
Pseudoscience
An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We Love Them
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Narrated by:
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Hillary Huber
About this listen
From the authors of Quackery, a visual and narrative history of popular ideas, phenomena, and widely held beliefs disproven by science.
From the easily disproved to the wildly speculative, to straight-up hucksterism, Pseudoscience is a romp through much more than bad science—it’s a light-hearted look into why we insist on believing in things such as Big Foot, astrology, and the existence of aliens. Did you know, for example, that you can tell a person’s future by touching their butt? Rumpology. It’s a thing, but not really. Or that Stanley Kubrick made a fake moon landing film for the US government? Except he didn’t. Or that spontaneous human combustion is real? It ain’t, but it can be explained scientifically.
Pseudoscience is a wild mix of history, pop culture, and good old fashioned science–that not just entertains, but sheds a little light on why we all love to believe in things we know aren't true.
©2025 Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen (P)2025 Workman Publishing CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
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-
Story
In her first book, popular TikTok historian J Draper uses her characteristic wit and intellect to introduce us to extraordinary figures marginalized by history, and the lessons we can learn from them. Witty and engaging TikTok historian J.D. Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals that have shaped the world, and discovers the lessons their unique experiences can teach us. Breaking away from history as told through the lens of kings, queens and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers and oddballs.
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Interesting stories!!
- By Loralei on 04-02-25
By: Jenny Draper
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Quackery
- A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
- By: Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
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Computer-generated Narrator. Dated Humour.
- By Nemo on 12-28-18
By: Lydia Kang, and others
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Patient Zero
- A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
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Can’t listen to the reader
- By Doug Clyde on 07-21-22
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
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Stuck
- How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
- By: Yoni Appelbaum
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this illuminating debut, Yoni Appelbaum, historian and journalist for The Atlantic, shows us that this idea has been under attack since reformers first developed zoning laws to ghettoize Chinese Americans in nineteenth-century Modesto, California. The century of legal segregation that ensued—from the zoning laws enacted to force Jewish workers back into New York’s Lower East Side to the private-sector discrimination and racist public policy that trapped Black families in Flint, Michigan to Jane Jacobs’ efforts to protect her vision of the West Village.
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land of opportunity
- By Anonymous User on 03-16-25
By: Yoni Appelbaum
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Beverly Hills Noir
- Crime, Sin, & Scandal in 90210
- By: Scott Huver
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Beverly Hills Noir chronicles an assortment of jaw-dropping true crime stories spanning the legendary city’s history, each with oh-so-90210 twists—including a high-profile murder mystery in the city’s most extravagant mansion, the daring exploits of a handsome cat burglar with movie star looks, a toxic Tinseltown love triangle that ended in gunplay, a brazen Rodeo Drive jewelry store holdup with tragically stunning finale, an Oscar nominated actress on shoplifting spree and more—complete with major roles and countless cameos by Hollywood idols and cultural icons.
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Digs deep. Maybe too deep.
- By Jenny Atkinson on 02-24-25
By: Scott Huver
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Under Cover of Darkness
- Murders in Blackout London
- By: Amy Helen Bell
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Fear was the unacknowledged specter haunting the streets of London during the Second World War; fear not only of death from the German bombers circling above, but of violence at the hands of fellow Londoners in the streets below. Mass displacement, the anonymity of shelters, and the bomb-scarred landscape offered unprecedented opportunities for violent crime. In this absorbing, sometimes shocking account, Amy Helen Bell uncovers the hidden stories of murder and violence that were rife in wartime London.
By: Amy Helen Bell
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Mavericks
- Life Stories and Lessons of History's Most Extraordinary Misfits
- By: Jenny Draper
- Narrated by: Jenny Draper
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
In her first book, popular TikTok historian J Draper uses her characteristic wit and intellect to introduce us to extraordinary figures marginalized by history, and the lessons we can learn from them. Witty and engaging TikTok historian J.D. Draper digs out unusual stories of individuals that have shaped the world, and discovers the lessons their unique experiences can teach us. Breaking away from history as told through the lens of kings, queens and nobles, this book instead lifts the lid on 24 fascinating stories of little-known underdogs, mavericks, trailblazers and oddballs.
-
-
Interesting stories!!
- By Loralei on 04-02-25
By: Jenny Draper
-
Quackery
- A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
- By: Lydia Kang, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What won't we try in our quest for perfect health, beauty, and the fountain of youth? Well, just imagine a time when doctors prescribed morphine for crying infants. When liquefied gold was touted as immortality in a glass. And when strychnine - yes, that strychnine, the one used in rat poison - was dosed like Viagra. Looking back with fascination, horror, and not a little dash of dark, knowing humor, Quackery recounts the lively, at times unbelievable, history of medical misfires and malpractices.
-
-
Computer-generated Narrator. Dated Humour.
- By Nemo on 12-28-18
By: Lydia Kang, and others
-
Patient Zero
- A Curious History of the World's Worst Diseases
- By: Lydia Kang MD, Nate Pedersen
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the masters of storytelling-meets-science, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks—how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors’ lively style, chapters include gripping medical stories about a particular disease or virus—smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio, HIV—that combine “Patient Zero” narratives, or the human stories behind outbreaks, with historical examinations of missteps, milestones, scientific theories, and more.
-
-
Can’t listen to the reader
- By Doug Clyde on 07-21-22
By: Lydia Kang MD, and others
-
Stuck
- How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity
- By: Yoni Appelbaum
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 9 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this illuminating debut, Yoni Appelbaum, historian and journalist for The Atlantic, shows us that this idea has been under attack since reformers first developed zoning laws to ghettoize Chinese Americans in nineteenth-century Modesto, California. The century of legal segregation that ensued—from the zoning laws enacted to force Jewish workers back into New York’s Lower East Side to the private-sector discrimination and racist public policy that trapped Black families in Flint, Michigan to Jane Jacobs’ efforts to protect her vision of the West Village.
-
-
land of opportunity
- By Anonymous User on 03-16-25
By: Yoni Appelbaum
-
Beverly Hills Noir
- Crime, Sin, & Scandal in 90210
- By: Scott Huver
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beverly Hills Noir chronicles an assortment of jaw-dropping true crime stories spanning the legendary city’s history, each with oh-so-90210 twists—including a high-profile murder mystery in the city’s most extravagant mansion, the daring exploits of a handsome cat burglar with movie star looks, a toxic Tinseltown love triangle that ended in gunplay, a brazen Rodeo Drive jewelry store holdup with tragically stunning finale, an Oscar nominated actress on shoplifting spree and more—complete with major roles and countless cameos by Hollywood idols and cultural icons.
-
-
Digs deep. Maybe too deep.
- By Jenny Atkinson on 02-24-25
By: Scott Huver
-
Under Cover of Darkness
- Murders in Blackout London
- By: Amy Helen Bell
- Narrated by: Gemma Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fear was the unacknowledged specter haunting the streets of London during the Second World War; fear not only of death from the German bombers circling above, but of violence at the hands of fellow Londoners in the streets below. Mass displacement, the anonymity of shelters, and the bomb-scarred landscape offered unprecedented opportunities for violent crime. In this absorbing, sometimes shocking account, Amy Helen Bell uncovers the hidden stories of murder and violence that were rife in wartime London.
By: Amy Helen Bell
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American Laughter, American Fury
- Humor and the Making of a White Man's Democracy, 1750–1850
- By: Eran A. Zelnik
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Eran A. Zelnik offers a cultural history of early America that shows how humor among white men served to define and construct not only whiteness and masculinity but also American political culture and democracy more generally. Zelnik traces the emerging bonds of affinity that white male settlers in North America cultivated through their shared, transformative experience of mirth. This humor—a category that includes not only jokes but also play, riot, revelry, and mimicry—shaped the democratic and anti-elitist sensibilities of Americans.
By: Eran A. Zelnik
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A Beautiful Poison
- By: Lydia Kang
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Just beyond the Gilded Age, in the mist-covered streets of New York, the deadly Spanish influenza ripples through the city. But with so many victims in her close circle, young socialite Allene questions if the flu is really to blame. All appear to have been poisoned - and every death was accompanied by a mysterious note.
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It had potential, but faltered in execution
- By Constance Jenkins on 01-14-18
By: Lydia Kang
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The Social Paradox
- Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find Happiness
- By: William von Hippel
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Why do people who have so much—leading comfortable lives filled with unprecedented freedom, choice, and abundance—often feel so unhappy and unfulfilled? This phenomenon is a defining paradox of our time and one we endlessly seek to solve. In The Social Paradox, psychologist William von Hippel argues that we need to think about this problem in a new way. By changing our perspective, we might finally see the solution, bringing us greater happiness and more satisfying relationships. The key is to understand the interplay between our two most basic psychological needs—for connection and autonomy.
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Very interesting
- By SgtTort on 03-22-25
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The Science of Racism
- Everything You Need to Know but Probably Don't—Yet
- By: Keon West
- Narrated by: Keon West
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this frank, funny, and meticulous book, a leading social scientist lays out the striking facts we know about racism, how we have uncovered them, and how we can start to fix them.
By: Keon West
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Late Ottoman Gaza
- An Eastern Mediterranean Hub in Transformation
- By: Yuval Ben-Bassat, Johann Buessow
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In contemporary public discourse, Gaza tends to be characterized solely as a theater of the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. However, little is known about Gaza's society, politics, economy, and culture during the Ottoman era. Drawing on a range of previously untapped local and imperial sources, Yuval Ben-Bassat and Johann Buessow explore the city's history from the mid-nineteenth century through WWI.
By: Yuval Ben-Bassat, and others
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Europe Without Borders
- A History
- By: Isaac Stanley-Becker
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Europe is a place of free movement among nations—or is it? The Schengen area, established in 1985 and today encompassing twenty-nine European countries, allows people, goods, and capital to cross borders without restraint. Schengen transformed European life, advancing both a democratic project of transnational citizenship and a neoliberal project of international free trade. But the right of free movement always excluded non-Europeans, especially migrants of color from former colonies of the Schengen states.
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Pink Cars and Pocketbooks
- How American Women Bought Their Way into the Driver's Seat
- By: Jessica A. Brockmole
- Narrated by: Leah Horowitz
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Since the commercial introduction of the automobile, US automakers have always sought women as customers and advertised accordingly. How, then, did car culture become so masculine? In Pink Cars and Pocketbooks, Jessica Brockmole shares the untold history of women's relationship with automobiles: a journey marked by struggle, empowerment, and the relentless pursuit of independence. This groundbreaking work explores the evolution of women's automotive participation and the cultural shifts that have redefined their roles as drivers, mechanics, and consumers.
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The Neverending Empire
- The Infinite Impact of Ancient Rome
- By: Aldo Cazzullo, Loredana Maria Rinaldi - translation
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From its mythical foundations and epic construction to its enduring historical and cultural impact, the ancient Roman Empire has long fascinated people across the world. In The Neverending Empire esteemed Italian journalist Aldo Cazzullo describes an exciting new historical perspective: that the Roman Empire never fell. In fact, its influence reaches further and deeper than ever.
By: Aldo Cazzullo, and others
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Israel
- A History
- By: Anita Shapira, Anthony Berris - translator
- Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Written by one of Israel's most notable scholars, this volume provides a breathtaking history of Israel from the origins of the Zionist movement in the late nineteenth century to the present day.
By: Anita Shapira, and others
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Francis of Assisi
- The Life of a Restless Saint
- By: Volker Leppin, Rhys S. Bezzant - translator
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
One of the most famous figures in Christian history, Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226) was revered as a miracle worker during his life and quickly canonized after his death. He has inspired generations of Christians and other spiritual seekers, from medieval ascetics to 1960s hippies and modern environmentalists. The "poverello" wrote poems praising the sun, moon, and stars, spoke to the birds, and—so the story goes—even tamed a wolf. But what do we know for sure about who he was, and what is simply legend?
By: Volker Leppin, and others
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Original Sins
- The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism
- By: Eve L. Ewing
- Narrated by: Robin Miles, Eve L. Ewing
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Why don’t our schools work? Eve L. Ewing tackles this question from a new angle: What if they’re actually doing what they were built to do? She argues that instead of being the great equalizer, America’s classrooms were designed to do the opposite: to maintain the nation’s inequalities. It’s a task at which they excel.
By: Eve L. Ewing
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Presidents at War
- How World War II Shaped a Generation of Presidents, from Eisenhower and JFK Through Reagan and Bush
- By: Steven M. Gillon
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
World War II loomed over the latter half of the twentieth century, transforming every level of American society and international relationships and searing itself onto the psyche of an entire generation, including that of seven American presidents: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. The lessons of World War II, more than party affiliation or ideology, defined the presidencies of these seven men.
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Bias
- By E.A.BRYLA on 03-06-25
By: Steven M. Gillon