Freak Kingdom
Hunter S. Thompson's Manic Ten-Year Crusade Against American Fascism
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 $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mark Boyett
-
By:
-
Timothy Denevi
About this listen
The story of Hunter S. Thompson's crusade against Richard Nixon and the threat of fascism in America - and the devastating price he paid for it
Hunter S. Thompson is often misremembered as a wise-cracking, drug-addled cartoon character. This book reclaims him for what he truly was: a fearless opponent of corruption and fascism, one who sacrificed his future well-being to fight against it, rewriting the rules of journalism and political satire in the process. This skillfully told and dramatic story shows how Thompson saw through Richard Nixon's treacherous populism and embarked on a life-defining campaign to stop it. In his fevered effort to expose institutional injustice, Thompson pushed himself far beyond his natural limits, sustained by drugs, mania, and little else. For 10 years, he cast aside his old ambitions, troubled his family, and likely hastened his own decline, along the way producing some of the best political writing in our history.
This timely biography recalls a period of anger and derangement in American politics, and one writer with the guts to tell the truth.
©2018 Timothy Denevi (P)2018 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Fear and Loathing
- On the Campaign Trail '72
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An iconic and controversial figure in American literature, Hunter S. Thompson displayed a brilliance that forever changed journalism. Thompson’s follow-up to The Proud Highway, this second volume of private, never-before-published letters spans the years 1968 through 1976. Addressed to such luminaries as Tom Wolfe, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jimmy Carter, this incisive collection showcases Thompson’s raw and starkly honest thoughts on a pivotal era in U.S. history.
-
-
Love the book, not the performance.
- By Reno on 07-29-13
-
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone
- The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Buy the ticket, take the ride,” was a favorite slogan of Hunter S. Thompson, and it pretty much defined both his work and his life. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the roller-coaster of a career at the magazine that was his literary home.
-
-
If bad words offend you, don't read.
- By Robert on 07-19-12
-
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
-
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
-
The Great Shark Hunt
- Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 29 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the best-selling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.
-
-
Like HST but...
- By Saltlab on 12-26-13
-
Kingdom of Fear
- Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson penned groundbreaking works as outrageous—and provocative—as the author himself. His memoir Kingdom of Fear provides compelling insight into his life and literary output.
-
-
Sowers ruins Thompson
- By rocky on 02-09-13
-
Fear and Loathing
- On the Campaign Trail '72
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An iconic and controversial figure in American literature, Hunter S. Thompson displayed a brilliance that forever changed journalism. Thompson’s follow-up to The Proud Highway, this second volume of private, never-before-published letters spans the years 1968 through 1976. Addressed to such luminaries as Tom Wolfe, Kurt Vonnegut, and Jimmy Carter, this incisive collection showcases Thompson’s raw and starkly honest thoughts on a pivotal era in U.S. history.
-
-
Love the book, not the performance.
- By Reno on 07-29-13
-
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone
- The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Phil Gigante
- Length: 17 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Buy the ticket, take the ride,” was a favorite slogan of Hunter S. Thompson, and it pretty much defined both his work and his life. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the roller-coaster of a career at the magazine that was his literary home.
-
-
If bad words offend you, don't read.
- By Robert on 07-19-12
-
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
-
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
-
The Great Shark Hunt
- Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 29 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the best-selling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.
-
-
Like HST but...
- By Saltlab on 12-26-13
-
Kingdom of Fear
- Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson penned groundbreaking works as outrageous—and provocative—as the author himself. His memoir Kingdom of Fear provides compelling insight into his life and literary output.
-
-
Sowers ruins Thompson
- By rocky on 02-09-13
-
The Proud Highway
- Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967 (The Gonzo Letters, Book 1)
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 27 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the private and most intimate correspondence of one of America's most influential and incisive journalists - Hunter S.Thompson. In letters to a who's who of luminaries, from Norman Mailer toCharles Kuralt, Tom Wolfe to Lyndon Johnson, William Styron to Joan Baez - not to mention his mother, the NRA, and a chain of newspaper editors - Thompson vividly catches the tenor of the times in 1960s America and channels it all through hisown razor-sharp perspective.
-
-
Biography
- By GanjaPlanta on 11-14-14
-
Hell's Angels
- A Strange and Terrible Saga
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas author Hunter S. Thompson rocked the literary world with his mind-bending style of Gonzo journalism. First published in 1966, Hell’s Angels is Thompson’s up-close and personal look at the infamous motorcycle gang during the time when its moniker was most feared.
-
-
Visions of the Future of Motorcycle Gangs
- By Joe Bloggs on 07-13-13
-
Emerson
- The Mind on Fire
- By: Robert D. Richardson
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie
- Length: 26 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ralph Waldo Emerson is one of the most important figures in the history of American thought, religion, and literature. The vitality of his writings and the unsettling power of his example continue to influence us more than a hundred years after his death. Now Robert D. Richardson Jr. brings to life an Emerson very different from the old stereotype of the passionless Sage of Concord.
-
-
Finally!
- By Douglas on 08-15-14
-
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Ron McLarty
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Las Vegas to cover a motorcycle race, Raoul Duke (Thompson) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (inspired by a friend of Thompson) are quickly diverted to search for the American dream. Their quest is fueled by nearly every drug imaginable and quickly becomes a surreal experience that blurs the line between reality and fantasy. But there is more to this hilarious tale than reckless behavior, for underneath the hallucinogenic facade is a stinging criticism of American greed and consumerism.
-
-
Ron McLarty?
- By Ryan T. Nichols on 07-03-08
-
The Rum Diary
- A Novel
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Begun in 1959 by a twenty-two-year-old Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s.
-
-
Either a Priest or a Fool
- By Darwin8u on 10-01-15
-
Molly's Game
- From Hollywood’s Elite, to Wall Street’s Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker
- By: Molly Bloom
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the late 2000s, Molly Bloom, a twenty something petite brunette from Loveland Colorado, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen - she was its mistress, its lion tamer, its agent, and its oxygen. Everyone wanted in, few were invited to play. Hundreds of millions of dollars were won and lost at her table. Molly's game became the game for those in the know - celebrities, business moguls, and millionaires.
-
-
Great book. Zero payoff. *Semi-Spoilers*
- By Amazon Customer on 04-01-16
By: Molly Bloom
-
Ingredients
- The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us
- By: George Zaidan
- Narrated by: George Zaidan
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cheese puffs. Coffee. Sunscreen. Vapes. George Zaidan reveals what will kill you, what won’t, and why - explained with high-octane hilarity, hysterical hijinks, and other things that don’t begin with the letter H. Ingredients offers the perspective of a chemist on the stuff we eat, drink, inhale, and smear on ourselves. Apart from the burning question of whether you should eat that Cheeto, Zaidan explores a range of topics.
-
-
Disappointed in the nutrition conclusion
- By Cristi on 01-30-22
By: George Zaidan
-
The Curse of Lono
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This enormously eccentric book takes listeners on a crazy journey with renowned gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. The Curse of Lono is to Hawaii what Fear and Loathing was to Las Vegas: the crazy tales of a journalist's "coverage" of a news event that ends up being a wild ride to the dark side of Americana. Originally published in 1983, The Curse of Lono features all of the zany, hallucinogenic wordplay for which Hunter S.Thompson became known and loved.
-
-
Hunter S Thompson is my hero!
- By J. Hand on 02-18-15
-
It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
-
-
The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
The Rigor of Angels
- Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
- By: William Egginton
- Narrated by: David Glass
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges was madly in love when his life was shattered by painful heartbreak. But the breakdown that followed illuminated an incontrovertible truth—that love is necessarily imbued with loss, that the one doesn’t exist without the other. German physicist Werner Heisenberg was fighting with the scientific establishment on the meaning of the quantum realm’s absurdity when he had his own epiphany—that there is no such thing as a complete, perfect description of reality.
-
-
The most ridiculous narration
- By Anonymous User on 03-07-24
By: William Egginton
-
Hey Rube
- Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson is known for such groundbreaking works as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A provocative collection of rants and reflections from Thompson’s columns at ESPN.com, Hey Rube offers outrageously brilliant insight on topics ranging from the 2000 election to his unconventional take on professional sports (“eliminate the pitcher” to improve Major League Baseball).
-
-
A bit of the best, a bit of the... not best.
- By m.w. on 08-03-12
-
The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
-
-
The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
Critic reviews
"Based not on the Upper West Side or in West Hollywood but in Woody Creek, Colorado, Hunter S. Thompson got onto the page more of the 1960s and 1970s than any of his contemporaries. In this painstaking, exquisitely detailed, and impressively balanced book, Timothy Denevi conveys at what extraordinary cost to Thompson such herculean work was accomplished. If a writer doesn't aim to cause trouble, why even bother?" (David Shields)
"Surreal, astonishing, and at times deeply disturbing, Freak Kingdom is a welcome and timely revision to the popular hagiography of the larger-than-life Hunter S. Thompson depicted by popular culture. A necessary read for anyone who wishes to understand our current political moment." (Jennifer Percy, winner of the National Magazine Award and author of Demon Camp)
"Hunter Thompson is back and very much alive in this sympathetic and sharply written 'best years of his life' bio. I loved it." (Terry Gilliam, director of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas)
Related to this topic
-
The Great Shark Hunt
- Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 29 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the best-selling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.
-
-
Like HST but...
- By Saltlab on 12-26-13
-
The Mayor of Castro Street
- The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known as The Mayor of Castro Street even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
-
-
Excellent historical perspective of an activist.
- By Chris on 04-14-15
By: Randy Shilts
-
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore
- A Story of American Rage
- By: Jared Yates Sexton
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore is a firsthand account of the events that shaped the 2016 presidential election and the cultural forces that powered Donald Trump into the White House. Featuring in-the-field reports as well as deep analysis, Sexton's book is not just the story of the most unexpected and divisive election in modern political history. It is also a sobering chronicle of our democracy's political polarization - a result of our self-constructed, technologically assisted echo chambers.
-
-
Undercover in Trump's America
- By David Larson on 09-06-17
-
Dallas 1963
- By: Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis
- Narrated by: Bill Minutaglio, Tony Messano, Steven L. Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered.
-
-
American lunacy, listenable as it gets
- By Philo on 10-14-17
By: Bill Minutaglio, and others
-
Giuliani
- The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor
- By: Andrew Kirtzman
- Narrated by: Gibson Frazier
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rudy Giuliani was hailed after 9/11 as “America’s Mayor,” a national hero who, at the time, was more widely admired than the pope. He was brilliant, accomplished—and complicated. He conflated politics with morality, made reckless personal choices, and engaged in self-destructive behavior. A series of disastrous decisions and cynical compromises, coupled with his need for power, money, and attention gradually ruined his reputation, cost him political support, and ultimately damaged the country.
-
-
You Clearly See His Story
- By Anonymous User on 10-06-23
By: Andrew Kirtzman
-
Nixonland
- The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
- By: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 36 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's most talented historians and winner of a LA Times Book Prize comes a brilliant new account of Richard Nixon that reveals the riveting backstory to the red state/blue state resentments that divide our nation today. Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency.
-
-
A 5-Star Book Injured by the Narrator
- By Frank on 08-12-09
By: Rick Perlstein
-
The Great Shark Hunt
- Strange Tales from a Strange Time
- By: Hunter S. Thompson
- Narrated by: Scott Sowers
- Length: 29 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the best-selling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.
-
-
Like HST but...
- By Saltlab on 12-26-13
-
The Mayor of Castro Street
- The Life and Times of Harvey Milk
- By: Randy Shilts
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known as The Mayor of Castro Street even before he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk's personal life, public career, and final assassination reflect the dramatic emergence of the gay community as a political power in America. It is a story full of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassinations at City Hall, massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice, and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.
-
-
Excellent historical perspective of an activist.
- By Chris on 04-14-15
By: Randy Shilts
-
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore
- A Story of American Rage
- By: Jared Yates Sexton
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore is a firsthand account of the events that shaped the 2016 presidential election and the cultural forces that powered Donald Trump into the White House. Featuring in-the-field reports as well as deep analysis, Sexton's book is not just the story of the most unexpected and divisive election in modern political history. It is also a sobering chronicle of our democracy's political polarization - a result of our self-constructed, technologically assisted echo chambers.
-
-
Undercover in Trump's America
- By David Larson on 09-06-17
-
Dallas 1963
- By: Bill Minutaglio, Steven L. Davis
- Narrated by: Bill Minutaglio, Tony Messano, Steven L. Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the months and weeks before the fateful November 22nd, 1963, Dallas was brewing with political passions, a city crammed with larger-than-life characters dead-set against the Kennedy presidency. These included rabid warriors like defrocked military general Edwin A. Walker; the world's richest oil baron, H. L. Hunt; the leader of the largest Baptist congregation in the world, W.A. Criswell; and the media mogul Ted Dealey, who raucously confronted JFK and whose family name adorns the plaza where the president was murdered.
-
-
American lunacy, listenable as it gets
- By Philo on 10-14-17
By: Bill Minutaglio, and others
-
Giuliani
- The Rise and Tragic Fall of America's Mayor
- By: Andrew Kirtzman
- Narrated by: Gibson Frazier
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rudy Giuliani was hailed after 9/11 as “America’s Mayor,” a national hero who, at the time, was more widely admired than the pope. He was brilliant, accomplished—and complicated. He conflated politics with morality, made reckless personal choices, and engaged in self-destructive behavior. A series of disastrous decisions and cynical compromises, coupled with his need for power, money, and attention gradually ruined his reputation, cost him political support, and ultimately damaged the country.
-
-
You Clearly See His Story
- By Anonymous User on 10-06-23
By: Andrew Kirtzman
-
Nixonland
- The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
- By: Rick Perlstein
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 36 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's most talented historians and winner of a LA Times Book Prize comes a brilliant new account of Richard Nixon that reveals the riveting backstory to the red state/blue state resentments that divide our nation today. Told with urgency and sharp political insight, Nixonland recaptures America's turbulent 1960s and early 1970s and reveals how Richard Nixon rose from the political grave to seize and hold the presidency.
-
-
A 5-Star Book Injured by the Narrator
- By Frank on 08-12-09
By: Rick Perlstein
-
The Year That Broke America
- An Immigration Crisis, a Terrorist Conspiracy, the Summer of Survivor, a Ridiculous Fake Billionaire, a Fight for Florida, and the 537 Votes That Changed Everything
- By: Andrew Rice
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before there was Coronavirus, before there was the contentious 2020 election or the entire Trump presidency, there was a turning-point year that proved momentous and transformative for American politics and the fate of the nation.
By: Andrew Rice
-
The Glory and the Dream
- A Narrative History of America, 1932 - 1972
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 57 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the lively arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti...everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.
-
-
Fabulous book, good narration, bad recording
- By Paula on 07-10-08
-
The Year That Changed the World
- The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall
- By: Michael Meyer
- Narrated by: Ed Sala
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! President Ronald Reagan's famous exhortation when visiting Berlin in 1987 has long been widely cited as the clarion call that brought the Cold War to an end. The United States won, so this version of history goes, because Ronald Reagan stood firm against the USSR; American resoluteness brought the evil empire to its knees. Michael Meyer, who was there at the time as a Newsweek bureau chief, begs to differ.
-
-
Great book about a great year for democracy.
- By Susan on 11-24-09
By: Michael Meyer
-
Dutch
- A Memoir of Ronald Reagan
- By: Edmund Morris
- Narrated by: Edmund Morris
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This book, the only biography ever authorized by a sitting President - yet written with complete interpretive freedom - is as revolutionary in method as it is formidable in scholarship. When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1981, one of his first literary guests was Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. Morris developed a fascination for the genial yet inscrutable President and, after Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984, put aside the second volume of his life of Roosevelt to become an observing eye and ear at the White House.
-
-
Painful
- By john on 02-06-13
By: Edmund Morris
-
Killing Jesus
- A History
- By: Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard
- Narrated by: Bill O'Reilly
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millions of people have thrilled to best-selling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, works of nonfiction that have changed the way we view history. Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly 2,000 years after this beloved and controversial young revolutionary was brutally killed by Roman soldiers, more than 2.2 billion human beings attempt to follow his teachings and believe he is God.
-
-
The Jesus story in context
- By Kimberly on 10-01-13
By: Bill O'Reilly, and others
-
Hellhound on His Trail
- The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Hampton Sides
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man - whose real name was James Earl Ray -drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel.
-
-
History Comes Alive
- By L. Lyter on 06-29-10
By: Hampton Sides
-
The Path to Power
- The Years of Lyndon Johnson
- By: Robert A. Caro
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 40 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the story of the rise to national power of a desperately poor young man from the Texas Hill Country. The Path to Power reveals in extraordinary detail the genesis of the almost superhuman drive, energy, and ambition that set LBJ apart. It follows him from the Hill Country to New Deal Washington, from his boyhood through the years of the Depression to his debut as Congressman, his heartbreaking defeat in his first race for the Senate, and his attainment, nonetheless, at age 31, of the national power for which he hungered.
-
-
The Best of all Biographies
- By David C. Daggett on 12-14-13
By: Robert A. Caro
-
City of Scoundrels
- The 12 Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When 1919 began, the city of Chicago seemed on the verge of transformation. Modernizers had an audacious, expensive plan to turn the city from a brawling, unglamorous place into "the Metropolis of the World". But just as the dream seemed within reach, pandemonium broke loose and the city’s highest ambitions were suddenly under attack by the same unbridled energies that had given birth to them in the first place.
-
-
Great History of a Great City
- By Cookie on 08-30-12
By: Gary Krist
-
Freedom Summer
- The Savage Season That Made Mississippi Burn and Made America a Democracy
- By: Bruce Watson
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer of 1964, with the civil rights movement stalled, seven hundred college students descended on Mississippi to register black voters, teach in Freedom Schools, and live in sharecroppers' shacks. But by the time their first night in the state had ended, three volunteers were dead, black churches had burned, and America had a new definition of freedom.
-
-
The Long Hot Summer
- By Roy on 08-01-10
By: Bruce Watson
-
Bobby Kennedy
- The Making of a Liberal Icon
- By: Larry Tye
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
History remembers Robert F. Kennedy as a racial healer, a tribune for the poor, and the last progressive knight of a bygone era of American politics. But Kennedy's enshrinement in the liberal pantheon was actually the final stage of a journey that had its beginnings in the conservative 1950s. In Bobby Kennedy, Larry Tye peels away layers of myth and misconception to paint a complete portrait of this singularly fascinating figure.
-
-
Absorbing
- By Jean on 01-18-17
By: Larry Tye
-
The Front Runner (All the Truth Is Out Movie Tie-In)
- The Week Politics Went Tabloid
- By: Matt Bai
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In May 1987, Colorado Senator Gary Hart seemed a lock for the party’s presidential nomination and led George H. W. Bush by double digits in the polls. Then, in one tumultuous week, rumors of marital infidelity and a newspaper’s stakeout of Hart’s home resulted in a media frenzy the likes of which had never been seen. Through the spellbindingly reported story of the senator’s fall from grace, Matt Bai, Yahoo News columnist and former chief political correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, reveals the Hart affair to be far more than one man’s tragedy.
-
-
Excellent writing and performance
- By S. on 12-06-14
By: Matt Bai
-
Killing a King
- The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel
- By: Dan Ephron
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel's recent history and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace - and the other plotted murder.
-
-
Tragic history well presented.
- By Mmday on 02-28-16
By: Dan Ephron
What listeners say about Freak Kingdom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- M. Adler
- 01-21-23
A great history lesson
Remarkable historical connections to the present day told through the lens of a journalistic phenomenon. Well worth a listen and frequently hard to put down.
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
- Amazon Customer
- 04-29-22
Adds a lot of contacts
Adds a lot of contacts too literally everything else HST has ever done Kind of wish I had read or listened to this one before anything else but better late than never
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
- LuckyRaindrops
- 03-25-19
Amazing
The author truly knows HST and I apreciate the honest look into the rise and fall of an American icon and personal hero of mine.
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
- Clanton
- 04-18-19
great book
absolutely love this book. well written with great prospective, and facts.i would highly recommend this 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
- Anonymous User
- 12-28-22
Ok
Doesn’t tell us anything new about HST. But a nice introduction if you’re a newbie.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 03-22-19
author has an internal need for Hunter to be Jesus
The Author reveals a lot of himself in this book, i found that quite pathetic, as i spent the rest of the book disillusioned and wondering how much is factual. If the author had spent a few hours in therapy, he might've made this book the great journey he intended it to be, but sadly, he needs Hunter to be the perfect agent to solve his own revulsion for the current state of America.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful