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Pity the Billionaire
- The Unexpected Resurgence of the American Right
- Narrated by: Thomas Frank
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the best-selling author of What's the Matter with Kansas?, a wonderfully insightful and sardonic look at how the worst economy since the 1930s has brought about the revival of conservatism.
Economic catastrophe usually brings social protest and demands for change - or at least it's supposed to. But when Thomas Frank set out in 2009 to look for expressions of American discontent, all he could find were loud demands that the economic system be made even harsher on the recession's victims and that society's traditional winners receive even grander prizes. The American right, which had seemed moribund after the election of 2008, was strangely reinvigorated by the arrival of hard times. The Tea Party movement demanded not that we question the failed system but that we reaffirm our commitment to it. Republicans in Congress embarked on a bold strategy of total opposition to the liberal state. And TV phenom Glenn Beck demonstrated the commercial potential of heroic paranoia and the purest libertarian economics.
In Pity the Billionaire, Frank, the great chronicler of American paradox, examines the peculiar mechanism by which dire economic circumstances have delivered wildly unexpected political results. Using firsthand reporting, a deep knowledge of the American right, and a wicked sense of humor, he gives us the first full diagnosis of the cultural malady that has transformed collapse into profit, reconceived the Founding Fathers as heroes from an Ayn Rand novel, and enlisted the powerless in a fan club for the prosperous. What it portends is ominous for both our economic health and our democracy.
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- Unabridged
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In the words of Harvard economist Niall Ferguson, the United States is “an empire on the edge of chaos.” Why? Glenn Beck thinks the answer is pretty simple: Because we’ve turned our backs on the Constitution. Yes, our country is financially broke, but that’s just a side effect of our broken spirit, our broken faith in government, the broken promises by our leaders, and a broken political system that has centralized power at the expense of individual rights.
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Finally book that has done the reasearch...
- By dah551 on 10-31-10
By: Glenn Beck, and others
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The Forgotten Man
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- Narrated by: Terence Aselford
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- Unabridged
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It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation.
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a story of forgotten times
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By: Amity Shlaes
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Invisible Hands
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Long before the "culture wars" usually associated with the rise of conservative politics, driven individuals funded think tanks, fought labor unions, and formed organizations to market their views.These nearly unknown, larger-than-life, and sometimes eccentric personalities - such as General Electric's zealous, silver-tongued Lemuel Ricketts Boulware and the self-described "revolutionary" Jasper Crane of DuPont - make for a fascinating, behind-the-scenes view of American history.
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The Conservative battle for taking back the New Deal
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The Shock Doctrine
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In her groundbreaking reporting, Naomi Klein introduced the term "disaster capitalism." Whether covering Baghdad after the U.S. occupation, Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami, or New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic "shock treatment," losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers. The Shock Doctrine retells the story of the most dominant ideology of our time, Milton Friedman's free market economic revolution.
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If It's Bad for Humanity, It's Good for Business
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Reason
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From Robert B. Reich, passionate believer in American democracy and public servant, Reason is a guide to confronting and derailing what he sees as the mounting threat to American liberty, prosperity, and security posed by the radical conservatives, Radcons as he calls them.
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Reason
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Chris Hedges examines the failure of the liberal class to confront the rise of the corporate state and the consequences of a liberalism that has become profoundly bankrupted. Hedges argues that there are five pillars of the liberal establishment and that each of these institutions has sold out the constituents it represented. In doing so, the liberal class has become irrelevant to society at large and ultimately the corporate power elite they once served.
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Integrity-Can You Tell Me Where It's Gone?
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Audacity
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Over the course of eight years, Barack Obama has amassed an array of outstanding achievements. His administration saved the American economy from collapse, expanded health insurance to millions who previously could not afford it, negotiated an historic nuclear deal with Iran, helped craft a groundbreaking international climate accord, reined in Wall Street, and crafted a new vision of racial progress.
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Good and balanced view of the Obama years
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By: Jonathan Chait
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The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order
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To be sure, neoliberalism has contributed to a number of alarming trends, not least of which has been a massive growth in income inequality. Yet as the eminent historian Gary Gerstle argues in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order, these indictments fail to reckon with the full contours of what neoliberalism was and why its worldview had such persuasive hold on both the right and the left for three decades.
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Cursory, unoriginal, class-blind
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The New Deal
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As America struggles with an economic debacle akin to the Great Depression, nothing could be timelier than an authoritative account of the New Deal, masterfully written by Michael Hiltzik, author of the acclaimed history of the Hoover Dam, Colossus.
In this richly peopled, vividly rendered narrative, Hiltzik describes how the urgent short-term relief measures of Franklin Roosevelt’s Hundred Days evolved into a transformative concept of the federal role in American life.
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Another Excellent New Deal History
- By R.S. on 12-19-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
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The Great American Stick Up
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Instead of going where other journalists have gone in search of this story - the board rooms and trading floors of the big Wall Street firms - Scheer goes back to Washington, D.C., a veritable crime scene, beginning in the 1980s, where the captains of the finance industry, their lobbyists and allies among leading politicians destroyed an American regulatory system that had been functioning effectively since the era of the New Deal.
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A great telling of an unfortunate part of history
- By Trace on 10-27-20
By: Robert Scheer
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What listeners say about Pity the Billionaire
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tom Havelka
- 02-06-12
Enjoyalbe
Would you listen to Pity the Billionaire again? Why?
This was a good book on the current political culture. Frank always does a good job of analyizing the current political and cultural norms.
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1 person found this helpful
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- jeff.exe
- 05-13-14
A decent book although somewhat predictable
Would you try another book from Thomas Frank and/or Thomas Frank?
Probably not. Thomas Frank is a decent writer with a wonderful vocabulary and solid research. Unfortunately he's too one-sided and pretentious for my taste. He seems to be interested in talking down to everyone and comes off as quite pompous at times.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
This is a situation again where an author really should hire a profession voice over artist. He's clearly passionate about his material but at so many points he seemed like he was too eccentric, too sarcastic. He seemed like the dictionary definition of a "whiny liberal". So many time when talking to conservatives they go on about the "liberal elite" and how so many liberals think they're better than everyone else and smarter. This reading pretty much summed that up. Unless you desperately hate republicans and the business class, I think that you might find this a bit distasteful.
Any additional comments?
A decent book. I agree with the premise and found some of the points very interesting. It was just a little to "over-the-top" for me.
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- Mark
- 10-20-17
Wow
Very Informative, and well thought out. Thomas Frank is, by far, the clearest writer on the subject matter of understanding the appeal of the conservative mind.
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2 people found this helpful
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- H
- 01-30-12
Clear story of financial mess we are in.
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
This should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the financial mess we are in and the incomprehensible response by the tea party. It is written in clear easy to understand English and explains how the monied interests of the far right coopted the rage of people and created a ridiculous call for deregulation in response to a mess created by lack of regulation over the greed of Wall Street.
The author does not let the democrats off the hook either as he explains their lack of courage and inability to create a narrative that grabbed the attention of the common man.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
Followed the mess from start to current in a well constructed, researched, and factual rendition.
What does Thomas Frank bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His enthusiasm comes across throughout the book. His way of questioning the response by the public comes across in his tone.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
Pity the Billionaire or How I Learned to Hate the Liberals who did not create this mess in the first place.
Any additional comments?
Wish the crowd that lives in the Fox News Bubble would take a break from that far right propaganda and read some fact based insight into the mess we are in.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Bakunin
- 01-30-12
Great thesis, should have been an article
Would you listen to Pity the Billionaire again? Why?
Yes, the author's thesis is solid
What was one of the most memorable moments of Pity the Billionaire?
Simply when he starts introducing the Tea Party, and what their demands were, and how scary, frustrating, and counter-intuitive they were given that they were responding to the financial crisis.
Have you listened to any of Thomas Frank???s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not listened to any of his prior works, but I have read the book What's a Matter with Kansas.
Any additional comments?
This book is one of those cases when the author has a great idea that is meant for a 30 page article. There was no need to make this into a book, and this became clear as the author added filler after filler. Ironically, it works well in an audiobook, because you don't have to be paying close attention, since the argument will be repeated constantly, and interesting anecdotes are scattered throughout the book.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 03-27-12
Red Meat for Liberals, but solid & well reasoned
It's not loaded with statistics, and doesn't go into too much detail, but Frank's arguments are complete and well-structured. I think he writes assuming that the reader (listener) of his book is well versed in current events and the various positions of the government and media players he talks about. This seems to be a supplement to what we all watch on TV and read in the political press every day. And, as well done as it is, I have to agree that it is indeed more of a "rant" than an academic treatise.
However, it is not all one-sided in its treatment of the two major parties. Those who say it's just a pro-Democrat, anti-Republican screed obviously didn't listen to the whole thing. In my opinion, the best part of the book is Frank's comparison of the last 5 years to the 1929-1934 US response to the great depression. The parallels are unsettling and he is very even-handed in criticizing our government's response to the Great Recession.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Flint
- 04-16-18
great read from a insightful author
This is another great work by Thomas Frank. I loved it. As with all of his work he covers the issue in a unique way. His historical insights add depth to his political arguments and his critique of all sides makes this work more useful then the usual good guy bad guy narrative of other political writers.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Andrew Dunn
- 09-07-12
Frank gets righteously angry
And so he should, given the scale of the fraud perpetrated on the 99% by the criminal propertied classes and their lackeys in government. If you like Chris Hedges, read Salon and don't pronounce the word as 'gubmint', then this could be the book for you.
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1 person found this helpful
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- EC
- 03-19-12
another outstanding book by Thomas Frank
Where does Pity the Billionaire rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
one of the best. The author is extremely engaging. His data and research are impeccable.
What other book might you compare Pity the Billionaire to and why?
It is hard to compare Thomas Frank to anybody. He writes differently and researches differently. He really stands in the category by himself. His body of work is different than any other author that I can think of.
Any additional comments?
if you're a political junkie, this book is a must-read.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Wayne
- 04-21-12
Exactly what I was looking for
This book explained to me better than any I have read what the Tea Party is about and why I have been so disappointed with the Democrats response to both the political right and the recession. I doubt many on the right will be able to listen to it all the way through - just as I haven't been able to listen to any extended writings from the radical right. Frank can be very harsh as he is illuminating. The book does not give any solutions but serves as a starting point depicting the Tea Party development and their relationship with the right. I have a much better understanding of how we got here and for the first time in a long time I feel some comradery with the Tea Party even though I still think they have gone down a very dangerous path for America.
I will be thinking about this book for a long time.
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3 people found this helpful