
Spellbound
How Charisma Shaped American History from the Puritans to Donald Trump
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Narrated by:
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Molly Worthen
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By:
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Molly Worthen
About this listen
What happens when Americans lose faith in their religious institutions—and politicians fill the void? From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this sweeping history will change your understanding of the forces that create leaders and hold their followers captive.
“Elegant and insightful, Spellbound is an important contribution to the urgent project of understanding America in our time.”—Jon Meacham
Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here?
In Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans and Andrew Jackson to Black nationalists and Donald Trump, the saga of American charisma, Worthen argues, stars figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. They invite followers into a cosmic drama where hopes are fulfilled and grievances are put right—and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone plot the way.
The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, people will get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders address spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory.
Through Worthen’s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.
©2025 Molly Worthen (P)2025 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Finally—someone with something new to say about Donald Trump! Molly Worthen’s training as a historian of religion allows her to see what others have missed: Trump is the latest variation in a long, fascinating, and often weird history of American charismatic leaders. With her usual wit and energetic prose, Worthen connects the dots so we can see the full picture.”—Beverly Gage, professor of history at Yale University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
“The great story of charisma in American history, from the Massachusetts Bay Colony to MAGA, has never been more thrillingly told, never more learnedly explicated.”—Tom Holland, co-host of The Rest Is History podcast and bestselling author of Pax and Dominion
“Elegant and insightful, Molly Worthen’s Spellbound is an important contribution to the urgent project of understanding America in our time. Far from polemical, the book explores the nature of charisma, that essential and elusive element in the course of human events. . . . A truly original study.”—Jon Meacham, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of And There Was Light
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Story
In Fatherhood, celebrated historian Augustine Sedgewick explains how this style of parenting emerged in the first place, why it has changed over time, and whether it will endure as we know it, despite its extraordinary costs. Told through the lives of emblematic fathers like Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Henry VIII, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud, this is an ambitious yet intimate look at how masculinity has evolved and how men have come to hold disproportionate power by expanding and reinforcing the power of fathers in times of crisis.
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1861
- The Lost Peace
- By: Jay Winik
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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1861: The Lost Peace is the story of President Lincoln’s difficult and courageous decision at a time when the country wrestled with deep moral questions of epic proportions.
By: Jay Winik
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Zero Sum
- The Arc of International Business in Russia
- By: Charles Hecker
- Narrated by: Rich Miller
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Zero Sum brings to life the complex, vivid color of one of the greatest experiments in the history of global commerce. What have businesses learnt—or failed to learn—from this adventure, both about Russia and about dynamics between countries and companies in the face of relentless change?
By: Charles Hecker
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Before Gender
- Lost Stories from Trans History, 1850-1950
- By: Eli Erlick
- Narrated by: Sena Bryer
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Highlighting influential individuals from 1850-1950 who are all but unknown today, Eli Erlick shares 30 remarkable stories from romance to rebellion and mystery to murder. These narratives chronicle the grit, joy, and survival of trans people long before gender became an everyday term.
By: Eli Erlick
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The Genius Myth
- A Curious History of a Dangerous Idea
- By: Helen Lewis
- Narrated by: Helen Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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You can tell what a society values by who it labels as a genius. You can also tell who it excludes, who it enables, and what it is prepared to tolerate. In The Genius Myth, Helen Lewis unearths how this one word has shaped (and distorted) our ideas of success and achievement. Ultimately, argues Lewis, the modern idea of genius—a single preternaturally gifted individual, usually white and male, exempt from social niceties and sometimes even the law—has run its course.
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Selective, not great…
- By Amazon Customer on 07-12-25
By: Helen Lewis
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Erased
- What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us
- By: Anna Malaika Tubbs
- Narrated by: Anna Malaika Tubbs
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Across the world, patriarchy has oppressed women and denied their contributions, but every nation has its own unique gendered hierarchy. Dr. Anna Malaika Tubbs applies her signature approachable yet rigorous analysis to define American patriarchy in this definitive and groundbreaking history. Humanity in the United States is determined by gender in a limited and flawed binary logic that is also always tied to whiteness. Tubbs shows how a fabricated hierarchy became so deeply ingrained in the country over time that it now goes unnoticed, along with everything it intentionally conceals.
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Lionessheart
- The Life and Times of Joanna Plantagenet
- By: Catherine Hanley
- Narrated by: Ruth Urquhart
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine are two of the most recognisable figures of the Middle Ages, and almost certainly the best-known couple. The lives of their sons have been examined in detail many times, but their daughters are barely known despite the influence they exerted on the world around them. Joanna, the youngest daughter, led an extraordinary life full of travel, adventure, danger, and controversy. Her story is told here in full for the first time.
By: Catherine Hanley
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The Science of Revenge
- Understanding the World's Deadliest Addiction—and How to Overcome It
- By: James Kimmel Jr. JD
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Although this behavior is ancient and seems inevitable, by understanding retaliation and violence as an addictive brain-biological process, we can control deadly revenge cravings and save lives. In The Science of Revenge, Yale violence researcher and psychiatry lecturer James Kimmel, Jr., JD, uncovers the truth behind why we want to hurt the people who hurt us, what happens when it gets out of hand, and how to stop it.
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Revenge from One Side
- By WPJMurphy on 07-11-25
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Mother Emanuel
- Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church
- By: Kevin Sack
- Narrated by: William DeMeritt
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A sweeping history of one of the nation’s most important African American churches and a profound story of courage and grace amid the fight for racial justice—from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Kevin Sack.
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Educational and Moving
- By Jeff McKenna on 07-11-25
By: Kevin Sack
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Dragon on Centre Street
- New York vs. Donald J. Trump
- By: Jonah Bromwich
- Narrated by: Jamie Renell
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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The Definitive Account of the Trump Trial. Your behind-the-scenes look at the historic showdown between President Donald Trump and the criminal justice system, told through the eyes of the journalist who was in the courtroom each day, capturing every dramatic twist and turn. A panoramic New York thriller unlike any other.
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first person retelling of trump's only trial
- By RANDALL S WALKER on 07-03-25
By: Jonah Bromwich
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Iran's Grand Strategy
- A Political History
- By: Vali Nasr
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 11 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Iran presents one of the most significant foreign policy challenges for America and the West, yet very little is known about what the country's goals really are. Vali Nasr examines Iran's political history in new ways to explain its actions and ambitions on the world stage, showing how, behind the veneer of theocracy and Islamic ideology, today's Iran is pursuing a grand strategy aimed at securing the country internally and asserting its place in the region and the world.
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well detailed history of modern Iran
- By Fr. S. on 06-28-25
By: Vali Nasr
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Bad Company
- Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream
- By: Megan Greenwell
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed journalist Megan Greenwell’s Bad Company tells the hidden story of private equity through the experiences of four American workers who watched as private equity upended their employers and communities: a Toys R Us floor supervisor, a rural doctor, a local newspaper journalist, and an affordable housing organizer.
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Lots of filler with interesting points now and then.
- By Mikey on 07-05-25
By: Megan Greenwell
In Spellbound Molly Worthen turns her historian’s gaze on the hard to measure charisma simmering beneath faith, political, & even self-help movements.
Spellbound is part cultural history, part spiritual anthropology. The book’s strength lies in its historical and journalistic balance. Worthen neither mocks nor proselytizes; she treats her subjects with curiosity and respect.
4.7/5
Molly Worthen Being Molly Worthen
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Loved this new description of charisma and the sweeping examples from history.
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