Letters to a Young Contrarian
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Narrated by:
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James Adams
About this listen
Art of Mentoring series
In the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, angry young (wo)men, and dissidents. Who better to speak to that person who finds him or herself in a contrarian position than Hitchens, who has made a career of disagreeing in profound and entertaining ways.
This book explores the entire range of "contrary positions" - from noble dissident to gratuitous pain in the butt. In an age of overly polite debate bending over backward to reach a happy consensus within an increasingly centrist political dialogue, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast. He bemoans the loss of the skills of dialectical thinking evident in contemporary society. He understands the importance of disagreement - to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress - heck, to democracy itself.
Epigrammatic, spunky, witty, in your face, timeless and timely, this book is everything you would expect from a mentoring contrarian.
©2009 Christopher Hitchens (P)2020 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Master historian Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. This accessible introduction to the subject of history offers striking insights into America's past and present, trenchant observations on the international scene, and thoughtful pieces on the historian's role. Here is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent "practicing history".
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Barbara Tuchman fan faced with reality
- By J. Whittle on 09-27-18
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A Wicked Company
- The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The flourishing of radical philosophy in Baron Thierry Holbach’s Paris salon from the 1750s to the 1770s stands as a seminal event in Western history. Holbach’s house was an international epicenter of revolutionary ideas and intellectual daring, bringing together such original minds as Denis Diderot, Laurence Sterne, David Hume, Adam Smith, Ferdinando Galiani, Horace Walpole, Benjamin Franklin, Guillaume Raynal, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In A Wicked Company, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom retraces the fortunes of this exceptional group of friends.
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Excellent Book on Radical Enlightenment
- By EJJ on 02-15-15
By: Philipp Blom
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The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
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Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
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The Dream of Enlightenment
- The Rise of Modern Philosophy
- By: Anthony Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Anthony Gottlieb
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Dream of Enlightenment, Anthony Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.
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Enlightenment meets Neuroscience
- By Rodger on 12-05-19
By: Anthony Gottlieb
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What Are We Doing Here?
- By: Marilynne Robinson
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Marilynne Robinson has plumbed the human spirit in her renowned novels, including Lila and Gilead, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In this new essay collection she trains her incisive mind on our modern political climate and the mysteries of faith. Whether she is investigating how the work of great thinkers about America, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Alexis de Tocqueville, inform our political consciousness or discussing how beauty informs and disciplines daily life, Robinson's peerless prose and boundless humanity are on full display.
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Unpersuasive and a bit repetitive
- By Adam Shields on 03-07-18
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The Trouble with Islam Today
- A Muslim's Call for Reform in Her Faith
- By: Irshad Manji
- Narrated by: Irshad Manji
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of Oprah's first "Chutzpah Award" for boldness, Irshad Manji is among the world's most visible - and vocal - Muslim reformers. In this audio book, narrated by her, Irshad explains the disturbing attitudes with which too many of her fellow Muslims practice Islam today: Arab cultural tribalism posing as pure faith. An uncritical approach to the Quran as the final and therefore superior word of God. And a rejection of universal human rights as if they are incompatible with the Divine.
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Non-stop rant from an angry l*sb**n
- By J S on 10-14-12
By: Irshad Manji
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The Voice of Reason
- Essays in Objectivist Thought
- By: Ayn Rand, Leonard Peikoff
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 15 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In the years between her first public lecture in 1961 and her last in 1981, Ayn Rand spoke and wrote about topics as different as education, medicine, Vietnam, and the death of Marilyn Monroe. In The Voice of Reason, these pieces are gathered together in book form for the first time. Written in the last decades of Rand's life, they reflect a life lived on principle, a probing mind, and a passionate intensity. With them are five essays by Leonard Peikoff, Rand's longtime associate and literary executor.
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Explains Everything Of Today
- By L. Nicholson on 11-20-15
By: Ayn Rand, and others
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Trigger Warning: Is the Fear of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech?
- By: Mick Hume
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In this blistering polemic, veteran journalist Mick Hume presents an uncompromising defence of freedom of expression, which he argues is threatened in the West not by jackbooted censorship but by a creeping culture of conformism and you-can't-say-that. The cold-blooded murder of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in January 2015 brought a deadly focus to the issue of free speech. Leaders of the free-thinking world united in condemning the killings, proclaiming ‘Je suis Charlie'.
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Think While It's Still Legal...
- By Douglas on 12-13-16
By: Mick Hume
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Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
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The first new collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens since 2004, Arguably offers an indispensable key to understanding the passionate and skeptical spirit of one of our most dazzling writers, widely admired for the clarity of his style, a result of his disciplined and candid thinking. Topics range from ruminations on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men to the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell.
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Grab it
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Hitch-22
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Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature.
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Truth, the whole truth and nothing but.
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Mortality
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Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Christopher Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this riveting account of his affliction, Hitchens poignantly describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of death.
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Death IS the DARK backing
- By Darwin8u on 09-05-12
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No One Left to Lie To
- The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Douglas Brinkley - foreword
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In No One Left to Lie To, a New York Times best seller, Christopher Hitchens casts an unflinching eye on the Clinton political machine and offers a searing indictment of a president who sought to hold power at any cost. With blistering wit and meticulous documentation, Hitchens masterfully deconstructs Clinton's abject propensity for pandering to the Left while delivering to the Right, and he argues that the president's personal transgressions were ultimately inseparable from his political corruption.
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The lies that have continued...
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By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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- Essays
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The death of Christopher Hitchens in December 2011 prematurely silenced a voice that was among the most admired of contemporary writers. For more than 40 years, Hitchens delivered to numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic essays that were astonishingly wide ranging and provocative.
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In Contrast. . .
- By W Perry Hall on 12-09-15
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The Trial of Henry Kissinger
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Ariel Dorfman - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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America need look no further than its own lauded leaders for a war criminal whose offenses rival those of the most heinous dictators in recent history: Henry Kissinger. Employing evidence based on firsthand testimony, unpublished documents, and new information uncovered by the Freedom of Information Act, and using only what would hold up in international courts of law, The Trial of Henry Kissinger outlines atrocities authorized by the former secretary of state in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, and more.
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We need more people like Christopher Hitchens
- By Bruce on 10-13-12
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
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- Length: 28 hrs and 22 mins
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The first new collection of essays by Christopher Hitchens since 2004, Arguably offers an indispensable key to understanding the passionate and skeptical spirit of one of our most dazzling writers, widely admired for the clarity of his style, a result of his disciplined and candid thinking. Topics range from ruminations on why Charles Dickens was among the best of writers and the worst of men to the enduring legacies of Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell.
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Grab it
- By Davol2449 on 09-02-11
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Hitch-22
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Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature.
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Truth, the whole truth and nothing but.
- By Laura on 08-23-10
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Mortality
- By: Christopher Hitchens
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- Length: 2 hrs and 11 mins
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Throughout the course of his ordeal battling esophageal cancer, Christopher Hitchens adamantly and bravely refused the solace of religion, preferring to confront death with both eyes open. In this riveting account of his affliction, Hitchens poignantly describes the torments of illness, discusses its taboos, and explores how disease transforms experience and changes our relationship to the world around us. By turns personal and philosophical, Hitchens embraces the full panoply of human emotions as cancer invades his body and compels him to grapple with the enigma of death.
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Death IS the DARK backing
- By Darwin8u on 09-05-12
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No One Left to Lie To
- The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton
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In No One Left to Lie To, a New York Times best seller, Christopher Hitchens casts an unflinching eye on the Clinton political machine and offers a searing indictment of a president who sought to hold power at any cost. With blistering wit and meticulous documentation, Hitchens masterfully deconstructs Clinton's abject propensity for pandering to the Left while delivering to the Right, and he argues that the president's personal transgressions were ultimately inseparable from his political corruption.
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The lies that have continued...
- By David on 05-19-16
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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And Yet...
- Essays
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Steve West
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The death of Christopher Hitchens in December 2011 prematurely silenced a voice that was among the most admired of contemporary writers. For more than 40 years, Hitchens delivered to numerous publications on both sides of the Atlantic essays that were astonishingly wide ranging and provocative.
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In Contrast. . .
- By W Perry Hall on 12-09-15
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The Trial of Henry Kissinger
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Ariel Dorfman - introduction
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
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America need look no further than its own lauded leaders for a war criminal whose offenses rival those of the most heinous dictators in recent history: Henry Kissinger. Employing evidence based on firsthand testimony, unpublished documents, and new information uncovered by the Freedom of Information Act, and using only what would hold up in international courts of law, The Trial of Henry Kissinger outlines atrocities authorized by the former secretary of state in Indochina, Bangladesh, Chile, Cyprus, and more.
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We need more people like Christopher Hitchens
- By Bruce on 10-13-12
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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The Portable Atheist
- Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Nicholas Ball
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
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Christopher Hitchens continues to make the case for a splendidly godless universe in this first-ever gathering of the influential voices past and present that have shaped his side of the current (and raging) God/no-god debate. With Hitchens as your erudite and witty guide, you'll be led through a wealth of philosophy, literature, and scientific inquiry, including generous portions of the words of Lucretius, Benedict de Spinoza, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Mark Twain, and more.
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This is ABRIDGED
- By David Wolf on 06-05-08
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God Is Not Great
- How Religion Poisons Everything
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Christopher Hitchens
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris' recent best-seller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos.
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5-Star Writing. Perfect Author Narration.
- By Michael on 12-13-09
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The Portable Atheist
- Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Nicholas Ball
- Length: 10 hrs and 46 mins
- Abridged
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Atheist? Believer? Uncertain? No matter: The Portable Atheist will engage you every step of the way. From the number one New York Times best-selling author of God Is Not Great, comes this provocative and entertaining guided tour of atheist and agnostic thought through the ages with original pieces by Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
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Half the book
- By Barry Z. on 04-02-22
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The Missionary Position
- Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Mallon - foreword
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 2 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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A Nobel Peace Prize recipient beatified by the Catholic Church in 2003, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was celebrated by heads of state and adored by millions for her work on behalf of the poor. In his measured critique, Hitchens asks only that Mother Teresa's reputation be judged by her actions - not the other way around. With characteristic élan and rhetorical dexterity, Hitchens eviscerates the fawning cult of Teresa, recasting the Albanian missionary as a spurious, despotic, and megalomaniacal operative.
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Another View of our Saint
- By Michael Friedman on 06-12-12
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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The Qur'an
- A Biography: Books That Changed the World
- By: Bruce Lawrence
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Few books in history have been as poorly understood as the Qur'an. In this audiobook, the distinguished historian of religion Bruce Lawrence shows precisely how the Qur'an is Islam. He describes the origins of the faith and assesses its influence on today's societies and politics. Above all, he emphasizes that the Qur'an is a sacred book of signs that has no single message. It is a book that demands interpretation and one that can be properly understood only through its history.
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Not quite enough
- By Leigh A on 06-27-07
By: Bruce Lawrence
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Hitch-22: A Memoir: Booktrack Edition
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Christopher Hitchens
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the US and the UK. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the US war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide. He sees all sides of an argument and believes the personal is political.
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More audible problems
- By Francoise on 10-23-18
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The Four Horsemen
- The Conversation That Sparked an Atheist Revolution
- By: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Daniel C. Dennett, Sam Harris, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2007, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett filmed a landmark discussion about modern atheism. The video went viral. Now, the transcript of their conversation is illuminated by new essays from three of the original participants and an introduction by Stephen Fry.
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Short
- By Cole Brandon Eckhardt on 03-22-19
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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A Hitch in Time
- Reflections Ready for Reconsideration
- By: Christopher Hitchens, James Wolcott - introduction
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills, James Wolcott
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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A Hitch in Time is a banquet of entertaining stories ranging from his thoughts on Salman Rushdie to being spanked by Margaret Thatcher in The House of Lords, and the night he took his son to the Oscars. Along with an introduction by James Wolcott, A Hitch in Time recaptures the brilliance of Hitchens–barnstorming, cauterizing, and ultimately uncontainable.
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Full of ancient history
- By Frank on 01-23-24
By: Christopher Hitchens, and others
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Christopher Hitchens in Conversation with Salman Rushdie
- By: Christopher Hitchens
- Narrated by: Salman Rushdie
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Original Recording
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Story
Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide.
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Very Entertaining
- By Ian C Robertson on 06-13-14
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Letter to a Christian Nation
- By: Sam Harris
- Narrated by: Jordan Bridges
- Length: 1 hr and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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"Forty-four percent of the American population is convinced that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next 50 years," writes Sam Harris. "Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this...should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency."
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the examined life
- By Stanley on 12-20-06
By: Sam Harris
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The Magic of Reality
- How We Know What's Really True
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard Dawkins, the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, presents a gorgeously lucid, science book examining some of the nature’s most fundamental questions both from a mythical and scientific perspective. Science is our most precise and powerful tool for making sense of the world. Before we developed the scientific method, we created rich mythologies to explain the unknown. The pressing questions that primitive men and women asked are the same ones we ask as children. Who was the first person? What is the sun? Why is there night and day?
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Audio version is superb for us grown-ups
- By Michael Dowd on 10-10-11
By: Richard Dawkins
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The God Delusion
- By: Richard Dawkins
- Narrated by: Richard Dawkins, Lalla Ward
- Length: 13 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.
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Dangerous Religion
- By Rick Just on 12-21-06
By: Richard Dawkins
What listeners say about Letters to a Young Contrarian
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AK Buzaid
- 06-11-23
Great book by great mind
I enjoyed listening to this rather short but well-written book that gives the listener a brief and informative idea about the writer who was one of the prominent intellectuals of our time.
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- erin hawk
- 12-07-20
Independent Thinkers & Those Seeking Truth
For those disgusted and exhausted with the extreme anti-intellectualism of party politics, this is for you. Speak your mind or you will lose it. The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
There are days when I miss my old convictions as if they were an amputated limb. But in general I feel better, and no less radical, and you will feel better too, I guarantee, once you leave hold of the doctrinaire and allow your chainless mind to do its own thinking.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Douglas
- 04-18-22
Hitch at his best
Well written and eloquently articulate - everything you’d expect from Christopher Hitchens. I highly recommend it to anyone that is open to objective reasoning and the notion of looking at our world from different perspectives.
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- kalabook
- 05-21-22
Awesome!
It feels like he’s talking to you. Such a great man of integrity. I recommend for anyone who enjoys logic, reason and well read authors.
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- Jeff Koeppen
- 11-30-23
Hitch's Rants Never Get Old
Letters to a Young Contrarian is presented as a series of letters to a "X" and these letters pretty much sum Hitchens' views on a variety of topics with the underlying theme of being a moral upstanding citizen by being a contrarian in the face of the many ills of the world, or at least what he considers to be the ills of the world. He's here to stir the pot, and does so eloquently.
He attacks any number of subjects and takes down anyone and everyone, from religion, Bill Clinton, Kissinger, the Dalai Lama, and many others. A true contrarian. I especially like this letter about the Bosnian War which he discusses at length. I was too busy with life during this period of time and did not understand the motivations of the actors and the horrors which took place. Hitch traveled everywhere and when he wrote about something is was often times based on his first hand experience. It's a shame he's still not with us to comment on the current state of American politics and international crises.
Like the other Hitch books I've read, there are countless great pithy quotes and scathing commentary. He was often hilarious and always as sharp as a tack. Even if you don't agree with all of this opinions, one must appreciate how well he writes and gets his points across. He will make you reconsider your views of a number of subjects. Any fan of Hitch has probably read some of the subject matter contained in this book previously in other works, but to us fans it never gets old. Otherwise, for someone new to Hitch, this would be a good, short introductory read which allows the reader a look inside the head of this brilliant, prolific writer and get an idea what made him so highly regarded on the speaking, debate, and TV guest circuits.
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- Morgan Davis
- 09-26-22
A wonderful compendium with a few items of genius do you want to read/listen to it again
Hitchens never ceases to illuminate with insightful argument, eloquence prose and brilliance of wit. His references always make me search for more, and realize how thinly read I am.
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- Chris J Saretto
- 01-18-23
Fantastic fodder for the mind
Always enjoy Hitchens and his dialectic musings. The end kinda shuffled out to the political isthmus, but the book itself was one to enjoy in the reflection of his direction.
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- Arno
- 04-07-21
The pleasure of being contrarian
I remember Susan Sontag very bravely in front of an audience, that was heavily turkish, insisting on parallel with Armenian Genocide. #ChristopherHitchens #LettersToAYoungContrarian
In the 20th century, which was forced to invent the term of #Genocide, the ottoman turks exterminated Christian Armenians under the cover of the war and in occupied territories, where there were few independent witnesses. #ChristopherHitchens #LettersToAYoungContrarian
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- Shushan Harutyunyan
- 07-01-23
Hitch is never exhaustive
Just when you have read and listened to a bunch of his books and debates and assume that there are little new things he could possibly put on a table, he does his magic and leaves you speechless and reflecting upon so many new ideas and values. Listen and read anything and everything you can from Christopher Hitchens. His brilliance is unparalleled!!!
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- JBR
- 01-05-23
Just get it
He will leave you with more final lines mid-paragraph than you get in the entire cannon of his “contemporary” peers. His equal is…well…there isn’t one.
Just read him and never look back.
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