The Enigma of Clarence Thomas
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Narrated by:
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Larry Herron
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By:
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Corey Robin
About this listen
The Enigma of Clarence Thomas is a groundbreaking revisionist take on the Supreme Court justice everyone knows about but no one knows.
Most people can tell you two things about Clarence Thomas: Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment, and he almost never speaks from the bench. Here are some things they don’t know: Thomas is a Black nationalist. In college he memorized the speeches of Malcolm X. He believes white people are incurably racist.
In the first examination of its kind, Corey Robin - one of the foremost analysts of the right - delves deeply into both Thomas’s biography and his jurisprudence, masterfully reading his Supreme Court opinions against the backdrop of his autobiographical and political writings and speeches. The hidden source of Thomas’s conservative views, Robin shows, is a profound skepticism that racism can be overcome. Thomas is convinced that any government action on behalf of African-Americans will be tainted by racism; the most African-Americans can hope for is that white people will get out of their way.
There’s a reason, Robin concludes, why liberals often complain that Thomas doesn’t speak but seldom pay attention when he does. Were they to listen, they’d hear a racial pessimism that often sounds similar to their own. Cutting across the ideological spectrum, this unacknowledged consensus about the impossibility of progress is key to understanding today’s political stalemate.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2019 Corey Robin (P)2019 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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America's great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of African Americans. But today the situation has grown even more dire. From the murders of black youth by the police to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act to the disaster visited upon poor and middle-class black families by the Great Recession, it is clear that black America faces an emergency - at the very moment the election of the first black president has prompted many to believe we've solved America's race problem.
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The Dysfunctional Mindset of American
- By Paul T. on 07-09-16
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Blackout
- How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape from the Democrat Plantation
- By: Candace Owens, Larry Elder
- Narrated by: Candace Owens, Larry Elder
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Black Americans have long been shackled to the Democrats. Seeing no viable alternative, they have watched liberal politicians take the Black vote for granted without pledging anything in return. In Blackout, Owens argues that this automatic allegiance is both illogical and unearned. She contends that the Democrat Party has a long history of racism and exposes the ideals that hinder the Black community’s ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American dream.
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Thought provoking!
- By Girl with curls on 09-16-20
By: Candace Owens, and others
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The Nation That Never Was
- Reconstructing America's Story
- By: Kermit Roosevelt
- Narrated by: Kermit Roosevelt III
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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We face a dilemma these days. We want to be honest about our history and the racism and oppression that Americans have both inflicted and endured. But we want to be proud of our country, too. In The Nation That Never Was, Roosevelt shows how we can do both those things by realizing we’re not the country we thought we were. Reconstruction, Roosevelt argues, was not a fulfillment of the ideals of the Founding but rather a repudiation: we modern Americans are not the heirs of the Founders but of the people who overthrew and destroyed that political order.
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A Necessary Book.
- By Jason Baumbach on 01-30-24
By: Kermit Roosevelt
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Identity
- The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2014, Francis Fukuyama wrote that American institutions were in decay, as the state was progressively captured by powerful interest groups. Two years later, his predictions were borne out by the rise to power of a series of political outsiders whose economic nationalism and authoritarian tendencies threatened to destabilize the entire international order. These populist nationalists seek direct charismatic connection to “the people”, who are usually defined in narrow identity terms that offer an irresistible call to an in-group and exclude large parts of the population as a whole.
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Robotic narrator
- By Shahin on 09-19-18
By: Francis Fukuyama
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A New Textbook of Americanism
- By: Jonathan Hoenig - editor
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hoenig
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people have no idea what the United States represents. Ayn Rand did grasp America's political essence down to its roots. Seventy-two years in the making, this book illuminates why the United States is "the only moral country in the history of the world" and features never-before-published discussions with Ayn Rand, plus work from Leonard Peikoff and the New Intellectuals.
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A Great Introduction to Objectionism
- By Lester C Liby on 06-27-19
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Our Divided Political Heart
- The Battle for the American Idea in an Age of Discontent
- By: E. J. Dionne
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 11 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Our Divided Political Heart will be the must-listen book of the 2012 election campaign. Offering an incisive analysis of how hyper-individualism is poisoning the nation's political atmosphere, E. J. Dionne Jr., argues that Americans can't agree on who we are because we can't agree on who we've been, or what it is, philosophically and spiritually, that makes us Americans.
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Good points and lots of good information
- By Jamie B on 08-15-12
By: E. J. Dionne
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Supreme Power
- 7 Pivotal Supreme Court Decisions That Had a Major Impact on America
- By: Ted Stewart
- Narrated by: Art Allen
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Ted Stewart explains how the Supreme Court and its nine appointed members now stand at a crucial point in their power to hand down momentous and far-ranging decisions. Today's Court affects every major area of American life, from health care to civil rights, from abortion to marriage. This fascinating book reveals the complex history of the Court as told through seven pivotal decisions.
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Polemical, downright ridiculous at times
- By Joe Igla on 11-04-17
By: Ted Stewart
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Racecraft
- The Soul of Inequality in American Life
- By: Karen E. Fields, Barbara J. Fields
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people assume that racism grows from a perception of human difference: the fact of race gives rise to the practice of racism. Sociologist Karen E. Fields and historian Barbara J. Fields argue otherwise: the practice of racism produces the illusion of race, through what they call “racecraft.” And this phenomenon is intimately entwined with other forms of inequality in American life. So pervasive are the devices of racecraft in American history, economic doctrine, politics, and everyday thinking that the presence of racecraft itself goes unnoticed.
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A loose collection of essays
- By Texas Mama on 11-18-21
By: Karen E. Fields, and others
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Four Hundred Souls
- A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
- By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, Keisha N. Blain - editor
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the 400-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present - edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.
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History never taught
- By Scott P ODonnell on 02-16-21
By: Ibram X. Kendi - editor, and others
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White Christian Privilege
- The Illusion of Religious Equality in America
- By: Khyati Y. Joshi
- Narrated by: Priya Ayyar
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States is recognized as the most religiously diverse country in the world, and yet its laws and customs, which many have come to see as normal features of American life, actually keep the constitutional ideal of “religious freedom for all” from becoming a reality. Christian beliefs, norms, and practices infuse our society; they are embedded in our institutions, creating the structures and expectations that define the idea of “Americanness.”
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Audible needs to allow longer headlines
- By Adam Shields on 07-28-20
By: Khyati Y. Joshi
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Inventing Latinos
- A New Story of American Racism
- By: Laura E. Gómez
- Narrated by: Joana Garcia
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Latinos have long influenced everything from electoral politics to popular culture‚ yet many people instinctively regard them as recent immigrants rather than a longstanding racial group. In Inventing Latinos‚ Laura Gomez illuminates the fascinating race-making‚ unmaking‚ and remaking of Latino identity that has spanned centuries‚ leaving a permanent imprint on how race operates in the United States today.
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mixed reaction
- By david on 09-24-21
By: Laura E. Gómez
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The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
- The Thom Hartmann Hidden History Series
- By: Thom Hartmann
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 4 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Taking his typically in-depth, historically informed view, Thom Hartmann asks: What if the Supreme Court didn't have the power to strike down laws? According to the Constitution, it doesn't. From the founding of the republic until 1803, the Supreme Court was the final court of appeals, as it was always meant to be. So where did the concept of judicial review start? As so much of modern American history, it began with the battle between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and with Marbury v. Madison.
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A must read to understand why voting is essential.
- By Brandon WIlliams on 10-05-19
By: Thom Hartmann
What listeners say about The Enigma of Clarence Thomas
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- PeacefulSeeker
- 09-30-19
Legalese
I am not disappointed with the substance or the book's theses. I do think it may be inaccessible to those who don't have political science or law degrees or are law students. Had Robin gone to the trouble to offer some interpretations here and again, it would have been so much more.
Further, the narrator regularly mispronounces words. It's like reading a print book with multiple misspellings.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Robert A Westfall
- 10-02-20
interesting and vital
really fascinating biography and analysis of a person and politics I (and I assume many others) had little understanding of before. Corey's suggestion that we interrogate the premises and assumptions he lays out in Thomas's politics which the left often shares is especially urgent and compelling
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- michael j hemming
- 07-15-22
A Conservative Black Nationalist
Clarence Thomas has a different view of a black persons struggle to succeed in this country. He is critical of the civil rights laws for black Americans but used those laws to achieve success in this country. He was definitely influenced by his grandfather who raised him, but has no respect for the poor black females who end up on welfare with children born out of wedlock. I was left with the impression that he believes separate but equal is fine. He seems to be a hypocrite. He was only able to achieve success by using the civil rights laws that he rejects.
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- C. Brady Postma
- 10-01-22
A fascinating examination of a troubled ideology
This book traces Justice Thomas' influences and ideas, from his family dynamics (especially the idolized grandfather who raised him) to Malcolm X's black nationalism to the conservative constitutionalism of his legal mentor and education. Ultimately, the ideology is not one I can agree much with, but the analysis that gets there opened up ways of thinking and intellectual contrasts that I had never before considered.
Good for the intellectually curious. Bad as a dogmatic idol to worship.
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- P. Williams
- 10-25-19
The Enigma Black Militant or Conservative?
1st look ever at ABM (Angry Black Man) as conflicted as I am. The difference is Justice Thomas is in a position to make meaningful changes... Where I am not but we both lost in the terrain in front of us! 1st time i had an Auditable book filled with so many dead air space.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-01-24
Corey Robin is one of the most insightful political writers working today.
The title says it all. Expertly told, well narrated, and clear and cogent throughout. Not uplifting, but a clearer look into the machinations of the far right of the Supreme Court than you’ll get in most law review articles.
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- Charles T Olson
- 10-13-21
Defining the judge through his action
I think the enigma is better understood although some of the central conflicts in his character are not addressed it's more of a declarative piece about how he thinks by indirectly arguing through facts of his life. I don't know if he really proves his thesis but it does lend a lot of new information and insight about this guy who appears to be in the main stream of the direction of the supreme Court
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- Terrence Franklin
- 07-30-22
Enlightening, Disheartening
The author's assessment of Thomas is grim and fearsome. Through Thomas's opinions and public pronouncements, the author describes Thomas's dystopian vision of an America that will never overcome its racism, through political institutions.
Thomas's view is that if we let the Constitution do what it was meant to do that Black men will eventually understand that political answers to the effects of racism are futile, and that Black men (yes, men. Women should follow) must be forced to accept their patriarchal role as leaders and struggle for economic independence to fight for their families.
If this is his vision--dark, hopeless, cynical, then the worst thing about it is his unique position of power to impose it on everyone else as he sits on the Court until he dies or retires.
The reader was good, but there were some odd emphases "privileges, or immunites" instead of "privileges or immunities" or a misquote of Oliver Wendell Holmes. I wonder if the author had a chance to listen
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- Brandon Lee
- 12-22-19
Wow! Unbelievably thorough and "squarely" written
The narration was excellent. "Race, Capitolsm, and Constitution" each showcases man and the United States tension and battle to contain nature and man/societies existence within that nature.
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- Keith Swanson
- 01-26-22
Learned some things
It revealed some things I didn't know about Thomas and confirmed things I did. I had no clue that he started as a young radical Black Nationalist and a Black Panther. The book never really explained what really changed his world view.
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1 person found this helpful