
The Burden of Bad Ideas
How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society
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

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $15.75
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Anna Fields
About this listen
The prevailing orthodoxy of ideas, she finds, has affected our schools with ruinous consequences for our children. While these beliefs have damaged the nation as a whole, she observes, they have hit the poor especially hard. When it comes to urban problems and social policy, The Burden of Bad Ideas is more than a breath of fresh air. It's a cold shower.
©2000 Heather MacDonald (P)2001 Books on Tape, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The New Puritans
- How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World
- By: Andrew Doyle
- Narrated by: Andrew Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leading a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and so-called 'social justice', the new puritanism movement is best understood as a religion - one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. In The New Puritans, Andrew Doyle powerfully examines the underlying belief-systems of this ideology and how it has risen so rapidly to dominate all major political, cultural and corporate institutions. He reasons that, to move forward, we need to understand where these New Puritans came from and what they hope to achieve.
-
-
Hero speaking truth
- By Victoria Eriksson on 10-12-22
By: Andrew Doyle
-
When Race Trumps Merit
- How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Olivia Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does your workplace have too few Black people in top jobs? It’s racist. Does the advanced math and science high school in your city have too many Asians? It’s racist. Does your local museum employ too many White women? It’s racist, too. After the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, prestigious American institutions, from the medical profession to the fine arts, pleaded guilty to “systemic racism”.
-
-
People need to read/listen to this book
- By Casey on 04-20-23
-
The Diversity Delusion
- How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Pam Ward, Heather Mac Donald - intro
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is in crisis, from the university to the workplace. Toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture. The Diversity Delusion argues that the root of this problem is the belief in America’s endemic racism and sexism, a belief that has engendered a metastasizing diversity bureaucracy in society and academia.
-
-
Definition of the campus 'diversity' issue
- By Wayne on 09-10-18
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Facing Reality
- Two Truths About Race in America
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Rivington
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
-
-
Thank you for writing this
- By jonathan bonnett on 06-20-21
By: Charles Murray
-
The Democrat Party Hates America
- By: Mark R. Levin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell, Mark R. Levin
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Marxism, Mark Levin explained how Marxist ideology has invaded our society and culture. In doing so, he exposed the institutions, scholars, and activists leading the revolution. Now, he picks up where he left off: to hold responsible the true malefactors steering our country down the wrong path. Insightful and hard-hitting as ever, Levin proves that since its establishment, the Democrat Party has set out to rewrite history and destroy the foundation of freedom in America.
-
-
As always thank you Mr. Levin for your Insight.
- By Yukonwill on 09-24-23
By: Mark R. Levin
-
The New Puritans
- How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World
- By: Andrew Doyle
- Narrated by: Andrew Doyle
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leading a cultural revolution driven by identity politics and so-called 'social justice', the new puritanism movement is best understood as a religion - one that makes grand claims to moral purity and tolerates no dissent. In The New Puritans, Andrew Doyle powerfully examines the underlying belief-systems of this ideology and how it has risen so rapidly to dominate all major political, cultural and corporate institutions. He reasons that, to move forward, we need to understand where these New Puritans came from and what they hope to achieve.
-
-
Hero speaking truth
- By Victoria Eriksson on 10-12-22
By: Andrew Doyle
-
When Race Trumps Merit
- How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Olivia Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does your workplace have too few Black people in top jobs? It’s racist. Does the advanced math and science high school in your city have too many Asians? It’s racist. Does your local museum employ too many White women? It’s racist, too. After the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, prestigious American institutions, from the medical profession to the fine arts, pleaded guilty to “systemic racism”.
-
-
People need to read/listen to this book
- By Casey on 04-20-23
-
The Diversity Delusion
- How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Pam Ward, Heather Mac Donald - intro
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is in crisis, from the university to the workplace. Toxic ideas first spread by higher education have undermined humanistic values, fueled intolerance, and widened divisions in our larger culture. The Diversity Delusion argues that the root of this problem is the belief in America’s endemic racism and sexism, a belief that has engendered a metastasizing diversity bureaucracy in society and academia.
-
-
Definition of the campus 'diversity' issue
- By Wayne on 09-10-18
-
Social Justice Fallacies
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Brad Sanders
- Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The quest for social justice is a powerful crusade of our time, with an appeal to many different people, for many different reasons. But those who use the same words do not always present the same meanings. Clarifying those meanings is the first step toward finding out what we agree on and disagree on. From there, it is largely a question of what the facts are. Social Justice Fallacies reveals how many things that are thought to be true simply cannot stand up to documented facts, which are often the opposite of what is widely believed.
-
-
Timely book by 93 year old Thomas Sowell
- By Wayne on 09-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Facing Reality
- Two Truths About Race in America
- By: Charles Murray
- Narrated by: Robert Rivington
- Length: 3 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart fIoat free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have different violent crime rates and different means and distributions of cognitive ability.
-
-
Thank you for writing this
- By jonathan bonnett on 06-20-21
By: Charles Murray
-
The Democrat Party Hates America
- By: Mark R. Levin
- Narrated by: Jeremy Lowell, Mark R. Levin
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In American Marxism, Mark Levin explained how Marxist ideology has invaded our society and culture. In doing so, he exposed the institutions, scholars, and activists leading the revolution. Now, he picks up where he left off: to hold responsible the true malefactors steering our country down the wrong path. Insightful and hard-hitting as ever, Levin proves that since its establishment, the Democrat Party has set out to rewrite history and destroy the foundation of freedom in America.
-
-
As always thank you Mr. Levin for your Insight.
- By Yukonwill on 09-24-23
By: Mark R. Levin
-
The War on Cops
- How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe
- By: Heather Mac Donald
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The War on Cops exposes the truth about officer use of force and explodes the conceit of "mass incarceration". A rigorous analysis of data shows that crime, not race, drives police actions and prison rates. The growth of proactive policing in the 1990s, along with lengthened sentences for violent crime, saved thousands of minority lives. In fact, Mac Donald argues, no government agency is more dedicated to the proposition that "black lives matter" than today's data-driven, accountable police department.
-
-
Great book if you want the truth!
- By Paul Collins on 01-31-17
-
Unwoke
- How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book both articulate and desperately needed, bestselling author Senator Ted Cruz provides a long overdue argument against the woke takeover of education, big business, the media, and Hollywood.
-
-
This is one of top listens
- By chas on 12-12-23
By: Ted Cruz
-
The War on the West
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 12 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows how many well-meaning people have been fooled by hypocritical and inconsistent anti-West rhetoric. After all, if we must discard the ideas of Kant, Hume, and Mill for their opinions on race, shouldn’t we discard Marx, whose work is peppered with racial slurs and anti-Semitism? Embers of racism remain to be stamped out in America, but what about the raging racist inferno in the Middle East and Asia?
-
-
Every Human (seriously, everyone) Read This!
- By aaron on 04-27-22
By: Douglas Murray
-
America's Cultural Revolution
- How the Radical Left Conquered Everything
- By: Christopher F. Rufo
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the 1960s, Mao launched China’s Cultural Revolution. Cities grew overcrowded. Technocrats demanded progress from above. Anyone opposed was sent to be “re-educated.” China’s revolution was bloody, fast, and a failure, but what if America started a revolution at the same time, based on the same bad ideas, and it’s just been slower, calmer, and more effective?
-
-
Outstanding Analysis
- By Roman on 07-22-23
-
The Madness of Crowds
- Gender, Race and Identity
- By: Douglas Murray
- Narrated by: Douglas Murray
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Madness of Crowds Douglas Murray investigates the dangers of ‘woke’ culture and the rise of identity politics. In lively, razor-sharp prose he examines the most controversial issues of our moment: sexuality, gender, technology and race, with interludes on the Marxist foundations of ‘wokeness’, the impact of tech and how, in an increasingly online culture, we must relearn the ability to forgive.
-
-
An Urgent Read for Our Over-woke Times
- By Justin J. Norman on 09-26-19
By: Douglas Murray
-
Barbarians Inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A collection of essays that discusses such issues as the media, immigration, the minimum wage, and multiculturalism.
-
-
Mr. Sowell exposed the soul of America.
- By rutituti. on 11-24-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Is Reality Optional?
- And Other Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Sowell challenges all the assumptions of contemporary liberalism on issues ranging from the economy to race to education in this collection of controversial essays, and captures his thoughts on politics, race, and common sense with a section at the end for thought-provoking quotes.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Anonymous User on 09-28-22
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Deception
- The Great COVID Cover-Up
- By: Rand Paul
- Narrated by: Joe Louis
- Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
COVID-19 was deadly, but the real killer was the coverup, led by America’s most durable medical bureaucrat—a man for whom the truth was too often expendable. Senator Paul makes a powerful case that funding dangerous bioengineering in a totalitarian country is madness.
-
-
Not so much a book for today...
- By Mermaid on 10-15-23
By: Rand Paul
-
Cynical Theories
- How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity - and Why This Harms Everybody
- By: Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay
- Narrated by: Helen Pluckrose
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Are you confused by these ideas, and do you wonder how they have managed to challenge the logic of Western society? In this probing volume, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay document the evolution of the dogma that informs these ideas, from its coarse origins in French postmodernism to its refinement within activist academic fields.
-
-
Vast Amount of Jargon Lost Me
- By P. Jackson on 10-23-20
By: Helen Pluckrose, and others
-
Controversial Essays
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of conservatism's most articulate voices dissects today's most important economic, racial, political, education, legal, and social issues, sharing his entertaining and thought-provoking insights on a wide range of contentious subjects.
-
-
The Divine Logic
- By Yi Mon on 07-27-23
By: Thomas Sowell
-
Hide Your Children
- Exposing Marxists Behind the Attack on America's Kids
- By: Liz Wheeler
- Narrated by: Stephanie Richardson
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Having conquered all the major institutions of our culture, the left is closing in on its final frontier—your children. In this new book, Liz Wheeler exposes where the forces of wokeness are at work and explains how parents can fight back for a change. Everything is on the line.
-
-
Great book!
- By CO-MAC on 10-03-23
By: Liz Wheeler
-
The Vision of the Anointed
- Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Jim Seybert
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vision of the Anointed is a devastating critique of the mindset behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Thomas Sowell sees what has happened not as a series of isolated mistakes, but as a logical consequence of a vision whose defects have led to disasters in education, crime, family disintegration, and other social pathology. In this book, "politically correct" theory is repeatedly confronted with facts-and sharp contradictions between the two are explained in terms of a whole set of self-congratulatory assumptions held by political and intellectual elites.
-
-
An Absolute Masterpiece!
- By Brendan Martino on 04-04-22
By: Thomas Sowell
Critic reviews
"Anna Fields has a rich, womanly voice. She brings every anecdote to life, careening from fiery indignation to icy sarcasm and back again." (AudioFile)
"Spirited, stimulating essays....Vivid and devastating....Social, cultural and political criticism of the first order." (Washington Post)
"Provocative...even when you disagree with her you recognize that her viewpoint must be thoughtfully considered and countered." (Wall Street Journal)
Very well read by the narrator.
Wow. Another book America Needs to Read.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
great book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Would you consider the audio edition of The Burden of Bad Ideas to be better than the print version?
No.What three words best describe Anna Fields’s voice?
Flat, unethusiastic, droningAny additional comments?
The content and commentary of this book are not would I would like to comment on. What I want to caution potential purchasers of this audiobook about is the narrator. She is flat and unenthusiastic, does not use inflection well, doesn't appear to have read the book prior to reading it aloud, and her voice is virtually duotonous. Many times she paused in the wrong placed and didn't pause where she could have for emphasis, nor did use inflection on words or phrases or clauses where she could have to better hold the listener's attention and keep him engaged.Thankfully, the author of this book has a fluid and clear writing style, so the droning narration did not ruin the book too badly. The narration is not so bad that this audiobook is not worth purchasing, but I found myself buying a Kindle version of the book to follow along with on my iPad when I found myself unintentionally tuning out due to the "Charlie Brown's teacher"-style narration. With non-fiction subjects such as this one that are essentially just long essays, they can be read in a professorial or enthusiastic way that will hold the listener's attention, much as any public speaker worth his salt would do when delivering a long speech. The narration could be worse, but could be much more lively and enthusiastic, too. Based on the numerous errors made when narrating (stopping at commas, e.g.), I don't think the narrator actually read and familiarized herself with the book before reading it--which is inexcusable seeing as how the book is only 235pps or so.
I would say that I highly recommend this audiobook based on its intelligent content and commentary, and the clear, straighforward, fluid way the book is written, but I would urge caution (and highly recommend trying the sample) due to the narration.
Intelligent content; so-so narration.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Shining the cold light of truth . . .
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
thought provoking
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
mind blowing
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Still relevant in 2020
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing research into what ails is
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Moderate not a big fan either
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Buy the hardcover, skip the Audible version.
Reading Presentation Unlistenable
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.