Idiot America
How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free
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 $15.58
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Bronson Pinchot
About this listen
The culture wars are over and the idiots have won. This is a veteran journalist’s caustically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.
The three Great Premises of Idiot America: · Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units; anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough; "fact" is that which enough people believe. And "truth" is determined by how fervently they believe it.
Charles Pierce has led a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, and now it’s time to try and salvage the Land of the Enlightened, buried somewhere in this new Home of the Uninformed. With his razor-sharp wit and erudite reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States and how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate.
With Idiot America, Pierce’s thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that, somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated.
©2009 Charles P. Pierce (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
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
-
Profiles in Ignorance
- How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber
- By: Andy Borowitz
- Narrated by: Andy Borowitz
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The winner of the first-ever National Press Club award for humor, Andy Borowitz has been called a “Swiftian satirist” (The Wall Street Journal) and “one of the country’s finest satirists” (The New York Times). Millions of fans and New Yorker readers enjoy his satirical news column “The Borowitz Report”. Now, in Profiles in Ignorance, he offers a witty, spot-on diagnosis of our country’s political troubles by showing how ignorant leaders are degrading, embarrassing, and endangering our nation.
-
-
Fascinating, Familiar and Frightening Tales
- By Shoppy McShopperson on 09-28-22
By: Andy Borowitz
-
The Big Myth
- How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
- By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway
- Narrated by: Liza Seneca
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with 'big government' and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor.
-
-
Refuting the Chicago School
- By Todd W. Laveen on 06-01-23
By: Naomi Oreskes, and others
-
Weapons of Mass Delusion
- When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was a terrible day for American democracy, but many people dared to hope that at least it would break the fever that had overcome the Republican Party and banish Trump's relentless lies about the stealing of the 2020 election. That is not what happened. Instead, “the big steal” has become dogma among an ever-higher percentage of American Republicans. What happened to the Republican Party, and America, during the Trump presidency is a story we more or less think we know.
-
-
If you had told me ...
- By kimberly stewart on 10-30-22
By: Robert Draper
-
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 and his legal troubles were mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the president-elect.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
They Want to Kill Americans
- The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship.
-
-
It's informative and frightening
- By Amazon Customer on 07-17-22
By: Malcolm Nance
-
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
-
Profiles in Ignorance
- How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber
- By: Andy Borowitz
- Narrated by: Andy Borowitz
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The winner of the first-ever National Press Club award for humor, Andy Borowitz has been called a “Swiftian satirist” (The Wall Street Journal) and “one of the country’s finest satirists” (The New York Times). Millions of fans and New Yorker readers enjoy his satirical news column “The Borowitz Report”. Now, in Profiles in Ignorance, he offers a witty, spot-on diagnosis of our country’s political troubles by showing how ignorant leaders are degrading, embarrassing, and endangering our nation.
-
-
Fascinating, Familiar and Frightening Tales
- By Shoppy McShopperson on 09-28-22
By: Andy Borowitz
-
The Big Myth
- How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
- By: Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway
- Narrated by: Liza Seneca
- Length: 21 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with 'big government' and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor.
-
-
Refuting the Chicago School
- By Todd W. Laveen on 06-01-23
By: Naomi Oreskes, and others
-
Weapons of Mass Delusion
- When the Republican Party Lost Its Mind
- By: Robert Draper
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was a terrible day for American democracy, but many people dared to hope that at least it would break the fever that had overcome the Republican Party and banish Trump's relentless lies about the stealing of the 2020 election. That is not what happened. Instead, “the big steal” has become dogma among an ever-higher percentage of American Republicans. What happened to the Republican Party, and America, during the Trump presidency is a story we more or less think we know.
-
-
If you had told me ...
- By kimberly stewart on 10-30-22
By: Robert Draper
-
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 and his legal troubles were mounting. Yet he re-emerged as the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and the president-elect.
-
-
Compelling and Terrifying
- By Shaz on 11-15-23
By: Jonathan Karl
-
They Want to Kill Americans
- The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship.
-
-
It's informative and frightening
- By Amazon Customer on 07-17-22
By: Malcolm Nance
-
Justice Is Coming
- How Progressives Are Going to Take Over the Country and America Is Going to Love It
- By: Cenk Uygur
- Narrated by: Cenk Uygur
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The media can't stop talking about the gridlock in Washington, as if a handful of stubborn Republicans are the only thing standing between us and a fully-functional democracy. The reality is that our government was taken over by big business and their allies in both political parties. The getaway driver in this heist was corporate media. The good news is that the American people are very progressive. And soon progressives will take over Washington as well! And when they do, the great majority of Americans will love it.
-
-
Much better than expected
- By Tracy B on 09-23-23
By: Cenk Uygur
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Better Off Without 'Em
- A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
- By: Chuck Thompson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Let’s talk about secession. Not exactly the most suitable cocktail party conversation starter anywhere in the country, but take that notion deep into the heart of Dixie and you might find yourself running from the possum-hunting conservatives, trailer-park lifers, and prayer warriors Chuck Thompson encountered during the two years he spent traveling the American South asking the question: Would we be better off without ’em?
-
-
What can I say? I loved it.
- By Blake on 03-02-14
By: Chuck Thompson
-
The Undertow
- Scenes from a Slow Civil War
- By: Jeff Sharlet
- Narrated by: Jeff Sharlet
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.
-
-
I'm just not feeling this one....
- By J. Richmond on 08-04-23
By: Jeff Sharlet
-
Homegrown
- Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism
- By: Jeffrey Toobin
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Toobin
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement. Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Toobin traces the dramatic history and profound legacy of Timothy McVeigh, who once declared, “I believe there is an army out there, ready to rise up, even though I never found it.” But that doesn’t mean his army wasn’t there. With news-breaking reportage, Toobin details how McVeigh’s principles and tactics have flourished in the decades since his death in 2001.
-
-
Not a great book I’m sorry to say
- By H. Winslow on 05-10-23
By: Jeffrey Toobin
-
American Psychosis
- A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy
- By: David Corn
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen
- Length: 17 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fast-paced, rollicking, behind-the-scenes account of how the GOP since the 1950s has encouraged and exploited extremism, bigotry, and paranoia to gain power, American Psychosis offers listeners a brisk, can-you-believe-it journey through the netherworld of far-right irrationality and the Republican Party’s interactions with the darkest forces in America.
-
-
Important history poorly read
- By A. Hawley on 09-16-22
By: David Corn
-
The Conservatives
- By: Robin Harris
- Narrated by: Nigel Anthony
- Length: 19 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The history of the Conservative party has, extraordinarily, rarely been written in a single volume for the general reader. There are academic multi-volume accounts and a multitude of smaller books with limited historical scope. But now, Robin Harris, Margaret Thatcher's speechwriter and party insider, has produced this authoritative but lively history book which tells the whole story and fills a gaping hole in Britain's historiographical record.
By: Robin Harris
-
Righteous Indignation
- Excuse Me While I Save the World
- By: Andrew Breitbart
- Narrated by: Jeremy Guskin
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Known for his network of conservative websites that draws millions of readers everyday, Andrew Breitbart has one main goal: to make sure the "liberally biased" major news outlets in this country cover all aspects of a story fairly. Breitbart is convinced that too many national stories are slanted by the news media in an unfair way. In Righteous Indignation, Breitbart talks about the key issues that Americans face, how he has aligned himself with the Tea Party, and how one needs to deal with the liberal news world head on.
-
-
Please get this book!
- By MacGregor on 07-09-11
By: Andrew Breitbart
-
Ship of Fools
- By: Tucker Carlson
- Narrated by: Tucker Carlson
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The host of Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight offers a blistering critique of the new American ruling class, the elites of both parties, who have taken over the ship of state, leaving the rest of us, the citizen-passengers, to wonder: How do we put the country back on course?
-
-
Read if you want to hear about how ridiculous the ruling elite are
- By Sadie K on 03-02-19
By: Tucker Carlson
-
The Storm Is upon Us
- How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything
- By: Mike Rothschild
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Its messaging can seem cryptic, even nonsensical, yet for tens of thousands of people, it explains everything: What is QAnon, where did it come from, and is the Capitol insurgency a sign of where it’s going next? Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, has been collecting their stories for years, and through interviews with QAnon converts, apostates, and victims, as well as psychologists, sociologists, and academics, he is uniquely equipped to explain the movement and its followers.
-
-
Great book, lousy narrator
- By Denise Lavely on 06-22-21
By: Mike Rothschild
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Rush Limbaugh
- An Army of One
- By: Zev Chafets
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you remember your first time? People tend to remember the moment they first heard The Rush Limbaugh Show on the radio. For Zev Chafets, it was in a car in Detroit, driving down Woodward Avenue. Limbaugh's braggadocio, the outrageous satire, the slaughtering of liberal sacred cows performed with the verve of a rock-n-roll DJ-it seemed fresh, funny and completely subversive.
-
-
Enjoyed it, despite poor narration
- By David on 06-02-10
By: Zev Chafets
-
The Truth (with Jokes)
- By: Al Franken
- Narrated by: Al Franken
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Al Franken reveals the alarming story of how Bush (barely) beat Kerry with his campaign of "fear, smear, and queers", and then claimed a nonexistent mandate; Republicans decided that Terri Schiavo would make "a great political issue"; Conservatives sought to undermine Social Security by using a strategy borrowed from...Vladimir Lenin; and more.
-
-
The Truth Hurts!
- By A. Best on 09-06-10
By: Al Franken
-
Moyers on Democracy
- By: Bill Moyers
- Narrated by: Bill Moyers
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America's most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. Richly insightful, and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential listening.
-
-
You can't help but think critically
- By Ida F. on 09-29-09
By: Bill Moyers
-
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
-
What Unites Us
- Reflections on Patriotism
- By: Dan Rather, Elliot Kirschner
- Narrated by: Dan Rather
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a collection of original essays, the venerated television journalist, Dan Rather, celebrates our shared values and what matters most in our great country, and shows us what patriotism looks like. Writing about the institutions that sustain us, such as public libraries, public schools, and national parks; the values that have transformed us, such as the struggle for civil rights; and the drive toward science and innovation that has made the US great, Rather brings his experience on the frontlines of the world's biggest stories, and offers listeners a way forward.
-
-
Hope. For both sides of the aisle.
- By Leigh A. Barrett on 01-30-18
By: Dan Rather, and others
-
The Fifties
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the 10 years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower, Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon; but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; and more.
-
-
one of the very best
- By Chester Chellman on 09-25-18
By: David Halberstam
-
Rush Limbaugh
- An Army of One
- By: Zev Chafets
- Narrated by: Erik Synnestvedt
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Do you remember your first time? People tend to remember the moment they first heard The Rush Limbaugh Show on the radio. For Zev Chafets, it was in a car in Detroit, driving down Woodward Avenue. Limbaugh's braggadocio, the outrageous satire, the slaughtering of liberal sacred cows performed with the verve of a rock-n-roll DJ-it seemed fresh, funny and completely subversive.
-
-
Enjoyed it, despite poor narration
- By David on 06-02-10
By: Zev Chafets
-
The Truth (with Jokes)
- By: Al Franken
- Narrated by: Al Franken
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Al Franken reveals the alarming story of how Bush (barely) beat Kerry with his campaign of "fear, smear, and queers", and then claimed a nonexistent mandate; Republicans decided that Terri Schiavo would make "a great political issue"; Conservatives sought to undermine Social Security by using a strategy borrowed from...Vladimir Lenin; and more.
-
-
The Truth Hurts!
- By A. Best on 09-06-10
By: Al Franken
-
Moyers on Democracy
- By: Bill Moyers
- Narrated by: Bill Moyers
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
People know Bill Moyers mostly from his many years of path-breaking journalism on television. But he is also one of America's most sought-after public speakers. His appearances draw sell-out crowds across the country and are among the most reproduced on the Web. Richly insightful, and alive with a fierce, abiding love for our country, Moyers on Democracy is essential listening.
-
-
You can't help but think critically
- By Ida F. on 09-29-09
By: Bill Moyers
-
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
-
What Unites Us
- Reflections on Patriotism
- By: Dan Rather, Elliot Kirschner
- Narrated by: Dan Rather
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a collection of original essays, the venerated television journalist, Dan Rather, celebrates our shared values and what matters most in our great country, and shows us what patriotism looks like. Writing about the institutions that sustain us, such as public libraries, public schools, and national parks; the values that have transformed us, such as the struggle for civil rights; and the drive toward science and innovation that has made the US great, Rather brings his experience on the frontlines of the world's biggest stories, and offers listeners a way forward.
-
-
Hope. For both sides of the aisle.
- By Leigh A. Barrett on 01-30-18
By: Dan Rather, and others
-
The Fifties
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the 10 years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower, Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon; but also of Harley Earl, who put fins on cars; Dick and Mac McDonald and Ray Kroc, who mass-produced the American hamburger; Kemmons Wilson, who placed his Holiday Inns along the nation's roadsides; and more.
-
-
one of the very best
- By Chester Chellman on 09-25-18
By: David Halberstam
-
American Sketches
- Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Cotter Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this collection of essays, Walter Isaacson reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has chronicled as a biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, in most cases, but that is not the secret of their success.
-
-
Not Really Sketches
- By DAVID on 11-04-11
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The Future Is History
- How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own - as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.
-
-
The author is an international treasure
- By ThreeGems on 10-16-17
By: Masha Gessen
-
The Time of Our Lives
- Collected Writings
- By: Peggy Noonan
- Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman, Rena-Marie Villano, Peggy Noonan
- Length: 17 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Peggy Noonan is one of the most brilliant and influential political thinkers and writers of our time. The author of five best-selling books ( What I Saw at the Revolution is now a classic), her column in The Wall Street Journal is a must-read for millions of Americans. Witty, incisive, and always original, Peggy Noonan is a conservative intellectual with wide-reaching appeal across the political spectrum. Now, for the first time, the best of Noonan's writing will be collected in one indispensable volume.
-
-
Ronald Reagan is God. Who knew?
- By Rick on 11-20-15
By: Peggy Noonan
-
Dave Barry Hits Below the Beltway
- By: Dave Barry
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 4 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Understanding the urgent need for a deeply thoughtful, balanced book to explain our national political process, Dave Barry has not even come close. Though he himself has covered many campaigns, run for president several times, and run for cover at the rainy inauguration of George W. Bush (the man will spare nothing for his art), Barry has instead outdone himself.
-
-
I Love everything Dave Barry, BUT...
- By As my Wimsey takes me on 03-04-13
By: Dave Barry
-
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
-
Bannon
- Always the Rebel
- By: Keith Koffler
- Narrated by: William LeRoy
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To understand the Trump White House, you need to understand Steve Bannon: what's driving him, what his true role is, and what he's trying to accomplish on behalf of the American middle class. White House reporter Keith Koffler penetrates the fog surrounding the mysterious senior White House advisor, tracing Bannon's wild and distinctly American path to the White House in this first-ever honest biography of the controversial figure.
-
-
The "real" Steve Bannon! Great read!
- By Amazon Customer on 12-20-17
By: Keith Koffler
-
The Corrosion of Conservatism
- Why I Left the Right
- By: Max Boot
- Narrated by: Max Boot
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Warning that the Trump presidency presages America’s decline, Max Boot, the political commentator, recounts his extraordinary journey from lifelong Republican to vehement Trump opponent. As nativism, xenophobia, vile racism, and assaults on the rule of law threaten the very fabric of our nation, The Corrosion of Conservatism presents an urgent defense of American democracy.
-
-
Not an intellectual tour de force!
- By Wayne on 07-14-19
By: Max Boot
-
Republic of Lies
- American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power
- By: Anna Merlan
- Narrated by: Suehyla El-Attar, Anna Merlan - introduction
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
American society has always been fertile ground for conspiracy theories, but with the election of Donald Trump, previously outlandish ideas suddenly attained legitimacy. Trump himself is a conspiracy enthusiast: from his claim that global warming is a Chinese hoax to the accusations of “fake news”, he has fanned the flames of suspicion. But it was not by the power of one man alone that these ideas gained new power. Republic of Lies looks beyond the caricatures of conspiracy theorists to explain their tenacity.
-
-
even-handed and thought-provoking
- By Lenny Pozner on 04-17-19
By: Anna Merlan
-
Beautiful Country Burn Again
- Democracy, Rebellion, and Revolution
- By: Ben Fountain
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beautiful Country Burn Again narrates a shocking year in American politics, moving from the early days of the Iowa Caucus to the crystalizing moments of the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and culminating in the aftershocks of the weeks following election night. Along the way, Fountain probes deeply into history, illuminating the forces and watershed moments of the past that mirror and precipitated the present, from the hollowed-out notion of the American Dream, to Richard Nixon’s Southern strategy, to the cult of celebrity that gave rise to Donald Trump.
-
-
Must read
- By Gerald Moore on 11-01-18
By: Ben Fountain
-
In Trump We Trust
- E Pluribus Awesome! (That Was the Easy Part) and Is Fighting for US
- By: Ann Coulter
- Narrated by: Ann Coulter
- Length: 6 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Donald Trump isn't a politician - he's a one-man wrecking ball against our dysfunctional and corrupt establishment. We're about to see the deluxe version of the left's favorite theme: Vote for us, or we'll call you stupid. It's the working class against the smirking class. Now Ann Coulter, with her unique insight, candor, and sense of humor, makes the definitive case for why we should all join his revolution.
-
-
Doesn't deliver on it's promises.
- By Greg Hill on 08-24-16
By: Ann Coulter
-
Better Off Without 'Em
- A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession
- By: Chuck Thompson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Let’s talk about secession. Not exactly the most suitable cocktail party conversation starter anywhere in the country, but take that notion deep into the heart of Dixie and you might find yourself running from the possum-hunting conservatives, trailer-park lifers, and prayer warriors Chuck Thompson encountered during the two years he spent traveling the American South asking the question: Would we be better off without ’em?
-
-
What can I say? I loved it.
- By Blake on 03-02-14
By: Chuck Thompson
-
The Enemy Within
- Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Churches, Schools & Military
- By: Michael Savage
- Narrated by: Cameron Beierle
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Michael Savage's powerful, unmatched mix of razor-sharp wit and explosive socio-political commentary has made him into a cultural phenomenon, becoming not only one of America's most popular radio talk-show hosts, but also a best-selling author. This is his latest assault on the corrosive effects of liberalism on American culture.
-
-
Still applies
- By gary lee johnson on 02-05-19
By: Michael Savage
What listeners say about Idiot America
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- just asking for some common sense
- 06-02-17
Great book, but too true
This is an amazing account of the demise of intelligence in America. This tells about how Americans are easily bamboozled by charlatans. Pierce talks about how the far right Christians have eschewed science for creationism that they often re-label intelligent design. There is nothing intelligent about it.
I'm sad thinking about how much worse we've gotten since this book was written.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Angie M.
- 07-09-14
The cranks now are in charge of Idiot America
Where does Idiot America rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Most of the book's I read are mysteries, so this book was a great change of pace. I really did enjoy listening.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Not a character book, but I really did enjoy learning about the "cranks" of America's past.
Which character – as performed by Bronson Pinchot – was your favorite?
Not really answerable.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matt
- 04-05-13
Must Listen
This should be a must listen for every high school senior. Want to know why the media is a mess? Your answers are here. This book made me mad, bummed me out, and broadened my view.
The stupidity it points out might bring you down, but this book is important and very good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
17 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- video meliora proboque
- 06-21-16
beyond knowledge and mental competence
Americans *are* exceptional. We're exceptionally jingoistic, bellicose, misogynistic, self-infatuated, ignorant, illiterate, sexually enamoured of instruments of death, and so phenomenally hubristic that we presume to consider ourselves "exceptional," whereas we enjoy a Gini Index of Wealth Inequality squarely athwart that of Rwanda! (factoid taken from that left-wing, conspiratorial document, The CIA Handbook) To be fair, it's not really our fault. The malevolent plutocracy has been engaged in a forty-year campaign so to undercut American education, that we've churned out a hopelessly stultified populace eager to wave flags, root for unnecessary wars, and cheer on their own economic evisceration as we obliterate the middle class and they all move to jobs flipping burgers. Exceptional!
Pierce assembles a painfully graphic pastiche of the resultant cretinism rampant in the land, and of course, none of the dinosaur-saddling troglodytes will comprehend a word, nor will the vicious kakistocrats who've overseen the national lobotomy care a single whit. But it's worth reading (for the residue of us who still retain that faculty)... partly for its mordant humor, and partly for its historical significance as a requiem for American sentience.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wisdom Of the Sphynx
- 08-24-15
A must listen.
A passionate defense of the enlightenment values of our founding fathers. Pierce hammers the damage the elevation of cranks has done to our ability to make informed decisions. However unlike other books on the subject Pierce's work engages this topic with a mixture of humor and seriousness that is very enthralling. The narration is very well done. I highly recommend this book.
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
- William
- 04-08-16
Audiobook is the best
The story was great. Fantastic history lesson, however you need to listen to the audiobook. The narration is a fantastic theatrical experience and the emphasis on specific words or phrases really helps you delve into the mind of Idiot America.
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
- Trenton
- 06-25-14
Didn't care for it
3 stars is generous and I'm only giving it three stars because I listened about 25% and decided that I had listened to enough.
I prefer objective factual information, this book did not have enough of it to support it's points. I just felt like he took a bunch of cheap shots at conservatives the whole way through, inflating outlier events/people that he mentions as if they were an accurate representation of the entire conservative community.
I just felt like there was too much subjectivity in his criticisms, too much appeal to the emotion rather than to logic. So, I wouldn't recommend this book, had I listened to >25%, I am relatively sure that I would feel justified in going down to one star.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Steelblue
- 03-02-17
The funniest scariest book you will ever read
If ever there was a more prescient book, I've not read it. Think about today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DanV0
- 10-27-17
Comfort in madness
In reading Pierce’s expose of the disintegration of American reason and the repaving with gut-induced bile from right-wing idiots, I found great comfort. I thought that i was going insane.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- PugCleaning
- 09-04-20
Waiting for the inevitable sequel...
“Idiot-er America: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”
So good and so depressingly appropriate for our current times (2020). Great writing AND reading. Thank you for this!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!