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If/Then
- How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future
- Narrated by: Jill Lepore
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
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Publisher's summary
A brilliant, revelatory account of the Cold War origins of the data-mad, algorithmic 21st century, from the author of the acclaimed international best seller These Truths.
The Simulmatics Corporation, founded in 1959, mined data, targeted voters, accelerated news, manipulated consumers, destabilized politics, and disordered knowledge - decades before Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Cambridge Analytica. Silicon Valley likes to imagine that it has no past, but the scientists of Simulmatics are the long-dead grandfathers of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Borrowing from psychological warfare, they used computers to predict and direct human behavior, deploying their “People Machine” from New York, Cambridge, and Saigon for clients that included John Kennedy’s presidential campaign, the New York Times, Young & Rubicam, and, during the Vietnam War, the Department of Defense.
Jill Lepore, distinguished Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer, unearthed from archives the almost unbelievable story of this long-vanished corporation and of the women hidden behind it. In the 1950s and 1960s, Lepore argues, Simulmatics invented the future by building the machine in which the world now finds itself trapped and tormented, algorithm by algorithm.
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The Fifties
- By: David Halberstam
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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one of the very best
- By Chester Chellman on 09-25-18
By: David Halberstam
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The American Story
- Conversations with Master Historians
- By: David M. Rubenstein, Carla Hayden - foreword
- Narrated by: David M. Rubenstein, David McCullough, Walter Isaacson, and others
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Highlights
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Through his popular program The David Rubenstein Show, David Rubenstein has established himself as one of today’s most thoughtful interviewers. Now, in The American Story, David shares almost a dozen interviews that capture the brilliance of today’s most esteemed historians, as well as the souls of their subjects. The audiobook presents archival recordings of these interviews and features new introductions by Rubenstein as well as a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the first woman and the first African American to lead our national library.
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Stories missing
- By Judith Princz on 01-02-20
By: David M. Rubenstein, and others
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The Education of an Idealist
- A Memoir
- By: Samantha Power
- Narrated by: Samantha Power
- Length: 21 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In her memoir, Power offers an urgent response to the question "What can one person do?" and a call for a clearer eye, a kinder heart, and a more open and civil hand in our politics and daily lives. The Education of an Idealist traces Power’s distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to presidential Cabinet official. In 2005, her critiques of US foreign policy caught the eye of newly elected senator Barack Obama, who invited her to work with him on Capitol Hill and then on his presidential campaign.
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Sam's Power: Privilege in U.S. Politics
- By RelizzScholar27 on 11-09-19
By: Samantha Power
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Soul City
- Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia
- By: Thomas Healy
- Narrated by: Larry Herron
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Thomas Healy resurrects a forgotten saga of race, capitalism, and the struggle for equality in this fascinating, forgotten story of the 1970s attempt to build a city dedicated to racial equality in the heart of “Klan Country”.
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awesome narrator
- By Arthur F. Jackson on 06-23-21
By: Thomas Healy
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Great Society
- A New History
- By: Amity Shlaes
- Narrated by: Terence Aselford
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In Great Society, Shlaes offers a powerful companion to her legendary history of the 1930s, The Forgotten Man, and shows that in fact there was scant difference between two presidents we consider opposites: Johnson and Nixon. Just as technocratic military planning by "the Best and the Brightest" made failure in Vietnam inevitable, so planning by a team of the domestic best and brightest guaranteed fiasco at home. At once history and biography, Great Society sketches moving portraits of the characters in this transformative period.
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How have we forgotten how bad these ideas were?
- By Robert S. Allen on 02-09-20
By: Amity Shlaes
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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
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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.
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A 5-Star Book Injured by the Narrator
- By Frank on 08-12-09
By: Rick Perlstein
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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
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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
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Targeted
- The Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower's Inside Story of How Big Data, Trump, and Facebook Broke Democracy and How It Can Happen Again
- By: Brittany Kaiser
- Narrated by: Brittany Kaiser
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In this explosive memoir, a political consultant and technology whistleblower reveals the disturbing truth about the multi-billion-dollar data industry, revealing to the public how companies are getting richer using our personal information and exposing how Cambridge Analytica exploited weaknesses in privacy laws to help elect Donald Trump - and how this could easily happen again in the 2020 presidential election.
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Heavy on Kaiser, Light on Cambridge Analytica’s Data Operations
- By Morgan H Hoban on 11-05-19
By: Brittany Kaiser
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Nixon's White House Wars
- The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever
- By: Patrick J. Buchanan
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 17 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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From Vietnam to the Southern Strategy, from the opening of China to the scandal of Watergate, Pat Buchanan - speechwriter and senior adviser to President Nixon - tells the untold story of Nixon's embattled White House, from its historic wins to it devastating defeats. In his inaugural address, Nixon held out a hand in friendship to Republicans and Democrats alike. But by the fall of 1969, massive demonstrations in Washington and around the country had been mounted to break his presidency.
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Interesting
- By Jean on 06-15-17
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The Presidents vs. the Press
- The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media - from the Founding Fathers to Fake News
- By: Harold Holzer
- Narrated by: James Lurie
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Every president has been convinced of his own honesty and transparency; every reporter who has covered the White House beat has believed with equal fervency that his or her journalistic rigor protects the country from danger. Our first president, George Washington, was also the first to grouse about his treatment in the newspapers, although he kept his complaints private. Subsequent chiefs like John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and Barack Obama were not so reticent, going so far as to wield executive power to overturn press freedoms, and even to prosecute journalists.
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Riveting !!
- By Cathy E Taub on 12-18-20
By: Harold Holzer
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What listeners say about If/Then
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-09-23
Good narration
As another reviewer noted, I almost always would prefer to have an author do her own narration, as she'll actually understand what she wrote. That understanding is sadly lacking with many non-author narrators. Here, the author chose to a tone of voice for many quotations that seemingly reflects her view that the speaker is bloviating or maybe just naïvely optimistic. Although I understand why some listeners might find it annoying, I found that choice refreshing and helpful.
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- Solveig Cunningham
- 12-16-21
Enthusiastically recommend
Enthralling story and very informative. the book is beautifully narrated. Even my kids love to listen.
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- Trace
- 04-05-23
A defense of our humanity
An eye-opening account of what is behind our advertising-driven culture and economy. A must read. WELL TOLD. ENGAGING. HOPEFUL
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- Tom Rubens
- 11-26-23
Jill Lepore’s take on anything is worth paying attention to.
Well researched and propulsively readable. A brilliant introduction to the past from a voice for the future. If Then asks and answers questions that Facebook, Google, and their ilk would prefer we ignore, so they can answer them for us.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-13-23
Fascinating and more included below
Fascinating insight to our cyber world.
Start with “A Mind At Play: How Claude Shannon Started The Information Age”
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- Michele
- 04-10-23
Thank You Jill!
He who knows not history remains always a child.
History not as entertainment, but guide to our common humanity and progress- read with occasional emotion that can hit a bit harsh, at least to my wife ;-)
This should be read and understood by all!
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- Donald Baxter
- 02-22-21
About her voice.
I love her ideas and I love her enthusiasm. She brings what some would consider trivialities of American history and brings them to life and explains to you whether or not trivial at all. And. I. Love. Her. I would rather hear this author's voice than an actor with some slick production values added post-production. Lepore's voice adds to the honesty and genuine nature of her work. I don't review Audible often, but I read some of the reviews saying blistering, and I think misguided things about Jill lepore's voice and I had to weigh in. I would be first in line to register for her classes.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Cleve
- 10-27-22
Horrible narration
The narrator uses what used to be called a sing songy type of voice when quoting others referred to in the book that would make even the most intelligent person sound like a bloviating fool. Now maybe a lot of the people quoted were fools but I doubt it. It’s easy to be a genius when judging others with hindsight.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Stuart Kermes
- 10-08-23
Remembering
Important history that needs to be remembered. An example of why history matters. Well written.
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- Leonard Bilgrei
- 10-28-20
exceptional
With the author as the narrator, the book is extremely rich. The content is incredibly well researched, and the recording adds personality to it. Highly recommend!
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2 people found this helpful