
The Age of Choice
A History of Freedom in Modern Life
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Narrated by:
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Greg D. Barnett
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By:
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Sophia Rosenfeld
About this listen
Choice touches virtually every aspect of our lives, from what to buy and where to live to whom to love, what profession to practice, and even what to believe. But the option to choose in such matters was not something we always possessed or even aspired to. At the same time, we have been warned by everybody from marketing gurus to psychologists about the negative consequences stemming from our current obsession with choice. It turns out that not only are we not very good at realizing our personal desires, we are also overwhelmed with too many possibilities and anxious about what best to select. How did all this happen? The Age of Choice tells the long history of the invention of choice as the defining feature of modern freedom.
Taking listeners from the seventeenth century to today, Sophia Rosenfeld describes how the early modern world witnessed the simultaneous rise of shopping as an activity and religious freedom as a matter of being able to pick one's convictions. Similarly, she traces the history of choice in romantic life, politics, and the ideals of human rights. Throughout, she pays particular attention to the lives of women, who have frequently been the drivers of this change. She concludes with an exploration of how reproductive rights have become a symbolic flashpoint in our contemporary struggles over the association of liberty with choice.
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With over twenty-five contributions by some of the nation's most influential progressive voices, Labor's Partisans brings to life a history of labor that is of immediate relevance to our own times. Introduced and edited by leading labor historians Nelson Lichtenstein and Samir Sonti, this essential volume reveals the powerful currents and debates running through the labor movement, from the 1950s to today.
By: Samir Sonti - editor, and others
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Spetsnaz
- A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces
- By: Tor Bukkvoll
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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In January 1951, Lieutenant Evgeniy Borisov was sent to the headquarters of the Soviet 5th Army in Spassk-Dalnii, a small city in the Russian Far East. Borisov was there on a secret mission. Together with his superior, Major Rusinov, his job was to establish the 91st Special Forces Company. The 91st was to be one of forty-six similar units spread out across the Soviet Union. The new forces were called "spetsnaz"—short for spetsnialnoe naznachenie, which translates to "special purpose."
By: Tor Bukkvoll
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Against Platforms
- Surviving Digital Utopia (Activist Citizens Library)
- By: Mike Pepi
- Narrated by: Tim Andres Pabon
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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At the turn of the millennium, digital technologies seemed to have immense promise for transforming our society. With these powerful new tools, the thinking went, we would be free to live our best lives, connected to our communities in ways full of infinite potential. A quarter of a century on, this form of utopianism seems like a cruel mirage. So what happened? In Against Platforms, technologist and creator Mike Pepi lays out an explanation of what went wrong—and a manifesto for putting it right.
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Debunks common techno-utopian shibboleths
- By north3001 on 03-01-25
By: Mike Pepi
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The Traitor of Arnhem
- The Untold Story of WWII’s Greatest Betrayal and the Moment That Changed History Forever
- By: Robert Verkaik
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of World War II is in sight. Following the overwhelming victory on D-Day, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin all seek to shape the future to their own ends by winning the race to Berlin. The British launch Operation Market Garden, the greatest airborne operation the world has ever seen. It's a bold move that, if successful, will end the war in weeks. But behind the scenes spies are working their craft, the Allies' plans are betrayed, the operation fails—and thousands of our soldiers die.
By: Robert Verkaik
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Bibliophobia
- A Memoir
- By: Sarah Chihaya
- Narrated by: Traci Kato-Kiriyama
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Books can seduce you. They can, Sarah Chihaya believes, annihilate, reveal, and provoke you. And anyone incurably obsessed with books understands this kind of unsettling literary encounter. Sarah calls books that have this effect “Life Ruiners”. Her Life Ruiner, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, became a talisman for her in high school when its electrifying treatment of race exposed Sarah’s deepest feelings about being Japanese American in a predominantly white suburb of Cleveland.
By: Sarah Chihaya