
Presidential Agent
The Lanny Budd Novels, Book 5
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
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.97
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
-
By:
-
Upton Sinclair
About this listen
On the eve of World War II, Lanny Budd reenters the deadly snake pit of Nazi Germany as Roosevelt’s spy—in the pulse-pounding, Pulitzer Prize-winning series.
An American art expert raised in a world of European wealth and privilege, Lanny Budd is dedicated to his socialist ideals and to combatting the twin scourges of Nazism and Fascism. In 1937, a chance encounter in New York with Professor Charles Alston—his boss at the Paris Peace Conference and now one of President Roosevelt’s top advisors—provides Lanny with the opportunity to make a profound difference.
Appointed Presidential Agent 103, the international art dealer embarks on a secret assignment that takes him back into the Third Reich as the Allied powers prepare to cede Czechoslovakia to Adolf Hitler in a futile attempt to avoid war. But Lanny’s motivations are not just political: The woman he loves has fallen into the brutal hands of the Gestapo, and Lanny will risk everything to save her.
Presidential Agent is the action-packed fifth installment of Upton Sinclair’s Pulitzer Prize-winning series that brings the first half of the twentieth century to dramatic life. An astonishing mix of history, adventure, and romance, the Lanny Budd Novels are a testament to the breathtaking scope of the author’s vision and his singular talents as a storyteller.
©1944 Upton Sinclair (P)2022 Blackstone PublishingListeners also enjoyed...
-
World’s End
- The Lanny Budd Novels, Book 1
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first 13 years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious - but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him.
-
-
Very good
- By Lynda on 07-13-22
By: Upton Sinclair
-
Boston
- The Documentary Novel of Sacco and Vanzetti
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 31 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boston is the novelized account of the Sacco and Vanzetti affair, which rocked the nation—and the world—in the 1920s. Two working-class Italian immigrants, both associated with radical political beliefs, stood accused of the murder of two armed guards during the commission of a payroll robbery. Sinclair’s novel weaves actual historical facts, stories, and persons with persons and events he created for the purpose of telling an interesting story, with more and deeper historical context.
-
-
Wonderful Read
- By A. Kessel on 02-15-24
By: Upton Sinclair
-
Oil!
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As he did so masterfully in The Jungle, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Upton Sinclair interweaves social criticism with human tragedy to create an unforgettable portrait of Southern California's early oil industry. Enraged by the oil scandals of the Harding administration in the 1920s, Sinclair tells a gripping tale of avarice, corruption, and class warfare, featuring a cavalcade of characters, including senators, oil magnates, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist.
-
-
an outstanding book
- By Gregory on 05-18-08
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Brass Check
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the landmark book of investigative “muckraking” journalism, The Jungle comes only the second book by Sinclair to be produced as an audiobook for commercial distribution: The Brass Check. Upton Sinclair turns his critical eye and his sharp pen on the corruption and lies of the media that ruled the day 100 years ago - the newspapers, the magazines, and the wire services. He lays bare their pervasive collusion with big industrial, financial, and political interests.
-
-
Great book horrible reader!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-14-21
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Jungle
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few books have so affected radical social changes as The Jungle, first published serially in 1906. Exposing unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry in Chicago, Sinclair's novel gripped Americans by the stomach, contributing to the passage of the first Food and Drug Act. If you’ve never read this classic novel, don't be put off by its gruesome reputation. Upton Sinclair was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who could turn even an exposé into a tender and moving novel.
-
-
Why We Have Unions
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-29-17
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Evening and the Morning
- Kingsbridge, Book 4
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined.
-
-
I was really waiting for this book!
- By Firebolt on 09-20-20
By: Ken Follett
-
World’s End
- The Lanny Budd Novels, Book 1
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first 13 years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious - but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him.
-
-
Very good
- By Lynda on 07-13-22
By: Upton Sinclair
-
Boston
- The Documentary Novel of Sacco and Vanzetti
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 31 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boston is the novelized account of the Sacco and Vanzetti affair, which rocked the nation—and the world—in the 1920s. Two working-class Italian immigrants, both associated with radical political beliefs, stood accused of the murder of two armed guards during the commission of a payroll robbery. Sinclair’s novel weaves actual historical facts, stories, and persons with persons and events he created for the purpose of telling an interesting story, with more and deeper historical context.
-
-
Wonderful Read
- By A. Kessel on 02-15-24
By: Upton Sinclair
-
Oil!
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 19 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As he did so masterfully in The Jungle, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Upton Sinclair interweaves social criticism with human tragedy to create an unforgettable portrait of Southern California's early oil industry. Enraged by the oil scandals of the Harding administration in the 1920s, Sinclair tells a gripping tale of avarice, corruption, and class warfare, featuring a cavalcade of characters, including senators, oil magnates, Hollywood film starlets, and a crusading evangelist.
-
-
an outstanding book
- By Gregory on 05-18-08
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Brass Check
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 18 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of the landmark book of investigative “muckraking” journalism, The Jungle comes only the second book by Sinclair to be produced as an audiobook for commercial distribution: The Brass Check. Upton Sinclair turns his critical eye and his sharp pen on the corruption and lies of the media that ruled the day 100 years ago - the newspapers, the magazines, and the wire services. He lays bare their pervasive collusion with big industrial, financial, and political interests.
-
-
Great book horrible reader!
- By Amazon Customer on 10-14-21
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Jungle
- By: Upton Sinclair
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few books have so affected radical social changes as The Jungle, first published serially in 1906. Exposing unsanitary conditions in the meat-packing industry in Chicago, Sinclair's novel gripped Americans by the stomach, contributing to the passage of the first Food and Drug Act. If you’ve never read this classic novel, don't be put off by its gruesome reputation. Upton Sinclair was a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who could turn even an exposé into a tender and moving novel.
-
-
Why We Have Unions
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 11-29-17
By: Upton Sinclair
-
The Evening and the Morning
- Kingsbridge, Book 4
- By: Ken Follett
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns. In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined.
-
-
I was really waiting for this book!
- By Firebolt on 09-20-20
By: Ken Follett
-
Bomber
- By: Len Deighton, Malcolm Gladwell (Introduction)
- Narrated by: Richard Burnip, Malcolm Gladwell (Introduction), Len Deighton (Author's Note)
- Length: 21 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Skilled Royal Air Force bomber pilot Sam Lambert is exhausted, and his veteran crewmen have just been replaced by an inexperienced new team. Victor von Löwenherz, a German night fighter pilot who intercepts RAF bombers in his Junkers Ju 88, looks on with horror at the Nazi regime. And Hansl, a German boy in the small market town of Altgarten, sleeps at home. Lambert and his crew prepare for a bombing raid on the Ruhr area. It’s a night that many will never forget. Bomber is a masterful, gripping minute-by-minute account of what occurs over the next twenty-four hours.
-
-
Great writing, awful narrartion
- By JW on 09-11-23
By: Len Deighton, and others
-
Burr
- A Novel (Narratives of Empire, Book 1)
- By: Gore Vidal
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 21 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated - and misunderstood - figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series.
-
-
Finally! Vidal's Great Take on the Life of Burr
- By John in NC on 06-12-19
By: Gore Vidal
-
The Secret Hours
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service “to investigate historical over-reaching.” Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any hint of misconduct by any MI5 officer—and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, unfettered access to any and all confidential information in the Service archives in order to do so. But MI5’s formidable First Desk did not become Britain’s top spy by accident, and she has successfully thwarted the inquiry at every turn.
-
-
Just about perfect
- By June Lapidow on 09-28-23
By: Mick Herron
-
The Magician
- A Novel
- By: Colm Toibin
- Narrated by: Gunnar Cauthery
- Length: 16 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Magician opens in a provincial German city at the turn of the 20th century, where the boy, Thomas Mann, grows up with a conservative father, bound by propriety, and a Brazilian mother, alluring and unpredictable. Young Mann hides his artistic aspirations from his father and his homosexual desires from everyone. He is infatuated with one of the richest, most cultured Jewish families in Munich, and marries the daughter Katia. They have six children. On a holiday in Italy, he longs for a boy he sees on a beach and writes the story Death in Venice.
-
-
Terrific listening experience
- By M. Mead on 09-17-21
By: Colm Toibin
-
The Books of Jacob
- A Novel
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft - translator
- Narrated by: Allen Lewis Rickman, Gilli Messer
- Length: 35 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the mid-eighteenth century, as new ideas—and a new unrest—begin to sweep the Continent, a young Jew of mysterious origins arrives in a village in Poland. Before long, he has changed not only his name but his persona; visited by what seem to be ecstatic experiences, Jacob Frank casts a charismatic spell that attracts an increasingly fervent following.
-
-
Dense & Difficult But Rewarding
- By Nick O. on 02-28-22
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
-
It Can't Happen Here
- By: Sinclair Lewis
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doremus Jessup, a newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state.
-
-
The Rise of American Authoritarianism
- By David S. Mathew on 11-21-16
By: Sinclair Lewis
-
Operation Mincemeat
- How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
- By: Ben Macintyre
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag was hailed as “rollicking, spellbinding” (New York Times), “wildly improbable but entirely true” (Entertainment Weekly), and, quite simply, “the best book ever written” (Boston Globe). In his new book, Operation Mincemeat, he tells an extraordinary story that will delight his legions of fans. In 1943, from a windowless basement office in London, two brilliant intelligence officers conceived a plan that was both simple and complicated - Operation Mincemeat.
-
-
Better than the movie
- By Jack M on 06-23-10
By: Ben Macintyre
-
Trust (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- By: Hernan Diaz
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Jonathan Davis, Mozhan Marnò, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth—all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit.
-
-
Before Purchasing
- By JLDLOfficial on 08-13-22
By: Hernan Diaz
-
Dracul
- By: Dacre Stoker, J.D. Barker
- Narrated by: Pete Bradbury, Vikas Adam, Saskia Maarleveld, and others
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula's true origins but Bram Stoker's - and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them. It is 1868, and a 21-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here....
-
-
So Well Done
- By DobieChuck on 01-01-19
By: Dacre Stoker, and others
-
The Maniac
- By: Benjamin Labatut
- Narrated by: Gergo Danka, Eva Magyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
-
-
Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Benjamin Labatut
-
The Enlightenment
- The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790
- By: Ritchie Robertson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 40 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This magisterial history - sure to become the definitive work on the subject - recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness.
-
-
The quickest 40 hour audio book I’ve listen to
- By Joey Caster on 04-02-21
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
What listeners say about Presidential Agent
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dr EZ
- 01-14-23
More relevant today than ever.
History Repeat itself. The attacks An American democracy In the years following 2016 are but echoes of the rise of fascism In the 1930s. Upton Sinclair lived and wrote those times. The Lanny Buds series lays out the road map for us today.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chiwiz
- 01-11-23
Love this series
Came to it quite by accident. Had never read anything by Sinclair before this. Often confused him with Sinclair Lewis! He is a marvelous writer. Each book in the series is a wonderful balance between history lesson and pot boiler page turner. It looks a a delight to get to know the recurring characters in the books and visit with them again and again over the series. Going on the app now to buy the next one.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jessica Vernon
- 02-08-23
Addictive
Entertaining. Great character development weaving a textured canvas for a work of art. Poignant as the story is eerily reflective of current, world situations.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Robert Mione
- 03-11-25
History up close
An interesting view of the events leading up the WWII. The characters are well developed, the story line spot on.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Erik Aschendorf
- 12-15-22
No one tells stories this dense this well.
Upton Sinclair goes across the world introducing an American audience to different cultures, different people, and all the same politics. it's an amazing story, and my favorite so far. Bronson pinch show tells it in a way where you can discern when the author is going from nonfiction to fictional storytelling, which shows Keen judgment of the author. wonderfully done, I can't wait for the rest of it!
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
- Floodlights
- 03-09-24
The excellent series continues to deliver!
Start from the beginning of keep going - fantastic series that has consistently impressed and should be far more widely appreciated; feels almost unknown which is crazy when the parallels to current events are eerily relatable to the current age. Great narration from Bronson as always.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!