
Foreign Agents
How American Lobbyists and Lawmakers Threaten Democracy Around the World
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Narrated by:
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Joe Dwyer
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By:
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Casey Michel
About this listen
A stunning investigation and indictment of a segment of the United States' foreign lobbying industry, and the threat to end democracy.
For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself.
These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These foreign lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry—a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the Nazis on how to sway American audiences. They include people like Paul Manafort, who invented lobbying as we know it—and who then took his talents to autocrats from Ukraine to the Philippines, and then back to the White House. And they now include an increasing number of Americans elsewhere: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities.
In Foreign Agents, Casey Michel shines a light on these foreign lobbyists as some of them—after decades of installing dictators and corrupting American policy—embark on their next mission: to end America’s democratic experiment, once and for all.
A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.
©2024 Casey Michel (P)2024 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
Foreign Policy, Most Anticipated Books of 2024
"[A] masterful exposé.... Michel’s portrait of endemic corruption is disturbing; lobbying firms, he finds, do little more than serve as conduits for channeling foreign bribes to American officials. The result is a hard-hitting takedown of a cynical industry."—Publishers Weekly (starred)
"A timely exposé of American lobbyists who degrade democracy and weaken human rights. In the spirit of Progressive Era muckrakers, Michel reveals the shamelessness, venality, and moral turpitude of those who work to influence federal legislators and the public in order to advance antidemocratic foreign interests... A provocative and alarming account of the political cesspool known as foreign lobbying."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"For years, foreign lobbyists have acted as key henchmen for dictators around the world, enriching and entrenching those regimes that much further. Now, Casey Michel shines much-needed light on these foreign lobbyists—and these enablers who are making it easier for despots around the world to expand their reach. Full of sordid tales and striking details, Foreign Agents shows how these foreign lobbyists are, in many ways, just as reprehensible as the dictators they represent—and maybe even more so."—Sir Bill Browder, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Red Notice and Freezing Order
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- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Money laundering has been around for centuries. For as long as people have been stealing money, there's been an industry ready to wash it. But recent tech innovations have created vastly complex new systems for laundering that threaten to overwhelm authorities, destabilise economies and disrupt societies. Ranging from the flamboyant luxury of Dubai hotels to quiet coastal Ireland, from the UK to Nigeria and from Indonesia to North Korea, Rinsed is a truly global relevatory investigation into the new army of innovative launderers ... and the consequences for all of us.
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Almost but not quite plagiarism
- By T.T. on 06-19-24
By: Geoff White
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How the World Ran Out of Everything
- Inside the Global Supply Chain
- By: Peter S. Goodman
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In How the World Ran Out of Everything, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman reveals the fascinating innerworkings of our supply chain and the factors that have led to its constant, dangerous vulnerability. His reporting takes listeners deep into the elaborate system, showcasing the triumphs and struggles of the human players who operate it—from factories in Asia and an almond grower in Northern California, to a group of striking railroad workers in Texas, to a truck driver who Goodman accompanies across hundreds of miles of the Great Plains.
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Must Read!
- By Adam W Jones on 10-05-24
By: Peter S. Goodman
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Skunk Works
- A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
- By: Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds.
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Ben Rich's life story...but not in that order
- By Allstar on 11-05-16
By: Ben R. Rich, and others
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Twilight of Democracy
- The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else.
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Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them
- By AJ on 07-23-20
By: Anne Applebaum
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Reaganland
- America's Right Turn 1976-1980
- By: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Samantha Desz, Jonathan Todd Ross, Jacques Roy, and others
- Length: 45 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga's final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement. In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford's defeat, too old to make another run.
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This Book is Censored by Audible
- By Nathan D. Backlund on 09-07-20
By: Rick Perlstein
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Offshore
- Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism
- By: Brooke Harrington
- Narrated by: Jennifer Walden
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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How do the rich keep getting richer, while dodging the long arm of the law? The ultra-rich seem to live in a different world from the rest of us. That world is called offshore. Hidden from view, the world's ultra-rich can use offshore finance to escape tax obligations, labor and environmental safety regulations, campaign finance rules, and other laws that get in their way.
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Informative
- By Seattle mom on 03-02-25
What listeners say about Foreign Agents
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jeroen
- 10-27-24
Should be read by everyone
This book should be read by everyone, it contains important history which is extremely relevant to the world we live in.
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- Tara H. Walker
- 09-04-24
An important book for our democracy!
This is an important book for all Americans to hear or read. Well written and well read, it continually amazes me to discover the lengths people will go on behalf of foreign entities. It’s scary!
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- ATL Books 404
- 09-22-24
Great book, excellent narration
Thought the author gave an entertaining, thorough overview of Foreign Agents, lobbying, Paul Manafort, FARA, and more. Joe Dwyer handled the narration well again (after his previous performance in American Kleptocracy).
If you think this topic is interesting/want to learn more, this book is worth a read!
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