22
A must read for college and non-college folks
A compelling argument for the causes of the currently popular politics of resentment and possible solutions.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Brian Burke
- 09-04-22
Power to the people, for the people, by the people.
This is an important and fascinating history of what it truly means for our youth to serve our country.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kenyon
- 08-07-22
Enlightening
The author chronicles the changes that have taken place in the educational system in the United States over the past century and describes how these changes have helped create the sharp political divisions that are currently paralyzing our country. The author has recommendations for a path forward.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Gee
- 08-23-24
The information and historical facts were illuminating.
I really enjoyed this book. It put so much into context. A must read for all ages. I was angered, disappointed and saddened by our lack of resolution to the problems we face.
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- William Mumma
- 10-28-22
Mocking the poor
The author hopes to tell the story of what went wrong with college, but first he wants to mock those who did not go to college and disagree with his politics. Perhaps he hopes to mollify the gods of higher education to earn permission to criticize?!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Jeff S
- 02-05-23
A good socialist view of higher education
Take that for what you will. If you believe that socialism is a good thing, then you'll appreciate the book. If you understand the inherent (and historical) flaws in socialism, then you'll see all the holes in the proposed solutions to our higher education system. There are definitely problems, and the author does well to highlight some of them, but the root cause analysis and suggested fixes are far from accurate or practical.
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1 person found this helpful