-
End Times
- Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration
- Narrated by: Robin McAlpine
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 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 $18.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
“Peter Turchin brings science to history. Some like it and some prefer their history plain. But everyone needs to pay attention to the well-informed, convincing and terrifying analysis in this book.” —Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
From the pioneering co-founder of cliodynamics, the groundbreaking new interdisciplinary science of history, a big-picture explanation for America's civil strife and its possible endgames
Peter Turchin, one of the most interesting social scientists of our age, has infused the study of history with approaches and insights from other fields for more than a quarter century. End Times is the culmination of his work to understand what causes political communities to cohere and what causes them to fall apart, as applied to the current turmoil within the United States.
Back in 2010, when Nature magazine asked leading scientists to provide a ten-year forecast, Turchin used his models to predict that America was in a spiral of social disintegration that would lead to a breakdown in the political order circa 2020. The years since have proved his prediction more and more accurate, and End Times reveals why.
The lessons of world history are clear, Turchin argues: When the equilibrium between ruling elites and the majority tips too far in favor of elites, political instability is all but inevitable. As income inequality surges and prosperity flows disproportionately into the hands of the elites, the common people suffer, and society-wide efforts to become an elite grow ever more frenzied. He calls this process the wealth pump; it’s a world of the damned and the saved. And since the number of such positions remains relatively fixed, the overproduction of elites inevitably leads to frustrated elite aspirants, who harness popular resentment to turn against the established order. Turchin’s models show that when this state has been reached, societies become locked in a death spiral it's very hard to exit.
In America, the wealth pump has been operating full blast for two generations. As cliodynamics shows us, our current cycle of elite overproduction and popular immiseration is far along the path to violent political rupture. That is only one possible end time, and the choice is up to us, but the hour grows late.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Fourth Turning Is Here
- What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End
- By: Neil Howe
- Narrated by: Neil Howe
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years ago, Neil Howe and the late William Strauss dazzled the world with a provocative new theory of American history. Looking back at the last 500 years, they’d uncovered a distinct pattern: modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting roughly 80 to 100 years, the length of a long human life, with each cycle composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that always arrive in the same order and each last about 25 years. The last of these eras—the fourth turning—was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization.
-
-
A little baffled
- By John Coleman on 07-18-23
By: Neil Howe
-
Ship of Fools
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The host of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight offers a blistering critique of the new American ruling class, the elites of both parties, who have taken over the ship of state, leaving the rest of us, the citizen-passengers, to wonder: How do we put the country back on course?
-
-
Read if you want to hear about how ridiculous the ruling elite are
- By Sadie K on 03-02-19
By: Tucker Carlson
-
The Coming Wave
- Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. None of us are prepared. As co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the center of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful new technologies.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
America's Cultural Revolution
- How the Radical Left Conquered Everything
- By: Christopher F. Rufo
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1960s, Mao launched China’s Cultural Revolution. Cities grew overcrowded. Technocrats demanded progress from above. Anyone opposed was sent to be “re-educated.” China’s revolution was bloody, fast, and a failure, but what if America started a revolution at the same time, based on the same bad ideas, and it’s just been slower, calmer, and more effective?
-
-
Outstanding Analysis
- By Roman on 07-22-23
-
The Storm Before the Calm
- America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his riveting new book, noted forecaster and best-selling author George Friedman turns to the future of the United States. Examining the clear cycles through which the United States has developed, upheaved, matured, and solidified, Friedman breaks down the coming years and decades in thrilling detail.
-
-
For the kids, a golden age
- By C. Walker on 03-01-20
By: George Friedman
-
The Fourth Turning Is Here
- What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End
- By: Neil Howe
- Narrated by: Neil Howe
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years ago, Neil Howe and the late William Strauss dazzled the world with a provocative new theory of American history. Looking back at the last 500 years, they’d uncovered a distinct pattern: modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting roughly 80 to 100 years, the length of a long human life, with each cycle composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that always arrive in the same order and each last about 25 years. The last of these eras—the fourth turning—was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization.
-
-
A little baffled
- By John Coleman on 07-18-23
By: Neil Howe
-
Ship of Fools
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The host of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight offers a blistering critique of the new American ruling class, the elites of both parties, who have taken over the ship of state, leaving the rest of us, the citizen-passengers, to wonder: How do we put the country back on course?
-
-
Read if you want to hear about how ridiculous the ruling elite are
- By Sadie K on 03-02-19
By: Tucker Carlson
-
The Coming Wave
- Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy. None of us are prepared. As co-founder of DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the center of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful new technologies.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
America's Cultural Revolution
- How the Radical Left Conquered Everything
- By: Christopher F. Rufo
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1960s, Mao launched China’s Cultural Revolution. Cities grew overcrowded. Technocrats demanded progress from above. Anyone opposed was sent to be “re-educated.” China’s revolution was bloody, fast, and a failure, but what if America started a revolution at the same time, based on the same bad ideas, and it’s just been slower, calmer, and more effective?
-
-
Outstanding Analysis
- By Roman on 07-22-23
-
The Storm Before the Calm
- America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his riveting new book, noted forecaster and best-selling author George Friedman turns to the future of the United States. Examining the clear cycles through which the United States has developed, upheaved, matured, and solidified, Friedman breaks down the coming years and decades in thrilling detail.
-
-
For the kids, a golden age
- By C. Walker on 03-01-20
By: George Friedman
-
These Are the Plunderers
- How Private Equity Runs—and Wrecks—America
- By: Gretchen Morgenson, Joshua Rosner
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
- Length: 11 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These Are the Plunderers traces the thirty-year history of corporate takeovers in America and private equity’s increasing dominance. Morgenson and Rosner investigate some of the biggest names in private equity, exposing how they buy companies, load them with debt, and then bleed them of assets and profits. All while prosecutors and regulators stand idly by.
-
-
Lacks credibility and fact checking
- By Sam Smith on 05-25-23
By: Gretchen Morgenson, and others
-
The Fund
- Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
- By: Rob Copeland
- Narrated by: Rob Copeland, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Dalio does not want you to listen to this audiobook. Late last year, when the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles.
-
-
Best finance book I've read in years
- By Aaron on 12-16-23
By: Rob Copeland
-
The End of the World Is Just the Beginning
- Mapping the Collapse of Globalization
- By: Peter Zeihan
- Narrated by: Peter Zeihan
- Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days - even hours - of when you decided you wanted it. America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.
-
-
Everyone dies except Americans
- By preetam on 06-22-22
By: Peter Zeihan
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Doppelganger
- A Trip into the Mirror World
- By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What if you woke up one morning and found you’d acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you’d devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who.
-
-
Elite Psychobabble
- By A Reviewer on 09-30-23
By: Naomi Klein
-
Determined
- A Science of Life Without Free Will
- By: Robert M. Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do.
-
-
Abridged - no Appendix!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-23
-
Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order
- Why Nations Succeed or Fail
- By: Ray Dalio
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Ray Dalio
- Length: 16 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From legendary investor Ray Dalio, author of the number-one New York Times best seller Principles, who has spent half a century studying global economies and markets, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order examines history’s most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the times ahead will likely be radically different from those we’ve experienced in our lifetimes - and to offer practical advice on how to navigate them well.
-
-
Ray Dalio, Chinas New Minister of Propoganda
- By Dudley on 01-04-22
By: Ray Dalio
-
The Confidence Map
- Charting a Path from Chaos to Clarity
- By: Peter Atwater
- Narrated by: Peter Atwater
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What does our desire for certainty and control have to do with our decision-making? According to behavioral economics pioneer Peter Atwater, the answer is simple: everything. In The Confidence Map, Atwater explores the hidden role of confidence in the choices we make, and why events described as being unprecedented are often entirely predictable—if we know what to look for. Using compelling stories from the past and present, Atwater shows listeners how to apply the same tools he teaches to help them make sense of complex situations and optimize strategy.
-
-
Excellent book
- By steve on 08-27-23
By: Peter Atwater
-
The Canceling of the American Mind
- Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All—but There Is a Solution
- By: Greg Lukianoff, Rikki Schlott
- Narrated by: Rikki Schlott, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cancel culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of the American Mind is the first book to codify it and survey its effects, including hard data and research on what cancel culture is and how it works, along with hundreds of new examples showing the left and right both working to silence their enemies.
-
-
Good book, Important information, poorly read
- By pj on 12-08-23
By: Greg Lukianoff, and others
-
The Identity Trap
- A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many who passionately believe in social justice came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice.
-
-
May It Mark A Turning Point
- By Larry on 09-28-23
By: Yascha Mounk
-
Broken Money
- Why Our Financial System Is Failing Us and How We Can Make It Better
- By: Lyn Alden
- Narrated by: Guy Swann
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Broken Money explores the history of money through the lens of technology. Politics can affect things temporarily and locally, but technology is what drives things forward globally and permanently. The book's goal is for the listener to walk away with a deep understanding of money and monetary history, both in terms of theoretical foundations and in terms of practical implications.
-
-
Turns into an advertisement for Bitcoin
- By Dan B on 04-23-24
By: Lyn Alden
-
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
-
-
Few forests, but lots of trees
- By Steve Pagano on 10-05-15
By: Francis Fukuyama
Critic reviews
“In End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration, Mr. Turchin offers a lucid and elegant theory that is stable across time and place in the manner of natural laws and scientific findings.” —Wall Street Journal
“Peter Turchin brings science to history. Some like it and some prefer their history plain. But everyone needs to pay attention to the well-informed, convincing and terrifying analysis in this book.” —Angus Deaton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics
“Scintillating . . . Turchin’s elegantly written treatment looks beneath partisan jousting to class interests that cycle over generations, but also yields timely policy insights. It’s a stimulating analysis of antagonisms past and present, and the crack-up they may be leading to.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Related to this topic
-
The Socialist Temptation
- By: Iain Murray
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just 30 years ago, socialism seemed utterly discredited. An economic, moral, and political failure, socialism had rightly been thrown on the ash heap of history after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, bad ideas never truly go away — and socialism has come back with a vengeance. A generation of young people who don’t remember the misery that socialism inflicted on Russia and Eastern Europe is embracing it all over again.
-
-
Full Of Important Insights
- By Ralph Alderson on 12-17-20
By: Iain Murray
-
Upheaval
- Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his earlier best sellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in the final audiobook in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis through selective change - a coping mechanism more commonly associated with personal trauma.
-
-
The Urine of the Earth in a Teacup
- By Marian on 05-12-19
By: Jared Diamond
-
The Post-American World 2.0
- By: Fareed Zakaria
- Narrated by: Fareed Zakaria
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the New York Times and international best seller, revised and expanded with a new afterword. This is the essential update of Fareed Zakaria's analysis about America and its shifting position in world affairs. In this new edition, Zakaria makes sense of the rapidly changing global landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from the two great power shifts of the past 500 years - the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States - to tell us what we can expect from the third shift, the rise of the rest.
-
-
S/B req reading for every man, woman and child...
- By Kopernicus on 10-20-11
By: Fareed Zakaria
-
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
-
-
Few forests, but lots of trees
- By Steve Pagano on 10-05-15
By: Francis Fukuyama
-
The Upswing
- How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
- By: Robert D. Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett - contributor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today.
-
-
For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
- By Dennis G. on 12-19-20
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
-
-
Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
-
The Socialist Temptation
- By: Iain Murray
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Just 30 years ago, socialism seemed utterly discredited. An economic, moral, and political failure, socialism had rightly been thrown on the ash heap of history after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, bad ideas never truly go away — and socialism has come back with a vengeance. A generation of young people who don’t remember the misery that socialism inflicted on Russia and Eastern Europe is embracing it all over again.
-
-
Full Of Important Insights
- By Ralph Alderson on 12-17-20
By: Iain Murray
-
Upheaval
- Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
- By: Jared Diamond
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 18 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his earlier best sellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in the final audiobook in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis through selective change - a coping mechanism more commonly associated with personal trauma.
-
-
The Urine of the Earth in a Teacup
- By Marian on 05-12-19
By: Jared Diamond
-
The Post-American World 2.0
- By: Fareed Zakaria
- Narrated by: Fareed Zakaria
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the New York Times and international best seller, revised and expanded with a new afterword. This is the essential update of Fareed Zakaria's analysis about America and its shifting position in world affairs. In this new edition, Zakaria makes sense of the rapidly changing global landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from the two great power shifts of the past 500 years - the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States - to tell us what we can expect from the third shift, the rise of the rest.
-
-
S/B req reading for every man, woman and child...
- By Kopernicus on 10-20-11
By: Fareed Zakaria
-
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
-
-
Few forests, but lots of trees
- By Steve Pagano on 10-05-15
By: Francis Fukuyama
-
The Upswing
- How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
- By: Robert D. Putnam, Shaylyn Romney Garrett - contributor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deep and accelerating inequality; unprecedented political polarization; vitriolic public discourse; a fraying social fabric; public and private narcissism — Americans today seem to agree on only one thing: This is the worst of times. But we’ve been here before. During the Gilded Age of the late 1800s, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarized, and deeply fragmented, just as it is today.
-
-
For Progressives only. Won't make sense otherwise
- By Dennis G. on 12-19-20
By: Robert D. Putnam, and others
-
The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
-
-
Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
-
Revolt
- The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization
- By: Nadav Eyal
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Revolt is an eloquent and provocative challenge to the prevailing wisdom about the rise of nationalism and populism. With a vibrant and informed voice, Nadav Eyal illustrates how modern globalization is not sustainable. He contends that the collapse of the current world order is not so much about the imbalance between technological achievement and social progress or the breakdown of liberal democracy as it is about a passion to upend and destroy power structures that have become hollow, corrupt, or simply unresponsive to urgent needs.
-
-
Good observations, very politically biased.
- By P. Bradley on 11-29-23
By: Nadav Eyal
-
The Conscience of a Liberal
- By: Paul Krugman
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America emerged from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal with strong democratic values and broadly shared prosperity. But for the past 30 years, American politics has been dominated by a conservative movement determined to undermine the New Deal's achievements. Now, the tide may be turning, and in The Conscience of a Liberal Paul Krugman, the world's most widely read economist and one of its most influential political commentators, charts the way to reform.
-
-
Great Book!!!
- By carl801 on 12-04-07
By: Paul Krugman
-
Lee Kuan Yew
- The Grand Master’s Insights on China, United States, and the World
- By: Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, Ali Wyne
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie, Francis Chau
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lee, the founding father of modern Singapore and its prime minister from 1959 to 1990, has honed his wisdom during more than fifty years on the world stage. Almost single-handedly responsible for transforming Singapore into a Western-style economic success, he offers a unique perspective on the geopolitics of East and West. American presidents from Richard Nixon to Barack Obama have welcomed him to the White House.
-
-
Thought-provoking
- By Jean on 12-11-14
By: Graham Allison, and others
-
How the World Works
- By: Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian - interviewer, Arthur Naiman - editor
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
According to The New York Times, Noam Chomsky is "arguably the most important intellectual alive." But he isn't easy to read...or at least he wasn't until these books came along. Made up of intensively edited speeches and interviews, they offer something not found anywhere else: pure Chomsky, with every dazzling idea and penetrating insight intact, delivered in clear, accessible, listener-friendly prose.
-
-
Insightful Content
- By Amazon Customer on 01-30-21
By: Noam Chomsky, and others
-
The People vs. Democracy
- Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result democracy itself may now be at risk. Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of "rights without democracy" took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create a system of "democracy without rights."
-
-
Not worth it
- By DailyShopper on 06-07-18
By: Yascha Mounk
-
The Decline and Rise of Democracy
- A Global History from Antiquity to Today
- By: David Stastavage
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer - democratic practices were present in many places at many other times. David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished - and when and why they declined - can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.
-
-
Informative
- By Frank on 12-22-20
By: David Stastavage
-
The Precipice
- Neoliberalism, the Pandemic and the Urgent Need for Social Change
- By: Noam Chomsky, C.J. Polychroniou
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Precipice, Noam Chomsky sheds light into the phenomenon of Trumpism, exposes the catastrophic nature and impact of Trump's policies on people, the environment, and the planet as a whole, and captures the dynamics of the brutal class warfare launched by the masters of capital to maintain and even enhance the features of a dog-eat-dog society to the unprecedented mobilization of millions of people against neoliberal capitalism, racism, and police violence.
-
-
Of Incalculable Importance
- By Anonymous User on 12-15-21
By: Noam Chomsky, and others
-
The Fourth Revolution
- The Global Race to Reinvent the State
- By: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the best-selling authors of The Right Nation, a visionary argument that our current crisis in government is nothing less than the fourth radical transition in the history of the nation-state. Dysfunctional government: It' s become a cliché, and most of us are resigned to the fact that nothing is ever going to change. As John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge show us, that is a seriously limited view of things. In fact, there have been three great revolutions in government in the history of the modern world.
-
-
A must read for everyone wondering whats going?
- By Truth-be-told on 03-30-15
By: John Micklethwait, and others
-
The Human Tide
- How Population Shaped the Modern World
- By: Paul Morland
- Narrated by: Zeb Soanes
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The rise and fall of the British Empire; the emergence of America as a superpower; the ebb and flow of global challenges from Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Soviet Russia. These are the headlines of history, but they cannot be properly grasped without understanding the role that population has played. The Human Tide shows how periods of rapid population transition - a phenomenon that first emerged in the British Isles but gradually spread across the globe - shaped the course of world history.
-
-
dry
- By Ralph C. on 05-02-19
By: Paul Morland
-
The World
- A Brief Introduction
- By: Richard Haass
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The World is designed to provide listeners of any age and experience with the essential background and building blocks they need to make sense of this complicated and interconnected world. It will empower them to manage the flood of daily news. Listeners will become more informed, discerning citizens, better able to arrive at sound, independent judgments. While it is impossible to predict what the next crisis will be or where it will originate, those who listen to The World will have what they need to understand its basics and the principal choices for how to respond.
-
-
Excellent Primer for young adults
- By Howells on 05-24-20
By: Richard Haass
-
Decline and Fall
- The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America
- By: John Michael Greer
- Narrated by: Kristoffer Tabori
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The decline and fall of America's global empire is the central feature of today's geopolitical landscape, and the nature of our response to it will determine much of our future trajectory, with implications that reach far beyond the limits of one nation's borders. Decline and Fall: The End of Empire and the Future of Democracy in 21st Century America challenges the conventional wisdom of empire, using a wealth of historical examples combined with groundbreaking original analysis.
-
-
Will insist friends & family read this book
- By Paul on 05-14-16
-
The Stakes
- America at the Point of No Return
- By: Michael Anton
- Narrated by: Dan Crue
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two months before the 2016 presidential election, an anonymously published essay titled "The Flight 93 Election" rallied conservatives to charge the cockpit by voting for Trump. Michael Anton, the author of that controversial viral essay, now says that the last few years have only served to prove his Flight 93 thesis: The left has become more aggressive, more vindictive, and more dangerous - and the stakes have never been higher.
-
-
America, this is your future
- By Sarah Carnello on 09-28-20
By: Michael Anton
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Storm Before the Calm
- America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his riveting new book, noted forecaster and best-selling author George Friedman turns to the future of the United States. Examining the clear cycles through which the United States has developed, upheaved, matured, and solidified, Friedman breaks down the coming years and decades in thrilling detail.
-
-
For the kids, a golden age
- By C. Walker on 03-01-20
By: George Friedman
-
Deep State: The Invisible Government Behind the Scenes
- By: Alex Newman
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By exposing different elements of the “Deep State,” the dots are connected to explain how it operates and what YOU can do about it.
-
-
Deep State
- By LYDKID on 10-18-24
By: Alex Newman
-
The Collapse of Complex Societies
- New Studies in Archaeology
- By: Joseph A. Tainter
- Narrated by: Brian Arens
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future.
-
The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
- By: Martin Gurri
- Narrated by: Tony Messano
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 2014, this updated edition of The Revolt of the Public includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump's improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit and concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.
-
-
New forces break things, but can't replace them
- By Philo on 06-25-19
By: Martin Gurri
-
The Fourth Turning Is Here
- What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End
- By: Neil Howe
- Narrated by: Neil Howe
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years ago, Neil Howe and the late William Strauss dazzled the world with a provocative new theory of American history. Looking back at the last 500 years, they’d uncovered a distinct pattern: modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting roughly 80 to 100 years, the length of a long human life, with each cycle composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that always arrive in the same order and each last about 25 years. The last of these eras—the fourth turning—was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization.
-
-
A little baffled
- By John Coleman on 07-18-23
By: Neil Howe
-
Last Words
- By: George Carlin
- Narrated by: Tony Hendra, Patrick Carlin
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of America's preeminent comedic voices, George Carlin saw it all throughout his extraordinary 50-year career and made fun of most of it. Last Words is the story of the man behind some of the most seminal comedy of the last half century, blending his signature acer-bic humor with never-before-told stories from his own life.
-
-
Outstanding insight... Well read
- By AskJoe.TV on 01-10-12
By: George Carlin
-
The Storm Before the Calm
- America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk
- Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his riveting new book, noted forecaster and best-selling author George Friedman turns to the future of the United States. Examining the clear cycles through which the United States has developed, upheaved, matured, and solidified, Friedman breaks down the coming years and decades in thrilling detail.
-
-
For the kids, a golden age
- By C. Walker on 03-01-20
By: George Friedman
-
Deep State: The Invisible Government Behind the Scenes
- By: Alex Newman
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 6 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By exposing different elements of the “Deep State,” the dots are connected to explain how it operates and what YOU can do about it.
-
-
Deep State
- By LYDKID on 10-18-24
By: Alex Newman
-
The Collapse of Complex Societies
- New Studies in Archaeology
- By: Joseph A. Tainter
- Narrated by: Brian Arens
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Political disintegration is a persistent feature of world history. The Collapse of Complex Societies, though written by an archaeologist, will therefore strike a chord throughout the social sciences. Any explanation of societal collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all such societies in both the present and future.
-
The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
- By: Martin Gurri
- Narrated by: Tony Messano
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 2014, this updated edition of The Revolt of the Public includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump's improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit and concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.
-
-
New forces break things, but can't replace them
- By Philo on 06-25-19
By: Martin Gurri
-
The Fourth Turning Is Here
- What the Seasons of History Tell Us About How and When This Crisis Will End
- By: Neil Howe
- Narrated by: Neil Howe
- Length: 20 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-five years ago, Neil Howe and the late William Strauss dazzled the world with a provocative new theory of American history. Looking back at the last 500 years, they’d uncovered a distinct pattern: modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting roughly 80 to 100 years, the length of a long human life, with each cycle composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that always arrive in the same order and each last about 25 years. The last of these eras—the fourth turning—was always the most perilous, a period of civic upheaval and national mobilization.
-
-
A little baffled
- By John Coleman on 07-18-23
By: Neil Howe
-
Last Words
- By: George Carlin
- Narrated by: Tony Hendra, Patrick Carlin
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of America's preeminent comedic voices, George Carlin saw it all throughout his extraordinary 50-year career and made fun of most of it. Last Words is the story of the man behind some of the most seminal comedy of the last half century, blending his signature acer-bic humor with never-before-told stories from his own life.
-
-
Outstanding insight... Well read
- By AskJoe.TV on 01-10-12
By: George Carlin
-
The Next Decade
- Where We've Been . . . and Where We're Going
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The author of the acclaimed New York Times best seller The Next 100 Years now focuses his geopolitical forecasting acumen on the next decade and the imminent events and challenges that will test America and the world, specifically addressing the skills that will be required by the decade’s leaders. The next 10 years will be a time of massive transition. In The Next Decade, George Friedman offers listeners a provocative and endlessly fascinating prognosis for the immediate future.
-
-
Jaw-dropping apolitical analysis
- By Amazon Customer on 01-31-11
By: George Friedman
-
The New Leviathans
- Thoughts After Liberalism
- By: John Gray
- Narrated by: Lee Goettl
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Gray allows us to understand the world of the 2020s with all its contradictions, moral horrors, and disappointments. The collapse of the USSR ushered in an era of near apoplectic triumphalism in the West: a genuine belief that a rational, liberal, well-managed future now awaited humankind and that tyranny, nationalism, and unreason lay in the past. Since then, so many terrible events have occurred and so many poisonous ideas have flourished, and yet our liberal certainties treat them as aberrations that will somehow dissolve. Hobbes would not be so confident.
-
-
Good but Flawed
- By Peter Bassing on 04-30-24
By: John Gray
-
America's Secret War
- Inside the Struggle Between the United States and Its Enemies
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: Brian Emerson
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dubbed by Barron's as "The Shadow CIA", Stratfor, George Friedman's global intelligence company, has provided analysis to Fortune 500 companies, news outlets, and even the U.S. government. Now Friedman delivers the geopolitical story that the mainstream media has been unable to uncover, the startling truth behind America's foreign policy and war effort in Afghanistan, Iraq, and beyond.
-
-
Outstanding book, answers so many questions.
- By Steve on 01-02-05
By: George Friedman
-
A World After Liberalism
- Philosophers of the Radical Right
- By: Matthew Rose
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 5 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this eye-opening book, Matthew Rose introduces us to one of the most controversial intellectual movements of the 20th century, the "radical right", and discusses its adherents' different attempts to imagine political societies after the death or decline of liberalism. Questioning democracy's most basic norms and practices, these critics rejected ideas about human equality, minority rights, religious toleration, and cultural pluralism not out of implicit biases, but out of explicit principle.
-
-
Essential Reading for understanding the Far Right
- By BWA on 08-18-21
By: Matthew Rose
-
Technofeudalism
- What Killed Capitalism
- By: Yanis Varoufakis
- Narrated by: Yanis Varoufakis
- Length: 7 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Technofeudalism says Yanis Varoufakis, is the new power that is reshaping our lives and the world, and is the greatest current threat to the liberal individual, to our efforts to avert climate catastrophe—and to democracy itself. It also lies behind the new geopolitical tensions, especially the New Cold War between the United States and China. Drawing on stories from Greek myth and pop culture, from Homer to Mad Men, Varoufakis explains this revolutionary transformation: how it enslaves our minds, how it rewrites the rules of global power, and, ultimately, what it will take overthrow it.
-
-
Read this book if you want a competent explanation of how we got where we are financially
- By chloe kelly on 11-01-24
By: Yanis Varoufakis
-
The Origins of Woke
- Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics
- By: Richard Hanania
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Richard Hanania has come out of nowhere to become one of the best-known writers in the nation in the last few years. In this book, he directs his attention to the culture war that has driven society apart and presents a stunning new theory about what is going on. In a nation nearly evenly split between conservatives and liberals, the left dominates nearly all major institutions, including universities, the government, and corporate America. Hanania argues that this is as much a legal requirement as it is an issue of one side triumphing in the marketplace of ideas.
-
-
New view of Civil Rights law
- By Customer on 11-04-23
By: Richard Hanania
-
The Culture of Narcissism
- American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations
- By: Christopher Lasch
- Narrated by: Barry Press
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When The Culture of Narcissism was first published, it was clear that Christopher Lasch had identified something important: what was happening to American society in the wake of the decline of the family over the last century. The book quickly became a best seller.
-
-
Analysis from the 1970's good bad and ugly.
- By Carl A. Gallozzi on 02-24-20
-
The Next 100 Years
- A Forecast for the 21st Century
- By: George Friedman
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Next 100 Years, Friedman turns his eye on the future. Drawing on a profound understanding of history and geopolitical patterns dating back to the Roman Empire, he shows that we are now, for the first time in half a millennium, experiencing the dawn of a new historical cycle.
-
-
Interesting topic but a boring book
- By Fjolnir on 01-30-09
By: George Friedman
-
The Great Leveler
- Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century
- By: Walter Scheidel
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Are mass violence and catastrophes the only forces that can seriously decrease economic inequality? To judge by thousands of years of history, the answer is yes. Tracing the global history of inequality from the Stone Age to today, Walter Scheidel shows that inequality never dies peacefully. Inequality declines when carnage and disaster strike and increases when peace and stability return. The Great Leveler is the first book to chart the crucial role of violent shocks in reducing inequality over the full sweep of human history around the world.
-
-
Content is not suitable for an Audiobook
- By Varun on 02-10-18
By: Walter Scheidel
-
As Gods Among Men
- A History of the Rich in the West
- By: Guido Alfani
- Narrated by: Peter Noble
- Length: 16 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alfani argues that the position of the rich and super-rich in Western society has always been intrinsically fragile; their very presence has inspired social unease. In the Middle Ages, an excessive accumulation of wealth was considered sinful; the rich were expected not to appear to be wealthy. Eventually, the rich were deemed useful when they used their wealth to help their communities in times of crisis. Yet in the twenty-first century, the rich and the super-rich have been exceptionally reluctant to contribute to the common good in times of crisis.
-
-
Sympathy for the devil
- By Terri on 03-01-24
By: Guido Alfani
-
Visions of Inequality
- From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War
- By: Branko Milanovic
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Visions of Inequality takes us from Quesnay and the physiocrats, for whom social classes were prescribed by law, through the classic nineteenth-century treatises of Smith, Ricardo, and Marx, who saw class as a purely economic category driven by means of production. It shows how Pareto reconceived class as a matter of elites versus the rest of the population, while Kuznets saw inequality arising from the urban-rural divide. And it explains why inequality studies were eclipsed during the Cold War, before their remarkable resurgence as a central preoccupation in economics today.
By: Branko Milanovic
-
The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy
- By: Christopher Lasch
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this challenging work, Christopher Lasch makes an accessible critique of what is wrong with the values and beliefs of America's professional and managerial elites. The distinguished historian argues that democracy today is threatened not by the masses, as Jose Ortega y Gasset ( The Revolt of the Masses) had said, but by the elites. These elites - mobile and increasingly global in outlook - refuse to accept limits or ties to nation and place.
-
-
The last twenty years proves the author right
- By Del Lewis-Chia on 08-08-20
What listeners say about End Times
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mike
- 06-28-23
History Simulator v2.0
This approach to predicting the trajectory of societies - cliodynamics - strikes a middle path between the Great Man theory of history (which is erroneous), and theory-free big data analyses of history (which are prone to failure). Cliodynamics seeks first to create historically-informed mathematical models of organized groups, then employ big data to exercise said models to make predictions. As an aerospace engineer who has made mathematical models of various aircraft and missiles in order to run simulations, I recognize Turchin as a kindred spirit, and it's high-time someone has used math and complexity science in the employ of history. This is the method (the "v2.0" in my headline nods to Turchin's brief discussion of various antecedents to cliodynamics); what I've not discussed here are Turchin's results, which are fascinating in their own right. A powerful read for the methodology or results alone.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Deja ReVu
- 06-16-23
Poor recording for audiobook
Had to stop listening. Somehow Robin McAlpine's usually great voice voice sounds more nasal to the point of slight distortion with a hint of helium balloon. Painful.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brandywine
- 01-19-24
wow. incredible analysis
We really enjoyed listening to this book. The narration was really well done and the content was fantastic. This is not a book that you can just sit down and listen to with any distractions around. Pay attention.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dave Schwab
- 09-21-24
Interesting but flawed
A fascinating but entirely unconvincing model that lacks cohesive predictions, parameters, or usefulness. This could easily be told in a much shorter format with far less filler material.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Josh
- 07-26-23
Please bring more of his books to Audible.
I do not agree with everything the author writes, but I find his methodological transparency refreshing and I find his method persuasive.
The narration was good, but sometimes the first sound of a sentence would get clipped, so it sounded like the first word was missing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Marilyn Ostergren
- 08-18-23
Gave me new perspective
Fascinating. Gave me a whole new perspective about social and political realities that resonates as true. I find myself talking to others about it and interpreting news stories through this lens.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 09-09-24
Tells the dynamics of history!
An informative look at how societies rise and fall! In depth analysis of the goings on of structural problems in society!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark Hutchings
- 04-04-24
Great identification of causes of discord in society, but marred by the author’s Marxist ideologies.
The identification of some of the root causes of destabilization in society is spot on but the paradigm through which this information is viewed is highly Marxist, or relies on cheap liberal tropes. The idealization of an all encompassing administrative welfare state as the obvious solution to inequalities in wealth and opportunity is naive and completely belied by the most basic historic observations.
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
- Kindle Customer
- 06-15-23
Beyond excellent
This book is a beyond excellent synthesis and extension of Turchin's body of work. I discovered his research from references in the publications of the Santa Fe Institute and have read all of his books at this point, and his work has done a lot to shape my views of the world. I've been waiting for this book for a year and it doesn't dissappoint. It's data-backed, evidence-based, sophisticated, clear and compelling. It's cutting edge.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Otherguy2036475
- 09-19-23
An interesting thesis left wanting economic depth.
I found this book frustrating. The opening chapters provide an interesting thesis, capturing the writers intentions well. Throughout the work, historical examples are provided, with scenarios both insightful and unnerving. I cannot however, help but feel the work here is unfinished.
This writer has a clear penchant for sociology. The majority of the premise based logic is structured clearly. Economic readers however, may find themselves howling, begging, pleading even, for the writer to explore some of the connections to historical economic events. Several economic statements within the text rely on argumentum ad populum, and other conclusions are drawn in complete absentia of economic premise. The book suffers many the same pitfalls of several 20th and early 21st century sociologist forays into socioeconomics, insofar as while the qualitative sociological logic builds an interesting case, the quantitative pillars to support economic aspects are left wanting. We are left with polling data from inopportune time periods, small sample sizes and even a bit of self coined terminology.
Economic insights are defined within a labor participation and labor wage myopia, eschewing the concepts of economic expansion or the implications of raising or lowering the cost of capital. In a scenario in the early stages of the book, one must only ask, ‘what if the aspirants build another chair?’ One might also consider limiting aspirants by increasing the cost of aspiring. Conversely, would decreasing the cost of aspiring, say over the course of 10 years, lead to more aspirants and thus decrease stability? This myopia is further compounded later in the book, when major monetary events, both in expansion and contraction correlating directly with periods of unrest go unmentioned. What remains is the concept of a ‘wealth pump’ that redistributes wealth within a fixed system, the primary variable being labor.
The sociology and perspectives in this book are engaging. The economic portion of the text could have been a knockout. But on the economic front, we are left with another Keynesian labor story that is grasping far an answer it already has.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!