-
Building the Empire State
- Political Economy in the Early Republic
- Narrated by: Douglas R. Pratt
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 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
![Prime logo](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/G/01/Audible/Homestead/Prime_Logo_RGB.png)
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $24.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order
- America and the World in the Free Market Era
- By: Gary Gerstle
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To be sure, neoliberalism has contributed to a number of alarming trends, not least of which has been a massive growth in income inequality. Yet as the eminent historian Gary Gerstle argues in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, these indictments fail to reckon with the full contours of what neoliberalism was and why its worldview had such persuasive hold on both the right and the left for three decades.
-
-
Cursory, unoriginal, class-blind
- By A Reviewer on 10-24-22
By: Gary Gerstle
-
Ages of American Capitalism
- A History of the United States
- By: Jonathan Levy
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, in the midst of a new economic crisis and severe political discord, the nature of capitalism in United States is at a crossroads. Since the market crash and Great Recession of 2008, historian Jonathan Levy has been teaching a course to help his students understand everything that had happened to reach that disaster and the current state of the economy, but in doing so he discovered something more fundamental about American history. Now, in an ambitious single-volume history of the United States, he reveals how capitalism in America has evolved through four distinct ages.
-
-
The narrator. The book.
- By Jack on 08-22-21
By: Jonathan Levy
-
Capitalism and Slavery
- Third Edition
- By: Eric Williams
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide. Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. Years ahead of its time, his profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development.
-
-
Excellent Historical Reading for the Caribbean
- By Trinirastawoman on 06-01-22
By: Eric Williams
-
Unworthy Republic
- The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
- By: Claudio Saunt
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1830, the United States formally launched a policy to expel Native Americans from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Justified as a humanitarian enterprise, the undertaking was to be systematic and rational, overseen by Washington's small but growing bureaucracy. But as the policy unfolded over the next decade, thousands of Native Americans died under the federal government's auspices, and thousands of others lost their possessions and homelands in an orgy of fraud, intimidation, and violence.
-
-
A Slow Burn
- By Hervé DuThé on 04-20-20
By: Claudio Saunt
-
Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
-
-
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
-
The Radicalism of the American Revolution
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grand in scope, rigorous in its arguments, and elegantly synthesizing 30 years of scholarship, Gordon S. Wood's Pulitzer Prize–winning book analyzes the social, political, and economic consequences of 1776. In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life: of a society with feudal dependencies, a politics of patronage, and a world view in which people were divided between the nobility and "the Herd."
-
-
Changed the Way I Think
- By Cynthia on 01-04-14
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order
- America and the World in the Free Market Era
- By: Gary Gerstle
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To be sure, neoliberalism has contributed to a number of alarming trends, not least of which has been a massive growth in income inequality. Yet as the eminent historian Gary Gerstle argues in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, these indictments fail to reckon with the full contours of what neoliberalism was and why its worldview had such persuasive hold on both the right and the left for three decades.
-
-
Cursory, unoriginal, class-blind
- By A Reviewer on 10-24-22
By: Gary Gerstle
-
Ages of American Capitalism
- A History of the United States
- By: Jonathan Levy
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 31 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today, in the midst of a new economic crisis and severe political discord, the nature of capitalism in United States is at a crossroads. Since the market crash and Great Recession of 2008, historian Jonathan Levy has been teaching a course to help his students understand everything that had happened to reach that disaster and the current state of the economy, but in doing so he discovered something more fundamental about American history. Now, in an ambitious single-volume history of the United States, he reveals how capitalism in America has evolved through four distinct ages.
-
-
The narrator. The book.
- By Jack on 08-22-21
By: Jonathan Levy
-
Capitalism and Slavery
- Third Edition
- By: Eric Williams
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide. Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. Years ahead of its time, his profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development.
-
-
Excellent Historical Reading for the Caribbean
- By Trinirastawoman on 06-01-22
By: Eric Williams
-
Unworthy Republic
- The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
- By: Claudio Saunt
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1830, the United States formally launched a policy to expel Native Americans from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Justified as a humanitarian enterprise, the undertaking was to be systematic and rational, overseen by Washington's small but growing bureaucracy. But as the policy unfolded over the next decade, thousands of Native Americans died under the federal government's auspices, and thousands of others lost their possessions and homelands in an orgy of fraud, intimidation, and violence.
-
-
A Slow Burn
- By Hervé DuThé on 04-20-20
By: Claudio Saunt
-
Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
-
-
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
-
The Radicalism of the American Revolution
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 19 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Grand in scope, rigorous in its arguments, and elegantly synthesizing 30 years of scholarship, Gordon S. Wood's Pulitzer Prize–winning book analyzes the social, political, and economic consequences of 1776. In The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Wood depicts not just a break with England, but the rejection of an entire way of life: of a society with feudal dependencies, a politics of patronage, and a world view in which people were divided between the nobility and "the Herd."
-
-
Changed the Way I Think
- By Cynthia on 01-04-14
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
Empire of Cotton
- A Global History
- By: Sven Beckert
- Narrated by: Jim Frangione
- Length: 20 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the story of how, beginning well before the advent of machine production in the 1780s, these men captured ancient trades and skills in Asia, combined them with the expropriation of lands in the Americas and the enslavement of African workers to crucially recast the disparate realms of cotton that had existed for millennia. We see how industrial capitalism then reshaped these worlds of cotton into an empire, and how this empire transformed the world.
-
-
A New History of Global Capitalism
- By Lucian of Samosata on 03-17-15
By: Sven Beckert
-
Theodore and Woodrow
- How Two American Presidents Destroyed Constitutional Freedom
- By: Andrew Napolitano
- Narrated by: Scott Moore
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A harsh and revealing political exposé of two beloved presidents. Judge Andrew P. Napolitano reveals how Teddy Roosevelt, a bully, and Woodrow Wilson, a constitutional scholar, each pushed aside the Constitution’s restrictions on the federal government and used it as an instrument to redistribute wealth, regulate personal behavior, and enrich the government. Theodore and Woodrow exposes two of our nation’s most beloved presidents and how they helped speed the Progressive cause on its merry way.
-
-
The Case Against Theodore and Woodrow...
- By Joseph D. Klotz on 03-12-13
-
Power and Liberty
- Constitutionalism in the American Revolution
- By: Gordon S. Wood
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world. During these decades, Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism - the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions.
-
-
Provides Context for Todays Mess
- By Tad on 07-20-24
By: Gordon S. Wood
-
The Color of Money
- Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
- By: Mehrsa Baradaran
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States' total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. The catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty.
-
-
Both a Bridge and a Battle Cry
- By Darwin8u on 09-26-17
By: Mehrsa Baradaran
-
Secret Empires
- How the American Political Class Hides Corruption and Enriches Family and Friends
- By: Peter Schweizer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peter Schweizer explains how a new corruption has taken hold, involving larger sums of money than ever before. Stuffing tens of thousands of dollars into a freezer has morphed into multibillion-dollar equity deals done in the dark corners of the world. President Donald Trump’s children have made front pages for their dicey transactions. However, the media has barely looked into questionable deals made by those close to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Mitch McConnell, and lesser-known politicians who have been in the game longer.
-
-
Very enlightening
- By debra Beemer on 03-24-18
By: Peter Schweizer
-
The Progressive Era
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: Graham Wright
- Length: 24 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rothbard's posthumous masterpiece is the definitive book on the Progressives. It will soon be the must read study of this dreadful time in our past. (from the foreword by Judge Andrew P. Napolitano) The current relationship between the modern state and the economy has its roots in the Progressive Era. (from the introduction by Patrick Newman) In short, the Progressive Era ushered the modern American politico-economic system into being. (from the preface by Murray N. Rothbard)
-
-
Details... Oh my God, the details
- By Russell Herbst on 05-25-18
-
Saving Capitalism
- For the Many, Not the Few
- By: Robert B. Reich
- Narrated by: Robert B. Reich
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Saving Capitalism, Robert Reich reveals the entrenched cycles of power and influence that have damaged American capitalism, perpetuating a new oligarchy in which the 1 percent get ever richer and the rest - middle and working class alike - lose ever more economic agency, making for the greatest income inequality and wealth disparity since World War II.
-
-
A riveting economics book! Mind. Blown.
- By Nothing really matters on 04-18-16
By: Robert B. Reich
-
The Price of Greatness
- By: Jay Cost
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the history of American politics, there are few stories as enigmatic as that of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison's bitterly personal falling out. Together they helped bring the Constitution into being, yet soon after the new republic was born, they broke over the meaning of its founding document. Hamilton emphasized economic growth; Madison the importance of republican principles. Author Jay Cost is the first to argue that both men were right - and that their quarrel reveals a fundamental paradox at the heart of the American experiment.
-
-
Principles in Tension
- By William Ehrich on 06-13-18
By: Jay Cost
-
Goliath
- The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy
- By: Matt Stoller
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A startling look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism transformed American politics, resulting in the emergence of populism and authoritarianism, the fall of the Democratic Party - while also providing the steps needed to create a new democracy.
-
-
The Fall of American Populist Economics
- By Charlie Morton on 02-26-20
By: Matt Stoller
-
All the Presidents' Bankers
- The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power
- By: Nomi Prins
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nomi Prins ushers us into the intimate world of exclusive clubs, vacation spots, and Ivy League universities that binds presidents and financiers. She unravels the multi-generational blood, intermarriage, and protégé relationships that have confined national influence to a privileged cluster of people. This unprecedented history of American power illuminates how financiers have retained their authoritative position through history, swaying presidents regardless of party affiliation.
-
-
You better like history about the elite and rich
- By Victor on 01-12-15
By: Nomi Prins
-
Inside Money
- Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power
- By: Zachary Karabell
- Narrated by: Zachary Karabell
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Inside Money, acclaimed historian, commentator, and former financial executive Zachary Karabell offers the first full and frank look inside this institution against the backdrop of American history. Blessed with complete access to the company's archives, as well as a thrilling understanding of the larger forces at play, Karabell has created an X-ray of American power - financial, political, cultural - as it has evolved from the early 1800s to the present.
-
-
Brilliant, well researched & highly insightful
- By Mongezi on 02-11-22
By: Zachary Karabell
-
FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
-
-
Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
Publisher's summary
Building the Empire State examines the origins of American capitalism by tracing how and why business corporations were first introduced into the economy of the early republic. Brian Phillips Murphy follows the collaborations between political leaders and a group of unelected political entrepreneurs, including Robert R. Livingston and Alexander Hamilton, who persuaded legislative powers to grant monopolies corporate status in order to finance and manage civic institutions. Murphy shows how American capitalism grew out of the convergence of political and economic interests, wherein political culture was shaped by business strategies and institutions as much as the reverse.
Focusing on the state of New York, a onetime mercantile colony that became home to the first American banks, utilities, canals, and transportation infrastructure projects, Building the Empire State surveys the changing institutional ecology during the first five decades following the American Revolution. By playing a central role in the creation and regulation of institutions that facilitated private commercial transactions, New York State's political officials created formal and informal precedents for the political economy throughout the northeastern United States and toward the expanding westward frontier. The political, economic, and legal consequences organizing the marketplace in this way continue to be felt in the vast influence and privileged position held by corporations in the present day.
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
The Price of Greatness
- By: Jay Cost
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the history of American politics, there are few stories as enigmatic as that of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison's bitterly personal falling out. Together they helped bring the Constitution into being, yet soon after the new republic was born, they broke over the meaning of its founding document. Hamilton emphasized economic growth; Madison the importance of republican principles. Author Jay Cost is the first to argue that both men were right - and that their quarrel reveals a fundamental paradox at the heart of the American experiment.
-
-
Principles in Tension
- By William Ehrich on 06-13-18
By: Jay Cost
-
Goliath
- The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy
- By: Matt Stoller
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A startling look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism transformed American politics, resulting in the emergence of populism and authoritarianism, the fall of the Democratic Party - while also providing the steps needed to create a new democracy.
-
-
The Fall of American Populist Economics
- By Charlie Morton on 02-26-20
By: Matt Stoller
-
All the Presidents' Bankers
- The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power
- By: Nomi Prins
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nomi Prins ushers us into the intimate world of exclusive clubs, vacation spots, and Ivy League universities that binds presidents and financiers. She unravels the multi-generational blood, intermarriage, and protégé relationships that have confined national influence to a privileged cluster of people. This unprecedented history of American power illuminates how financiers have retained their authoritative position through history, swaying presidents regardless of party affiliation.
-
-
You better like history about the elite and rich
- By Victor on 01-12-15
By: Nomi Prins
-
Inside Money
- Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power
- By: Zachary Karabell
- Narrated by: Zachary Karabell
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Inside Money, acclaimed historian, commentator, and former financial executive Zachary Karabell offers the first full and frank look inside this institution against the backdrop of American history. Blessed with complete access to the company's archives, as well as a thrilling understanding of the larger forces at play, Karabell has created an X-ray of American power - financial, political, cultural - as it has evolved from the early 1800s to the present.
-
-
Brilliant, well researched & highly insightful
- By Mongezi on 02-11-22
By: Zachary Karabell
-
FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
-
-
Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
-
America's First Great Depression
- Economic Crisis and Political Disorder After the Panic of 1837
- By: Alasdair Roberts
- Narrated by: Kevin Young
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a while, it seemed impossible to lose money on real estate. But then the bubble burst. The financial sector was paralyzed and the economy contracted. State and federal governments struggled to pay their domestic and foreign creditors. Washington was incapable of decisive action. The country seethed with political and social unrest. In America's First Great Depression, Alasdair Roberts describes how the United States dealt with the economic and political crisis that followed the Panic of 1837.
-
-
Excellent Story
- By Timothy on 06-10-13
By: Alasdair Roberts
-
The Price of Greatness
- By: Jay Cost
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the history of American politics, there are few stories as enigmatic as that of Alexander Hamilton and James Madison's bitterly personal falling out. Together they helped bring the Constitution into being, yet soon after the new republic was born, they broke over the meaning of its founding document. Hamilton emphasized economic growth; Madison the importance of republican principles. Author Jay Cost is the first to argue that both men were right - and that their quarrel reveals a fundamental paradox at the heart of the American experiment.
-
-
Principles in Tension
- By William Ehrich on 06-13-18
By: Jay Cost
-
Goliath
- The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy
- By: Matt Stoller
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 20 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A startling look at how concentrated financial power and consumerism transformed American politics, resulting in the emergence of populism and authoritarianism, the fall of the Democratic Party - while also providing the steps needed to create a new democracy.
-
-
The Fall of American Populist Economics
- By Charlie Morton on 02-26-20
By: Matt Stoller
-
All the Presidents' Bankers
- The Hidden Alliances That Drive American Power
- By: Nomi Prins
- Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin
- Length: 19 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nomi Prins ushers us into the intimate world of exclusive clubs, vacation spots, and Ivy League universities that binds presidents and financiers. She unravels the multi-generational blood, intermarriage, and protégé relationships that have confined national influence to a privileged cluster of people. This unprecedented history of American power illuminates how financiers have retained their authoritative position through history, swaying presidents regardless of party affiliation.
-
-
You better like history about the elite and rich
- By Victor on 01-12-15
By: Nomi Prins
-
Inside Money
- Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power
- By: Zachary Karabell
- Narrated by: Zachary Karabell
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Inside Money, acclaimed historian, commentator, and former financial executive Zachary Karabell offers the first full and frank look inside this institution against the backdrop of American history. Blessed with complete access to the company's archives, as well as a thrilling understanding of the larger forces at play, Karabell has created an X-ray of American power - financial, political, cultural - as it has evolved from the early 1800s to the present.
-
-
Brilliant, well researched & highly insightful
- By Mongezi on 02-11-22
By: Zachary Karabell
-
FDR's Folly
- How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression
- By: Jim Powell
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the minds of historians and the American public alike, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of our greatest presidents, not least because he supposedly saved America from the Great Depression. But as historian Jim Powell reveals in this groundbreaking book, Roosevelt's New Deal policies actually prolonged and exacerbated the economic disaster.
-
-
Scones for the Tea Party
- By Chiefkent on 06-11-12
By: Jim Powell
-
America's First Great Depression
- Economic Crisis and Political Disorder After the Panic of 1837
- By: Alasdair Roberts
- Narrated by: Kevin Young
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a while, it seemed impossible to lose money on real estate. But then the bubble burst. The financial sector was paralyzed and the economy contracted. State and federal governments struggled to pay their domestic and foreign creditors. Washington was incapable of decisive action. The country seethed with political and social unrest. In America's First Great Depression, Alasdair Roberts describes how the United States dealt with the economic and political crisis that followed the Panic of 1837.
-
-
Excellent Story
- By Timothy on 06-10-13
By: Alasdair Roberts
-
A History of Money and Banking in the United States: The Colonial Era to World War II
- By: Murray N. Rothbard
- Narrated by: Matthew Mezinskis
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In what is sure to become the standard account, Rothbard traces inflations, banking panics, and money meltdowns from the colonial period through the mid-20th century to show how government's systematic war on sound money is the hidden force behind nearly all major economic calamities in American history. Never has the story of money and banking been told with such rhetorical power and theoretical vigor. You will treasure this volume.
-
-
Great facts (if selective); ideological rigidity
- By Philo on 02-04-16
-
How the Other Half Banks
- Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy
- By: Mehrsa Baradaran
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States has two separate banking systems today - one serving the well-to-do and another exploiting everyone else. How the Other Half Banks contributes to the growing conversation on American inequality by highlighting one of its prime causes: unequal credit. Mehrsa Baradaran examines how a significant portion of the population, deserted by banks, is forced to wander through a Wild West of payday lenders and check-cashing services to cover emergency expenses and pay for necessities - all thanks to deregulation that began in the 1970s.
-
-
The Borrowers at the Fringe
- By Darwin8u on 09-13-16
By: Mehrsa Baradaran
-
America's Bank
- The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system.
-
-
Important and Intriguing
- By Jean on 11-02-15
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
Fantasy Island
- Colonialism, Exploitation, and the Betrayal of Puerto Rico
- By: Ed Morales
- Narrated by: Sean Duffy
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Fantasy Island, Ed Morales traces how, over the years, Puerto Rico has served as a colonial satellite, a Cold War Caribbean showcase, a dumping ground for US manufactured goods, and a corporate tax shelter. He also shows how it has become a blank canvas for mercenary experiments in disaster capitalism on the frontlines of climate change, hamstrung by internal political corruption and the US federal government's prioritization of outside financial interests.
-
-
Gringo Narrattion
- By shakira julia on 02-08-21
By: Ed Morales
-
The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve
- By: Peter Conti-Brown
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The independence of the Federal Reserve is considered a cornerstone of its identity, crucial for keeping monetary policy decisions free of electoral politics. But do we really understand what is meant by "Federal Reserve independence"? Using scores of examples from the Fed's rich history, The Power and Independence of the Federal Reserve shows that much common wisdom about the nation's central bank is inaccurate.
-
-
Meandering, gossipy, a bit pop-journalistic
- By Philo on 10-03-16
-
On Corruption in America
- And What Is at Stake
- By: Sarah Chayes
- Narrated by: Sarah Chayes
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this unflinching exploration of corruption in America, Chayes exposes how corruption has thrived within our borders - from the titans of America's Gilded Age (Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, et al.) to the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the Great Depression, and FDR's New Deal; from Joe Kennedy's years of banking, bootlegging, machine politics, and pursuit of infinite wealth to the deregulation of the Reagan Revolution - undermining this nation's proud middle class and union members.
-
-
Profoundly ambitious and genuine yet...
- By Jerry A. Boriskin on 08-16-20
By: Sarah Chayes
-
Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
-
-
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
-
The Color of Money
- Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap
- By: Mehrsa Baradaran
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the black community owned less than one percent of the United States' total wealth. More than 150 years later, that number has barely budged. The Color of Money pursues the persistence of this racial wealth gap by focusing on the generators of wealth in the black community: black banks. The catch-22 of black banking is that the very institutions needed to help communities escape the deep poverty caused by discrimination and segregation inevitably became victims of that same poverty.
-
-
Both a Bridge and a Battle Cry
- By Darwin8u on 09-26-17
By: Mehrsa Baradaran
-
The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution
- Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic
- By: Ganesh Sitaraman
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 12 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For most of Western history, Sitaraman argues, constitutional thinkers assumed economic inequality was inevitable and inescapable - and they designed governments to prevent class divisions from spilling over into class warfare. The American Constitution is different. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of America's republic.
-
-
Very well done
- By JLyman on 08-27-17
By: Ganesh Sitaraman
-
The Deep State
- The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government
- By: Mike Lofgren
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mike Lofgren is back with a book perfectly pitched for the frenzied circus of the primaries. His argument this time is that for all of the backstabbing and money grubbing of the campaign season, the politicians we elect have as little ability to shift policy as Communist party apparatchiks. Welcome to Mike Lofgren's Washington, DC - a This Town where the political theater that is endlessly tweeted and blogged about has nothing to do with actual decision making.
-
-
Almost good, but profoundly misunderstands economics and very biased towards Democrats
- By Nina Prevot on 04-08-16
By: Mike Lofgren
-
The New Deal
- A Modern History
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As America struggles with an economic debacle akin to the Great Depression, nothing could be timelier than an authoritative account of the New Deal, masterfully written by Michael Hiltzik, author of the acclaimed history of the Hoover Dam, Colossus.
In this richly peopled, vividly rendered narrative, Hiltzik describes how the urgent short-term relief measures of Franklin Roosevelt’s Hundred Days evolved into a transformative concept of the federal role in American life.
-
-
Another Excellent New Deal History
- By R.S. on 12-19-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
-
American Character
- A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The struggle between individualism and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run-up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agenda of the Progressives, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party.
-
-
Biased Misrepresentation
- By Jay Ehret on 06-24-16
By: Colin Woodard
What listeners say about Building the Empire State
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jean
- 03-17-16
Compelling
In this book Murphy examines the origins of American capitalism by tracing how and why business corporations were first introduced into the economy of the early republic. Murphy reveals how Alexander Hamilton and Robert R. Livingston and others led collaboration between political leaders and a group of entrepreneurs and persuaded legislative powers to grant monopoly corporate states in order to finance and manage civic institutions.
New York became home to the first American banks, utilities, canals and transpiration infrastructure projects. Murphy chronicles the first fifty years after the American Revolution following the Manhattan Company, the steam boat monopoly, the Erie Canal, the New York and Erie Railroad. I was interested in learning about Robert Fulton and his steamboat and Livingston who provided the money. I also found the section about why various types of banks were created and the pros and cons of each along with how they evolved into the banks we have today.
The book is well written and meticulously researched. Murphy was a Jefferson Scholar at Monticello and is a professor at Baruch College. I enjoyed learning about the building of New York by combining private and public companies to do the work of building and running various infrastructure projects. I remember reading later on about Belmont and his water company. Douglas R. Pratt does a good job narrating the book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Philo
- 04-02-16
Block by block, USA's political economy is built
Hearing this book, all my prior readings about New York, Alexander Hamilton, early USA banking, and early USA political and legal history, crystallized together and made sense, for the first time. Perhaps each of my earlier readings were too topic-confined and pigeonholed, where this book spans them all fluidly and connects the dots. Here is a clear, careful explanation of the successful constructing of a government, a banking system, and a society and economy encompassing many mutually suspicious factions. It is a lucid tale of the past and a guide for the future. To all the noisy distortions and kicked-up dust in popular political lunacy of our day, this story's telling serves as a wonderful tonic. USA's vitality and success has been a product of the blending of all these potentially conflicting forces, and it wasn't an accident. Here, plain as day, carefully told, is the story of how it was done, by who with who, deal by deal, brick by brick. All those spitting venom at various factions in society can benefit from seeing a harmonizing between them, done right.
This stands as my single favorite USA history book, ever.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!