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The American Experiment
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 88 hrs and 27 mins
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Publisher's summary
James MacGregor Burns’s stunning trilogy of American history, spanning the birth of the Constitution to the final days of the Cold War. In these three volumes, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner James MacGregor Burns chronicles with depth and narrative panache the most significant cultural, economic, and political events of American history.
In The Vineyard of Liberty, he combines the color and texture of early American life with meticulous scholarship. Focusing on the tensions leading up to the Civil War, Burns brilliantly shows how Americans became divided over the meaning of Liberty.
In The Workshop of Democracy, Burns explores more than a half-century of dramatic growth and transformation of the American landscape, through the addition of dozens of new states, the shattering tragedy of the First World War, the explosion of industry, and, in the end, the emergence of the United States as a new global power.
And in The Crosswinds of Freedom, Burns offers an articulate and incisive examination of the US during its rise to become the world’s sole superpower - through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Cold War, and the rapid pace of technological change that gave rise to the “American Century.”
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For much of his life, historian Howard Zinn chronicled American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official version taught in schools - with its emphasis on great men in high places - to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, A People's History of the United States is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of - and in the words of - America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.
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Amateur hour in the production booth
- By Thomas on 11-09-10
By: Howard Zinn
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Machine Made
- Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics
- By: Terry Golway
- Narrated by: Adam Grupper
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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For decades, history has considered Tammany Hall, New York's famous political machine, shorthand for the worst of urban politics: graft, crime, and patronage personified by notoriously corrupt characters. Infamous crooks like William "Boss" Tweed dominate traditional histories of Tammany, distorting our understanding of a critical chapter of American political history. In Machine Made, historian and New York City journalist Terry Golway convincingly dismantles these stereotypes.
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A missed opportunity
- By Kathy on 05-27-15
By: Terry Golway
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Star-Spangled Men
- America's Ten Worst Presidents
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Picking America's best presidents is easy. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt usually lead the list. But choosing the nation's worst presidents requires more thought. In Star-Spangled Men, respected presidential biographer Nathan Miller puts on display those leaders who were abject failures as chief executive. With pointed humor and a deft hand, he presents a rogues' gallery of the men who dropped the presidential ball, and sometimes their pants as well.
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Entertaining and factual
- By Sean on 10-25-14
By: Nathan Miller
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An African American and Latinx History of the United States
- By: Paul Ortiz
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Spanning more than 200 years, An African American and Latinx History of the United States is a revolutionary, politically charged narrative history arguing that the "Global South" was crucial to the development of America as we know it. Ortiz challenges the notion of westward progress, and shows how placing African American, Latinx, and Indigenous voices unapologetically front and center transforms American history into the story of the working class organizing against imperialism.
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I had to return
- By Andrew Alvarez on 05-19-20
By: Paul Ortiz
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Every Man a King
- A Short, Colorful History of American Populists
- By: Chris Stirewalt
- Narrated by: Chris Stirewalt
- Length: 4 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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American populism has always been home to a fascinating assortment of charismatic leaders, characters, kooks, cranks, and sometimes charlatans who have led the charge of ordinary folks who have gotten wise to the ways of the swamp. Every Man a King tells the stories of America's populist leaders, from Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt to Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and Donald Trump. It is a rollicking history of an American attitude that has shaped not only our current moment, but also the long struggle over who gets to define the truths we hold to be self evident.
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Education delivered in a most entertaining way.
- By Snaps And Snippets on 09-17-18
By: Chris Stirewalt
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A Short History of the United States
- By: Robert V. Remini
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 10 hrs and 18 mins
- Abridged
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In addition, Remini explains the reasons for the nation's unique and enduring strengths, its artistic and cultural accomplishments, its genius in developing new products to sell to the world, and its abiding commitment to individual freedoms.
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Very thorough, easy listen, heavy on US Presidents
- By Craig on 01-02-09
By: Robert V. Remini
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American Character
- A History of the Epic Struggle Between Individual Liberty and the Common Good
- By: Colin Woodard
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The struggle between individualism and the good of the community as a whole has been the basis of every major disagreement in our history, from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and in the run-up to the Civil War to the fights surrounding the agenda of the Progressives, the New Deal, the civil rights movement, and the Tea Party.
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Biased Misrepresentation
- By Jay Ehret on 06-24-16
By: Colin Woodard
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The American Political Tradition
- And the Men Who Made it
- By: Richard Hofstadter, Christopher Lasch - foreword
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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The American Political Tradition is one of the most influential and widely read historical volumes of our time. First published in 1948, its elegance, passion, and iconoclastic erudition laid the groundwork for a totally new understanding of the American past. By writing a "kind of intellectual history of the assumptions behind American politics", Richard Hofstadter changed the way Americans understand the relationship between power and ideas in their national experience. Hofstadter was able to articulate, in a single work, a historical vision that inspired and shaped an entire generation.
By: Richard Hofstadter, and others
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I'll read anything James Macgregor Burns wrote and
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Ghost Soldiers
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Ghost soldiers
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume I, Fort Sumter to Perryville
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The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 begins one of the most remarkable works of history ever fashioned. All the great battles are here, of course, from Bull Run through Shiloh, the Seven Days Battles, and Antietam, but so are the smaller ones: Ball's Bluff, Fort Donelson, Pea Ridge, Island Ten, New Orleans, and Monitor versus Merrimac.
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OUTSTANDING! I'M PROUD TO BE A BLACK AMERICAN!!
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What listeners say about The American Experiment
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- judithh
- 06-22-15
Fabulous book for history addicts
What made the experience of listening to The American Experiment the most enjoyable?
Well written and performed. Interesting and thought provoking extremely detailed history of the U.S. Keep asking myself why I was never taught much of this history either in public schools or university. I am preparing to write a family history to flesh out dry ancestry data and this book is a tremendous help.
Have you listened to any of Mark Ashby’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
Not sure I have listened to any other Ashby performances but will look for others. Pleasant voice that supports the narrative but doesn't "grandstand" as some do.
Any additional comments?
I have purchased dozens of books from Audible. This is definitely in my top 5.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-01-15
Epic History of the US by a Pulitzer-Prize Winner
James MacGregor Burns (1918-2014) was one of the greatest American historians of the last hundred years. He earned his BA from Williams and his Ph.D. at Harvard, and in between those two degrees served in the Pacific theater during World War II. As an undergrad long ago I read his Pulitzer-Prize wining biography of FDR, which is still a classic deserving of audio book treatment. This three volume history of the US, published during the 1980s, is truly massive in scope and impressive in terms of its insights. Burns is an expert on presidential history and leadership, and that's fully on display here, but he also explores well economic, cultural, technological, as well as other aspects of American history. The reading by Mark Ashby is effective and quite pleasant. In fact, given the length of this history of the US I'd call it heroic. Mr. Ashby sets a very nice pace, neither too fast nor too slow, and is well matched to this wonderful author imho. For those who love US history, this set is highly recommended.
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- Michael
- 06-16-15
American History ABCs
American History ABCs
This is really three quite different books, each with its own tone, outlook, and period, and they don’t quite form a coherent whole (but are a bargain at one credit). I found each book better than the prior book, as the author seems more comfortable with the modern era.
The title is a bit deceptive. I expected “The American Experience” to be about, well, the Experience of the people of the United States. Instead this is a very basic, conventional, history of the United States from the constitutional convention (after the War for Independence) up to 1980. Like many other US Histories, this focuses primarily on the presidents, and only tangentially on the historical issues each president faced, and almost not at all on the broader themes and tides of history or the minutia of real people’s lives. The books do cover all the conventional keynotes of US history very well.
The one overarching theme the books does seem to explore the meaning of Liberty, and it seems to conclude this has never been quite clear. Other than that, there is very little analysis or thematic context. Until the last book, almost all analysis is added by quoting other historians (making some point this author chooses to emphasize). This leads to a somewhat namby-pamby, term paper sounding, narrative.
Sporadically some non-political aspects of experience are mentioned (arts, crafts, technology, business, living conditions, religion, science, education, sports, etc.), but these tellings are generally in alignment with the somewhat mythical conventional US history and don’t provide enough context to provide a true slice of life.
I am always annoyed when historical spending or wages are quoted in a currency with no context or baseline conversion rate. Of course, one can’t convert historical dollars to the current rate of exchange for every reader, but a single benchmark (like 1980 dollars) can be used to place all such values in a single, more understandable, context. Then each reader can look up one exchange rate (1980 to reader-present) and have a better idea what a $1/day wage would really mean.
There are several other lack-of-scaling issues, like discussing the growth of various things in growth-rate or absolute numbers without the context of the size or growth of other related things. Like discussing the growth in the communist party without comparing it to the size or growth of other political parties. There were a few other cases where numbers where presented, but I had to bookmark the passage and later search the web for the context required to fully understand the meaning of the number.
The orthodox retelling in these books leaves out a lot of interesting aspects of US history. This history seems a bit sterile, deemphasizing the nastier bits of US history, leaving out much of the mechanics of real US democracy. The books also don’t explore the various cycles of US history (religiosity, nationalism, conservatism, isolationism, etc.) nor does it closely examine the major slow, yet steady, flows of US history (literacy, voting rights, technology, agriculture, transportation, etc.)
The narration is very good without being especially remarkable. The narrator is very clear and pleasant to listen to and he does his best to add life to somewhat lifeless text.
This book is excellent at being what it is, and is well worth the listen for anyone unfamiliar with the basics of the conventional telling of US history (which every US resident should know). Yet, this book did not deliver what I had hoped, an exploration of “The American Experience”.
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23 people found this helpful
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- Hyrum
- 03-09-15
A Progressive view of American History
Well researched, written and performed. It's only serious flaw is the author's inability to present the other side of the great debate fairly. Nonetheless, there is no better presentation of a pre-Clinton or Obama Democrat view of American history available.
If Cicero were a Republican who wanted to understand Democrats, this is the book he would read.
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- PACMKE
- 03-16-16
A bast history and dicussion
The biggest flaw if you can call it that is the occasional straying from the seeming topic at hand to delve back decades to get the next subject up to speed which is occasionally befuddling, and also, unfortunately, that as it com a to a close as an examination of american politics, it's 25 years out of date.
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- Brian E.
- 09-05-18
Very good sociopolitical history of the US
This was a very good sociopolitical history of the United States, with a general left to central slant. It dragged in a few places (I didn't really need half an hour on Theodore Dreiser and Edith Wharton), and definitely spent more time on leftist movements than on rightist ones, although this can generally be justified, since leftist movements have been overall more influential. It starts with the Constitutional Convention (so nothing about the Revolution or anything prior) and ends with Reagan (although that is brief, as it was really too recent to handle when this book was published).
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- joseph welcenbach
- 12-18-22
Timeless and needed in our MAGA society.
This book is 30 years old but has great meaning and messages for today’s America. I wish every high school and college student could read it. History tells us not only where we were, but where we are going.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Michael Willman
- 01-19-17
The best nonpropaganda history of the United State
Covers American politics from federalist and anti, wigs, and up. Foreign and domestic conflicts. And the evolution of parties, policy, and political thought
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- Anonymous
- 08-04-14
American leaders, politics, economics, liberalism
The book starts with the constitutional convention, and Burns focuses on describing the framers, and their political motives and ideas. The sections about political theory are very interesting. However, he also analyzes each of the framers as 'leaders'. Unfortunately,his leadership analysis of each is so cursory as to seem superficial.
From 1830-1900 he pretty much ignores presidents and great senators. Instead he focuses heavily on the social woes of the US as well as captains of industry, artists, and especially authors like Whitman and Emerson.
In the 20th century, he covers great liberal leaders like Teddy, Wilson (he loves Professor Wilson), FDR, Kennedy, LBJ and MLK. His analysis of the first three is long enough for him to properly convey his leadership ideas. He also mocks late 20th century society culture - movies, sports, tv, and radio and he mourns the decline of literature, newspapers, liberalism, intellectuals...
Burns has an unusual, interesting take on American history and presidents. I thought that some chapters were too critical of American society to be interesting. But I enjoyed most of it.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Scott
- 01-08-15
A Hidden Gem That Deserves To Be Better Known
Frankly, I never heard of James MacGregor Burns or this book before I saw it available on Audible. I decided to take a chance on it and am glad I did.
It's a political history but with a difference. Burns really gives a sense of the drama of the actors and events. The politics comes alive because he recreates the social and cultural context by picking out the illuminating detail as opposed to just piling on lots of dry facts.
An American history written by one author is inevitably going to have its flaws, biases or omissions. I gave it 5 stars because given the impossibility of the task, it is extraordinarily well done.
Mark Ashby gives an intelligent, easy to follow reading.
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5 people found this helpful