-
How America Lost Its Mind
- The Assault on Reason That’s Crippling Our Democracy (The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series, Volume 15)
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 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 $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
Americans are losing touch with reality. On virtually every issue, from climate change to immigration, tens of millions of Americans have opinions and beliefs wildly at odds with fact, rendering them unable to think sensibly about politics. In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson explains the rise of a world of “alternative facts” and the slow motion cultural and political calamity unfolding around us.
A call to action, his book encourages us to wrest institutional power from ideologues and disrupters and entrust it to sensible citizens and leaders to restore our commitment to mutual tolerance and restraint, to cleanse the internet of fake news and disinformation, and to demand a steady supply of trustworthy and relevant information from our news sources.
As philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote decades ago, the rise of demagogues is abetted by “people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists”. In How America Lost Its Mind, Thomas E. Patterson makes a passionate case for fully and fiercely engaging on the side of truth and mutual respect in our present arms race between fact and fake, unity and division, civility and incivility.
The book is published by University of Oklahoma Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
Praise for the book:
“A book...that needed to be written...the response of a reasoned, thinking person to a cultural and political calamity that he and many others saw unfolding in slow motion.” (Keith Gaddie, coauthor of The Rise and Fall of the Voting Rights Act)
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Twilight of Democracy
- The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them
- By AJ on 07-23-20
By: Anne Applebaum
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Tired of Winning
- Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
-
-
We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
-
Romney
- A Reckoning
- By: McKay Coppins
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, McKay Coppins
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few figures in American politics have seen more and said less than Mitt Romney. An outspoken dissident in Donald Trump’s GOP, he has made headlines in recent years for standing alone against the forces he believes are poisoning the party he once led. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection.
-
-
Political and intellectual biography at its best!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-23
By: McKay Coppins
-
Twilight of Democracy
- The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them
- By AJ on 07-23-20
By: Anne Applebaum
-
Prequel
- An American Fight Against Fascism
- By: Rachel Maddow
- Narrated by: Rachel Maddow
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by her research for the hit podcast Ultra, Rachel Maddow charts the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century. Before and even after our troops had begun fighting abroad in World War II, a clandestine network flooded the country with disinformation aimed at sapping the strength of the U.S. war effort and persuading Americans that our natural alliance was with the Axis, not against it.
-
-
The fight to keep democracy alive
- By Rex on 10-19-23
By: Rachel Maddow
-
Tired of Winning
- Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party
- By: Jonathan Karl
- Narrated by: Jonathan Karl
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Packed with new reporting, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party tracks Trump’s improbable journey from disgraced and defeated former president to the dominant force, yet again, in the Republican Party. From his exile in Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump has become more extreme, vengeful, and divorced from reality than he was on January 6, 2021. His meddling damaged the GOP’s electoral prospects for third consecutive election in 2022. His legal troubles are mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
Enough
- By: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Narrated by: Cassidy Hutchinson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ever since a childhood visit to Washington, DC, Cassidy Hutchinson aspired to serve her country in government. Raised in a working-class family with a military background, she was the first in her immediate family to graduate from college. Despite having no ties to Washington, Hutchinson landed a vital position at the center of the Trump White House.
-
-
Painful
- By Melissa C. on 09-28-23
-
Democracy Awakening
- Notes on the State of America
- By: Heather Cox Richardson
- Narrated by: Heather Cox Richardson
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At a time when the very foundations of American democracy seem under threat, the lessons of the past offer a road map for navigating a moment of political crisis. In Democracy Awakening, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson delves into the tumultuous journey of American democracy, tracing the roots of Donald Trump’s “authoritarian experiment” to the earliest days of the republic.
-
-
We’d be in a much better position if everyone read this
- By Jeffrey Schwartz on 10-01-23
-
Romney
- A Reckoning
- By: McKay Coppins
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, McKay Coppins
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few figures in American politics have seen more and said less than Mitt Romney. An outspoken dissident in Donald Trump’s GOP, he has made headlines in recent years for standing alone against the forces he believes are poisoning the party he once led. Romney was the first senator in history to vote to remove from office a president of his own party. When that president’s supporters went on to storm the US Capitol, Romney delivered a thundering speech from the Senate floor accusing his fellow Republicans of stoking insurrection.
-
-
Political and intellectual biography at its best!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-25-23
By: McKay Coppins
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
-
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- By orders on 10-07-23
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
The Conspiracy to End America
- Five Ways My Old Party Is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today’s Republican party is not a “normal” political party in the American tradition. It has become an autocratic movement masquerading as a political party. As Stuart Stevens argues in The Conspiracy to End America, if we look away from that truth, we greatly increase the likelihood that the America we love will slip away, never to return.
-
-
Required Reading
- By Arturo Zendejas on 10-27-23
By: Stuart Stevens
-
How Democracies Die
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Democracies can die with a coup d'état - or they can die slowly. This happens most deceptively when in piecemeal fashion, with the election of an authoritarian leader, the abuse of governmental power and the complete repression of opposition. All three steps are being taken around the world - not least with the election of Donald Trump - and we must all understand how we can stop them.
-
-
Connecting the Dots
- By Sharon F on 02-06-18
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
Blowback
- A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump
- By: Miles Taylor
- Narrated by: Miles Taylor
- Length: 12 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump will be president again, whether he is on the ballot or not. That is because Trumpism is overtaking the Republican Party and will mount a vigorous comeback, potentially in the hands of a savvier successor. This prophecy will come true, according to Miles Taylor, if we do not learn the lessons of the recent past. With the 2024 election approaching, the formerly “Anonymous” official is back with bombshell revelations and a sobering national forecast. Taylor predicts what could happen inside “Trump 2.0,” the White House of a more competent and more formidable copycat.
-
-
We will only have ourselves to blame if we sink into autocracy
- By MS on 07-23-23
By: Miles Taylor
-
Renegade
- Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country
- By: Adam Kinzinger, Michael D'Antonio - contributor
- Narrated by: Adam Kinzinger
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump incited a violent mob to storm the US Capitol in attempts to overturn the presidential election. It was a betrayal of our Constitution, and one of the darkest days in recent history. Yet to former congressman Adam Kinzinger it was also the culmination of a cultural and political rupture he’d long seen coming. Constructive criticism from within the Republican Party was no longer enough. It was time to stand up, even if it meant betraying his own party.
-
-
Critical Work
- By Red P on 11-02-23
By: Adam Kinzinger, 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
-
It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
- By: Senator Bernie Sanders, John Nichols
- Narrated by: Senator Bernie Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s OK to be angry about capitalism. Reflecting on our turbulent times, Senator Bernie Sanders takes on the billionaire class and speaks blunt truths about our country’s failure to address the destructive nature of a system that is fueled by uncontrolled greed and rigidly committed to prioritizing corporate profits over the needs of ordinary Americans.
-
-
A true and unbiased understanding of politics today
- By Sassy monster on 02-21-23
By: Senator Bernie Sanders, and others
-
Why the Right Went Wrong
- Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond
- By: E. J. Dionne Jr.
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why the Right Went Wrong offers a historical view of the right since the 1960s. Its core contention is that American conservatism and the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwater's worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. Since 1968, no conservative administration could live up to the rhetoric rooted in the Goldwater movement that began to reshape American politics 50 years ago.
-
-
Outstanding, refreshing, inspiring
- By James Adams on 03-19-16
By: E. J. Dionne Jr.
-
Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
-
-
Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
-
The Fall
- The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty
- By: Michael Wolff
- Narrated by: Michael Wolff - introduction, Holter Graham
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For almost three decades, Fox News has not only made political careers (see: President Donald J. Trump) but also fundamentally altered the political landscape of the United States. It is a truism: as Fox goes, so goes the nation—into further divisiveness and awash in fake news, a gleefully polarizing company. But just as Fox has pushed America apart, now it too is coming apart. As is the family dynasty behind it.
-
-
Terrific rundown of Fox
- By Iread on 10-05-23
By: Michael Wolff
-
Fantasyland
- How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
- By: Kurt Andersen
- Narrated by: Kurt Andersen
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A razor-sharp thinker offers a new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe, from the Pilgrims to P. T. Barnum to Disneyland to zealots of every stripe...to Donald Trump. In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, Kurt Andersen demonstrates that what's happening in our country today - this strange, post-factual, "fake news" moment we're all living through - is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path.
-
-
Bland Title For An Amazing Book!
- By David Larson on 09-07-17
By: Kurt Andersen
-
Unfreedom of the Press
- By: Mark R. Levin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell, Mark R. Levin - introduction and epilogue
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Unfreedom of the Press is not just another book about the press. [Levin] shows how those entrusted with news reporting today are destroying freedom of the press from within - not through actions of government officials, but with its own abandonment of reportorial integrity and objective journalism. With the depth of historical background for which his books are renowned, Levin takes you on a journey through the early American patriot press, which proudly promoted the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
-
-
Great Thought Provoking Book
- By JP on 05-22-19
By: Mark R. Levin
Related to this topic
-
Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
-
-
Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
-
It Was All a Lie
- How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else.
-
-
A party gone astray
- By Devin on 08-07-20
By: Stuart Stevens
-
Trumpocalypse
- Restoring American Democracy
- By: David Frum
- Narrated by: David Frum
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A huge swath of Americans have put their faith in Trump, and Trump only, because they see the rest of the country building a future that doesn't have a place for them. If they would risk their lives for Trump in a pandemic, they will certainly risk the stability of American democracy. They brought the Trumpocalypse upon the country, and a post-Trumpocalypse country will have to find a way either to reconcile them to democracy - or to protect democracy from them.
-
-
Trump More Dangerous Than the Axis of Evil
- By J.B. on 05-26-20
By: David Frum
-
They Don't Represent Us
- Reclaiming Our Democracy
- By: Lawrence Lessig
- Narrated by: Lawrence Lessig
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In They Don’t Represent Us, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig charts the way in which the fundamental institutions of our democracy, including our media, respond to narrow interests rather than to the needs and wishes of the nation’s citizenry. But the blame does not only lie with “them” - Washington’s politicians and power brokers, Lessig argues. The problem is also “us.”
-
-
All Americans should read/listen to this.
- By Christopher W Catron on 03-22-20
By: Lawrence Lessig
-
Talk Radio’s America
- How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States
- By: Brian Rosenwald
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Radio hosts form a deep bond with their audience, which gives them enormous political power. Unlike elected representatives, however, they must entertain their audience or watch their ratings fall. Talk radio boosted the Republican agenda in the 1990s, but two decades later, escalation in the battle for the airwaves pushed hosts toward ever more conservative, outrageous, and hyperbolic content. Donald Trump borrowed conservative radio hosts' playbook and gave Republican base voters the kind of pugnacious candidate they had been demanding for decades.
-
-
Excellent history of our national demise
- By CommentDante on 02-20-22
By: Brian Rosenwald
-
Unmasked
- Big Media's War Against Trump
- By: L. Brent Bozell, Tim Graham
- Narrated by: Phil Paonessa
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lecturer, syndicated columnist, television commentator, debater, marketer, businessman, best-selling author, publisher, and activist L. Brent Bozell III is one of the most outspoken and effective national leaders in the conservative movement today. As the founder and president of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America and is uniquely positioned to offer this blazing critique of the bias in the national media and how they undermine American democracy.
-
-
Good stuff but could have been better!
- By Mommywithsix on 06-05-19
By: L. Brent Bozell, and others
-
Why We're Polarized
- By: Ezra Klein
- Narrated by: Ezra Klein
- Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Why We’re Polarized, Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America’s descent into division and dysfunction. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump’s rise to the Democratic Party’s leftward shift to the politicization of everyday culture. America is polarized, first and foremost, by identity. Everyone engaged in American politics is engaged, at some level, in identity politics.
-
-
Good as an intro, skip if you’re a wonk
- By Tony on 01-29-20
By: Ezra Klein
-
It Was All a Lie
- How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump
- By: Stuart Stevens
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stuart Stevens spent decades electing Republicans at every level, from presidents to senators to local officials. He knows the GOP as intimately as anyone in America, and in this new book he offers a devastating portrait of a party that has lost its moral and political compass. This is not a book about how Donald J. Trump hijacked the Republican Party and changed it into something else.
-
-
A party gone astray
- By Devin on 08-07-20
By: Stuart Stevens
-
Trumpocalypse
- Restoring American Democracy
- By: David Frum
- Narrated by: David Frum
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A huge swath of Americans have put their faith in Trump, and Trump only, because they see the rest of the country building a future that doesn't have a place for them. If they would risk their lives for Trump in a pandemic, they will certainly risk the stability of American democracy. They brought the Trumpocalypse upon the country, and a post-Trumpocalypse country will have to find a way either to reconcile them to democracy - or to protect democracy from them.
-
-
Trump More Dangerous Than the Axis of Evil
- By J.B. on 05-26-20
By: David Frum
-
They Don't Represent Us
- Reclaiming Our Democracy
- By: Lawrence Lessig
- Narrated by: Lawrence Lessig
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In They Don’t Represent Us, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig charts the way in which the fundamental institutions of our democracy, including our media, respond to narrow interests rather than to the needs and wishes of the nation’s citizenry. But the blame does not only lie with “them” - Washington’s politicians and power brokers, Lessig argues. The problem is also “us.”
-
-
All Americans should read/listen to this.
- By Christopher W Catron on 03-22-20
By: Lawrence Lessig
-
Talk Radio’s America
- How an Industry Took Over a Political Party That Took Over the United States
- By: Brian Rosenwald
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Radio hosts form a deep bond with their audience, which gives them enormous political power. Unlike elected representatives, however, they must entertain their audience or watch their ratings fall. Talk radio boosted the Republican agenda in the 1990s, but two decades later, escalation in the battle for the airwaves pushed hosts toward ever more conservative, outrageous, and hyperbolic content. Donald Trump borrowed conservative radio hosts' playbook and gave Republican base voters the kind of pugnacious candidate they had been demanding for decades.
-
-
Excellent history of our national demise
- By CommentDante on 02-20-22
By: Brian Rosenwald
-
Unmasked
- Big Media's War Against Trump
- By: L. Brent Bozell, Tim Graham
- Narrated by: Phil Paonessa
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lecturer, syndicated columnist, television commentator, debater, marketer, businessman, best-selling author, publisher, and activist L. Brent Bozell III is one of the most outspoken and effective national leaders in the conservative movement today. As the founder and president of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell runs the largest media watchdog organization in America and is uniquely positioned to offer this blazing critique of the bias in the national media and how they undermine American democracy.
-
-
Good stuff but could have been better!
- By Mommywithsix on 06-05-19
By: L. Brent Bozell, and others
-
The Man Who Sold America
- Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story
- By: Joy-Ann Reid
- Narrated by: Joy-Ann Reid
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Candidate Trump sold Americans a vision that was seemingly at odds with their country’s founding principles. Now in office, he’s put up a "for sale" sign - on the prestige of the presidency, on America’s global stature, and on our national identity. At what cost have these deals come? Joy-Ann Reid's essential new audiobook, The Man Who Sold America, delivers an urgent accounting of our national crisis from one of our foremost political commentators.
-
-
Good explanation of how we got to where we are
- By Caduceus26 on 07-13-19
By: Joy-Ann Reid
-
The Impostors
- How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics
- By: Steve Benen
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The award-winning producer of The Rachel Maddow Show exposes the Republican Party as a gang of impostors, meticulously documenting how they have abandoned their duty to govern and are gravely endangering America.
-
-
Three Card Monte Politics
- By J.B. on 06-19-20
By: Steve Benen
-
The Party Is Over
- How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted
- By: Mike Lofgren
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There was a time, not so very long ago, when perfectly rational people ran the Republican Party. So how did the party of Lincoln become the party of lunatics? That is what this book aims to answer. Fear not, the Dems come in for their share of tough talk - they are zombies, a party of the living dead. Mike Lofgren came to Washington in the early eighties - those halcyon, post-Nixonian glory days - for what he imagined would be a short stint on Capitol Hill.
-
-
A Great Analysis
- By Dan D on 09-04-12
By: Mike Lofgren
-
Wingnuts
- How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America
- By: John P. Avlon, Tina Brown - foreword
- Narrated by: John P. Avlon, Tina Brown (foreword)
- Length: 6 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Whats a wingnut? A wingnut is someone on the far-right or far-left wing of the political spectrum professional partisans, unhinged activists, and paranoid conspiracy theorists. Barack Obama campaigned as an antidote to the politics of polarization, promising to transcend the old divides of left and right, black and white, red states and blue. But in the first year of his presidency, he is presiding over an eruption of hate and hyper-partisanship that threatens to mock the promise upon which he was elected.
-
-
Disturbingly disappointing
- By Steven on 02-20-10
By: John P. Avlon, and others
-
Fault Lines
- A History of the United States Since 1974
- By: Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you were asked when America became polarized, your answer would likely depend on your age: You might say during Barack Obama’s presidency, or with the post-9/11 war on terror, or the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, or the “Reagan Revolution” and the the rise of the New Right. How did the US become so divided? Fault Lines offers a richly told, wide-angle history view toward an answer.
-
-
Good overview of the past 45 years
- By Adam Shields on 02-26-19
By: Kevin M. Kruse, and others
-
Why the Right Went Wrong
- Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party and Beyond
- By: E. J. Dionne Jr.
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 20 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Why the Right Went Wrong offers a historical view of the right since the 1960s. Its core contention is that American conservatism and the Republican Party took a wrong turn when they adopted Barry Goldwater's worldview during and after the 1964 campaign. Since 1968, no conservative administration could live up to the rhetoric rooted in the Goldwater movement that began to reshape American politics 50 years ago.
-
-
Outstanding, refreshing, inspiring
- By James Adams on 03-19-16
By: E. J. Dionne Jr.
-
Resistance
- How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump
- By: Jennifer Rubin
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Shattered and Game Change, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin provides an insider’s look at how women across the political spectrum carried a revolution to the ballot box and defeated Donald Trump, based on interviews with key figures such as Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Stacey Abrams, Nancy Pelosi, and many more.
-
-
An excellent book
- By Gary on 02-02-22
By: Jennifer Rubin
-
We Should Have Seen It Coming
- From Reagan to Trump - A Front-Row Seat to a Political Revolution
- By: Gerald F. Seib
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal chronicles the astonishing rise, climax, and decline of the conservative movement, from the election of Ronald Reagan to the Republican Party's takeover by Donald Trump - with a new introduction covering the 2020 election and the future of the GOP.
-
-
Brilliant!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-04-20
By: Gerald F. Seib
-
The Trump Century
- How Our President Changed the Course of History Forever
- By: Lou Dobbs
- Narrated by: Lou Dobbs
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Trump Century, the indomitable Lou Dobbs explains how Trump has steered the debate every day he has been in politics, greatly expanding what Washington thinks is possible. By 2016, the globalist elites demanded no one speak about limiting illegal immigration or securing our borders. The elites told you communist China would soon be like us, and the PC orthodoxy told you what you could or could not say. You were told America’s Middle Class could never grow again and wages would be stagnant into perpetuity. Trump reversed all of that.
-
-
A dose of honest reality in the era of fake news.
- By Bobby K. Daugherty on 09-23-20
By: Lou Dobbs
-
The Hardest Job in the World
- The American Presidency
- By: John Dickerson
- Narrated by: John Dickerson
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The American presidency is in trouble. It has become overburdened, misunderstood, almost impossible to do. “The problems in the job unfolded before Donald Trump was elected, and the challenges of governing today will confront his successors”, writes John Dickerson. After all, the founders never intended for our system of checks and balances to have one superior Chief Magistrate, with Congress demoted to “the little brother who can’t keep up”.
-
-
Couldn’t wait for this book!
- By David H. Lawrence XVII on 06-17-20
By: John Dickerson
-
The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
- The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series
- By: Thom Hartmann
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann asks: What if the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down laws? According to the Constitution, it doesn't. From the founding of the republic until 1803, the Supreme Court was the final court of appeals, as it was always meant to be. So where did the concept of judicial review start? As so much of modern American history, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and with Marbury v. Madison.
-
-
A must read to understand why voting is essential.
- By Brandon WIlliams on 10-05-19
By: Thom Hartmann
-
What Were We Thinking
- A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era
- By: Carlos Lozada
- Narrated by: Christian Barillas
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is an irony of our age that a man who rarely reads has unleashed an onslaught of books about his tenure and his time. Dissections of the white working class. Manifestos of political resistance. Works on identity, gender, and migration. Memoirs on race and protest. Revelations of White House mayhem. Warnings over the future of conservatism, progressivism, and of American democracy itself.
-
-
Useful book
- By Kindle Customer on 11-22-20
By: Carlos Lozada
What listeners say about How America Lost Its Mind
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tom Anderson
- 02-16-20
An Unbiased Look at Our Political Mess
Excellent unbiased look at where we are today. Highly recommended. Middle of the road perspective.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gennyfer Hanvey
- 02-01-20
Well melded information with clear perspective
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
It’s a Herculean task to provide an unbiased view of the current political culture in the United States. My personal bias leans left and while inexperienced some cognitive discomfort when Patterson gave examples of Democrats and progressives foibles, I imagine this book would be more uncomfortable for someone on the right to read. Still Patterson’s knowledgeable explanation of how we got here was very detailed, backed up with many examples, and relatively concise. While the conclusion was not bursting with hope and solutions, I ended up feeling less despair than I’d expected. We may climb out of this hole we’ve dug ourselves.
Peter Lerman’s reading was excellent. He has a rich professorial tone that lends itself to a lecture series style book. His pacing kept me from increasing the speed, a habit I’ve been employing lately with non-fiction.
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
- Deedra
- 02-22-20
How America Lost its mind
I found this a very good,unbiased view of how we got to where we are today.It started before our current regime.Trump has only taken the bull by the horns and made America hate again.Around and around we go. Peter Lerman was a fine narrator. I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
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
- Christine Newton
- 03-03-20
tough love
A perfect length for an audiobook describing problems and possible solutions for the polarization and hyper-partisanship that characterizes the United States these days. There's plenty of blame to go around and it will take mindfulness and hard work for future leaders to mend the divisions. But there's also plenty of room for self-reflection at the individual level, too. I don't want to fill up space here by blathering on about my personal insights and examples, so let's just say that there's a lot in this book to think about.
My favourite topic in the book is about tribalism ('us versus them') and how destructive that can be. During election campaigns, sure, sink to that level of competition. But once the election is over, you've got to put that behind you and move forward collaboratively. If there are sore losers and sore winners, what you end up with is cycles of aggression, defensiveness, and retaliation. When I hear that a political party's sole objective is to make the President a 'one-term' President, regardless of the merits of the incumbent's policiies, it smacks of cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. (What kind of leadership example is that, to send to citizens of a country??)
My second favourite part of the book is the discussion of how factual news and op ed/punditry have blurred together. As a non-American, I didn't know the history and evolution of partisan broadcasting in the United States - it was very interesting to learn about that. I can appreciate that mainstream media is a business that caters to its target markets, but I can't imagine the government would reach the point where it imposes stricter objectivity restrictions on content. I suspect that thinks will get worse (e.g., someone will be egged on by a charismatic media personality and will commit a violent crime) before it gets better.
If I were to make one suggestion, I wish the author had spent more time speculating about the ultimate objectives of hyper-partisans. This book explains very well some of the causes and mechanisms that have enabled hyper-partisanship to thrive in today's political environment. But a piece that perplexes me is what the hyper-partisans hope to achieve. Do they want to eliminate the other party and be a one-party country? Because that sounds like a dictatorship and I don't think too many Americans would want that. Do hyper-partisans want to crush and demoralize their neighbours on the other side of the political fence, according them no dignity or respect? Or is it all just a game that unfortunately some people take a wee bit too seriously (with the hyper-partisans winking at us but some people aren't seeing the wink). I guess I'm wondering about the ultimate consequences of hyper-partisanship. I think the author would have some good insights and examples to share.
I enjoyed the narrator tremendously - there was, I felt, a good fit between the voice and the material. I'd recommend this book to others... but I suspect that the people who need to read it most wouldn't be much interested in reading it....
"I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review."
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- GoingGoingGone...
- 04-26-20
Political Power and the Influence of the Press
I found the book excellent. It was well argued, and for the most part fair in that, unlike many other books of its type, it's not looking to be "tribal". It is not a cover to cover cheering section for one or the other side, but rather seeks to be a cheering section for what America could be if it would be more aware of how the Press and politics have combined into a brew that undermines rather than builds our democracy.
That said, the book does tend to put its thumb on the scale for those who think the Obama Presidency was ideal, without properly assessing what it was about his presidency that brought about the backlash that brought President Trump forward. That doesn't mean there are no theories, rather, the ones put forward have the overall effect of suggesting that Obama and those who supported him had it right, and everyone else is either misperceiving what America should become, or need to be negotiated with so that they can be made a bit more comfortable and politically anesthetized while the America they want transitions into one that is, well, not really what they want.
So in not really taking on why conservatives want those things (other than saying they're being "nostalgic"), and why they fear the changes that are currently occurring in America, or even taking those fears seriously enough to imagine that they might be right more often than not, I don't think the author can really get to the bottom of why America has become a "crippled democracy" and this is where I think the book falters. He uses statistics, sometime misleadingly, as a proxy for properly describing what's going on. The numbers will only tell a small part of the story.
It's a thought-provoking and well crafted book, though, and it brings up some very good points. It was critical of both sides of the debate, but I felt some of his points were crafted to lead us to conclusions that were unwarranted and can have benefitted from further scrutiny. But I think the best message to take away is this - that if both sides want a better America, the time has come to start listening to each other. Really listening, not just trying to gainsay or engage in one-upmanship. There are reasons that America is undergoing a cultural upheaval, and there's just no way to put it to rest without each citizen, no matter what their political leaning, to engage with their neighbors rather than vicariously using politicians as our gladiators.
This book was obtained by me for no cost on the condition that I right my review.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chester
- 01-22-20
Crippling our Democracy?
There is no question that our democracy is on very shaky grounds right now as the author clearly explains. Your leaning, right or left, is irrelevant in understanding the great fear we should all have today for the future of our country.
Unfortunately the fat lady has not sung yet on the downward slide of our democracy I am afraid and what faint hope offered here is today just a faint hope. The more people that read or listen to this, the brighter that hope might become.
Peter Lerman does a great job putting the proper sense of importance to these words.
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
- buschfam
- 02-15-20
Enlightening
Lots of good things to think about. Many things brought to light that should be.
I was hoping this book would be more non-partisan. At times it seemed that the author was critical of both sides of the isle, but he did lean toward the left.
Narrator was very matter of fact and monotonous at times but a good fit for the content.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Margie
- 03-13-23
Relief in hearing a voice of reason....
I've listened to Dr. Patterson's course in U. S. Political Institutions a number of times. It amazes me at how little I understand the function, scope and magnitude of our government.... and I am certain that over 95% of US citizenry suffer from the same deficiency. So we are at the mercy of social media and the "news" commentary that assault us on a daily basis ....parading as truth and insight. In "How America Lost Its Mind" Dr. Patterson has clearly layed out the dilemma that faces us as a nation today. As a baby boomer leading the pack I received a large chunk of my knowledge "in the stacks" of my university library in a myriad of books and researched articles. The card catalog was my search engine. Today the vast amount of information at the end of my finger is mind boggling. But with it comes all kinds of distortions, falsehoods, and spins. From Dr. Patterson's course and this book I've learned that events really do have an impact on the direction in which we are moving as a country. Now that I've listened to this as an audiobook I am eager to purchase a hard copy so I can lightlight so many statements I would like to burn into my brain to share with my grandchildren. (Yes Avery, social studies and government class DO matter and are NOT boring ) Thank you Dr. Patterson, for taking time to write this insightful book and for teaching an excellent course on how our government works.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!